Elaine dreamed from a very young age of going to Africa, and she’s grateful for the support of her family and church, who nurtured this desire and enabled her to leave for the field in 2009. Since then, she has been sent from Wycliffe to work for SIL in central Africa. After six years in Cameroon, Elaine finished her MA in linguistics and transferred to work as a linguistic consultant with SIL Chad.
Chad is a harsh but vibrant country in the semi-arid Sahel region, with over 120 spoken languages, the majority of them used by unreached people groups. There is much language work to get done, but the laborers are so few. We’re excited that God is raising up more Chadian colleagues, and Elaine has recently become SIL Chad’s Linguistics Coordinator in addition to serving as a consultant and in project management.
Elaine loves living in Africa, and one of her great joys has been her host family, with whom she lived for seven years. Through them she has a precious goddaughter, Little Elaine. Unfortunately, in 2025 Chad banned Americans from renewing their visas, and Elaine is currently working remotely, sometimes from the US, and sometimes from the neighboring country of Cameroon. Although this has been a very difficult change, it has opened up doors for her to work with other language groups in the Sahel.

Elaine gives thanks to God’s provision of so many prayer and financial partners, and she would love to share with you what God is doing here in Chad!