Let us introduce ourselves

We are Wayne & Val, currently living in Calgary, Alberta, helping out with the huge task of translating the Word of God into the languages of the world that don’t have it yet. I (Wayne) help in custom website programming for Wycliffe. My wife, Val, helps out part-time and is also a full-time mother of our four children, David, Kara, Jesse and Emma.

How did we get started?

Our ministry in Bible translation began in 1994 when the Lord called us to leave our jobs and pursue full-time service with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We spent two years getting the needed training and building awareness with our home church and friends. We also were trusting the Lord to supply our prayer and financial support. In 1997 we left for our first assignment to Nairobi, Kenya to help with publishing New Testaments for minority languages of Africa. We enjoyed 11 years of service there. In 2008 we relocated to Canada to serve at Wycliffe’s home office in Calgary.

Join the Team

All Wycliffe missionaries are non-salaried positions which means we rely totally on the Lord to provide for our all our financial needs. He does this through his people, the body of Christ. If you would like to join our partnership team you can:

• Visit our newsletters page and read the latest Unga-Bunga Illustrated.
• Contact us to get on our newsletter or prayer update mailing list.
• Visit our donation page for help making a financial donation.

What’s with the “UNGA-BUNGA” stuff?

Before going to Kenya we were taking training in Canada and the US. We knew that we would be working overseas someday but at that time we weren’t sure where. We had to come up with a catchy name for our newsletter so, rather than call it the Dirks Digest or Dirks Doodles or something like that, we titled it Unga-Bunga Illustrated. Unga-Bunga was the ficticious name we gave to the place we would eventually be working overseas. Since then the name has stuck with us.

“Karibu Sana Kwa Unga-Bunga” is Swahili for “Welcome to Unga-Bunga”.