Lauren grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada admiring the missionary prayer cards that still adorn the kitchen in her family home. However, it was not until she was 19, and studying at a small Bible school in Costa Rica, that she felt the Lord calling her personally into long-term service as a Bible translator. Since she received that call five years ago, she has gone on to earn a BA with Distinction in Linguistics and Language from the University of Calgary and is thrilled to be in Tanzania where her linguistics training is vital to the Bible translation process. Lauren is very thankful to be able to use the gifts and training that God has given her to serve Him and impact the unreached people groups in Tanzania for Christ!
Christopher Merke
Christopher grew up in rural Manitoba, Canada with the dream of one day becoming a hunting and fishing guide. However, the Lord had other plans and when he was a teenager God transformed him from a fisherman to a fisher of men. He first heard about Wycliffe Bible Translators while studying at a small Bible college in rural Saskatchewan, Canada and went on to complete a Certificate in Language Survey from the Canada Institute of Linguistics. Christopher is overjoyed that he is able to serve God with Wycliffe Bible Translators in East Africa as a certified language surveyor and vernacular media technician.
How we met
Christopher, a small-town boy from Manitoba, and Lauren, a city girl living over 1500 km away at the time, met in the most unlikely of places in the most unlikely of ways. Back in 2012, as they were first beginning to feel the Lord calling them into Bible translation, they both embarked on a short-term ministry opportunity with Wycliffe in Kenya, Africa. It was there, in East Africa, that Christopher and Lauren met and began chatting as a result of their mutual passion for reaching the unreached people groups of the world with the saving message of Jesus Christ. A short time after they started dating (3 1/2 months to be exact) they were engaged and five months after getting engaged they were married.
Christopher and Lauren are thankful that God brought them together and pray that the Lord will use their marriage to bring glory to Him!