Word Alive Magazine - Summer 2016

Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada

Summer 2016

Seeds for a Harvest Wycliffe Thai Foundation cultivates the soil to spread Bible translation across Southeast Asia.

App Builder Makes Translation Accessible + What Really is Translation Accuracy? + Waging Love on Islam

Foreword

Summer 2016 • Volume 34 • Number 2 Word Alive, which takes its name from Hebrews 4:12a, is the official publication of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada. Its mission is to inform, inspire and involve the Christian public as partners in the worldwide Bible translation movement.

The Hub for Southeast Asia Dwayne Janke, Editor

Editor: Dwayne Janke Designer: Cindy Buckshon Senior Staff Writer: Doug Lockhart Staff Writers: Nathan Frank, Janet Seever Staff Photographers: Alan Hood, Natasha Ramírez

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Word Alive is published four times annually

by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada, 4316 10 St NE, Calgary AB T2E 6K3. Copyright 2016 by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada.

Permission to reprint articles and other magazine contents may be obtained by written request to the editor. A donation of $20 annually is suggested to cover the cost of printing and mailing the magazine. Donate online or use the reply form in this issue. Printed in Canada by McCallum Printing Group, Edmonton.

Member: The Canadian Church Press, Evangelical Press Association.

For additional copies: media_resources@wycliffe.ca To contact the editor: editor_wam@wycliffe.ca For address updates: circulation@wycliffe.ca

Linking the Canadian Church with the world's minority language groups, to see community transformation through Bible translation, use of translated Scriptures, mother-tongue literacy and education.

Canadian Head Office: 4316 10 St NE, Calgary AB T2E 6K3. Phone: (403) 250-5411 or toll free 1-800-463-1143, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. mountain time. Fax: (403) 250-2623. Email: info@wycliffe.ca.

French speakers: Call toll free 1-877-747-2622 or email francophone@wycliffe.ca Cover: Farmers harvest their rice crop on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Ministering in a primarily-Buddhist nation, Wycliffe Thai Foundation is preparing for a spiritual ingathering across Southeast Asia.

Photograph by Alan Hood

In Others’ Words “All of us, having come to faith in Christ the Lord of the nations, received the Scriptures . . . and now enjoy them, reading them aloud in the churches and keeping them at home.”

— Theodore of Mopsuestia (350 ~ 423 A.D.), bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia 2

Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca

“We step out to help the Church to understand.

And then we help the Church to step in.”

or five decades, Wycliffe Canada has challenged and assisted the Church in our country to engage in global Scripture translation. We won’t be stopping that anytime soon.

What has changed over the years is that partner organizations similar to Wycliffe Canada operate in many other countries, assisting the Church there to join the worldwide Bible translation movement. This includes the Wycliffe Thai Foundation, the focus of this Word Alive issue.

Led by its dynamic director, Tharawat (“Wat”) Suebthayat, the Wycliffe Thai Foundation sees itself as a mobilizer in a strategic place.

“I want to build up Thai Christians to be the champions for missions in this Southeast Asia region,” says Wat. “Thailand is the centre of Southeast Asia. And the Thai people, I think, can very easily connect to the people in Southeast Asia—in terms of language, culture and life adjustment. We can easily learn neighbouring languages and adjust to their cultures.”

Wycliffe Thai Foundation, which Wycliffe Canada helps financially sponsor (see back page), is connecting with local Thai churches. Staff engage Thai believers in all aspects of Bible translation, literacy and Scripture use, seeing Thailand as a hub to reach several hundred language groups in Southeast Asia nations still without God’s Word in their mother tongues.

Wat, who comes from the minority Hmong people, is well aware of the need in ethnic hill tribe communities in his own country and surrounding nations.

“I understand the importance of having the Bible—God’s Word,” he says. “I think that among people that do not have God’s Word in a language they can understand, the Church will be very difficult to grow.”

Even in Thailand, only one per cent of the population is Christian, immersed among highly influential and dominant religions.

Nonetheless, those several hundred thousand Thai believers can play a key role in advancing the Kingdom in the region.

“Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples among the nations,” says Wat. “So I’m sure He commanded His Church, not Wycliffe organizations.

“We step out to help the Church to understand. And then we help the Church to step in.”

