Caleb was born on August 3rd and recently turned 3 months old in November! It’s hard to believe how much he has grown and changed over the past 3 months. He enjoys smiling and making cute sounds. Lately, he also enjoys pulling Mommy’s hair (and other nearby objects) and trying to sit up! He is very curious about the world around him.
Caleb - 3 months old
Sarah enjoys being a big sister and helping out. She helps burp Caleb, brings him toys, and fetches things for Mommy. Her new favorite food is macaroni and cheese, and her current favorite hymn is Holy, Holy, Holy. She is an accomplished student of the Bible, having memorized Matthew 6:33 and John 3:16 as well as the Doxology and Gloria Patri. She also invented a couple of words recently: “hotness” (pronounced “hot mess”) and “coldness” (“cold mess”). She’s looking forward to turning 3 in February! Caleb thinks his big sister is pretty great.
Allison and the kids make it out of the house pretty often for Bible studies, music and story times (when they’re not sick). They even made it to the State Fair of Texas this year! Allison’s new favorite hobby is finding ways to simplify meal prep while trying to eat mostly a “real food” diet. Her most recent ambition has been to make ahead and freeze breakfasts for their busiest mornings. She still feels like life is quite busy and wants to find ways to better keep up with housework and get some rest.
Aiding Translation with Cultural Topics
A new ParaTExt feature Eric has been assigned is working with SIL’s Anthropology department to see if they can create cultural research notes as a resource for Bible translation teams. This would enable Bible translation consultants and translators to easily see what cultural categories might need to be researched as they work through any passage of Scripture.
For instance, a cultural topic icon would appear next to Luke 8:22-25, where the disciples in the boat wake Jesus because they fear the strong wind and stormy water. Clicking the icon would show that WEATHER can be an important cultural research topic to evaluate how their culture’s experience and beliefs about weather events and power over it compare with the original Jewish notions. A list of relevant questions would be given, and case studies could be referenced to show how other translators have handled similar translation decisions about weather.
Providing Bibles as Translation Resources
Eric has been focusing his efforts on a new feature that would allow Bible translators to download Bibles from the Digital Bible Library (DBL) cloud and use them as translation resources. Until now, Bibles which are uploaded to DBL only get published for people who want to read (or listen to) the Bible.
After the cloud resource feature becomes available, Bible translators across various Bible agencies can more easily gain access to Bibles in languages related to the ones they are translating. They will be able to download those Bibles directly into ParaTExt, the software most translators use to translate the Bible. Then they can either use those Bibles side-by-side with their own translation, or choose one as a model-text that they translate into their own language. (See diagram below.)
An emerging movie star?
In September, Eric was recommended for a Wycliffe video interview because of his role as a software developer. New video interviews are planned to be featured on the Wycliffe website and are intended to engage prospective members by helping them understand the need for top priority roles. The role of software developer is one of those most needed positions.
Eric was asked three questions: Who are you? Howdo you do what you do? Why? Although Eric didn’t have much time to prepare for the interview, he was glad for the opportunity. We hope we’ll be able to share the video once the editing is finished in a couple of months!
And the winner is…
Eric recently won a ParaTExt slogan contest for t-shirts that were sold at the 2015 Bible translation conference. The slogan “Every WORD matters. Every TONGUE counts.” captures the importance of both the original words of Scripture and the languages they are being translated into. Only God’s Spirit can provide the needed wisdom for His Word to be accurately communicated into the languages that speak most powerfully to peoples’ hearts.
The ParaTExtt-shirt slogancontest results were recently featured in this Language Technology Podcast. Techies may find other technology announcements in this podcast interesting.
Serving together in Him, Eric, Allison, Sarah & Caleb Pyle
Write gifts out to:
Wycliffe Bible Translators, P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200 (1-800-992-5433) Please include this separate note: "preference for the ministry of Eric & Allison Pyle #226983"
