DALLAS (ABP) — Texas Baptists are partnering with a non-denominational ministry to harness online language-translation technology that advocates say could be the best tool for cross-cultural evangelism since Pentecost.
Called Hope Chat, the tool harnesses the power of ABBY, an advanced online artificial intelligence translation platform developed at Carnegie Mellon University. It allows people to converse across languages in real time about spiritual matters, and the technology contextually translates what people type, allowing cross-language conversations to take place.
Wayne Shuffield, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Evangelism/Missions Center, said language and culture are two historical barriers to sharing the gospel. He said the ABBY system removes one of those barriers, enabling Christians to build bridges to people around the globe.
Wayne Shuffield, director the BGCT Evangelism/Missions Center, logs onto ABBY.
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"I don't believe we can overstate what ABBY represents for evangelism and missions today," Shuffield said. "This new technology opens unimagined and unprecedented avenues for communicating the gospel. I believe the possibility of taking the gospel to every nation, every person, worldwide in my lifetime truly exists because of this new resource."
Nondenominational Need Him Ministries, with whom Texas Baptists are partnering in this effort, holds the only religious license for ABBY, an acronym for Awareness Behavior Balancing Yield. The technology "speaks" 28 languages, accounting for 95 percent of the world population. ABBY corrects typographical errors, clarifies colloquialisms, understands cues and learns through interaction.
Surveys show vast numbers of people — including 64 percent of Americans, according to the 2004 Pew Internet and American Life Project — access the Internet for spiritual matters.
Hope Chat will take that interest to the next level, connecting people across the globe in real time to discuss spiritual matters. Web users can access Hope Chat at www.hopechat.com, where trained Christian volunteers will be prepared to talk about spiritual issues.
BGCT leaders already have started recruiting and training those volunteers, who in turn are charged with training and recruiting other volunteers to be ready to respond to web traffic.
Even before the site address was publicized or distributed to a significant number of people, volunteers began seeing steady traffic to the site and have led some people to begin a relationship with Christ.
"Already, people are coming to know Christ as Lord," Shuffield said. "People around the world are hungry for a relationship with God. They're seeking answers to their questions. They're seeking comfort during personal hardship. And they're finding both in Christ."
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