To find one or two people to serve in Bible translation, Wat says at least 100 people in the Church must first be engaged with the idea of missions. To do this, Wycliffe Thai Foundation offers prayer/ information evenings; outreach events to share missions with university students; missions training courses for entire congregations; and missionexposure trips for pastors to restricted nations.

In doing so, Wycliffe Thai Foundation is driven by a sharply focused ultimate goal: ensuring Bibleless peoples have God’s Word in their heart languages.

“We hope that in the future the [Thai] Church will say, ‘OK, this is our task. We will complete it.’ ” May it be so.

Contents

Features

6

Stories by Nathan Frank Photos by Alan Hood

6

Seeds for a Harvest Wycliffe Thai Foundation cultivates the soil to spread Bible translation across Southeast Asia.

16 Taking the Baton A passionate young couple lead a

Bible translation effort for a persecuted language group in a Southeast Asian country.

24 No Longer Alone A Wycliffe Thai Foundation

member stands strong as one of the first Christians from her village.

32 Miraculous Touch A local evangelist uses Bible

storytelling to prepare a Buddhist woman for God's healing.

Departments

16

2

Foreword The Hub for Southeast Asia

By Dwayne Janke

24

4

Watchword Scripture App Builder Makes

Translations Accessible

37 Beyond Words What Really is Translation Accuracy?

By Danny Foster

38 A Thousand Words Reaching For More 39 Last Word Waging Love on Islam

By Roy Eyre

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Watchword Scripture App Builder Makes Translations Accessible

Church Growing, but Huge Job Remains in Brazil’s Amazon

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T

ycliffe’s main partner organization, SIL, he Church of Jesus Christ is growing rapidly in the has created a simple, cost-effective way Amazon among the various language groups scattered to distribute portions of translated Scripture across the jungles of Brazil. on Android smartphones and tablets.

Obeying Christ’s Great Commission, these Christians are Called Scripture App Builder, the free software enables reaching out to those who live deeper in the rainforest. users to build customized Scripture apps. Users can specify However, CHINA the Scripture files to use, the app name, the fonts, colours, 150 language box information, audio and icons, and Scripture App Builder communities packages everything together. The app can then be installed in the South TAIWAN on an Android device (a version for iPhones and iPads is American country envisioned for MYANMAR the future). It can then be passed to others by still need a LAOS Bluetooth or a microSD memory card, or published to app translation of stores on the Internet. the Bible. Not THAILAND Bible translators, such as Paul Federwitz of Lutheran Bible surprisingly, twoPHILIPPINES Translators, are excited by the app. thirds of these VIETNAM “On the same day that we dedicated the printed copy of the have had little or Komba New Testament, we were able to distribute the Komba no exposure to New Testament app!” he said. “We are now looking forward the message to recording the audio and including it in the app to make of Jesus.

Scripture even more accessible.”

BHUTAN

BANGLADESH

Alan Hood

KAMPUCHEA

BRUNEI MALAYSIA

Dictionary Making Advances Worldwide MALAYSIA

T

SINGAPORE

he dictionary and lexicography services team of SIL International, Wycliffe’s key partner organization, is helping language groups begin building their own dictionaries.

Led by Wycliffe Canada’s Verna Stutzman (pictured below), the team most recently supported workshops in seven countries for nine languages, from Bissa Barka in Burkino Faso to Rapoisi in Papua New Guinea.

To advance dictionary making, the team is multiplying its efforts by mentoring new facilitators and training in various locations.

Dictionaries, which are often part of Bible translation projects, provide many benefits.

They are a student resource for unfamiliar word meanings, a reference for writers, a guide to standard spelling, and a reference for a community’s traditional knowledge of local plants and animals. A dictionary can bolster a community’s pride in its language, and compiling the words and definitions provides a tangible goal for mother-tongue speakers to work together.

Photo by Oxford Media Factory © Oxford University Press

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PAPUA NEW GUINEA

INDONESIA

Port Moresby

AUSTRALIA

SALT Touches PNG’s Amele

G

od moved powerfully at a recent Scripture Application and Leadership Training (SALT) course for the Amele people of Papua New Guinea.

About 500 men and women from multiple denominations attended the two back-to-back SALT courses. Many gave their lives to Christ and turned from sinful practices upon hearing God’s Word proclaimed in their mother tongue.

During the course, about 450 Amele New Testaments were sold and many people learned how to read their language for the first time.

