In 1985, I was hired by UBS (United Bible Societies) to start computerizing the translation projects sponsored by the organization. To do this, it was necessary to get all the training I could. In 1986 after a lot of research for the right way to start, I went to North Carolina to learn the software developed by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) and JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Services). These organizations worked together with Wycliffe Bible Translators, which was a partner organization with United Bible Societies.

I had to find a way to convert some projects to the new MS-DOS Operating System so we could use the programs developed by SIL. I found the training I needed at courses provided by JAARS in North Carolina.

The final purpose of a Bible translated into another language is, of course, to publish it and make it available to the speakers of that language.

So the final stage that I needed to learn was how to use a typesetting program to format the text and then print it.

In 1987, SIL’s PAD (Printing Arts Department) inaugurated a course to teach how to use the brand new desktop publishing package.

The person in charge of teaching the course was an imposing agreeable woman, Karelin Seitz. She was blond, not very tall, slender, and had a wonderful old fashion hairdo that reminded me of my Aunt Celmira. Later I learned that her hairstyle was known in America as the Gibson Girl hairstyle. In Chile it was identified with the Victorian age. It was a fluffy bouffant, pouffed-out style that lends attention to the wearer’s face. She was quite pretty, firm but delicate in manners, and dressed in comfortable, but fashionable, pant suits.

Karelin’s course was well organized and she taught with lot’s of examples. Her exercises and assignments were difficult but she was right there to help when she saw you stuck in some task.

The software was not easy to learn for a person without some typesetting background. I felt blessed with my typography courses at the School of Journalism and a bit of typography experience. However, all the terms in English were very different to what I had learned from my Catalan professor in Chile. They did not know what a “chivalete” was (letterpress type case), “Interletraje” was “Kerning”, “calado” was “feathering”, etc.

During the breaks, I had opportunity to talk to Karelin, and I learned a bit of her background. She had worked for a telephone company in California and, surprise, she had been a programmer as I was at my previous jobs.

After I finished her course, I translated all that I had learned into Spanish, and I went to several countries in South America, teaching some of what I had learned. I also arranged for other people working at the Bible Societies in South America to come to learn directly from Karelin. People from Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica and also some from Africa and Europe came to her courses from the national Bible societies.

Since my work was so related to the SIL Printing Arts Department, I traveled many times from Miami to Dallas between 1987 to 1992 to learn and interchange experiences and needs with the developers of software, fonts and many other essentials for Bible publishing.

In all of those trips, I had opportunities to see Karelin and others girls who worked at PAD. I went hundreds of times for lunch with them to Karelin’s favorite pizza place, Mazio’s. I went to see movies and plays with them, and I even stayed in some of their homes when I needed a place to stay for some days.

Karelin and I also went together to various computer training conferences. She would stay at the home of somebody in the area who had offered housing to Wycliffe Bible Translator missionaries, and I would stay at a hotel. Usually, we planned to do some tours on our own in the area where the conference was held, and when the conference was finished, if one of us was driving, we would visit some beaches or places of interest.

We had the same interests in training, knowing more about places and animals. I particularly remember a conference in Colorado Springs where we went to visit the Garden of the Gods and Estes Park. We had the privilege of feeding some chipmunks we happened to encounter. Karelin was feeding one and she asked me to take a picture. When I sent the pictures to be printed I discovered that I had only taken pictures of chipmunks and her hand. Oops.

On many other occasions, Karelin invited me to attend the Southwestern Believer’s Convention at the Fort Worth Convention Center. It was always in the middle of the Summer around the 5th of July. Hot! At the beginning I was quite skeptical about all the things I observed at the convention. Some of the preaching and the worshiping in tongues were a little bit too much, but I had spontaneously prayed in tongues one night when I had recently moved to my new apartment in Miami, and I had asked the Lord for guidance in my new job. I was scared by the experience, and I kept it to myself.

My job changed in 1992 when I was seconded to SIL to collaborate in a major project. I was staying in Dallas for longer periods of time, renting a room in a mobile home, but I keep living in Miami with my parents.

In 1994, during one of my trips, Karelin told me that a group from Dallas was going to Toronto, Canada, to the Vineyard Church that was having an outpouring of the Holly Spirit. I prayed about it, and I decided to go. That was the time that I was zapped by the Holy Spirit, fell to the floor and slept for about 3 hours. When I woke up on the floor in one of the wings of the church, I knew the Lord was telling me that it was time to accept His rest.

Shortly after I was seconded to SIL, UBS decided to hire a programmer, who was already working at SIL, to develop a program that would allow a new translation text to be keyed in, while at the same time having Greek and Hebrew or other languages open in an adjoining window, to base the translation on and be able to check accuracy of the translation. I was assigned then to work on that project, producing the help system.

