Four years ago, I moved to Asia, started language learning and set up my life there, full of anticipation. But just two months later I was on a plane back to Australia far from my fellow team members, unable to continue language learning and with not much to do. After months turned into years of […]

Four years ago, I moved to Asia, started language learning and set up my life there, full of anticipation. But just two months later I was on a plane back to Australia far from my fellow team members, unable to continue language learning and with not much to do.

After months turned into years of being stuck in Australia, I wondered if I would be able to visit Asia again and what God was doing – how could he use me from afar?

Despite the deep disappointment and frustration, God has been faithful, and I now have too much work! I helped update our team’s security policy and procedure, especially for digital security. It’s not something I have much training in, but I became a translator for our IT experts, breaking down their advice into steps our team members could understand and implement. It was mostly a thankless task but necessary.

After about 18 months, I got the opportunity to work with Samira* online – a mother-tongue translator for the K language. She was young and enthusiastic but needed training and mentoring to do good-quality translation. At first, she was very shy and didn’t have much confidence to speak English, even though she knew it.

However, when my colleagues visited last year, they shared how confident she had become – serving them tea and talking in English. They said this change had come about since I worked with her – which was so encouraging to hear.

I have been able to visit her three times and have cherished our time together. The book of Jonah is about to be published and we are now working on reviewing the draft of Luke. Slowly God’s word is going out among the K people for the first time.

I’ve also been helping to train other mother-tongue translation teams online, particularly in how to better use translation software. This helps them produce a better-quality draft translation that can be checked by translation consultants. Translation consultants check translated books of the Bible to ensure they are clear, accurate and natural before they are printed and used in language communities. We have a number of these consultants on our team and receive many requests from partner organisations for their help.

Last year I began a new role as Translation Consultant Coordinator. This involves coordinating our consultants to meet these requests. I’m trying to develop better systems to manage them.

Recently I was asked to join our leadership team which came as a surprise, but it does make sense given my security and coordination roles.

So, although it’s not how I thought I would be serving, I can see that God is using the gifts he’s given me to further the work of his kingdom in Asia through Bible translation.

*Not their real names

This story was also published in the April 2024 edition of Border Crossings, the magazine of LCA International Mission.

Audrey is serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Lutheran Church of Australia. If you would like to hear more about Audrey, support her through prayer, finance or encouragement in this ministry, you are invited to contact LCA International Mission at lcaim@lca.org.au or 08 8267 7300.

Read more stories about Bible Translation at https://www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/bible-translation/