Neal has an office in the Language Services Center at JAARS. He works with Bible translators needing his help using the computer for their work. He assists them in ways too numerous to list here. One way he helps is by installing their language data into a software program, such as Paratext, so they can check their translation. Some need help with the Shoebox program, configuring a bilingual dictionary in the language they are working on.
Neal often writes “consistent change” programs that go through hundreds of pages of texts—in minutes—making needed changes. What a relief to many older translators who had expected to spend the next one or two years hunting for these problem spots and correcting them one by one!
Translators make appointments with Neal for anywhere from an hour’s help up to a week of tutoring in mastering software programs. Others email questions or phone from distant countries. Neal is rarely left with no “clients.”
Neal also is on the teaching staff of a summer mobilization program called Total It Up! It’s a week’s Taste Of Translation And Linguistics for recruits considering joining Wycliffe Bible Translators. There are two to three sessions each summer.
Neal teaches a Sunday School class at our church, Covenant Baptist in Lancaster, S.C.
And … he’s Dad to Ben and Dan.