Feature: Carolyn Miller

By Anna Catherman ('24)

When Carolyn Paine left the Houghton to go to Vietnam in 1961, she “didn’t cry until she was on the plane.”

“I’m not a person who made unusual, brave, or wild decisions,” Carolyn claims. But when John Miller telephoned her to propose, she agreed.

John had stayed in her family’s home during his years at Houghton College, which she also attended. Wycliffe Bible Translators had assigned him to Vietnam. 

A month after Carolyn’s arrival, they were married. They lived in a thatched house among the Bru people, and started translating the Bible. John and Carolyn began raising a family together; all four of their children were born in Vietnam. 

In 1975, their work came to an abrupt stop. Just as the Millers were finishing typesetting and proofreading, they were captured and held as prisoners of war for eight months. Their youngest daughter, LuAnne (five years old at the time), was with them. Their older children, Gordie, Nate and Margie, had been evacuated. They were sent back to Houghton to live with their grandparents.

John, Carolyn and LuAnne were shuffled from one camp to another before ultimately being released – without their manuscripts.

“When we had to leave without the translation, that seemed like the end,” Carolyn said. 

But she and John were able to continue their work long-distance. In 2014, their team finished translating the entire Bible into Bru. 

Today, retired, Miller continues to translate. She works on one chapter of the Tang Old Testament each day. Currently, she’s back-translating the book of Esther to ensure accuracy. She sits at her desktop computer with a four-language translation screen open, fingers trembling slightly. Surrounding her are framed Bible verses and shelves of other translations she has worked on. 

Four times a week, she shares meals with her daughters, LuAnne Brubaker and Marge Doty, and their families. Miller sits on two church committees. Paul Shea, a retired pastor at the Houghton Wesleyan Church, serves aside Miller on the church’s mission committee. He called her service on the missions committee “invaluable.” Despite the difficulties on the war-torn mission field, “[s]he doesn’t ask for sympathy, she asks for service,” he added.

She hosts Bible studies and organizes potlucks when missionaries come to visit. And Miller keeps up with her friends across the world. Using the convenience of Facebook messenger, they communicate from time zones twelve hours apart.

“I’m at the hospital with a little girl who’s sick. Pray for her,” one friend asks, a picture attached of a tiny child curled up on a cot. 

Another asks for prayers for his son, who has eye problems.

She is grateful for the technology that has allowed her to keep translating while living close to family, and to remain connected with the people she and her late husband ministered to.

She’s also glad that her friends have “learned to call not in the middle of the night, I think.” ★