In the Wycliffe world, It seems there’s always an expert when you need one. It takes quite a while to reach consultancy, and those that do are often great resources in their field.

Keith Beavon: Translator

Ok, so I’m not sure if Keith is officialy a consultant, but I sure consider him one. He’s the first one I’d think of if I had a question in several fields.

Keith is a translator here that I really admire. He has worked in translation on several New Testaments, Njyem, Koonzimé, Badwe’e, and Swo, and is now working on back-translating and analysing Genesis in Badwee. He has created mounds of data on these languages, probably much of it that the people themselves didn’t even know. It’s always fun when he comes to our office, because he pushes the analysis tools as far as they will go. We can be assured that his question will challenge the way we think about language. He loves to discuss the complexities of the languages, interesting expressions, or whatever else is on his mind. If I’m not mistaken, he and his wife Mary have been here over 30 years, and are counting down the last few years here before retiring. Questions arise as to who will rise up to shepherd the people he’s worked with over so many years, and how he can best transmit his expertise to the incoming generation.
You can meet him here at Keith’s Blog.

Patricia Wilkendorf: Translation Consultant

It’s a joy to visit Patricia’s office. She knows her stuff and works hard with many languages to verify that the Word comes through clearly to each people group. She’s a native Texan, as you can easily guess from the Alamo calendar on her wall. While she’s traditionally been a pen and paper worker, she’s become a pioneer in language software. She is the first Cameroon consultant to collaborate with a team from outside of the country using Paratext’s send/recieve feature. Satellite uplinks were instaled in 2 of her team’s villages, like the ones described here. This enables the teams and consultant to always have the latest version of the translation, no matter the distance. We have something else in common, she and Ginger just got back from a trip to Israel, so we have lots to talk about in the coming weeks.