Bio

Freddy and his wife Bekah Boswell have served with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1987. Freddy is currently working as a Senior Translation Consultant. During the beginning of 2022, he and the Cheke Holo team of Solomon Islands completed their goal of readying the publication of the entire Bible in the Cheke Holo language. The printed version of the Cheke Holo Bible was dedicated and released publicly in Solomons on September 3, 2023, while the digital version became available on YouVersion in February 2022. Freddy has also been assisting translation teams working in five languages of western Asia, and in 2023 he began working with the Gao language of Solomons, assisting them in their New Testament plus Psalms completion. The team finished in December 2024, and their Scripture publication was dedicated and publicly launched on November 8, 2025. He is the editor of SIL’s academic, peer-reviewed Journal of Translation, and began in 2023 serving on the faculty of Northwest Seminary, British Columbia, as an assistant professor/academic mentor in their Master of Arts in Translation Studies. In 2024, he joined the faculty of Dallas International University as an Associate Instructor in the graduate course in Translation Consulting.

Freddy grew up in Ozark, AL, and Bekah in Huntsville. Freddy began pastoral ministry in 1980 and served as a pastor until entering full-time cross-cultural missions service in 1986. The Boswells began working in 1989 with the Cheke Holo Bible translation project of Solomon Islands, South Pacific. They have also lived and worked in Peru and Papua New Guinea. The Cheke Holo translation team completed and published the New Testament in 1993 and Old Testament portions starting in 2005. Bekah worked in Cheke Holo literacy and was responsible for homeschooling their three children while living in the Solomons. Starting in the late 1990s, Bekah served for 12 years as the SIL health services clinic manager and as the head nurse.

In 2016, Freddy completed 8 years as the Executive Director of SIL International, which is the fieldwork organization that started Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1942. Freddy has also served as International Translation Coordinator for Wycliffe and SIL, Vice President for Academic Affairs for SIL, and Vice President for Scripture Promotion for Wycliffe. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biblical Studies from Oral Roberts University, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is an ordained minister with the Global Methodist Church, and in 2024 began with a group of friends to plant Faith Fellowship GMC in Hazel Green, and he serves part-time as the founding pastor.

Freddy has been a long-suffering Atlanta Braves fan since the late 1960s, an avid golfer since 1968, and a crazed jogger since 1971. (Ok, he has run 10 competitive marathons, but nothing lately. Finally let the insanity urge fade away?1!) He has a small collection of 1950s and 1960s baseball cards, and a stamp collection that is not too impressive. He enjoys beach time with Bekah, sunsets, and nights by the fireplace. He is the proud father of three adult married children, John, David, and Kathryn, and grandfather to three grandsons, Felix (4), Hugo (1) and Walker (born in 2025), and one beautiful, captivating granddaughter, Iris, also born in 2025. Three-year old, tan-colored Standard Poodle Charlie rounds out the Boswell clan.

I always wanted to be a writer! But standing on a ladder?! (Freddy is writing his name on the wall of Leiden University’s ‘sweating room’. It’s a place where Ph.D. candidates traditionally waited to learn their fate after their Ph.D. defense. Upon completion, the successful candidate writes his or her name on the wall.)

Freddy’s CV on SIL.org is found here.