"The Bible Is Much Important"

About three years ago, when I was starting part-time deputation, I had a meeting at a little church plant way out in north-western Iowa. I was just a new appointee who had no idea what I was doing, and when I was asked to speak to the kids, I was even more clueless about how to go about explaining Bible translation to children. But the church was very gracious, and the kids were interested and asked lots of questions.

Since then, I've been to dozens (or maybe hundreds) of churches, I've learned a lot about deputation, myself, and the Lord; the little Iowa church has graduated to self-support, and I'm sure the kids have grown up a lot! Yet, for all the kids' classes I've spoken to since then, I don't know if I've seen any other kids that interested or that had so many genuinely curious questions. And for several years, the kids have faithfully written me personal notes and prayed for me regularly. What a valuable bunch of young supporters!

Well, this morning I got another letter from this faithful little class of kids. And as usual, they made my day! Their teacher tells me they've been studying Genesis, so the kids were asked to write about what they've been studying or about what they've learned as a result of my ministry. Among the notes and pictures are two that particularly warmed my heart.

One of the older girls was able to write me a personal note. Here it is, just as she wrote it:

Hello, how are you? Well Schools doing good ... did you have a good Easter. Well I did I had it with my family. Right now I'm reading in Genisus or how ever you spell it. Well anyways I'm in Chp. 30 right now Jacob has 4 kids but sooner or later hes gonna have 13.

Love Jenna R___

I'd say she's been listening to the Bible teaching! Isn't it heartwarming to read a kid's perspective on a Bible story?

Whitney drew me a picture, and her teacher wrote on the back for her:

"Whitney is learning that 'the Bible is much important in my life.' Thanks for helping to share that with them."

Although God doesn't call everyone to go overseas to help translate the Bible, everyone certainly should read His Word and be thankful that we have it in our mother tongue - a gracious provision from God that many of us English-speakers take for granted. This is a lesson I often try to share with children (and adults) when I tell them about my ministry. I'd say that Whitney has gotten the message, wouldn't you? Is the Bible "much important" in your life?

Tenek Translation Workshop

As I have mentioned before, the translators of the Tenek New Testament (a language of Mexico) often come to the USA for their translation workshops. It would obviously be far cheaper for me to travel somewhere within the USA than to go to translation workshops in Africa or Asia, and since the Tenek workshops are usually quite short, I wouldn't even need to take much time away from deputation. But for one reason or another, it has never quite worked out for me to join the Tenek workshops.

Yet all the same, when I found out that more Tenek workshop was being scheduled in Maine this year, I was willing to try again to go. At first, the workshop was going to be scheduled in May and it looked like it would work out. But then, it was rescheduled for June, at a time when it would be impossible for me to make a trip to Maine. So I thought I'd have to wait for the next opportunity. But then I found out that the workshop was once again rescheduled -- it will be in May after all, at a nearly perfect time for me to go! So Lord willing, I'll fly to Maine on May 5, participate in the Tenek workshop May 10-14, and fly back to my home base on May 15.

An important lesson I've had to learn when it comes to translation workshop scheduling anywhere in the world is that a key word is flexibility, because with Bible translation, many different things need to be juggled every time a workshop is scheduled, including the schedules of several missionaries, national coworkers, and seasonal changes (such as heavy rain and/or intense heat, which during certain times of the year may make it difficult or impossible to have a profitable workshop). All this and more must be sorted out and coordinated, so it is not surprising that dates get shifted around sometimes! Not to mention that in order for me to go to a workshop, I have to somehow work it in around a busy deputation schedule! All this can be quite a challenge, but I'm learning to be patient and (as much as possible) flexible!

Translating "The Fear of the Lord"

Just to give you a little taste for what happens in a Bible translation workshop, I'll just describe our discussion of one translation issue during my recent trip to southeast Asia. My mentor and the senior translation consultant, Cathy Hodsdon, was heading up the workshops. As a consultant in training, I was there mainly to learn how to do translation consulting work and help where I could. At first I mostly observed and helped to research translation problems; later on in the workshops, I was able to do more actual consulting.

On our first day of translation workshops for this particular Asian language, we launched into checking the translation of Proverbs. Since the last time Cathy Hodsdon had workshops with this language group, the mother-tongue translators had been working on a rough draft of Proverbs in their language. They use resources in the country's official languages and related local languages to translate the draft. During the workshops, we checked their draft against the Hebrew and made necessary changes. Thanks to the modern technology of computers and projectors, we could even project the translation on the wall so that everyone could see the changes as they were being made. This is so helpful in workshops that everyone wonders how we ever managed without it!

As we checked each verse, the translators carefully translated the draft back into English, so that we consultants could understand the content of the translation and know what questions to ask them. This is called the back translation.

Soon we got to Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge..." Their back translation of the verse began, "The respect of the LORD..." This brought up a question in our minds. "Respect" in English is sort of a weaker word than "fear", and although respect is certainly involved in the concept of "the fear of the Lord", there is a sense of real fear as well, because even though we love and trust the Lord, we also know that He is holy and judges sin. A wise person fears this judgment. In any case, the Hebrew word is the common word for "fear" and it is not our job as translators to "tone down" the difficult phrases of the Bible.

Cathy has often told me that one of the main keys to translation consulting is knowing how to ask the right questions. This takes practice! For example, we could have said, "This is wrong. Change it!" or something to that effect. But that would cause more problems than it would solve, and would assume that we consultants know the translators' language as well as they do. Actually, Cathy does know quite a lot of their language, but as mother-tongue speakers, they are the experts! So instead, Cathy said, "Tell me about this word. You've told me in your back translation that it means 'respect', but what does it mean in your language?"