The Amele, who number 5,000-plus, live in about 40 hamlets in Madang Province. They received their New Testament in 1997.

Whistling While They Work

A

Sarah Halferty

Wycliffe Partners Celebrate Anniversaries

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wo Wycliffe partner organizations marked significant milestones in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Chad this past year.

The PNG Bible Translation Association (PNGBTA) celebrated (pictured above) 35 years of serving in the Pacific nation, home to the world’s largest number of languages (800-plus).

Tony Kotauga was officially installed as the agency’s new leader. “I want to see PNG money [used for] translating PNG languages,” he says. “That’s not to say that we don’t need overseas support, but we’ve relied too much on it, and forgotten that our nation can take ownership.”

Meanwhile, in Africa, representatives of local language communities, several government agencies, the University of N'Djamena and church partners celebrated 25 years of service

by SIL Chad.

Over the years, SIL staff have helped develop writing systems for Chad’s previously unwritten languages, and published reading and math resources, Scripture translations, traditional local stories and health-related booklets. Working with government agencies and others, SIL has also provided training in mother-tongue literacy in many of the country’s 125 languages.

Trauma Healing Introduced in Iraq

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ible-based trauma healing programs, first created and used in Africa by Wycliffe personnel in Bible translation projects, have recently benefited people in Iraq.

Millions there are living in sub-standard temporary housing and have lost family members. Others (especially children and Yazidi women) are still in captivity, held as slaves or child soldiers by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Some have escaped or been bought back with cash.

Scripture-based trauma healing programs are being received well and impacting many, some of whom are putting their hope in Jesus. Workshops are showing God’s heart toward those who suffer, how He Himself experienced suffering and how He wants to comfort and heal their painful memories.

mong many of the 6,500 speakers of the Sochiapam Chinantec language in southern Mexico, conversations are carried on in whistle speech.

Practised by all men, but not the women (though women may also understand it), the whistle speech is used over a distance, such as from one field to another. Whistle speech, based on 31 tone-stress distinctions, is preferred over shouting, which is rarely done by Sochiapam Chinantec speakers. It is also used for fun in situations where regular speech could be heard.

Different whistling styles are used to communicate at different distances, from close-by conversation of up to 10 metres, to whistling with fingers in the mouth, which can be heard more than a kilometre away.

To hear a whistled conversation in Sochiapam Chinantec by two men in different fields (with translations in Chinantec, Spanish and English), visit http://prod.mexico.sil-dev.info/.

Do a search for “whistled conversation.”

Icon made by Yannick from www.flaticon.com

Word Count 374

Canadians furthering Bible translation as Wycliffe personnel at home or overseas

353

Wycliffe Canada personnel who raise their own financial support

$35,694

Average annual financial support received by each of these personnel

124

Number of additional Wycliffe personnel who serve as unpaid volunteers

Source: Wycliffe Canada Annual Report 2015

Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca

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Seeds for a Harvest Wycliffe Thai Foundation cultivates the soil to spread Bible translation across Southeast Asia.

All Feature Stories by Nathan Frank All Feature Photographs by Alan Hood

A group of attentive children in the tiny northern Thai village of Mae Tien gather for Sunday school in the entryway of their new church. In this mountain village three hours drive southwest of the city of Chiang Mai, virtually the entire community have left their animist religion behind for Christ.

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“We help the Church, we educate the Church and we hope that in the future the Church will say, ‘OK, this is our task.”

A

group of school-aged girls sit cross-legged on the cold tile floor of the Mae Tien Church in northern Thailand, three hours drive southwest of the city of Chiang Mai. Giddy Ireland and laughing, the girls hold hands while facing each other, sharing secrets during a break in the Saturday night worship service. They appear to be in their own world, despite being surrounded by U.K.most of the 100 residents of their tiny mountain village.

If the girls are following the instructions of the evening’s Norway speaker, Tharawat Suebthayat (Wat), who is the director of Bel. Neth.

Wycliffe Thai Foundation, Swedenthey are discussing the analogy he told Denmark Lux. the congregation: that a rich man entering the kingdom of God is as difficult as a camel going through the eye of a needle.

Germany Finland z.

Liech.

“But all things are possible with God,” Wat emphasized to the Poland congregationEstonia of Pwo Karen people.

