ANONBY, Stan and Sandy

Stan is originally from British Columbia and Sandy grew up in Ottawa, Ont. They have two daughters who are married and live in the Vancouver area.

Stan and Sandy met in Saskatchewan and were married in 1986. Before beginning their overseas work, they lived in the First Nations community of Alert Bay on northern Vancouver Island. While pastoring a church there, Stan learned to speak the local Kwak’wala language and Sandy worked as a nurse.

After studying linguistics in North Dakota, they joined Wycliffe in 1997, and were assigned to Brazil. Stan and Sandy began to work assessing the languages, and they travelled to many villages in the Amazon researching the indigenous groups living there. As well as language assessment, Sandy worked as the director’s assistant for personnel. After four years, Stan finished his assessment of the languages of the country and was asked to become the language survey co-ordinator for the Americas. Still based in Brazil, this new job led him on assessment and training trips throughout Latin America. He also helped update the Ethnologue, a book with all the languages of the world. Sandy continued to work in the area of nursing and teaching missionary children.

In 2013, the Anonbys moved to the island of Borneo, in Malaysia. There Stan continued to assess the need for new translations in Southern Asia. He also worked on a doctorate in linguistics, focusing on the languages of Southeast Asia in general, and specifically on a community called Sebuyau. He travelled extensively teaching on the Sustainable Use Model, a guide that helps plan translations together with community leaders.

Today the Anonbys are involved in assessing the languages of Indonesia. They are also looking at the impact of past Bible translations on the Church in various areas of the world. This information will help ensure that in the future, Wycliffe will continue to translate Bibles that will be used to further the kingdom of God. Stan also volunteers at a Wycliffe training centre called the Canada Institute of Linguistics, mentoring the next generation of translators.