Lambert and Doris Anderson recently celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary, a milestone reached by only some 1,000 married couples in the United States today.
Lambert Anderson grew up in Wisconsin on his father Emil Anderson’s dairy farm on County Road K and graduated from Oconto Falls High School in 1945. He went on to study at St. Paul Bible College, where he met Doris Geist.
It was there that the two were introduced to Wycliffe Bible Translators, a mission organization dedicated to translating the Scriptures into the languages of tribal peoples who had never had the Bible in written form.
The Andersons were married and joined Wycliffe in 1951, then traveled to Peru, South America, the following year. Their assignment was to learn the language of the Ticuna people, and then translate the Bible into their language. The Ticunas are a tribal group living in the rainforest along the Amazon River in the remote border region where Peru, Colombia and Brazil meet.
It was not an easy beginning. In 1953, when Lambert Anderson set out to visit the Ticuna village of Cushillococha, he first stopped by the office of the police chief in the district capital of Caballococha. There he was warned that it was too dangerous to visit the Ticuna community, as it had a reputation for alcohol-fueled violence.
The police chief made clear he would not be held responsible for what might happen if Lambert Anderson went there. He went anyway.
In the years that followed, with the Ticunas having had no written language, the Andersons developed a standardized Ticuna alphabet that accurately represented this complex five-tone language, so that the Ticunas could be taught to read and write in their own language, as well as in Spanish.
With limited literate Ticuna speakers to work with, local teachers were trained from scratch so those teachers could in turn educate their own people.
Today, schools in Cushillococha provide K-12 instruction in Ticuna and Spanish to a current enrollment of more than 1,000 students. Also, the Ticuna Bible Institute provides a higher level of four-year Biblical and vocational training.
The Cushillococha settlement the Andersons first entered in 1953, a population of 125 people at the time, has now grown to a thriving municipality of some 6,000, with three churches in the three areas of the community.
Beyond translation and literacy, the Andersons have been involved in a wide range of practical development efforts including securing a government land grant to establish Ticuna land rights surrounding the community, town planning, road construction, village electricity, clean water wells and water distribution lines, a sawmill, farming assistance, poultry and cattle projects, a medical clinic, vocational training, solar power and church construction, among others.
The New Testament in Ticuna was published in 1986. In 2023, more than 70 years after the Andersons first arrived, the complete published Old and New Testament Ticuna Bible was dedicated in Cushillococha, Peru.
The Ticuna ministry work continues to expand today. Their son, Carl (Cam) Anderson, and grandson, Jacob Anderson, are working through the Amazon Mission Foundation (https://www.amazonmission.org), operating from the original mission station in Cushillococha, Peru. Other volunteers have joined the effort.
Current ministry priorities include distributing the Ticuna Bible and planting churches in Ticuna villages along the Amazon River in Peru, Colombia and Brazil. There are an estimated 100,000 Ticuna people today, living in roughly 250 communities in the Amazon rainforest region.
Lambert and Doris Anderson now live near their family in Tucson, Arizona. He is 98 and his wife is close behind, yet they continue on with Ticuna translation work.
Lambert Anderson is working online with a Ticuna team in Brazil to adapt the Ticuna Bible for Brazilian Ticunas. This is needed as the national language of Portuguese in Brazil has influenced the Ticuna spelling and punctuation of many Biblical names and terms. This Brazil Ticuna Bible project is estimated to be completed and published in 2027.
Doris Anderson is producing a Ticuna song book with more than 100 songs, which are commonly sung in Cushillococha and surrounding communities but not yet formally written and published in proper musical format.
A book about the Andersons’ early years in the Amazon, “God's City in the Jungle,” was published in 1975. It was a catalyst to inspire many others to get involved with the Bible translation mission movement around the world. With more than 7,000 known languages being spoken today, there are still many unreached languages to be served, and there are many ways for volunteers to be involved.
A feature-length documentary film about the Andersons’ life and legacy among the Ticuna people is currently in production, scheduled for release in 2027.
FYI
Here is a sample of the written Ticuna language, from John 3:16 of the Ticuna Bible.
“Rü Tupana rü poraãcü nütü nangechaü i ñoma i naãnecüãx i duüxügü. Rü yemacax inanamu ga Nane ga nügümaxã wüxicacü nax guxãma ya texé ya nüxü yaxõgüxẽ ru tama itarütauxexücax rü tüxü nangexmaxücax i maxü i taguma gúxü.”
It translates to “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
