Robert & Joyce Carlson

Wycliffe – Abidjan, West Africa

Bob and Joyce Carlson are based in Nairobi, Kenya, where Bob is on the faculty of the Translation Studies Department at NEGST (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology). Currently, Bob has taken on the position of Dean of Doctoral Studies, in addition to his work as Director of the PhD program in Biblical Studies and Translation.
During the month of September, 2010, eleven new doctoral students arrived to become part of a new PhD “cohort”. For two years, they will all be working together, focusing on how ethnicity influences their own cultures, and how the Scriptures throw light on their cultures. Subsequently, the students will be more individually focused on their own dissertations, but the idea of a cohort is that they will “dialogue” with each other and the faculty throughout the whole time of their studies. The students have come from six different countries: Kenya, Sudan, Eritrea, Rwanda, Congo and Mali.
In addition to their work in Nairobi, Bob and Joyce have been part of a language development and translation program for the Supyire people in Mali, West Africa. The New Testament in Supyire was published and dedicated in 2008, and there is currently an ongoing literacy and Scripture Use program. Bob is the linguist on the Supyire team, and is working on a second edition of the Supyire/French dictionary which, we hope and pray, will be ready for publication in the near future. Joyce has focused on cultural studies and in the coming year will help teach anthropology for new teams who will eventually begin other language and translation projects around Africa.