Years back I had the chance to serve with my wife as mission presidents in Berlin Germany.
There we served together with about 200 missionaries and constantly ran into a problem
that was on the one side unique and on the other very common.
We had missionaries serving in metropolitan areas, in melting pots, where they met people
from many different countries of the world not speaking the local language well enough.
And on the other side that was a time where there was a great influx of refugees
that came into the country by the hundreds of thousands and who were open to speak to our young missionaries.
They couldn´t always communicate well enough and we had the idea to develop something that would help us bridge this problem.
Under my direction some very talented young missionaries developed an app that would allow us
to bring in a trusted translator with just three taps on your smartphone.
We had a testing phase that lasted for about a month where we had real interesting and touching experiences.
I remember one situation where we spoke with a wonderful family from India.
We had limited language skills to really convey this message that was so important to our missionaries.
With the help of Be My Translator we could bring in a trusted interpreter
from the other side of the globe who helped us, so that heart to heart could speak.
Many problems exist because we cannot communicate as we really would like to.
That is something that is found in businesses, in schools, in airports, in museums, as we travel – whether it be for vacation or professionally.
I can see that this has great potential that we can bring together people create new friends
and solve real problems of real people as they can communicate in an international environment so effectively and in an easy way.