Katy Barnwell Tribute by

A woman of grace

hello2250 — 2025-09-30 09:18:40 UTC

Katy was an amazing woman

In awe

2025-09-30 09:28:39 UTC

I'm just in awe of Dr. Katy Barnwell, who was still serving the Bible translation movement well into her 80s and bringing her expertise and experience to help create a world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible.

There are few, if any, people who have blazed as big a trail and left as big a wake behind them as Katy has, working tirelessly to equip and support local Bible translators as they bring God's word to their communities. She was so fondly thought of by so many, who met her or simply benefitted from her work that will continue to make a difference.

A rich and lasting legacy

clairehollis29 — 2025-09-30 12:36:15 UTC

For many years I heard of Katy through SIL colleagues in Nairobi, who always spoke of her with deep respect and admiration. I first had the privilege of meeting her online while serving on the Katy Barnwell Scholarship committee, where she played a key role in enabling African translators to pursue academic studies. In recent years, it was a joy to meet her in person on several occasions at her home, from where she continued consulting with translation teams.

Her passion for making God’s Word available to those without it, and for equipping others within the Bible translation movement, remained central to her life well beyond the stage when most would have chosen retirement. An unassuming and gentle lady, yet remarkable in influence, she leaves behind a rich and lasting legacy in the lives of so many.

Her life blessed countless people

2025-09-30 13:41:40 UTC

Katy opened her home for me and others to gather for Wycliffe's Day of Prayer over the last couple of years. It was a privilege to meet someone who had committed her whole life to seeing God's Word translated around the world. She kept in contact with local translation teams even in her final years. I heard her faithful, Spirit-filled prayers and witnessed her deep passion for Bible translation. I was deeply touched by her life and how God used her gifts and skills for His kingdom.

Katy's work influenced thousands of Bible translation projects. Her textbook trained generations of translators, and countless people can now read Scripture in their own language because of what she set in motion. She's often called the mother of modern Bible translation, and rightly so.

But what struck me most was simply being in the presence of someone who never stopped loving what God had called her to do.

Worldwide impact

pmurrell3 — 2025-10-01 09:17:52 UTC

There are probably very few Mother Tongue Translators (MTTs) in Africa, possibly the world, who have not at some time been taught using Katy's manual for Bible translation: Bible Translation: an Introductory Course in Translation Principles. Available in at least 9 languages, the book is affectionally referred to by translators as the 'Bible' of Bible translation methodology and you'll find it in SIL libraries all over the world. I felt privileged to be able to get a sneak preview of the latest major revision, thanks to some Hebrew reading sessions we both attended a few years' back in Oxford.

Katy's legacy is most obviously seen in the lives she has impacted in Africa, particularly Nigeria, where she is fondly known as "Mummy Katy". She was loved for her passionate commitment to Bible translation and training, but also for her deep faith and commitment to other believers who were so precious to her. When I last saw her she was still working daily with the Mbembe translation team, helping to check their Old Testament translation via Zoom, despite limited mobility.

Katy will be much missed by those she leaves behind, but her legacy is huge and we praise God for all he has done through her.

What a blessing she was!

jbmmuckles — 2025-10-01 10:22:00 UTC

A passionate translator, a most gifted lady, yet humble and always ready to learn. I write with tears in my eyes and in my heart, as I will miss Katy terribly. I saw her for the last time the day before she was taken into hospital, and she was, even then, wanting to carry on her work on the Mbembe Bible - but could not, due to the limitations that old age had imposed on her. But her spirit was still yearning to carry on that work of translation, which she gave her whole life to. I view her with the utmost awe, but also with love. She allowed me and my family to stay in her home in Goring for 5 months, while we waited to move into our new home in Oxford in 2014.

She lived out in her life the message that she translated, and trained countless others to translate that same message. I

salute you, Katy, and honour you.

A life well lived

2025-10-01 11:17:35 UTC

I feel privileged to have met Katy at the Wycliffe prayer days in her home in recent years and to have been able to pick her brains about Bible translation when I first joined Wycliffe; she was a great encouragement and inspiration. Christianity Today wrote an article about her a few years ago, citing the impact her working with The Jesus Film Project had. More than 633 million people worldwide have chosen to follow Christ following a film showing. More than half of those—361 million—were counted after her methods of accelerating translation were adopted for the script. What a legacy! We thank God for her life and ministry.

A giant has left us with a lasting legacy

2025-10-01 15:43:35 UTC

We celebrate the life of a humble and dedicated servant who was passionate about God’s Word, languages, translation and the missio Dei. I met Dr. Kathy Barnwell only twice, yet I have benefitted greatly from her legacy—first through her work as a translator, and later through her 36 years of service as a translation consultant. At the 2019 Bible Translation Conference, where I had the privilege of serving as the Nida Institute Speaker, I was honored to pay public tribute to her and invited the entire conference to rise and give her a standing ovation. She was a gracious and kind person. May we continue to walk in her legacy, and may it grow and flourish even in these changing times, until we join Kathy and all those who have gone before us in seeing the Lord face to face.

2025-10-02 11:06:47 UTC

Katy is quoted elsewhere in these tributes as saying, 'We need to work together as a team, sharing talents and abilities, trying to help others develop their gifts and abilities.' As Bible translation was getting off the ground in eastern D.R. Congo in the 1980s & 1990s, the need arose for translation consultants, people with translation experience to guide the fledgling Congolese translators. At the time, the only person with experience (and rather limited at that) seemed to be me! Katy was consulted and she gave me every encouragement to 'go for it', just adding, 'Try and do an MA along the way, if you can.' Katy had a knack for seeing the best in people and fostering their development. As a result of her encouragement there is today an increasing number of Congolese consultants pushing the work forward. Katy started ripples. We praise God for her.

