SMOLDERS, Josh and Jenni

Josh and Jenni Smolders have been members of Wycliffe Canada since 2012, and have been serving in linguistics and Bible translation in Ethiopia since 2014. They have four children, Fletcher (M, 2013), Theodore (M, 2017), Rordan (M, 2020), and Raewyn (F, 2023). Josh is originally from Ucluelet, B.C. and holds a Master’s of Linguistics degree from Trinity Western University (2012). Jenni is from Vancouver and holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Simon Fraser University.

The work that Josh and Jenni do is the frontline of Bible translation. In 2016 they began working with the Opo community of Gambella, the westernmost state of Ethiopia, and in 2018 they started the Opo Scripture Translation Project in partnership with the Anglican Church in Ethiopia and the Norwegian Missions Society. Josh now leads a team of three mother-tongue translators to bring the Word of God into the Opo language. At the same time Josh works as a linguist, researching and publishing on Ethiopian languages, helping communities develop alphabets, dictionaries, and other educational materials, and even serving as a linguistics consultant-in-training outside Ethiopia, with a focus on helping people analyze the tone systems of languages they work with.