Elaine Townsend led the work of Bible translation throughout her life with her husband, Cameron, founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators, JAARS and SIL.
Born in Chicago, Ill. on November 6, 1915, Elaine Mielke was the youngest supervisor appointed by the Chicago school board to oversee 300 special education programs at the age of 26. But amid this success, Elaine began feeling God work in her heart when she learned about the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
“The price was right,” Elaine joked as she contemplated the $5 cost for room and board at the SIL training center. “All I could think of was that I’d have money left over to buy a new car.”
The beginning
Elaine began her work with SIL as a teacher for missionary kids and moved on to develop training materials for 17 minority languages in Mexico. She would then go on to similar work in Peru, where she and Cam were eventually awarded the “Palmas Magisteriales” by the Peruvian government, then the highest educational award given by the government.
“Uncle Cam” and Elaine met in 1944. After developing a friendship and a courtship, they were married two years later. Lazaro Cardenas, former President of Mexico, served as best man at the Townsend wedding, with his wife, Amaila, serving as matron of honor. Their first child, Gracie, soon followed.
“I realized I had not only married Cameron, but Wycliffe as well,” Elaine once said as she thought about her honeymoon. “I have no complaints on either account. In fact, the result has been nothing bu a life of rich, wonderful blessings.”
Cam and Elaine continued raising their four children, entertaining dignitaries and heads of state, and devoted themselves to Bible translation and the organizations that had formed around this mission, including SIL, JAARS and Wycliffe Bible Translators. The Townsends lived in Peru and Colombia from 1946 until 1968, when they made the first of eleven trips to the then Soviet Union. Cam and Elaine eventually published a photographic essay in 1975 after spending time and studying the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Pressing onward
Though Uncle Cam passed away in 1982, Aunt Elaine would live to see their mission organizations grow to more than 6,600 members from at least 60 countries working in more than 1,640 languages around the world.
“I’m passionate for Bible translation,” Elaine once said. “The love of God compels me to keep telling others.”
“It was the Word that got me,” she said. “I couldn’t live a day without it.”
George Cowan, a close friend of Uncle Cam and Elaine and President Emeritus of Wycliffe International, said after her passing that “With her going, an era has ended. One never missed her devotion to Christ or her total commitment to the Bible translation task.
“From the viewing stands of Glory, Cam and Elaine would both be saying ‘Finish the task!’”
Editor’s note: This biography was adapted from “Elaine Townsend: A woman of few regrets,” written by Wycliffe Bible Translators after Elaine’s passing.
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