e-mail: jfsyndrome@yahoo.com  Cell phone: 520-248-1764

I am originally from Guernsey County in Southeastern Ohio (Byesville and Senecaville). I graduated from Meadowbrook High School in 1978. I was on various sports teams, chaplain in Future Farmers of America, a member of the National Honor Society and gave the invocation and benediction at graduation. I attended Malone College (Canton, Ohio), and received a Bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries in 1982. I went to college planning to become a Methodist minister, but as a result of being president of the Student Missions group and spending six weeks in the Philippines in a missionary training program with InterVarsity between my junior and senior year of college, I began feeling led to become a missionary, urged on by Romans 15:20-21. I was the interim minister at Trinity United Methodist Church in Byesville for one summer and the minister at Seneca Lake (near Senecaville) one summer. I also got some public speaking experience through being the substitute PA announcer for the Malone Womenꞌs Basketball team, which was one of the best teams in the nation in 81-82. I also was the disc jockey for the small campus radio station. An internship at a Canton Evangelical Friends church gave me many life-learning experiences as well.

While in college I learned more of the need for people to have the Bible in their own language, so after college graduation I took three semesters of linguistic and translation courses (in North Dakota and Dallas) and was accepted as a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International (a sister organization of Wycliffe and formerly called The Summer Institute of Linguistics.)  I was assigned to serve in Mexico and after studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, for 5 months, I began work with the Tezoatlán Mixtec people of Oaxaca in 1986. You can find more about Tezoatlán Mixtec here.  Before going to Mexico, I took a year of graduate school classes at Columbia International University (82-83). I was the campus radio station disc jockey there as well and visited a maximum security prison for adolescents each week for a semester. I received my MA in Missions in 1991 after spending several years in Mexico studying the Mixtec language. The thesis is called, “Tezoatlán Mixtec Motion and Arrival Verbs and their Use in the Gospel of Mark.” This thesis later became an article on these motion and arrival verbs in the International Journal of American Linguists (IJAL), published in July, 1996. You can find it here.

The blog post on this site entitled, “The miracle of Sebastian’s Translation,” tells the amazing story of one of the ways God was moving so that these Mixtec people could have His Word in their heart language. I made a video in Spanish about Sebastian’s translation which can be found here. My wife Judith, who I married in 1986, and I continued the work with the Tezoatlán Mixtec people, and the New Testament in their language was recorded in 2005 and published in 2007. A Celebration thanking God for the blessing of having His Word in their language was held in March of 2008. Watch it here.   You can read and listen to the New Testament here.  The Tezoatlan Mixtec tablet/cell phone Scripture app can be downloaded from the Android play store, where the text and the audio are synchronized. Here you can see videos of Scripture and songs in Tezoatlán Mixtec. You can find many more Tezoatlan Mixtec links here.

In 2009 we began helping the Ayutla Mixtec people of the state of Guerrero finish the New Testament translation that was temporarily on hold at that time. We worked with the people there to help finish it, and the New Testament was recorded in the fall of 2014 and 750 copies of the New Testament have been printed.  A Dedication Celebration was held on March, 18, 2017. Watch a video summary of the Celebration here. You can listen to the Ayutla New Testament here.  Here you can see videos of Scripture and songs in Ayutla Mixtec. Over 700 audio players called Megavoice have been distributed among the thousands of monolingual Mixtec speakers who live in the surrounding mountains. Old Testament translation work continues, with apps and their accompanying audio recording of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Ruth, Nehemiah, Esther, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Daniel and Jonah available. Here you can find many more materials in Ayutla Mixtec. The Ayutla Mixtec tablet/cell phone Scripture app can be downloaded from the Android play store, where the text and the audio are synchronized.

I have written a number of papers on translation topics, three of which I gave at the Bible Translation conference in Dallas, Texas. In 2009 I presented one on 1 and 2 Corinthians, and in 2013, one on Translating Biblical Sexual Terms.  In 2019 I presented on “The Top Ten Things to Consider When Translating John 3:16.” Three three topics are posted here on this website by clicking the above links.

