Ministry Photo of Matthew, Teresa, and Juliette LeeMatthew, Teresa, and Juliette Lee

Serving Bible Translation through Language Technology and Missionary Kid Support
with Wycliffe Bible Translators

Maybe you haven't thought much about Bible Translation. As "people of the book", every church needs Bibles in the languages of their congregation to be able to grow. Bible Translation into languages without it is a foundational means to share the Gospel as the Bible is the Gospel. Wycliffe and SIL's holistic ministry seeks to facilitate a Bible that is accessible and theologically sound for Bible study, listening, evangelism, and nearly every function of the church.

Matthew, Teresa, and our daughter Juliette () are missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators missionaries serving through SIL Global and Dallas International University. Matthew serves communities through Language Technology Support. Working together with translation staff across the world, Matthew gets to see measurable progress in Bibles and Dictionaries, as well as work with the translators to solve daily troubles. Teresa has a heart for working with missionary kids, teaching them and supporting them through transition. Teresa's ministry of teaching missionary kids allowed people who wouldn't have otherwise been able to devote their time to the ministry to do so. With 25 years of experience between us in Africa, our next chapter of the ministry will be serving from Dallas, Texas starting in May of 2025.


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Partnering With Our Wycliffe Ministry

Since Matthew joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 2008, the Lee family has been able to serve in missions only through the partnership of churches and individuals like you. We do not get a "traditional" salary. We seek to continue serving Bible Translation from our new location as full-time missionaries. People across the world are working towards the same goal of making the Bible accessible to all people. We believe that God has gifted us with talents meant to serve His kingdom through this ministry. There is enough work for hundreds of new missionaries with servant hearts, but as it is, the teams that both of us work with are waiting impatiently for us to return to service.

With serving from the United States and the blessed addition of Juliette to the family, our ministry needs have increased to cover our expenses. We trust the Lord will raise up more mission-minded churches and individuals to partner with us financially to continue to serve. We are inviting the church to invest in Bible translation by partnering financially with our Wycliffe ministry. We are praying that churches and individuals will be able to contribute on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. While this significant increase in need could be scary, we have always felt the love and encouragement of the church through their prayers and partnership in our ministry.

While any gift is appreciated, only regular gifts count towards our ongoing target budget, so please consider pledging to give monthly, quarterly, or yearly to our Wycliffe Ministry. You can find out more about Wycliffe and partnership in our Invitation to Partnership. You can give online here (https://wycliffe.org/partner/302162). Gifts to Wycliffe are tax-deductible and some of our partners have recently chosen to give from investments instead of cash to maximize tax benefits. Our part in the partnership is not only to do the direct work, but to keep you informed and involved, so whether you can give or not, please contact us. We are grateful for your prayers and support as we continue to serve the Lord in Bible Translation.

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Deeper Dives

The following sections provide both an overview and a deep dive into our ministries. You decide!

A Truly International Ministry

Matthew has served SIL Cameroon for 15 years in French-speaking central Africa supporting language communities that are translating the Bible into their languages for the first time since 2010. Teresa and Matthew married in 2013 and by 2015 they were serving together where she taught at The Greenhouse school teaching children of missionaries ages 4-6. While serving Cameroon primarily, Matthew took on wider roles serving the Global Bible Translation community. Teresa was primarily a teacher but also took on roles with the global MK Care and Education team in 2018. She has been able to support families and children in Cameroon and across Africa.

Every Bible translation team needs Language Technology help sometimes, and some innovative teams need it more often. Language Technology staff (one or two per organization if we are lucky) tend to serve many different teams at critical times rather than being assigned to a single team. During his time in Cameroon and Dallas, Matthew has become one of the leaders among international Language Technology staff supporting Bible Translation, and his expertise is increasingly needed beyond Cameroon. The Bible Translation field is filled with dedicated professionals who bring deep expertise in various domains, and many benefit from specialized technical support and training. In previous years, Matthew has directly supported staff representing over 400 language projects and trained consultants and trainers working in around 70 countries, who in turn continue to serve thousands more. This work has taken him across the world. God is doing a lot in central Africa, and through training programs, new staff are being equipped to meet the growing needs of the region. As these teams take on more of the day-to-day responsibilities, it has become clear that Matthew’s role can have greater impact at an international level. At the same time, logistical challenges make it less practical to continue basing his work in Cameroon. Additionally, access to essential healthcare is another factor in relocating to a region better suited to his current needs.

In May of 2025, we will be transitioning to Dallas, Texas. Though our location is changing, we continue to serve in the roles of Language Technology and Missionary Kid Education. Matthew will continue to help lead workshops on the programs that are used to translate the Bible. He has joined the Language Modeling team. From a base in the US, Matthew will be more able to contribute to work that is happening all over the world. He will also continue teaching courses and developing a new course at Dallas International University, training the next generation of missionaries in Bible Translation and language development. When serving from Dallas, Teresa will continue to encourage and work with families that have children (missionary kids).