Austria Czechethnic Rep. Latvia With sensitivity in Wat’s demeanor and a gentle wisdom, the Lithuania lovenia Slovakia roatia 42-year-old father of three sons scans the crowd, looking into Hungary Belarus the eyes of an eager people hoping to learn more about Jesus. osnia Herz.

These aren’t a select few villagers—this is virtually everyone in .

Serbia os. the town. They have left their traditional religious ways behind Romania Mold. c. entirely. Ukraine Today, everything socially in the community revolves Bulgaria around church. Most of the congregation will be back for activities three more times this week.

As Wat brings a message of hope to the church, he sees the power the gospel has had in this community and he’s hopeful that Wycliffe Thai Foundation’s mission can help change lives Turkey elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

s

a u

ia

NAME: Kingdom of Thailand AREA: 513,115 sq. km (slightly larger than the Yukon) LOCATION: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand, southeast of Myanmar.

GEOGRAPHY: A tropical country, consisting of a central plain, Khorat Plateau in the east, mountains elsewhere.

POPULATION: 67.97 million

In the Dirt Armenia

K a z a k h s t a n

Azerbaijan

When Wat explains his role as the director of Wycliffe Thai Foundation, it sounds like a pretty cushy job.

Uzbekistan “Meeting, eating and driving,” he says, to summarize the Turkmenistan Iraq position that he’s held since 2011. “I meet people, eat with the Kyrgyzstan people and I drive to take them [to minority language groups] Tajikistan to see language communities.”

I r a n Kuwait Don’t be fooled, however, by Wat’s simple, understated explanation of his role. Instead, lookAfghanistan behind his tinted glasses, d i A rinto a b i his a deep-set eyes. You will see a responsibility that Qatar his life and his role. As he explains it, the work that encompasses he and Wycliffe Thai Foundation staff Pakistan do is basically spiritual U.A.E. planting, fertilizing and harvesting. They are tending to the Thai Church, so it will play its part in the task of Bible translation not Nepal Oman only in Thailand, but also in bordering Southeast Asian nations, Yemen a region with 300 minority language groups.

“Think about how you grow something,” explains theI gentlen d i a spirited director. “Step one: you have to plow the land. Step two: you sow the seed. Step three: you have to nourish the rice, and step four is the harvest.” (continued on pg.13) Syria

CAPITAL: Bangkok (8 million-plus)

R u s s i a

Georgia

banon el

dan

Thailand: At a Glance

PEOPLE: Southeast Asian 81%; East Asian, 11%; Other cultures 8% ECONOMY: Has been affected by the global drop in oil prices. Has experienced a decrease in its industrial and agricultural exports (electronics, agricultural commodities, automobiles and parts, and processed foods).

RELIGION: Buddhist 85%, Muslim 8%, Non-religious 2%, Christian 1%, Other religions 4%. (Half of the Christians are North M o n g o l i a among minority hill tribes in three northernmost provinces, Korea and among urban Chinese in Bangkok.)

LANGUAGES: 72 living languages, with Thai as the official language

South Korea

BIBLE TRANSLATION STATUS: 19 languages have Bibles; 9 have New Testaments, 16 have Bible translation in progress; 5 have a definite Cneed h i n for a Bible translation to start; 15 have an unknown need; 8 have an unlikely need.

LITERACY: 96% Sources: World Factbook; Ethnologue (19th edition); Operation World (2010); SIL.

Taiwan

Bhutan

Bangladesh

Vietnam

Myanmar (Burma)

Philippines

Laos

Thailand Bangkok

(OPPOSITE) Wycliffe Thai Foundation director Tharawat Suebthayat (Wat) visits Pastor Romrit Diwang in his village home. Wat shared that the minority Hmong language, which he grew up speaking, can now be translated on the Internet through Google Translate intoSri Lanka hundreds of other languages. He told Diwang that his mother tongue of Pwo-Karen could be just as accessible in 10 years.

Ja

Cambodia

Brunei

Malaysia

Malaysia Singapore

(ABOVE) The Wycliffe Thai Foundation family worships together in their Chiang Mai office. The foundation hopes to share the profound hope they have in Christ with the majority of Thai people who are Buddhist. (OPPOSITE) In contrast, a group of Chinese tourists release a lantern during the Yi Peng Festival of Lights in Chiang Mai. The November Buddhist festival, where thousands of lanterns are released into the night sky, marks the end of the rainy season. It's also a way to pay respect to Buddah, release bad memories and make a wish for the future.

