Who We are
We’d rather meet you in person, but until we get that chance, here’s a little bit about us.
We share much in common:
Our Faith. Both of us are Christians. We confess Jesus Christ—revealed in Scripture, resurrected in power, returning to reign—as the one savior for this world.
Our Mission. We are both called to serve Christ in the labor of bringing Scripture to more people in this world in this age.
The United Bible Societies. Both of us serve as missionaries on loan to the United Bible Societies. The UBS represent Christians in nearly all the nations of the world, devoted to bringing the Bible to all peoples.
The Church. We are members of Christ’s church, the household of faithful believers around the world. In particular, we base our service from the RCA. It’s an evangelical denomination with the firm commitment that:
- the world belongs to Christ
- that our mission is not to extend our denomination, but to make disciples, to find the work of Christ anywhere, and do what we can to help it.
Brad
Identity
I am a Christian. I belong to God. I am a father and a husband.
I’m an ordained minister. The best part of seminary was learning how to read Scripture in the original languages.
I’m a programmer. I’ve also been programming computers since 1974. Computers have been for me just another tool to help get done what needs doing.
I’m a teacher. My favorite parts of ministry have been preaching and teaching. I love helping groups of people find new understanding and ability.
Role
I have always wanted to serve God through Scripture translation. In a strange twist of events, I was able to begin doing just that in 2004.
Now, I have the privilege of using a wide variety of gifts to serve translation projects around the world. I program, I teach, I preach.
I can’t think of anything I’d rather do!
Challenge
The needs of this work are unique. You might call me a commuter missionary.
Five years ago, I would have disdained that role. Too often are we ministering from afar. I believe missions is best done by sinking in among a people for a long, long time.
But enter the Bible Societies of the world: they need someone who can visit several continents and cultures a day. They need someone who can go in person when need be, and who can easly reach global training centers. It just so happens Grand Rapids has a great airport, good internet connections, and is an easy drive to one of our training hotspots: Toronto.
So when people ask, “Where do you serve?” I have to tell them, “My body is usually in Grand Rapids. My mind is usually in a different country. My heart, well, my heart and my hope are the same place yours are.”
Kings, Queens, Rooks, & Romans
“Be salt in the world at your doorstep…and across the sea,” a pastor once challenged me.
So I try. But it’s easy to ignore one or the other. Or both.
One thing I do on my doorstep is play chess. I don’t really play on my doorstep—not usually—but I teach a chess club at our grade school.
What’s funny is I find chess boring. So why do I do it? Because God told me to. At least I’m convinced of it. No kidding. I had a dream about chess at school one night, woke up, and started reading about chess clubs. I found a ton of articles that said learning chess could help kids—both the bright and the not-so-bright—do better with the rest of their studies.
They were right. Chess bores me. But teaching chess is a gas. I see kids come in with almost zero ability to focus. After ten weeks, they may not be masters, but they come away with a newfound ability to concentrate, to make a plan, to think on their feet, under pressure, to hold their cool, to see patterns, to know when the game is over and not quit before then. Huge lessons. Lessons I still need.
Chess strengthens the foundations. Chess won’t ever earn those kids a living, but it already has made them stronger students.
So let’s cross the ocean for a second. This week I helped Brian Renes with a problem on a translation in Spain. The next few weeks I’m working on a text from India. One language has 322 million speakers; the other, 42 thousand. Some Christians I talk to think helping make those translations is, of course, a very good thing to do. Others think it’s a waste of resources. Make believers, make justice, not Bibles.
As I work, I pray for those 322,042,000 or so people, and I realize that this is like chess in schools:
Bibles and literacy to use them is foundational. None of those people will have a better life here or hereafter just because there’s now a Bible that speaks to them. But the church has found out again and again that Bibles are foundational to mission.
Look at Reformation Europe. No matter how they read history, there’s no denying the simple fact that publicly available Scripture raised the level of personal and corporate discipleship.
Look at Africa a century ago. Missionaries went to some regions and said, “We need to get these people Bibles before we do anything else.” Other regions, missionaries said, “There’s too much good work to be done. We don’t have time to make a translation for these people.”
Guess where believers flourish today. Guess where the church struggles.
Foundations. Without them, castles fall, kings get checkmated. With them, faith endures.
Simple. Stark. True.
Brian
History
For the past 10 years or so, I have been supporting the work of Bible Translation in North, Central and South America.
I visit projects in these regions, training translators and encouraging them in their work.
Hope
Translating the Bible takes a tremendous amount of work and the computer helps to speed up this task and also helps to do it better.