During that time, I mainly worked at home in Miami, communicating with the developer in Dallas.

Karelin and I had the opportunity to work together on parts of this unusual help system that included ‘Helps for Translators and Publishers.’

After my father died in 2000, UBS offered to move me to Dallas so I could work closely with the software development team that already had grown to two programmers. Karelin offered to help with the move, and she rented a storage place for my furnishings. Since I needed to bring my two cats with me (and could only bring one pet per ticket), Karelin flew to Miami to help me bring them on the plane, while my car traveled together with my furnishings on a truck.

Karelin found me a room to rent with a friend of ours while I started searching for a modest house so I could bring my mother to live with me.

During all this search, Karelin was the key person to rely on. I finally found a house at the same townhome complex where Karelin and several other SIL missionaries lived. I went through the process of remodeling it, and then went to Miami to bring my mother to live with me. My mother was 93 years old. I had bought a three bedroom / two bath townhouse only six miles from the SIL headquarters.

From 2002 to 2004, I worked diligently to complete the help system for the new software. I mainly worked from home because I needed to be near my mother, but it was still easy to get to meetings with the software development team.

However, in 2004, UBS decided to eliminate my position, and they gave me what is known as an involuntary “early retirement”.

After much prayer, I decided to apply to Wycliffe Bible Translators as a “faith missionary”. That meant I would be letting go of a salary and continue working based on God’s provision through self fundraising. I was accepted into the organization, and I had to look for donors or supporters and churches to pledge to send monthly support for me to do my work. Since I had been out of the country so much, and just focused in developing the help system when in the country, my circle of friends was limited. The church I was attending was not very impressed with the work I was going to do because they thought that missionaries should go to other countries to convert heathen people. However, I got pledges from other churches and I was able to raise the amount of support that Wycliffe required for me to start working.

This time I started a Distance Learning System to provide courses online for the people who were in the field.

After my mother was diagnosed with dementia, I had to place her in a nursing home. I was able to travel more and do some training on how to develop courses online.

In 2007, Karelin asked me if I wanted to go with her on a cruise to South America. It was from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Valparaiso, Chile. I was glad to have the opportunity to go back to my country of origin so we did the trip and had a great time. At the end of the trip in Valparaiso, one of my cousins was waiting for me and we stayed some days in Chile. Karelin seemed to enjoyed the experience and got along really well with my family.

Since I had reached the age for retirement, during that trip I asked the Lord if it was time for me to do so. Just as we were crossing the Reloncaví Estuary, in front of islands that have never been inhabited, I got the answer. Yes, the Lord wanted me to enjoy the world and quit working.

Karelin decided to retire that same year. However, shortly after her retirement she learned that she had a stage 3 ovarian cancer and she needed surgery. The day she told me she was very calm and that really made a big impression on me.

That night I was praying for her and asked the Lord if I could do anything, Then, I knew I needed to be her caregiver. I had a real problem with that because I’m very independent, and it was difficult for me to think about taking care of somebody. I had done some with my mother, but I felt somewhat guilty that I had to put her on a nursing home. It was a real struggle to accept the commission that I knew the Lord was giving me.

Karelin’s surgery went well, and she was prescribed chemotherapy for six months. But she lost her beautiful long hair.

It turned out that my mission was to visit Karelin every day at lunch and dinner time and be sure that she ate something. She was going through chemotherapy and she looked as white as her pillow.

At the end of 2007, I retired and continued the routine of going to Karelin’s townhouse to be sure that she ate. Some nights I stayed until late and we talked and saw movies. She lost much weight. At the end of the six months of chemo, she decided to stop and not continue with the optional six months of experimental chemo her doctor had suggested she take. She had been listening to healing Scriptures during the whole time and taking some supplements that made her feel better.

In 2008, she was strong enough for us to take a trip to Crested Buttes in Colorado. We rented a car at the airport and we found our way through eight feet tall snow walls surrounding the road. We spent the time in a great ski hotel even when we did not ski, but we had lots of fun at the quaint town and rode a dog sled. I got to hold a puppy on my lap during that whole trip.

After that we took numerous cruises and road trips. At the end of 2008, we decided that Karelin could come live with me and rent her townhouse to have more money available for trips. It took us 9 months to downsize and prepare my house. Karelin moved to the bedroom with an en suite that my mother had occupied before. She had her own outside door through the closet. It was like a small apartment.

Karelin and I have lived together since. In 2017, Karelin was declared free of cancer and the need for follow-up, and we continued traveling. She is and will be my eternal friend.