The translators explained that they have at least two words for "fear" in their language. One word means a negative kind of fear, like a terror for something you dislike or mistrust (like spiders, for example!). But the word they used in the translation is a more positive kind of fear, as you might have for a highly respected authority figure, like your boss or a policeman. They had used this word because they didn't want to give the impression that people should have a distrustful terror of God, but rather a respectful fear.

When they had explained the word and the reason they had used it, Cathy and I explained why we had asked the question and described the meaning of the Hebrew expression "the fear of the Lord". We all agreed that the word they had used was a good equivalent of the Hebrew, so we did not change it after all! The difficulty was only in the fact that their word was difficult to translate back into English, but our discussion was able to easily clear the confusion in just a few minutes, and we were soon able to move on to the rest of the verse.

Of course, there are cases where the word in the rough draft does need to be changed in order to be more faithful to the Hebrew text. In some cases, the translators have to spend some time discussing among themselves before they could find a clear and accurate translation. In really difficult cases, we might even have to move on and come back to it some other time, after we'd had a chance to think about it more.

As you can see, much teamwork, skill, and hard work is involved in Bible translation. Please pray for all us consultants and all the translators as we work together to give people the Word of God in their own language!

Update on Next Missions Trip Plans

I just found out that the Tenek translation workshop has had to be rescheduled to June instead of May, so I won't be able to go to that one. However, I do hope I will be able to join the next workshop for the Tenek translation, which will probably be in October (and still in the USA). Please pray that this will work out.

Meetings and Plans

I'm drawing to the end of this series of deputation meetings. At the moment, I'm enjoying a few days at the parsonage of Calvary Baptist Church in New Stanton, PA. I've enjoyed my time with the pastor and his wife. The pastor's 92-year-0ld mother also lives with them. She has Alzheimer's Disease, but although her memory no longer works effectively, she is very sweet and full of spunk! And physically she is doing well; you would not guess she is in her 90's. So she is really very nice to have around!

This weekend I will go to Erie in northwest PA for the last of this series of deputation meetings. Early next week I should be back at my home base in Indiana, in my own bed! It's been less than two months since I last left it, but it seems like much longer because so much has happened. After being in a different bed every few days for the last couple months, it sure will be good to be in my own place again.

Even though I've only just recovered from jet lag from my last trip, I'm already making plans for my next trips. Lord willing, I will be able to participate in a short workshop this May, with the Tenek New Testament for Mexico. This translation project usually holds its workshops in the USA, and even though it is for a language in Mexico, the translators speak excellent English, so the workshops can be held in English instead of Spanish (a very good thing for me, since I don't know Spanish!). So if the dates work out for my deputation schedule, I should be able to participate! Right now it looks like it should work out, but the dates are not yet confirmed.

I'm also planning a trip to Chad, Africa, probably for early next year. This will be mainly a survey trip, to get a taste for the country, see some of the ministries taking place there, and to make some preliminary plans for housing, etc. I do not yet know the details of when I'll be going and what I'll be doing. But I will give more details on both of these future trips when I learn more. Please pray as plans continue to go forward.

Past the Halfway Milestone

I've been on the road a lot in the past few days. Over the weekend, I traveled from Ohio to eastern Iowa for a missions conference, and now I'm on my way back across the country for several weeks of meetings in western Pennsylvania. I usually try to avoid going so far out of my way for just one meeting, but as it was the only weekend that would work out for me to go to this church, I decided to allow an exception in this case. And it was worth it! The conference was a great blessing. In spite of the suffering economy, the church is thriving and seems to have a heart for missions.

Well, I made it a couple of hours before I stopped in a hotel (for my Aussie readers, that's a motel!). Just as I got to my room, an email showed up on my Blackberry from a young family in Maine, whom I stayed with over a year ago when I was in that area. They feel that the Lord has laid it on their hearts to support me financially as well as with their prayers! And their support brings me to 51%, so I'm over the halfway point at last! Praise the Lord that He has increased my support by 10% already this year! Please keep praying for a late 2010/early 2011 completion of deputation!

Firsthand Idolatry

Who hasn't seen photos of people bowing down to Buddha or to Hindu idols? I've seen as many of those as anyone, but it is somehow different seeing it firsthand. During my recent trip to Asia, I had the opportunity to visit a Buddhist pagoda. It is heartbreaking when you know the Lord, to see people so sincerely and earnestly praying to an idol which cannot help them.

This pagoda has hundreds or maybe thousands of Buddha images -- so many that even our guide didn't know how many there were. But there are four main ones, on the north, south, east, and west sides of the pagoda complex. People were everywhere around the pagoda, praying to the idols or just sitting around with friends eating snacks.

Around the main pagoda building are many of these little shrines. They represent different days of the week, and people go through a special water-pouring ceremony at the shrine which represents the day on which they were born. They believe that this will prevent bad luck.

Here's a closeup of a Buddha worshiper. I didn't like to take too many of these, as I didn't want to invade their privacy, but I wanted you to get a taste for what we saw there.

The kids were the real heartbreakers for me. Buddhist boys and girls are dedicated as novice monks when they are quite young. Our guide told us they can't get married unless they spend several years as novices. The beautifully dressed children in this photo are new novices (monks under 20 years old are called novices; those over 20 are monks. The word "monk" is used for both males and females).

This mother was teaching her small son to pray at this shrine. Whenever he would start wandering (as kids do), she would pull him back onto his knees in front of the image. This little fellow has no control over what his mother teaches him. Pray that someone will share the truth with him!