10 Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca

“We cannot just say, ‘Today we want to have Bible translators and tomorrow we will have them.’ It will take time.”

Wat says that today, Wycliffe Thai Foundation (which, like Needing Workers Wycliffe Canada, is a member of the Wycliffe Global Alliance) is To advance Bible translation-related work across Southeast still young, so it is just taking the first step: plowing the land. This Asia, Wycliffe Thai Foundation needs personnel to lead Bible is done by assisting the Church in Thailand to understand the translation teams. For this reason, a huge part of what the importance of Bible translation. organization focuses on is recruiting new staff. But this doesn’t “We help the Church, we educate the Church and we hope happen overnight. that in the future the Church will say, ‘OK, this is our task. We “We cannot just say, ‘Today we want to have Bible translators will complete it.’” and tomorrow we will have them.’ It will take time,” explains Wat. Knowing that recruitment starts with building relationships, On Board Wycliffe Thai Foundation runs a number of programs to connect One Thai church that has committed to supporting Bible with the next generation of Thai Christians. One of them is translation is Zion Church in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital. The Café Wycliffe (which was inspired by something similar started small congregation saw that one of their own congregants, in Wycliffe Canada by Derryl and Karen Friesen). Held twice Kanya Johnson* and her American husband Aaron* (see story each year at universities in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Café on pg. 16), were wanting to begin translation work for the Tang* Wycliffe’s goal is to encourage students that after they finish their people in a neighbouring Southeast Asian country. Zion got on education they can do more good in the world than they think; board to support the couple. they can become a part of eliminating Bible poverty in Southeast “Her home church of a hundred people covers our entire need,” Asia. explains Aaron, who thought because he is from America (which “Think about God, think about His work,” Wat reminds students. he calls “the land of money”), that financial needs would be met Other important recruitment programs are Camp Wycliffe and through friends in his home country.

Discover. Camp Wycliffe is a five-day camp where participants “When God did the exact opposite and had Thai people learn about language, culture shock, and literacy by visiting supporting us to go do this Bible translation process in local minority language groups. Discover is similar, but it's for Mukdahan, we were so inspired; so amazed.” pastors and leaders who are interested in seeing Bible translation Beyond financially supporting Kanya and Aaron, the church and literacy in local language groups (especially in hard-toalso promised to send someone to visit them twice every year and access groups in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries) and committed to pray for them regularly. This small church is taking potentially being involved in the work. ownership of Bible translation because they had a relationship In recent years, these programs have resulted in recruitment with one of their own. This is an example of what Wycliffe Thai of 10 staff who are now working in Bible translation and other Foundation aims to help replicate around the country. language-related ministries. One of these staff members is Malai*, the literacy manager for the Tang language.

The Time Is Now Malai is a spunky 27-year-old with loads of enthusiasm. She Wat believes that the Thai Church, situated in the heart of first got connected with Wycliffe Thai Foundation through Southeast Asia, is in the perfect position to bring the Word of Camp Wycliffe. After her heart was touched by hearing about God to the surrounding nations. Although Thai Christians are the many Bibleless people groups in Southeast Asia, she applied a very small minority, making up less than one per cent of the for an internship offered by Wycliffe Thai Foundation to work population in Thailand, they have a freedom to worship Jesus. in multilingual education with the government. Following Many Christians in surrounding countries do not have this an 18-month internship, Wycliffe paid for four years of her privilege because of the persecution they face from rival ethnic education at Ratchapat University in Chiang Mai where she groups and governments that are opposed to gospel. With great studied international communications. blessings, Wat believes there comes a great responsibility for the Within Wycliffe Thai Foundation’s annual budget, finances are Thai Church for the surrounding region. set aside to invest in young people, like Malai, who are interested “If you think that we [should] wait until everyone in Thailand in committing their lives to Bible translation work and related become believers, when [will it happen]?” asks Wat. “The people ministries but need an opportunity. who are waiting for the Word of God for 2,000 years, do we want them to wait until we finish the task in Thailand? I don’t think so.” Breaking Through Barriers Although Wycliffe Thai Foundation members are active in Bible * pseudonym used due to sensitivity. translation in surrounding, difficult-to-access nations, there is a large mission field within their own borders as well. The (OPPOSITE, TOP) Since 2011, Wat has served as Wycliffe Thai challenge to reach a modern culture steeped in Buddhism and Foundation’s director. He says one of the foundation’s most animism is immense. important roles is to help the Thai Church understand the need “Your goal is to become nothing,” explains Wat, of Buddhism’s for Bible translation in minority languages throughout Southeast 31 planes of enlightenment. In simple terms, these are 31 stages Asia. (OPPOSITE, BOTTOM) Giant sculptures of Buddha mark the of reincarnation.

