David and Linda met while students at Taylor University in Indiana. Each had felt the Lord's call to missions, so after completing their education, they worked a few years to pay off their loans to be able to enter ministry debt-free. During this time, they married and started a family. Led by the Lord to help bring His Word to the minority peoples of the world in their own languages, David and Linda attended the training courses at the Wycliffe Bible Translators' linguistic center in Dallas and were accepted as members of Wycliffe in 1974. They accepted an assignment to serve in Colombia, South America and arrived on the field with their young children in 1976.

David and Linda were asked to join an existing Wycliffe team to help carry on the language program for the Wayuu people group (some 350,000 persons at present) of the Guajira Peninsula of northeastern Colombia and neighboring Venezuela. Operating from the mission's center in the central plains of Colombia, the Captains spent extended periods living in a Wayuu community over the first several years, learning their language and becoming acquainted with their culture and worldview. They then joined their co-workers in the New Testament translation project. Each team worked with native Wayuu speakers to draft separate parts of the translation, later reviewing one another's work as part of the checking and revision process. After the translation had received consultant approval, the team spent a few more years conducting a final check and revision of the entire New Testament, book by book. This check, focusing on naturalness and clarity, was done with the help of many, successive Wayuu Christian checking committees, some 70 individuals in all, thereby enhancing the ownership of the translation by the Wayuu church. The New Testament was published in 2002 and, after printing and shipping to the language community, was dedicated in January 2004 in a lovely celebration organized by the Wayuu church, in which David, Linda, and their coworker were blessed to participate.

Due to the continuing civil strife in Colombia, and at the request of their mission administration, David and Linda had relocated to Illinois in 1999, operating out of an office in their home in the Peoria area. But they continued to make periodic trips to the field as needed to finish the remaining Wayuu program objectives. Since the completion of the New Testament, David has assisted other Christian organizations in producing a Wayuu version of the Jesus film as well as a dramatized audio recording of the entire Wayuu New Testament. He also assisted their co-worker in completing the translation of Genesis, which was published in 2005. That same year, David and Linda completed work on their Wayuu-Spanish dictionary and had it published. They were blessed to be able to visit the Wayuu community one more time for the "launching" of the dictionary in 2006. They trust it will be a helpful resource for the Wayuu bilingual schools, as well as for Spanish speakers interested in cross-cultural ministry.

Having completed all the major goals for the Wayuu program, the Captains accepted a reassignment in 2006 to the Americas Area (North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean), where David is serving as a language publications consultant to help other Wycliffe teams progress in their language programs.

At the Wayuu New Testament dedication, a special point was made to emphasize that God had used a team to bring that work to fruition - not just the translators, but also their Wycliffe support workers, the Wayuu community and translation helpers, and all their supporting families, friends and churches back home. The Captains express their thanks to all who are partnering to bring God's Word to the minority people groups of our world.

Prayer Needs:

• The Wayuu bilingual dictionary that we published in 2005 is sold out. _Pray_ that God would provide just the right amount of funds in His timing for the reprint. We would like to submit the print order in the next couple of months so that the new copies will be available when the bilingual schools resume in February.
• For David’s training as a dictionary consultant. For the month of September, he joins one of our experienced linguistic consultants to help lead a dictionary workshop for four indigenous language groups in Peru. _Pray_ for safety in travel and good interaction with his consultant trainer and the workshop participants.
• For Linda as she manages things alone at home for a month.