Pilkington of Uganda
While studying Bible translation and mission in Kenya, I came across some stories of one young linguist missionary to Uganda called Pilkington. There’s a great out-of-print book called ‘Pilkington of Uganda’ which is well worth a read and it seems the Internet Archive have made it available. He was a remarkable young man much loved …
How long have we lived where? 2022
A little over 3 years ago as we contemplated what should have been a 8-9 month stay in the UK, I put together a chart of where different members of our family had lived their lives. Abigail (9) asked me again recently for some of the data so we did an update. The last year …
NaijaType updates – a keyboard for Nigeria
NaijaType has had a little more attention recently and reached Android App version 1.9.9 and keyboard version 40. Coworker Katharine amused me by referring to it as One keyboard to rule them all and then Dee tempted me to make an elvish script adaptation of the ring poem to celebrate it. So here we are, …
Coding/Translating: Best Practice can slow you down
I enjoy reading about software development (and rocketry) and often find something that makes me think a little more about Bible Translation and how we do it. The last few years several of us have been thinking seriously about the quality and processes of what we work on, developing and thinking through implementing ‘Best Practices’ …
Coding/Translating: Taking a fulfilling demotion
Before I had a thought of doing Bible Translation my first hobby and possible career choice was in Software Engineering.* I got diverted from that after graduation, but I like to keep abreast of what people are doing and learning in the programming and development world, and so I came upon an interesting article about …
Happy Christmas, Happy New Year
We’re still working on a long-overdue letter of news, thanks to God and requests for prayer, but in the meantime we wanted to send warm greetings from Jos. It’s a little cool now, but we’re enjoying some al fresco meals together, and enjoyed gathering at church. Being a city church it seems quite a few …
Meat? People of hair?
The Greek word σαρξ (sarx) gets a variety of translations. Sometimes it means meat or flesh. In Luke chapter 3 verse 6 the message from Isaiah (40:5) is a promise that after the way is cleared, all σαρξ will see the God’s salvation. The Hebrew word was בָּשָׂר֙ ‘basar’, which has a similar (but not …
Assembling Solar Panels
Together with my friend Gideon Ishaya I’ve been finally completing a project I had in mind for many years: fabricating solar panels using local components. We’ve tested the prototype panel for a few days and despite having many broken panels and the weather being cloudy, it seems to generate at least 15W but possibly more. …
May/June/July: Literacy, Translation, Holidays!
Here’s our latest newsletter, looking back at May and June and ahead to July. Do get in touch if you’d like to hear specific things next time.
Tadpoles
This is one of our girls’ favourite times of year in Nigeria – when streams run down and pool a bit with just the right kind of environment for tadpoles. This year Rebekah appears to be naming hers, and there seems something of a K-Pop theme. I guess tadpoles read backwards, which would be why …