Ready, Willing and Able

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!” (Isaiah 26:8, NIV)

Meet Katie and Stephanie, Wycliffe’s most recent additions to the survey team. Both of these women will travel to a different country where language assessment is desperately needed. But before they arrive at their place of assignment—and like any new Wycliffe recruit—they will undergo training and build a support base of prayer and financial partners.

Praise God for these new surveyors! Ask God to equip each of them with the resources they need to quickly get to their places of assignment.

KATIE, 23, from Chanhassen, Minnesota, first heard about Wycliffe at a missions conference during her freshman year
at Taylor University. “I had already known that I wanted to do some kind of missions work with indigenous people groups, and I was struck by the depth of Wycliffe’s purpose to share the gospel sustainably through (not in spite of) people’s culture,” said Katie. She soon learned about survey work and felt drawn to its methodology—traveling to remote areas, interviewing and observing people, and using statistical and qualitative analysis.

Katie plans to join a survey team working in Sudan, Africa. About Sudan Katie said, “Due to civil wars and other issues, hardly any surveys have been conducted over the last 25 years to find out the translation needs. I feel privileged to be a part of rebuilding the team from the past and paving the way for the future.”

To intercessors, Katie said, “It sounds really exciting to be on the forefront of the Bible translation process, but it can be hard to live with such inherent ambiguity, especially for those of us who haven’t been on the field yet. There are a lot of unknowns—we don’t know what it’s going to be like where we’re going, what our survey team will be like, and what kind of adventures may come our way. Pray
for a heart of peace and perseverance, and for a strong community among surveyors.”

STEPHANIE, 25, from Oregon, can’t wait to look back in 10 or
20 years and see a completed New Testament in a language that is currently unreached—a language that God allows her to be a part of reaching with His Word. Already confident that she wanted to be a part of the Bible translation team, Stephanie quickly identified language survey as a good fit, and plans to serve in South Asia.

Stephanie said, “Everyone I talked to told me that surveyors must have the quality of flexibility—being comfortable in continually changing environments—and embrace the fact that most of the time you won’t know what’s going on around you! Not a lot of people are willing to take on this adventure…But God has prepared me my whole life for this kind of challenge! How could I tell Him no?”

To encourage prayer for surveyors, Stephanie said, “Many surveyors have a
sense of homelessness because of how often they move. The distance and frequency of moving limits the depth of their relationships and can hinder their connection with others. Pray for a constant reminder that our only real home is with our Father in heaven, and none of us are truly home until then.” Stephanie believes that Bible translation angers Satan and that he will do everything he can to slow down or stop the process. “Surveyors are often the first representatives
of a translation team in an area and, because of this, they frequently deal with heavy spiritual warfare,” she said. “Pray for perseverance and daily reminders
of the power of our God.”

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