The peak lifecycle is called the immaterial world, landscape in northern Thailand. These kneeling believers are showing where the inhabitants have no physical body but possess just their devotion and reverence to Buddha, who is considered by followers to be an enlightened being, but not a god. the mind. In the Buddhist philosophy, there is no concept of an Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca 13

“I want to see that in the future [that Bible] storytelling will spread like gossip or a rumour.” all-powerful “God,” and in many minority languages there is no word for God either.

It comes as no surprise, then, that those hearing about Christianity for the first time find it difficult to understand. They see a radical religion far different than their own worldview.

“Why do you have to go to church every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday?” people often say to Wat. “You are very strict.”

Unlike Buddhism, which teaches its adherents to follow a middle path (the easy path), Christianity is about following a narrow path. Wat acknowledges that Christianity seems extreme and foreign to many Southeast Asians. Because of the steep learning curve for many Buddhists, Wycliffe Thai Foundation believes strongly in a strategy of evangelism called oral Bible storying (see story on pg. 32).

It’s a style of storytelling where participants are trained to tell short, two-minute chronological Bible stories ranging from

creation to Revelation, giving the listener the context they need to understand the gospel and their need for Christ. Through regular Wycliffe Thai Foundation-hosted meetings and longer workshops, storytellers practise their craft and are critiqued by the other participants. As the storytellers refine and memorize their stories, they are encouraged to share them with unreached people. The hope is that the storytellers will share Bible stories over several visits with the listener and build a relationship as they share Christ.

“I want to see that in the future [that Bible] storytelling will spread like gossip or a rumour,” explains Wat. Today Wycliffe Thai Foundation is only in the early stages of championing Bible translation in Southeast Asia. But Wat trusts that, just like rumours, involvement in Bible translation will spread in the Thai Church, so that the people of Southeast Asia will find a relationship with Christ that brings them joy and life.

(ABOVE) Students attending an introductory Wycliffe Thai Foundation course on linguistics and culture listen attentively as their teacher plays a recording on her laptop of different English accents from around the globe. Wat (seated on the right) says the course is a way to spark interest in Bible translation and literacy work in Thai Christians. (OPPOSITE) A teenage girl in the northern Thai village of Mae Tien quiets herself in prayer during a Sunday morning service. The traditional white blouse she wears to church Sunday mornings signifies that she is unmarried.

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G N

E TH

I K TA youngA passionate couple lead

a Bible translation effort for a persecuted language group in a Southeast Asian country.

(ABOVE) For Aaron and Kanya Johnson, ministry is life. On top of their roles with Wycliffe Thai Foundation, the couple is also active in their local Thai church where they lead several ministries.

(OPPOSITE) The couple prays with their pastors, Phaithune and Nipapawn, in front of their newly acquired church in Mukdahan, Thailand.

I

t’s closing time at a modern, brightly lit restaurant in eastern Thailand. Kanya Johnson* and Malai Kunakorn* laugh together as the two Thai women are shooed out through the restaurant doors by the waitress. Trailing behind is Kanya’s American husband Aaron* and a few co-workers who are young Tang* people from a neighbouring country.

Suddenly, Kanya and Malai start doing a jig in the parking lot.

“It’s the cowboy dance,” explains Aaron, the Wycliffe Thai Foundation office manager, who watches as his wife, the 32-year-old Tang Bible translation co-ordinator, continues to show off dance moves in the dimly lit lot.

Aaron, a 32-year-old native of Dayton, Ohio, looks unsurprised by the outburst of energy by his Thaiborn wife, as he waits patiently to drive home after a long day. For Aaron and Kanya, and their young team of millenial staff, fun and games are part of the program.

* pseudonym used due to sensitivity.

N O

T A B

Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca 17

And so is a fearless calling to bring the gospel to the 95,000 Tang people, a marginalized mountain people in a neighbouring country.

