Introducing One of Whaley Street United Methodist Church's      missionaries: Lorna Priest      Who am I?      I grew up in Bolivia, South America amongst the Siriono Indians, where      my parents were missionaries. When I was 17 I came to the US for my      final year of High School and then I attended Columbia International      University in Columbia, SC. During my Junior year I started feeling      like God was calling me to serve Him overseas. After college I got      into computers through the jobs that I had in Columbia, and I began to      see how God could use my computer skills on the mission field. My      first two years overseas were in England and then I moved to Kenya in      1989 where I've been ever since.      What do I do?      I have been with Wycliffe Bible Translators for about 12 years. I've      done a variety of jobs over the years but primarily have done computer      typesetting of God's Word into quite a few of the minority languages      here in Africa. Although other people do the actual translation I can      help with consistency checking on the computer. I can check for      spelling errors, punctuation errors, making sure all the verses are      there, that nothing has been skipped. It's also been fun and a      challenge to work with other alphabets than the one we are used to and      being able to produce those from the computer.      More recently, I've been helping Bible translators with a wide variety      of computer problems. There is a never ending stream of problems we      run into here in Africa that we might never dream of at home. Have you      ever discovered a dead lizard in your printer? Let me tell you that      can stop your printer from working! I also get to develop fonts with      special characters because many of the languages we work in have      sounds which our English alphabet can't represent.      Why do I do this?      There are literally thousands of languages in the world that don't      even have an alphabet, much less something written in that language.      Most of the people in those language groups can't understand another      language well enough to carry out an in-depth conversation, much less      be able to understand the Bible in that language. Because God's Word      has been so essential to my own growth in relationship to Him I want      to help make God's Word available to others in order to bring      life-changing results to their lives. Even if the missionaries have to      leave someday, something eternal is being left behind that people will      continue to be able to read and study on their own and continue to      grow in their walk with God.      I'm excited that God can use me, with whatever skills I have, to serve      Him in furthering His Kingdom on earth. Update on Lorna Priest: Lorna Priest returned to the United States in Fall, 1998.  She will spend the next few years in Dallas, Texas using her computer skills to serve the goal of Wycliffe, making the Bible available in all languages.   ****      Wycliffe works in 1,053 languages worldwide and has helped to complete      New Testaments in over 450 languages for 35 million people.  Its      mission is to integrate Scripture translation, scholarship and service      so that all people can have access to God's Word in their own      language.      Wycliffe's web site is http://www.wycliffe.org      Phone 1-800-992-5433