I worked for more than 15 years as a consultant for Bible translators, mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo but also in Cameroon, Chad, and other countries. Then I taught for nine years in the English department at Middle Tennessee State University. I enjoy hiking in the Tennessee hills, running on the back roads and through the fields near my home, and bicycling wherever the wheels may take me; I especially enjoyed biking coast-to-coast in the summer of 2011 and from Brownsville, the southernmost town of Texas,  to Murfreesboro in 2015, then Murfreesboro to Fort Kent, the northernmost town of Maine, in 2017. 
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My B.A. is from Houghton College. My M.A. is from UT-Arlington, where I took five courses from the beloved Professor Robert Longacre of Wycliffe Bible Translators. My Ph.D. is from Michigan State University in linguistics, with special interests in African languages, sociolinguistcs, and stylistics. I studied Hebrew, Greek, and biblical literature at Fuller & Princeton seminaries. 

I thank God for my patient, loving wife and our six children and our family and friends on this side of the ocean and on the other. For several years, I have benefited from warm and encouraging fellowship with those of Cedar Grove UMC, a small rural church that, exactly 4 miles of country roads from my house,  was at first a turn-around point for 8-mile runs, then became a turn-around point in more important ways after I first attended a Sunday service there out of curiosity.  As of July 1, 2018, I have had the joy of a new church role: pastor at Eagleville United Methodist Church. Come, worship with us!

Tybee Island GA