A friend

2025-10-06 10:21:11 UTC

Yes, Katy transformed the Bible translation scene, particularly in facilitating the training and involvement of Mother Tongue Translators in Africa and around the world. There are many who testify to that, and countless others who benefit from her vision as they read the scriptures in their own language, without ever having heard of her. She leaves a fantastic legacy.

But Judy and I remember her most as a quiet, unassuming friend. We met her in many different contexts, but she was always consistently the same person. She taught us grammar (and other things) when we trained at SIL Merstham in the late 1960's. She invited us to help in a mother-tongue workshop in Jos, Nigeria, in the 1970's, as her visionary ideas were beginning to take shape. In another century, at her invitation, we went again to Jos to assist with checking scriptures being translated as part of the Luke project. And still Katy was concerned about our accommodation and whether we had everything that we needed. Katy was a friend, always ready to listen and ask questions.

Yes, "One of the most influential missionaries who's ever lived", but essentially a humble woman who lived out her faith in Jesus Christ day by day.

2025-10-07 01:05:44 UTC

Amen to what others have already said. Katy's insight, vision, love and sensitivity changed my own life on two particular occasions. 1. She moved me out of my smaller world as one member of a language team to become an international consultant for literacy travelling the world. 2. She listened and wept with me over a deeply painful issue...and worked behind the scenes to bring healing, forgiveness, and healing. Thank You, Lord, for Katy -- who she was and all she meant to all of us who knew her.

chrisgtozer — 2025-10-10 16:36:40 UTC

My wife Mandy Tozer, I and our four children have had the privilege to have known Katy ever since my wife and I joined St Mark's Church in Gillingham, Kent in the late 1970s - especially when she was our home group missionary where we learnt much about her work in Nigeria - a country close to my heart ever since my godmother Margaret Carrick (nee Robus) was the headteacher of the Anglican Primary School in Sokoto in the Islamic northwest of the country. In more recent times I used to work with the lovely Lynne Martin, our recently retired Chaplain at our three universities based near Chatham Historic Dockyard. We ran Table Talk sessions to help even doctoral students improve their spoken English and half of these were Nigerians - mostly men. Those meetings were times of great joy and laughter. We were also amused that Wycliffe have its HQ near Dallas with its reputation for oil rich billionaires etc. We shall miss her visits to our church, like those of the also fairly late George Verver of Operation Mobilisation. RIP dear Katy.

2025-10-18 17:16:29 UTC

Katy was supported by Goring Free Church for decades and many of us had the privilege o coming to know her very well especially after she returned to the UK full time. As she continued with her Mbembe work - and Hebrew studies! - I started helping with occasional IT issues: (living almost across the road from her meant this was almost always in person) and at one stage helped with some of the technical aspects of the last edition of her book. This rewarding support work for Katy and colleagues eventually led me to work for the Wycliffe staff team for a period.

The visits,, conversations and prayer times usually went well beyond the immediate problem at hand, to reflect Katy’s mentoring attitude and keen interest in others’ lives, evident in other comments here. It was also a window into the ongoing Mbembe translation effort, in multiple related languages within an evolving linguistic and educational context, even down to the most effective cultural approach to translating Psalms poetically, in one recent conversation. As well, Katy retained her alertness to new ways of innovation, being truly excited over a new AI solution likely to benefit related languages especially.

Our church book group happened to choose her biography this summer, and met to discuss it just 2 weeks before she died. However well or how long we had known her, we all learned a lot about her innovations, impact on so many levels, and also episodes of considerable physical danger.. Several from the church visited her in hospital over the last days and on my own visit 2 days prior, she asked me to read out Psalm 108. Another church member was with her at the very end.

Tribute to Katy from John & Pam Hollman

2025-10-23 10:36:04 UTC

We first met Dr Katy Barnwell when she taught us at the SIL training course at Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, in 1972. She was teaching us what was called on the timetable 'Semantics'. At the time Katy was writing the early drafts of what would become the book that has shaped Bible Translation for decades. She would write a section during the night and teach it to us the following day!

Our memory of Katy then was of a gracious, humble lady committed to serving her Lord with no thought of her own interests. As we got to know Katy more over the years this picture was re-enforced time and time again.. She was always looking to help and encourage colleagues. Learners and to believe the best in those she was in contact with.

Grace and dedication

chrisdarby — 2025-10-23 18:12:18 UTC

Despite living only 15 miles away from Katy, I only met her for the first time on a Wycliffe prayer day that she hosted at her home two years ago, though I had heard about her long before.

When I arrived she was online and in the middle of checking a translation.... Even then, and with me knowing little of the technicalities, it was clear that she was very sharp and very gracious in the way she raised and dealt with queries. The room itself spoke volumes about her past and present with any number of photos, books and mementos of her, her friends, her family...and her Lord.

It was a privilege, alas only too short, to meet and pray with her then, as we did again last year. Calm, grace, focus and humility. Now at full peace and rejoicing with our Lord, but what an example. What a legacy!

A memorable meeting

2025-10-30 11:21:19 UTC

I met Katy one Saturday afternoon many years ago while working for SGM Lifewords in London. The setting was the rural home of one of her relatives, and she entered the room quietly, spoke gently and, after offering me a drink, focussed solely on the project we were discussing. Her authority was unmistakable, yet she wore her considerable learning and experience lightly. I have long forgotten the content of our meeting, but I have never forgotten the grace and beauty of the woman with whom I met. I drove home from our meeting with a renewed reminder of what makes someone truly great.