Chiang Mai, Thailand  ·  May 23–26, 2026
EMDC “Psalms Alive!” Workshop

The room at the EMDC conference in Thailand held thirteen people, mostly from Asia. Some were Bible translators. Some were consultants. One was an ethnomusicologist. They shared a question that doesn’t get asked often enough: what happens to a psalm when it crosses into a new language?

For four days, they worked through Scriptura’s methodology together — studying Psalms 133 and 100, learning to build internalization guides, and designing their own pre-workshop plans to take back to their own communities. Internalization is the practice of dwelling with a psalm until you feel it — emotionally, spiritually, physically — rather than only understanding it on the page. For many, that was a new concept. The idea that a translator needs to be moved by a psalm — emotionally, spiritually, physically — before they can translate it well isn’t intuitive in a field shaped by textual analysis. Across four days, participants encountered it firsthand.

The workshop’s goal was not to produce translated psalms. It was to produce people who could go back to their own contexts and facilitate the process themselves. Thirteen people from eight countries, each equipped to carry the methodology into a different corner of the world.