MARILYN LASZLO


Midway or O'Hare



MARILYN LASZLO


Indiana Farm girl turned Missionary to Paupa New Guinea

MARILYN LASZLO - FARM GIRL / BIBLE TRANSLATOR


“I remember trying to get the word for tree. I was pointing to a tree and trying to get them to say the word for ‘tree’. Finally they said, “Ana”. So I wrote ‘ana’ (tree). My first word in the dictionary! Later, as I went around the village practicing the words I had collected, I pointed to a tree and said, “Ana.” They shook their heads and laughed. Something was wrong. Later I discovered that ‘ana’ was the word for finger.

Marilyn grew up on a small farm near Valparaiso, Indiana. As a young girl, while plowing the fields of her parents’ farm, she made a commitment to be a missionary--a commitment the Lord never forgot and which she began to fulfill when she joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1965.

Marilyn left the U.S. for Papua New Guinea , and traveled up the Sepik River in a dugout canoe with her translation partner. Their destination was Hauna village, home of the Sepik Iwam people, a small tribal group numbering about 2,500, with a history of head-hunting, sorcery, and deep hostility toward outsiders.

“Looking back on our arrival at Hauna village, I can see now how amusing it really was,” Ms. Laszlo recalls. “About 400 came out to see what we were doing. They had never seen white women before. And they were arguing among themselves whether we were men or women. Well, they finally came to the conclusion that we were neither. We were ’its’,” states Ms. Laszlo.

Marilyn learned the basic greetings with no written language, discovering verbs and nouns using hand signals and pointing. Besides learning the language and translating the Scriptures, Marilyn also was involved in teaching the people to read and write. Marilyn spent 24 years living with the Sepik Iwam people, creating an alphabet for their previously unwritten language, translating the New Testament and related portions of the Old Testament, and teaching them everything from literacy to basic sanitation and health care.

Her sister Shirley (who came over later) and their six language helpers worked together on the Sepik Iwam translation of the New Testament. The translation was completed in 1989, 23 years later.

Changed lives and new values, a school, clinic, store, and trained leadership are testimonies to Marilyn’s life of service and commitment to God made years earlier.

Work History:

· At present: Marilyn is a national speaker for Laszlo Mission League in missions conferences, college chapels, youth conferences, churches, women’s retreats and camps, challenging and encouraging God’s people, sharing her personal testimony and how the translated Word of God is impacting people around the world.

· National speaker for Wycliffe U.S.A. in missions conferences, college chapels, youth conferences, churches, women’s retreats and camps, challenging and encouraging God’s people, sharing the Wycliffe story and how the translated Word of God is impacting people around the world.

· Former Wycliffe assignment: Bible translator to the Sepik Iwam people of HaunaVillage, Papua New Guinea, from 1967 - 1991. (NOTE: Papua New Guinea is comprised of 600 islands in the South Pacific with a population of over 3 million people speaking 862 different languages. The Sepik Iwam people live in remote Hauna village and number about 2,500.)

· Previous work experience: Taught History and Physical Education from 1959 - 1965 before joining Wycliffe Bible Translators.

· Education: Bryan College, Tennessee - B.A., Indiana University - M.S., University of Oklahoma - Linguistics (SIL)*

*Summer Institute of Linguistics (Wycliffe’s sister organization)

· She received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Letters (D.Lit. or D. Litt.) from Bryan College on May 10, 2003.

· Family data: Born in Valparaiso, Indiana. Oldest of four girls, to a farming family of Hungarian parentage.


Accomplishments: Since traveling up the Sepik River with her partner, Judy Rehburg, in a dugout canoe one hot day in 1968, Marilyn spent 24 committed years of her life translating the New Testament. In 1989, that task was completed. Having lived with the Sepik Iwam people in Hauna village for over 24 years, Marilyn took an unwritten language, created an alphabet, created reading books, taught the people to read and write, did medical work, and completed the New Testament and related portions of the Old Testament. A church, school, store, and clinic were established and indigenous people trained to operate them. A Gospel boat, staffed by the Sepik Iwam Christians, shares the Gospel and offered medical work along the river. Evangelist teams now take the Gospel up and down the river to many other villages in dug out canoes.