John’s Lifetime Partner Through It All
John speaking about his wife Sonia, noted, “As God has enabled us with different gifts, Sonia, has never been directly involved with translation. Although I am greatly indebted to her because without her capable involvement and support the translation could never have become a reality! Sonia’s ministry was directed towards literacy, hence the primer she created.”
He continues, “Sonia also developed a number of social development projects which really helped the people and helped develop lasting friendships. She was often needed to help with the first aid needs of the people, and she is very gifted at making connections with people.”
I come from a mixed religious family where my father was a Catholic but later my mother got saved. She would take us to a Baptist church where I later got saved. As a young Christian I wanted to be a missionary but my Pastor said that I was young and should wait. When I talked with him again after one year, he said that the church only supported missionaries with the Baptist Missionary Society, but he could see that my desire to be a missionary was from God and he gave me his blessing to begin training with New Tribes Mission (NTM) in Brazil.
I began studying at the NTM Bible Institute, Peniel, in Brazil, in 1975 and later went on to do the missiological and linguistic training courses with NTM. I believed that God wanted me to go to India to work together with a missionary friend. At that time there were several other missionaries that I studied with who were also trying to go to India.
First, I spent two years with another single missionary girl among the Sateré-Mawé people in the Amazon region of Brazil in order to get some transcultural experience. We taught literacy to around 70-80 people. There were both good and difficult times there in the village.
Then, I travelled to the NTM Bible Institute in the United Kingdom in order to learn English and apply for a visa to go to India. But after ten months of communications with an Indian missionary agency, consulate, etc., I found that I was unable to get a visa. The Director of the Indian missionary agency told me that they would love to have me but due to the fact that they only worked with natives I needed to make sure that it was God’s will for my life because, as a foreigner, my presence there could put the missionary agency at risk of being closed by the government. So, I resolved not to put the agency at risk!
During my time in the United Kingdom, I got to know John Wilkinson and we became friends. He felt led by the Lord to go to Brazil as a missionary. He wanted me to help him learn Portuguese and he helped me with my English. It wasn’t until I discovered that I could no longer go to India that John talked with me about dating. We started dating and I then returned to Brazil, and he went to the USA to continue the NTM missionary training.
Later in 1987, we got married, finished the training with NTM in Brazil and moved to Manaus, Brazil to begin working as missionaries. God led us both to return to the Sateré people where I had worked as a single missionary. We learned the language and culture, faced numerous difficulties, but God brought us through those times and helped us to make friendships with the people, taught the Bible to some of the Sateré people, created social development projects, taught literacy, helped with first-aid needs, and finally John got involved in translating the Bible for the Sateré-Mawé people .