Bible Translation Is More Connected Than Ever

Early Bible translation was risky and by necessity a solitary task. When Cameron Townsend founded Summer Institute of Linguistics, now called SILserving Mexico in 1934 with the goal of translating the Bible into minority languages, it was a small group of people working together to translate the Bible for languages that had never had it before. Wycliffe Bible Translators was founded in 1942 to support the work of SIL. As global missions grew, local branches of SIL, Wycliffe, and UBS were founded in countries around the world. Churches and other mission organizations began to sponsor Bible Translation in their regions. Eventually, countries and communities in places needing Bible Translation started to organize their own language committees to start local initiatives. Modern Bible Translation is usually done by native speakers of the language with support from the global community. Including partners in the sending countries, modern Bible Translation now resembles a web covering the globe rather than any top-down structure.

World Collaboration

The work of Bible Translation is more connected than ever, with teams and organizations around the world collaborating to share resources, tools, and expertise. With the most important partner being the speakers of the language, the global expansion of telecommunications into even the most remote areas has made it possible for Bible Translation teams to work together in ways that were never before possible. The Forum of Bible Agencies International (FOBAI) is a global network of Bible agencies working together to make the Bible available to all people in a language they can understand. FOBAI is a forum for planning the next steps of Translation, but also promotes a list of twenty-nine key Bible Translation Standards that are agreed upon by all of the members.

Working groups form around common goals as we seek a common vision to make the Bible accessible to all people. With my background in Language Technology, IT, and Linguistics, this expertise allows me to visualize complex problems and draft workable solutions. As we've said, we are Wycliffe USA missionaries serving SIL Global directly. While serving SIL, I have collaborated on projects with many Bible agencies . I've also linked up with several universities inside Cameroon, universities in the US, and even with Microsoft. As we all seek to work together, we each have specific expertise to offer to the global community, so the lines between organizations blur and people move where they are most needed in different seasons.

Sharing Tools

SIL Global is the leading developer of supported Language Technology tools for Bible Translation and Linguistics. These tools are used by Bible Translation teams around the world to translate the Bible into languages that have never had it before. Each of these tools is offered freely to the community with the rare exception that the tools contain someone else's intellectual property. There are core tools in each field.

Paratext (a collaboration between SIL and UBS) is the tool where most translation work happens, providing hundreds of global translations and the original texts for reference, and assisting with every step of the process from the first verses to the last verifications. Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx) is a core tool for linguistic study used to create dictionaries and analyze languages. HearThis is used to record multi-voice and dramatized recordings of Bible Books. Scripture App Builder is used to produce Scripture Applications for phones. Keyman is used to create virtual keyboards for computers, phones, and tablets. These tools are used by Bible Translation teams around the world to translate the Bible into languages that have never had it before.

Sharing Data/Resources

Unsurprisingly, global communications and the Internet have made it easier for Bible Translation teams to share data and resources. Within a translation project, teams use tools like Paratext to share translations and notes. The entire history of a project and related data can be shared and accessed by anyone on the team. Copies of all of this data are stored "automagically" on all project devices as well as on a central server (and backups). The result is that a team and those that support them can work together on a translation project from anywhere in the world. The Digital Bible Library is an international scripture archive where sites you know like BibleGateway or the YouVersion Bible App can share it. Nowadays, the work of Bible Translation is a global community effort, with the global partners like SIL, Wycliffe, and the United Bible Societies and smaller organizations.

Language Technology

Language Technology is a field that supports Bible Translation and Linguistics. It is the study of how computers can be used to analyze, understand, and generate human language. Language Technology tools are used to record and study a language, document it, create a dictionary, decide how to write it, develop keyboards to type it, translate the Bible, check it, record it, publish and distribute it, and teach reading/writing language to children and adults.

Along with traditional language vitality measures in SIL's Ethnologue, a recent measure is Digital Support. Digital Language Support is a measure of how well a language is supported by Language Technology tools. In other words, what tools do you have to support your language?

Another way to look at it is what tools are needed for a language to move (digitally) to the next level. The Language Tool Hierarchy shows this graphically.

How does Bible Translation Work?

A Brief Overview of the Bible Translation Ministry (and how Language Technology Helps)

Modern and holistic Bible translation is much more than just a few translators working in a room to hand the completed book to the community. It is a large-scale community effort that involves multiple organizations and at least a decade of engagement, and SIL makes or partners with the developers most of the tools that are used in this specialized work.

Linguistic Foundation

In a typical written Bible Translation project for a language that has never been written before...linguistic and cultural study takes place early to document how the language works. Linguist work with the community to agree on a provisional writing system. It may be necessary to develop virtual keyboards to type this new writing system.

Bible Translation

The translation team uses multiple translations and Bible resources to start translation while literacy courses get up and running so that a new generation of readers is ready to read the New Testament when it is complete. Translation and Linguistics consultants collaborate with the team to improve the accuracy, consistency and flow of the translation. The text (often by book) goes through backtranslation, multiple cleanups, and community checking as it is prepared for publication. As the Bible text is completed audio recordings are produced, digital Scripture Apps are produced for phones, and the printed New Testament is published. Translated Bible films are often created along the way. The scripture is added to international archives to be made available more widely.

Scripture Use

With these tools in hand, Scripture Engagement staff work alongside the community and churches to encourage them to use their new scripture. Later, Old Testament translation can start to complete the scripture, often leveraging the New Testament work to work smarter. Throughout the whole process, Language Technology staff like Matthew are implicated to train and support the users to use the computer and phone-based tools.

2024 Matthew and Teresa Lee, Wycliffe Bible Translators