WEDEL, Kristy
South Pacific
Kristy was born and raised in Abbotsford, BC and joined Wycliffe Canada in 2019. She now lives
and works in Papua New Guinea (PNG) as a language surveyor. She is based in Ukarumpa in the
Highlands of PNG, but her work takes her all over the country to answer questions necessary
for translation projects to succeed in their goal of transforming lives. The most common
questions the survey team answers are related to language vitality and dialect boundaries.
These surveys support both existing language programs and future projects.
Kristy has a secondary role with the Global Signed Languages Team (GSLT). She supports an
existing language development project with Papua New Guinea Sign Language (PNGSL), which
is producing resources so Deaf people and their families in PNG have access to PNGSL. She is
also receiving training to serve as a sign language surveyor, to participate in the much-needed
work to understand the sign language situation in the Asia-Pacific region.