So what do retired missionaries do?

What do retired missionaries do? Some of them are still busy facilitating the translation of scripture.

Just behind where Miss Doozie is parked is the Cowan building where folks live who are "older", retired from active field work.

When I was leaving the bus one evening to attend a meeting on campus, I fell into step with a lady who had come from the building behind me, and struck up conversation with her. I asked her if she lived in the Cowan building, and she said that she did for part of the year.

But... she travels to Columbia, where she was on the field as a missionary, 4 times a year, for a month at a time, to help with a language translation of the Old Testament!

The translation is in a language that she does not know, but, she knows Spanish, and another indigenous language which the speakers of the language of this new translation also speak. While the "new" language speakers can understand Spanish, they do not speak it well, but they do know the indigenous language that she also knows.

She is helping to proof the new language translation. How can she do that if she doesn't speak the language? The native speakers read the translated copy, and then she asks them questions, in Spanish or in the indigenous language that she knows. They respond in Spanish or the indigenous language that she knows. She said that she spends a lot of time praying that God will guide her to ask the right questions so the text can be verified appropriately.

She also told me that they work through the Old Testament (I think the whole Old Testament, but maybe just the prophets) chronologically rather than the normal order of the books -- because in normal order, they would have to get through some really long books in the prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah) and could become discouraged at how long it is taking to complete the task. In chronological order, they can get a mixture of long and short books and keep progress going.