November Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

There are times when writing a prayer letter feels like packing a small suitcase for a long trip. There is so much that I want to put into it, but the space is just not enough! But I will do my best to at least “pack” the important items – the highlights of what has been going on in the past few months.

Translation Update: Sara Madjingay

In November, I met with the Sara Madjingay (pronounced sah-rah mah-jing-guy) team, and we checked the last couple of chapters of Job, plus the books of Zephaniah, Ecclesiastes, and Daniel, and the first two chapters of Hosea.

We only have a few more short books to check. So, in 2019, we hope to begin quality checking! This means that we will put the translation through a series of checks to ensure its good quality, including checking the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, key vocabulary, and much more. This is a crucial part of the translation process, as it is our last chance to find and correct any remaining errors in the translation before the Bible is published.

During this time, we will also prepare add-ons to include with the Bible. An add-on is anything between the covers of the Bible which is not part of the text itself, such as a table of contents, cross-references, book introductions, glossary, maps, and various other things designed to assist the reader. Very likely your own Bible includes at least a few such add-ons! Sometimes we may even take them for granted, even if we use them regularly. They are helpful, but each add-on takes time to prepare. The Sara translators have already begun working on preparing some of these useful add-ons.

Please pray for the Sara Madjingay team as they enter this important stage of the project.

Pray for new consultant Jim Wright

In October, one of Bibles International’s newer consultants, Jim Wright, visited Chad to observe a translation workshop led by my coworker, Joshua Hedges. Jim plans to make his home base in Michigan, where BI’s office is located, but he will visit Chad periodically in order to assist in the translation work. For now, Jim is working on completing his Master’s degree, raising the remainder of his financial support, and finishing BI’s consultant training program. Please pray for Jim and his family.

Dagba New Testaments Are at the Chadian border!

The Dagba New Testament project is one of our Chadian translation projects, though not one that I have worked with directly. The translation has been completed and printed, and the container with its precious cargo of Dagba New Testaments is now sitting in customs at the border of Chad. Our office manager, Mamra, has been working for several weeks to try to get the container to clear customs. Please pray that the container would soon be released, and that the dedication ceremony for the Dagba New Testament could take place as scheduled on January 26, 2019.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

August Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” (2 Thess. 3:1-2)

Translation Progress Update

In the past few months, translation checking workshops have been conducted for several different language groups: the Sara Madjingay, Ngam, and Sara Kaba Deme.

We continue to make progress with checking the Ngam translation. Besides checking the translation of the text itself, they have a lot of work to do to make their spelling more consistent. With no dictionaries available in the language, they have to write words as they hear them, and it is easy for spelling inconsistencies to creep in. I have been working with the team to show them how to use our Bible translation software to find spelling inconsistencies throughout their translation. Pray that they will be able to make effective use of the software tools to improve the quality of their text.

In my last few workshops with the Sara Kaba Deme, it has been exciting to see great progress being made. We now have less than two books left to check (part of Ecclesiastes and all of Job)! After that, we will begin quality checking, in preparation for final publishing of their Bible. This is a crucial time for the project and the team. Pray as they near the latter stages of the translation project, that they will finish strong.

This month, we have held the very first long-distance workshop for BI in Chad! We connected a US-based consultant, Glenn Kerr, with the Sara Madjingay translators here in Chad, using a program called VSee (similar to Skype). They were able to check the end of Ezekiel and all of Esther, without the consultant ever leaving the USA! BI has used this kind of workshop in other countries for years, but it is the first time for Chad, since until recently we did not have good enough internet here to do it. Pray as we seek how to make the best use of this new-to-us technology in the translation work.

Persecution

Initiates in a pagan ceremony in 2007

Many of you will remember that last year around this time, I was asking prayer for some of our young people who were being threatened to be forced into the pagan initiation rites of their ethnic groups. This is a sort of rite of passage for young men, but it is both idolatrous and satanic. No Christian should participate, yet they are often under strong pressure to do so.

This year a different ethnic group (the Sara Madjingay) has been carrying out initiation rites. Those who take a stand against it are are not only threatened to be forced to go to the rituals, they are often threatened with physical violence or even murder. The initiation rites only last about a month or so, but it is a frightening time for believers, and this year, the persecution has been more severe than usual. Please pray that believers will stand firm, and for their physical and spiritual protection.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell

June Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

Bible translation takes a long time – years and sometimes even decades! That is a long time to wait for access to the Scriptures! What can be done to help a language group to have at least some access to God’s Word while they are waiting for the entire Bible to be printed? Bibles International has a few different ways to help with this problem, but one of the main ways is through trial editions.

What Is a Trial Edition?

A trial edition is a publication of a Bible book or books, or book portions, which is published on a limited scale and distributed to key church leaders and laypeople. Although it takes extra time and money to prepare and publish a trial edition, it is worthwhile, since it enables people to read and use a portion of the translation while they are waiting for the complete publication. It also allows people to give feedback on the translation.

Preparing a Trial Edition

In regular checking workshops, we take a portion of the translated text, and go through it verse by verse, making corrections as we go along. We are able to correct many things this way, but quality checks still need to be run on the text as a whole before it is ready for publication.

The Sara Kaba Naa team previously produced a trial edition of Genesis, and now they are planning a trial edition containing the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. When I met with them in June, one of our tasks was to prepare the book of Exodus for this trial edition (we will prepare Deuteronomy in a later workshop). We carried out a variety of checks, such as:

• Verified the chapter and verse numbers;
• Reviewed some passages that are known to be particularly difficult to translate; 
• Added subtitles throughout the book; 
• Checked paragraph breaks; 
• Compared parallel passages (such as Exodus 25:10 and 37:1); 
• Checked consistency of the translation of key vocabulary; 
• Corrected spelling, capitalization, and punctuation; 
• And more!

Besides the biblical text itself, we plan to include book introductions, a glossary, and a map of the Exodus route, all of which also require additional work to prepare.

As you can see, getting a Bible text for printing is quite a complicated process! Certainly it is also tedious at times, but it is all necessary to ensure the quality of the translation.

Three other Chadian languages besides the Sara Kaba Naa are planning to produce trial editons within the next year or so. Please pray for all four of these teams as they prepare the trial editions, and pray that God will provide the needed finances to print them.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell