Host: WIN (Wycliffe India)
Venue: ILL, Luther J. New Theological College
Dates: January 19-30, 2026
Trainers: Scott T, Daniel H and Hans G
Participants: 22
Website Managers trained: 15
Websites created: 12
Websites updated: 1
Facilities
The Institute of Languages and Linguistics is part of the larger theological college, and operated by WIN. We ran our workshop on the top floor. All participants and Hans stayed in rooms on campus. Because of profile issues, foreigners could not stay on campus, so Scott and I stayed in an AirBnB flat, a short walk away (~1 km).
Internet was fairly good, after a bad first day. Our IT support set up a new wifi router which improved things a lot. The room of the workshop was spacious, with plenty of power cords, a good projector, and a speaker system so everyone could hear.
We had an extra room mic set up for a remote WIN team, and we tried to share all of our training on Zoom also, recording the sessions - that was a big challenge. There were regular power cuts, which caused the WiFi router to go offline. There was a generator to get everything running again, but we frequently had to reconnect to the team on Zoom.
Participants
Half from WIN, half from NLCI (New Life Computer Institute). Only one team from FMPB (Friends Missionary Prayer Band) was able to make it. We found most of the teams highly computer literate, so we were able to move quickly through each subject. Hans provided Hindi translation many times, as several teams did not know English well. Some participants also translated from English to Hindi occasionally.
A number of participants were there as MTTs only - they were there to translate website materials from Hindi or English into their own language. Other than that, they did no WM work - they were very patient! Our technician, Ebenezer, works with WIN, and he was building a test site so that he could master Wildfire and be a help for all of these teams. We concur!
Training Plan
We had an odd schedule, due to a national holiday on the second Monday, 26 Jan. We had a 6-day workweek, and then a 4-day week the second week. Because of the computer literacy of the teams, we were able to get through all of the basics in the first 4 days, and after that we spent much of our time with individual teams. We then would bring them all together to explain something that we saw many teams struggling with.
It was very good that the teams were working fast, because we had some extra training from FCBH that took up much of Wednesday and Thursday mornings the 2nd week. Joshy from FCBH explained about digital promotion and advertising, and helped teams think of ways to get their websites found and seen. I (Scott) learned a lot too. If the teams had not been so far ahead though, I would have been quite nervous to take up so much time during a short workweek.
Launch
As tricky as the internet was sometimes, it was nice at the end to be able to launch the websites without any outside help. In addition to the websites that were launched below, there was also https://kuruxindia.com, which existed before and was updated.
https://tehriyali.ethnosites.com
https://pavitrakalaam.ethnosites.com
https://jaunsari.ethnosites.com
https://buksa.ethnosites.com
https://bushahri.ethnosites.com
https://paharimahasu.ethnosites.com
https://mirgan.wptweb.in
https://garhwalilanguage.com
https://khataliya.wptweb.in
https://baiga.wptweb.in
https://pandwanigoonj.wptweb.in
https://sabariya.wptweb.in
Photo gallery
Other thoughts
We used the Phone and Tablet View a lot in this workshop, and talking to the participants, it seems like almost everyone in the communities that would visit these websites use smartphones only. Maybe tablets. Very few people have or use laptops. With that in mind, we think it would be good to discuss how to make the phone view more significant. We teach WMs how to build a nice website for a computer screen, but the reality is that people will not see that view. The phone view is the one that matters more. What should we do about this? (Perhaps there is a need for new training material in mobile-first design)
Regarding future workshops in India: We have noticed that any foreigners need to be treated carefully. We could not stay on the campus with everyone else, because the campus would have to report our stay there (just like any hotel would), and it might put their ministry in jeopardy. It's just something to consider with every workshop done in India. This was an issue in our last workshop in Siliguri as well - we had to choose a venue more out of town, and that was not yet officially registered so they didn't need to report us staying there.
Regarding Dehradun, and the college in particular: It's a scenic place, with the mountains in the background. The college is very nice looking, and would probably be a good venue even in the summer, because it would be a bit cooler than places at lower altitude. It was pretty chilly in January - probably 5-10 degrees (C) cooler than Delhi. That makes a big difference in the hot months. The food at the cafeteria was simple, but well-made. It was mostly vegetarian, with suppers rotating between chicken, egg and paneer.
The apartment we rented was spacious, with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, AC (which we definitely did not need!). View it here. I'd recommend it as a clean, safe and quite affordable place for any of us who could not stay on campus. It was about a kilometer away, which meant that we didn't leave the campus until after supper, so we had to make sure we didn't forget anything. The WIN folks were always willing to drive us there and back if needed though - if it rained, if we needed something, etc. There are some good stores not too far away, where we bought things for making our own breakfasts.
May God be glorified, and may many people grow in their relationship with Jesus, through these websites!
