Who we are
We’re Johnny and Ellen Walker. We serve as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Tanzania (East Africa). For the past couple years, Johnny has been working towards his Master’s degree in Linguistics at Trinity Western University, in preparation for further work in Tanzania. After we were married in May 2012, I (Ellen) joined him here in B.C. I’ve been teaching some literacy courses at Trinity while Johnny has continued his studies. Both of us have lived and worked in Tanzania for about three years and are looking forward to heading back this summer.
Where we work
We work in Tanzania, a country of about 47 million people speaking 128 different languages. About fifteen of those languages are spoken in the Mara region, where Johnny and I live and work. Our work is based in a small town called Musoma, right on Lake Victoria and about an hour north of the Serengeti Game Park.
What we do
Johnny and I work with a team of missionaries and nationals to get the Word of God translated and used in nine languages of the Mara region. While others work hard on the actual translation, Johnny and I play parts in the bigger picture of the project. Johnny works in the linguistics department to ensure that these newly written languages have adequate and useful writing systems. In addition, this term Johnny will be working in the field of dictionary development, collecting words and definitions and collating them in helpful ways both for the translators and for the larger community. I, on the other hand, work in the field of literacy. My job involves the creation and publication of local language materials, so that people have lots of practice reading before the New Testament is published. I also help train teachers for literacy classes and will work with pre-schools that want to do mother-tongue education. In other words, we keep very busy!
Why we do it
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12
Imagine what your walk with the Lord would be like without the Bible in English. Your spiritual growth would be dependent on how well you understood another language or how well the message was explained to you by others. We believe that everyone should have access to the word of God in their own language, the language that best speaks to their hearts. By valuing people’s “heart languages”, we desire to show them that God values who they are and the culture that they were raised in, that the message the Lord is speaking is for them personally and can transform them right where they are. We look forward to the day when we, together with believers from Tanzania and every other corner of the globe, will join in with an international chorus from every tongue, tribe and nation and praise the living God before His throne!