Mary Wastee interview, part 1: Wycliffe and language survey

• Do Bible translators work from the Greek, the Latin Vulgate, or an English translation?

The guest Mary Wastee (speaker-5), a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators, explains her role: she does language survey work paving the way for Bible translation, rather than translating directly. She shares her testimony of reading Isaiah 49:16 ('I have engraved you on the palms of my hands') and of the Pentecost idea that the Spirit speaks the language of people's hearts. She traces her path: Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell at age 15, an exchange year in Germany at 19 sparking a love of linguistics, then remembering Wycliffe. She tells how she signed up for a Guatemala short-term trip but was accidentally assigned to Papua New Guinea, took it as God's leading, and went. She explains that translating one New Testament takes 10–20 years of immersion plus peer review, and that translators work with local speakers; whether they work from Greek depends on the missionary, as long as the original meaning is rendered. She asks for two things: prayer support and monthly financial support via wycliffe.org/give, giving a missionary account number.