EDMOND—They amass countless hours pouring over dictionaries and other language guides. They tirelessly type away, transforming one language into another. And they provide spiritual nourishment for thousands of non-English-speaking people. Nine volunteers and one staff member in the French foreign language translation sub-department overcome unique challenges to produce written and audio content for scattered French-speaking people worldwide.

The team of eight translators and two editors is spread all over the world: Canadian regional office staff member Tony Chiasson and members Pierre Vernier and Robert Paré; South Carolina Local Church Elder Deryle Hope; Belgian deacon Marc de Harenne and members Joelle de Harenne and Zenon Wierzbinski; and French members Christian and Corinne Sylvitus and Jean-Claude Lamontre. They work closely, despite living thousands of miles apart, to keep French-speaking members and readers up to date with the Philadelphia Church of God’s print, online and audio content.

flt sub-department head Wik Heerma said the team’s diversity ensures that the occasional tricky word or phrase will be understood by readers worldwide.

The team is organized through headquarters by coordinator Edwin Trebels. Trebels prioritizes assignments to maximize the limited manpower of the French team’s nine volunteers and one staff member. The quarterly Trumpet publication comes first.

La Trompette Philadelphienne

Because 1,150 French-speaking Trumpet subscribers expect a new issue to arrive in the mail every three months, the publication has a much tighter deadline than the books and booklets, which are not shipped on a periodical basis. Each issue consists of 32 pages—just eight fewer than the English-language version—and approximately 50,000 words. Trebels handles layout, helped by student assistants Lauren Eames and Maria Gutmann. The team replaces the Worldwatch, letters and Key of David television log sections and a couple articles to make space for the latest installment of a Church booklet serialization, which is provided by Mr. Hope. The regular serialization installments ensure that booklets get translated more quickly.

Lamontre and Christian Sylvitus each translate and edit about 1,000 words an hour, meaning that each 50,000-word issue requires at least 50 hours of manpower, not including the 8 to 12 hours Trebels, Eames and Gutmann spend on layout. Sylvitus and Mr. Hope also spend several hours editing the entire publication one last time before Trebels, Eames and Gutmann insert edits and Mr. Heerma checks the file and sends it off to print.

Project Prioritization

Beyond the Trumpet, Mr. Heerma and Trebels have to decide which of the dozens of pcg literature titles should be translated next. “Mr. Heerma provides updates for a priority list—it’s very important for us to focus on that,” Trebels said. “You have to be careful with extra projects if basic literature isn’t available yet. I’m here to say ‘We need to do this one next.’”

flt deems the literature necessary for attending the pcg and being baptized as highest-priority. After that comes literature containing pivotal revelation, such as Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet and The Last Hour. New titles like America Under Attack, Redefining Family and The Former Prophets—How to Become a King are prioritized by Mr. Heerma when they become available. Low-priority jobs include Our Awesome Universe Potential, Why ‘Natural’ Disasters? and the This Is the Philadelphia Church of God brochure.

“It allows the new revelation to be in the hands of the brethren more quickly,” Mr. Heerma said.

Besides editing the French Trumpet, Mr. Hope translates co-worker letters and makes rough translations of booklets. He and Vernier translate French letters sent to pcg regional offices by brethren and readers.

Classic texts like Herbert W. Armstrong’s autobiographies are considered long-term projects. “We think in year cycles,” Trebels said. “‘What can we do this year?’ not, ‘What can we do this week?’ You have to be really patient—and focused.”

Live Translation

French member Corinne Sylvitus, Christian Sylvitus’s daughter, provides simultaneous oral translation during live and recorded Sabbath messages. Nearly 20 French-speaking brethren in two congregations in Belgium and France rely on her services.

“When the brethren say they appreciated the message, or expressed how powerful it was, then I know I did a good job,” Sylvitus said.

Canadian member Robert Paré serves the French-speaking Canadian brethren, translating all Sabbath messages, which are then downloaded, burned to CD and distributed by the Canadian regional office. His translations are also utilized by the UK-Europe regional office. He also simultaneously translates live messages on occasions, such as when ministers visit and at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Facing Challenges

Many of the pcg’s high-priority books and booklets were written decades ago by Herbert W. Armstrong. Titles such as Mystery of the Ages and The Incredible Human Potential were translated into French by Worldwide Church of God translators. But flt has found that those completed translations cannot be trusted, and that they have to start from scratch.

“Many translators in the Worldwide Church of God took the messages and retransmitted them in their own personal style of communication,” Chiasson said. It appears that many of these faulty translations were produced during the Church’s troubled period of the 1970s. “Several short sentences were joined together, forming longer sentences and paragraphs. Exclamation marks and bold formats were removed, reducing the impact of the message. In some cases, entire sentences or paragraphs were left out because the translator thought it was not necessary. The popular method of translation in the world is to translate the message in your own style, but in the Church, I believe that the best method of translation is to translate almost everything word for word.”

“The most difficult part of this responsibility is to put in a simple, accessible and comprehensible language the sentences which in English do not find their equivalence in French language,” Mr. de Harenne said.

“It’s good to understand that Satan will target those through whom a larger audience could be reached,” Mr. Heerma said. “A couple things to pray for are: [the translators’] motivation, because they sacrifice a lot of their time, and for God to protect them from Satan’s attacks. We’ve seen a lot of translators leave. They are a target of Satan. Everyone can be praying for them.”

The French team worked past these unique challenges to post some significant stats in 2014: five booklets translated, four Trompettes published, and three Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence course lessons and one test completed. That’s a total of 314,639 words translated—up from 277,673 words in 2013.

And the words are being read. In 2014, the mail department sent 669 pieces of literature to 23 countries, and theTrumpet.com recorded 23,251 page visits and 1,097 literature downloads.

“We achieve a high standard regardless of our editors and translators being volunteers,” Trebels said. “They are gifts from God.”