Dr. Larry and Dianne Burke

Larry grew up at West Side. He and his wife Dianne have been with Wycliffe Bible Translators for over 35 years. They spent the first 25 years in Chad, working mainly among the Dangleat people, learning the language, translating the New Testament, and helping to plant a number of churches in this Muslim country.

Larry earned his Doctor of Intercultural Studies degree from Fuller Seminary in 2012.   Larry is now the Africa Director of Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), a partner with Wycliffe that focuses on oral and non-written languages. He oversees a staff of 15 based throughout Africa and serves as a liaison between the US office of FCBH and the African staff. He makes frequent trips to Africa from their home in Portland.   

Faith Comes By Hearing makes professional recordings of most of the translations of the Bible around the world and distributes the recordings on solar powered audio players (Proclaimers), web sites, smartphone apps and other means.   

Dianne is assigned to the SIL Chad Branch as a prayer facilitator/member care specialist.   

Larry coordinates the organizing committee for two large online meetings: an Africa Oral Bible Translation conference in October with over 500 registered from 59 different countries and an Africa Digital Summit held every January.   

He also helps organize a Sahel Initiative Conference every two years with about 200-250 missionaries and church leaders in person from across Africa. (The Sahel is the semi-arid region across Africa between the Sahara Desert to the north and the humid savannas to the south.) The last conference was in February in Senegal and the next in Guinee Conakry in 2027. (Ron and Sharon Rice were able to attend a previous one in Nigeria.)