Sending Church: Community Baptist Church Silver Lake, WI

Field: Bibles International

When Bethany was in high school, Joe and Bonnie Valentin presented their ministry with Bibles International at her church. They showed a video of a dedication ceremony for a newly-completed Bible translation for a country in Asia. As she watched the joy on the faces of those people receiving the first Bible in their own heart language, something inside of Bethany said, “I need to be a part of this.” From that point on, she pursued that goal.

When Bethany was a young child, she loved meeting missionaries and hearing their stories. Somehow, even at that young age, she thought maybe God wanted her to go into missions. As a young teen, she admired one of her Sunday school teachers who wrote Bible lessons and puppet skits and translated them for her many missionary friends. Bethany thought that would be a great ministry. The seeds of her future calling—a translation ministry—were planted in her heart. It was a year later, when the Valentins came to her church, that God touched her heart to serve with Bibles International to help to translate the Scriptures for people who did not have the Bible in their own language.

She majored in Cross-Cultural Studies with a focus on biblical languages in her undergraduate studies and then earned a master’s degree in Intercultural Studies with a focus on Bible translation. God gave her the opportunity to work as an English teaching assistant during her graduate studies. There she learned the valuable skills of tutoring students one-on-one, leading groups, and collaborating with others on major projects.

While in college, Bethany was able to spend two weeks in Peru when Troy Manning, Bibles International’s chief language consultant, was teaching a Bible translation course for the students enrolled in the Arriba program*. She then spent some time in the BI home office helping with a translation workshop. During her graduate work, she participated in a five-week BI summer internship in Chad where she helped in both literacy and translation workshops. These opportunities have confirmed Bethany’s desire to serve as a translation consultant for BI, and she is eager to take the next step.

*The Arriba program is BMM’s 11-month missions experience in Chile where college students can earn 30 college credits and gain hands-on ministry experience.

See our website for more information: arriba.bmm.org