The typewriter was state-of-the-art when Lutheran Bible Translators was established in 1964, but its effectiveness as a Bible translation tool left something to be desired.  

Every time a word was changed to better reflect the original meaning of the Biblical text, the translation team searched through completed draft pages to find where the word occurred, then retyped those pages. The same was true for grammatical and spelling errors. It’s no wonder it took decades to complete a New Testament! 

Today translation teams are equipped with laptops and the necessary software to facilitate the translation and Scripture engagement processes. But conditions on the mission field – high humidity, ocean air, dust and sand – are destructive to a computer’s hardware. It is essential to purchase high quality machines to ensure optimal function and avoid delays of a month or more if a machine needs to be sent out for repair. Even with better products, laptops typically need to be replaced every three to five years for the entire language program team.  

Laptops enable language teams to be mobile, traveling for workshops and community checking while keeping all their resources and communication tools on hand. Built-in batteries allow work to continue even if electricity is intermittent. As partners are trained in the maintenance and use of the laptop, they in turn share their knowledge with new team members or other language community programs.  

Laptops are more than simply tools for an everyday workplace. Equipping partners with the technology to efficiently do their work improves the quality of translation and Scripture engagement materials.