From coast to coast, continent to continent, prisons to remote villages, and everywhere in between, Come and See wants everyone to know the Biblical story of Jesus.
The Colorado-based foundation was started in 2022 by a collection of media and translation leaders with a mission to produce high-quality, Scriptural storytelling for a worldwide audience.
Step number one was partnering with Dallas Jenkins in the making of “The Chosen”, a dramatic television show depicting Jesus' life on Earth and those who lived with him.
Hear how and why Come and See is working to translate 'The Chosen' into 600 languages in our conversation with Dr. Wendi Lord:
Dr. Wendi Lord, the VP of Localization for Come and See, says the work of translating, producing, and disseminating the show across the world can be summed up in one sentence: make Christ and his Gospel freely accessible to all.
“Come and See exists to invite everyone to encounter Jesus through really exceptional storytelling that brings the Bible to life,” Dr. Lord said. “What I think is really special about [The Chosen] is that it’s a portrayal of Jesus through the lens of the people who were right around him.”
Come and See has twice set Guinness World Records for most translated streaming series at 125 languages. Each translation is available via a free mobile app, and the team is now working on producing translations in more than 250 languages.
But they’re just getting started, with sights set on making the show available in 600 dialects – most of them being tongues that often go untranslated.
A human approach to translation technology
To accomplish this feat, Dr. Lord explained that the work is multi-layered and tech-heavy, yet human-first.
Major languages with commercial infrastructure, like voice actors, studios, and streaming platforms, were the first to be translated. Then, Dr. Lord’s team analyzed factors like spiritual need, Gospel exposure, and cellular connectivity to identify which regions with “minority” languages could feasibly be reached.
Local linguists, subject matter experts, and many others work in concert to translate the content in a manner faithful to the language, cultural context, and Biblical theology.
Connecting with local linguists in minority languages is critical, Dr. Lord says, but finding those willing to collaborate, often in far-flung corners of the world, is no simple thing.
“Our primary strategy is prayer,” Dr. Lord said. “We pray that God will help us find the right people. And then, believe it or not, whether it comes through one of our ministry partners, a supporter, people come to us.”
More than half of the 600 target languages still lack local collaboration, but Dr. Lord and her team are undeterred, strengthened by prayerful dependence on God.
Artificial intelligence has also become a primary tool for translating minority languages.
Come and See deployed a proprietary AI tool in 2025 that makes the initial translation suggestion, which is then passed off to the linguists and subject matter experts. Each AI-translated line is dissected and adjusted, allowing the tech to improve each time a fix is made.
And then, another layer.
Dr. Lord explained that while subtitles can open access to Biblical story content to many who wouldn’t otherwise get it, it can be a superficial viewing experience. The end goal for each translation is full “dubbing,” allowing minority language audiences a full audio experience.
AI aids here, too. Speech-to-speech technology has enabled local linguists to record lines from the show in their own tongue.
Come and See then applies the sound of the original actors onto the submitted audio, allowing the minority language audience to experience the show as if it were recorded in their backyard.
“We only do this in non-commercial markets where there simply is no voice talent available,” Dr. Lord explained. “But all of a sudden, now we’re creating this new opportunity to have audio in the lower-resourced languages.”
The technology enabled Come and See to rapidly scale past 100 languages and onward to their climb to 600.
Effects far and near
The impact is undeniable.
Come and See is flooded every week with hundreds of letters and emails thanking them for their work and detailing the mark left by their work.
Some high-ranking government leaders from across the world have even hosted Come and See leaders for crowded premieres of The Chosen in their people’s native tongue, like in Madagascar.
Other impacts come within the team itself. Dr. Lord told the story of “Arash,” a translator who works under a pseudonym as he works out of a Middle Eastern country that is not kind to Christians.
Arash was a Muslim when he began working on translating the show. During the painstaking process of dissecting each word, mouth movement, and scene, he was partnered with a Christian subject matter expert.
Through that relationship, and most importantly, the person of Jesus Arash saw represented in the series, he gave his life to Christ.
“That’s the kind of stunning result that you can get when you keep Jesus at the center and when you keep humans as your primary focus,” Dr. Lord said. “While you’re so busy with all the techno overload of AI, those kinds of things can still happen when you keep humans as your focus.”
Humans are the focus, Jesus is the hope for all humanity, and Come and See is working daily so that many more nations will be able to see the Biblical Gospel in story form.
“First Timothy 2:4 says that God wants everyone to know the truth and be saved. His word does not return void. He is faithful. We all know how this story goes,” Dr. Lord said.
“Faithfulness and peace are just what continually floods everyone who’s working as part of this location effort.”
To learn more about Come and See’s work, visit their website.