Written by Paul J Bucknell on November, 08, 2024
Prayer Letter #399

New Opportunities!

Dear Prayer Partners,

You prayed, and God answered! I’m not referring to our political arena, but God’s work through BFF. My mind is spinning! A new friend of BFF advised me to look into AI translation. I have done this for written translations, but the programs never measured up, resulting in poor translation. But now I’m investigating verbal translations. Let me explain a bit.

I have 35 Hindi bilingual videos—probably about 30 hours worth. But what about the other hundreds of BFF English training videos? How can we leverage BFF resources to get them onto a Hindi radio station, podcast, or YouTube channel?

I tested a new AI program that allows me to translate English videos into other languages—not all, but a good many. I then asked several Hindi Christian leaders to evaluate. Well, they were impressed. I have also tested the same with Spanish and Chinese, which I have included below for your interest. Test them out by clicking on the language, and let me know! AI translates my teaching videos verbally and uses my voice and lip to sync the words and motions! 

Chinese

Hindi

Spanish

English 

Since the response from the Hindi (main Indian language) speakers was so positive, I will be able to convert hundreds of applicable training videos into Hindi and post them for all to access.  There is a $90 monthly charge for this service, but other costs, except for employing an assistant to process videos, are minimal.  Volunteers anyone? The world is changing! BFF can leap far beyond the limited number of bilingual Hindi resources and better serve millions of believers, Hindi-speaking and otherwise. Click on the interested video (they were originally in English). Our praise and prayer requests follow these videos.

Praise

• The BFF exhibition at  Missions:Together conference went well. Some local churches in the Raleigh area have a grand vision to work together for God’s greater purposes in missions.
• Teaching videos for Unity: The Forgotten Treasure and the series, The Godly Man: When God Touches a Man’s Life, are being completed weekly.
• The October message on Finding Forgiveness went well. 

Pray

• I’m looking into one possible opportunity for a joint class on the Spiritual Life Path. I could do this independently, but I thought team development might be more fun, helpful, and strategic.
• Pray for Linda’s cough to go away.
• I hope to complete  Book 2: Quality Times With God by year’s end.
• Isaac, our son, departs for Sweden this Saturday for one week. He will be looking for a job and spending time with his fiancee.
• Mid-November Linda and I will travel to Pittsburgh. Paul will take part in the ordination of a pastor (Sat. the 23rd), whom he mentored a few years ago. He will also be preaching Sunday (the 24th).