I am a translation consultant with the Mexico Branch of SIL (and Wycliffe) and have had the opportunity to participate in quite a number of translation workshops on Psalms, Galatians, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-2-3 John,  1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy and Titus, Romans, Hebrews, Revelation, etc. and to help out with or co-lead workshops on Translation Consultant Training, Panorama of the Bible, Culture and Geography of Israel, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians,  Romans 1-8, Colossians, and Philippians. I was the Translation Coordinator for SIL-Mexico from January 2015 thru August 2019, and the Survey Coordinator for five years previous to that.

The Panorama of the Bible Workshop teaching opportunity came as a result of having the privilege of spending two weeks in Israel with Home for Bible Translators, a group which helps Bible translators and consultants better understand the geography and culture of Israel in order to equip them to be better translators and consultants. I have posted a few videos of my time there here.

It is through all these experiences and more that have given me a unique perspective on understanding Scripture in some different and hopefully illuminating ways.

Also, as a vehicle to share all the crazy things that happened to me while looking for a girlfriend, and also to share how God has worked in my life and the life of Sebastian, I wrote a book which is a serious comedy and for the most part biographical called, “The Just Friends Syndrome. Memories of a shy guy’s search for true love.” Among other places, it is available here. The Facebook page for it is found here.

Bonnie Henry, a columnist for the Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) wrote a very positive feature article in 2006 on the work my wife and I are doing in Mexico.  You can read that here.

The Arizona Star also published a Guest Opinion of mine, on abstinence.  You can find that here.

I am married to Judith, and we have two children. Gabriel, born in 1989, and a graduate of Northern Arizona University, lives at home. Our daughter Amy, born in 1991, is married to Zach Herman. She is a beautician, but has more recently dedicated herself to making entertaining vides and video advertisements. Her, “Penny the Cat” videos have over 2 million subscribers. She and Zach also live in Tucson, along with daughter Gracie.

I have been invited to preach at the English and local Spanish-speaking church here in Tucson a number of times, and you can find some of my talks here.  During the difficult times of 2020, I made a series of videos for my local church, which they posted on their Facebook page, mostly sharing what the Bible says about suffering and standing firm. Later on I posted them on a playlist on my YouTube channel, which you can find here.  In July of 2020 I taught a class online via Zoom about how the Bible came to be, in Spanish, for a Seminary in Mexico City. The link for that is here.  I shared the same theme with people from all over Latin and South America for a YouTube live channel, and here is that link.  Then in December of 2020 I shared again with the Mexico City Seminary, via Zoom, about what the Bible says about false teachings, specifically Judaizers and Gnosticism.

From September 14 to October 2, 2020, along with colleague Meinardo, we taught the first online translation workshop of SIL Mexico Branch, via Zoom, of the Epistles of John, which included 20+ participants from six different languages. Then in the summer of 2021 I taught an eight week on-line Seminary course for the above mentioned Mexico City Seminary, in Spanish, on How the Bible came to be.

On April 22, 2023, I was inducted into the Rolling Hills (Meadowbrook) Alumni Hall of Fame. I shared during the induction ceremony for ten minutes, a serious-comedy talk about school times, influential teachers and others in my life, my testimony, my calling to help people have the Scriptures in their heart language, my work with two Mixtec groups in Mexico, and some final advice. There is a post on this site of my talk at the induction ceremony, and it can be found here. The plaque I am holding is now on the walls of the entrance to Meadowbrook High School (Byesville, Ohio) along with those of 51 other graduates over the past 100 years. The plaque tells about me being voted the most shy of my Senior Class, giving the invocation and benediction at graduation, my Christian Ministries’ degree, taking translation and linguistic courses, and highlights my Master’s Degree and thesis on “Tezoatlan Mixtec Motion and Arrival Verbs”, plus the publication of that in IJAL. Then about the work among the Mixtec people, the publications of secular material and the Scriptures, and my helping to teach workshops in Spanish. Then a significant paragraph of being the Survey Coordinator and helping with the Ethnologue. It ends with a quote from a classmate: “John has dedicated his life to helping the less fortunate, doing mission work and translating the Bible into various Mexican languages. The shy guy from Meadowbrook Class of 1978 took the kindness from his High School teachers to an impoverished part of the world to make their lives a little better.”

Besides my trips to the Philippines, Mexico and Israel, I have also had the opportunity to visit Colombia, Brazil and Thailand as part of my ministry, and the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Canada, mostly as a tourist.