proud to be a Discovery alum

The year was 2001, John had just followed Shevawn into the Discovery department after finishing his job as the Wycliffe housing manager…  “vacuuming the carpet, turning out the lights and locking the door” when the Wycliffe USA headquarters moved from Huntington Beach to Orlando Florida. 

I remember one of my first Discovery interviews, a young lady who lived in southern California came to our Discovery office then located in Santa Ana CA for an in-person interview. I was coordinating a small group of interns to serve in a sensitive location. 

What follows is part of a report I received when one of the interns completed her internship.  (She really had a great story to tell with good pictures… but since it was a sensitive location… we never published anything.  I’ve changed the names and locations in this account:    

"Where in the world is God leading me now, you asked... 
That certainly is a good question, one I would like to 
know the answer to as well!!  =) Well, the reason I 
wanted to go on the Discovery trip in the 
first place was to satisfy the curiosity of others and 
myself as to how I would fare in a foreign country and 
what I really thought about missionary life besides 
what I thought from talking to people or reading 
books.  I was especially curious about literacy work 
and so I got to see what the Bible translators were preparing 
for their work in the language as well as some things they 
had learned at SIL about literacy.

After returning home, I tried to settle into home life 
as I tried to figure out what my next steps might be. 
Earlier this year I sent in my Preliminary 
Questionnaire to Wycliffe and was advised to study at Oregon SIL this 
summer and take some classes to "make sure" that I 
didn't hate linguistics or linguistics doesn't hate 
me.  So suddenly I found myself in Oregon, studying 
harder than I've ever studied in my life.   It turns 
out that linguistics and I seem to get along quite well, 
and are eager to continue our relationship.  I even 
got to take the Principles of Literacy class where I 
felt like I could see my whole life (not that I'm 
holding on very tightly to that), but it just seemed 
that so many passions & giftings and burdens all seemed 
to intertwine in Literacy work.  Serving the Lord, my 
love of reading and writing, my passion for people, my 
desire to inspire and empower others, and partnership to 
the work of Bible Translation. 

I have now started the Wycliffe application process and am 
awaiting God's leading.  The paperwork is being 
processed, etc.  I know that I would love to join 
Wycliffe right now, but I understand that God's timing 
is best, so if He deems it not quite the right time, I 
think I'm ok with that too.”

I just received an update from this intern… 15 years later:

“I am proud to be a Discovery alum with fond and amazing memories of my time in (shhhh) traveling all over seeing work in or the fruit of three different translation projects. I cannot believe I have now been part of the organization for 15 years now!!”

You, partners are a part of this continuing impact of Discovery… on this interns life and also on her family, friends and her ministry partners… but also on her 15 years (and counting) ministry with Wycliffe on the field.... being part of the team who provides access to God's word in peoples heart language. This is God’s kingdom work in action.  It doesn’t get any better than this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your prayers, finances and encouragement that makes it all happen.