CELINE BASTIEN GENEST

Céline Bastien Genest serves as an associate staff member. She is French Canadian with Huron ancestry. A lifelong resident of Quebec, Céline presently resides in the Montreal suburb of Beaconsfield with her husband, Hector, and their two sons aged 17 and 20. All the family is active in a French language church in their area.

Céline started working with the Mohawk Bible translation team and became an associate of My People International in 2000. Her first responsibilities involved typing the Mohawk texts into the specialized translation software and note-taking for the translation team meetings. In 2004, with the departure of My People staff member and team facilitator Tim Stime, Céline was asked to serve in his stead.

As facilitator, her duties include administration for the project and providing the link between the translation team and other partners, including the Canadian Bible Society and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Wycliffe). Céline’s husband, Hector, has also participated in the translation project as audio technician, recording and audio-editing translated books of the Bible, including II Corinthians, Ruth, Jonah, Daniel and Esther.

Céline also provides ESL (English Second Language) translation on the Native VBS Curriculum book series and other projects My People International has undertaken. Her work has made the curriculum more accessible to Native people for whom English is not their mother tongue. She also provides occasional French translation help as needed.

Céline and her husband learned the basics of the Mohawk language while taking three years of language courses offered in the Mohawk communities located near Montreal. She received translation training through a translation certificate programme at the Université de Montreal in 1982 and went on to obtain a B.A. with a Native Studies major from Laurentian University in 2004. Her Bible training comes from a three-year biblical studies diploma obtained from New Brunswick Bible Institute in 1979.