MEETING CHRIST Despite growing up on opposite sides of the planet—Aaron in Ohio, and Kanya in Bangkok, Thailand—the married couple of six years have similar stories of how they met Christ. For both, their faith journeys began in their adolescence.

“ I DECIDED TO ACCEPT CHRIST FOR REAL WHEN I WAS 14; GOT BAPTIZED AT 15.

FOURTEEN YEARS LATER THIS [SAME] CHURCH SENT US TO BECOME MISSIONARIES.” Aaron’s faith was forged as he hit a point of crisis when he was 12 years of age, searching desperately to find where he fit in. Looking for answers, Aaron was led to Christ by his Sunday school teacher, who was also a high school science teacher.

Before deciding to commit his life to Christ, Aaron tested his teacher, asking him every question he had. Each Sunday, the teacher would ask for one week to study the Scriptures for answers to Aaron’s questions and then would return the following week with answers. After several weeks, Aaron ran out of questions and was ready to give his life to Christ. In the coming years he became a youth group-junkie, finding belonging and friendship at church.

Across the pond in Bangkok, Christianity was just a minor part of Kanya’s upbringing. She attended church only on occasion with her mom (who was a Christian) and her sister. Their Buddhist father stayed home. Then when she was in junior high, Kanya attended a church that opened her eyes to the Christian faith.

“Everybody treated us so well and we could feel the love of God through them,” she says of the Zion Presbyterian Church.

“I decided to accept Christ for real when I was 14; got baptized at 15. Fourteen years later this [same] church sent us to become missionaries.”

Despite growing up in Thailand, where only one per cent of the population identify as Christians, Kanya found important fellowship through a small Christian group at her high school and activities at her church. As she moved along into post-secondary education, receiving a degree in French studies, God was bending her heart toward the missions field.

“I really have a heart for people who don’t have enough opportunities in life,” she told her friends at the time. However, despite praying sincerely about a future in ministry, she didn’t pursue opportunities in missions, but instead took a job as a teacher.

(LEFT) Toon, an indigenous literacy worker from the Tang people group in a neighbouring nation, helps develop literacy material like this booklet for his people. (OPPOSITE) An elderly woman, who speaks a dialect of Tang, contemplates what Toon (right) and his co-worker Pong have shared with her about God. (See pg. 21 for more details.)

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“SHE BROUGHT HOME THAT STORY OF MUKDAHAN AND I’VE NEVER FELT SUCH A HEAVY BURDEN ON MY HEART TO PRAY.”

HOW THEY MET Kanya was sitting with a table of fellow teachers during lunch hour at Bangkok’s International Community School as gossip turned to the school’s new, attractive American Bible teacher.

“Oh, look at this new guy coming,” said one of the young single ladies.

Kanya, looking up at Aaron, a recent graduate from the Olivet Nazarene University in Chicago, Ill., thought that he was cute. But she says today that she wasn’t interested in having an American boyfriend.

“I thought having a Thai boyfriend was difficult enough,” she explains. “Someone who speaks the same language is already so difficult because relationships are not easy.”

Aaron on the other hand, didn’t even consider Kanya because he wrongly assumed that she was a student.

“Which one of the teachers is your mother?” he asked Kanya one day at school. When she replied that she was a teacher, he thought to himself: Oh, this changes everything.

The two became friends and soon started dating. However, they still weren’t sure if each of their strong spiritual callings lined up with one another. At this point, Kanya had taught at the school for three years and felt God was calling her to the mission field. She was planning to resign from her position to serve God full time.

“Working in the international school to me was like a fantasy, like a comfort zone,” explains Kanya of her thought process at the time. “Whenever I went to neighbouring countries for shortterm trips, I felt like, ‘what a difference.’ ” Aaron, though, at the time didn’t have a heart for missions and hadn’t considered staying in Thailand full time. Regardless, as Kanya planned to move to Chiang Mai to study linguistics at Payap University, they decided to continue their relationship long distance. Often chatting for hours on Skype (the Internet video chat service), their relationship deepened and solidified during the next 18 months. By January 2010, they were married.

So much for Aaron not staying long term in Thailand.

PASSIONS MERGE Newly married, Kanya was now finished her master’s degree at Payap University and was working part time at the Thailand SIL office (SIL is Wycliffe’s key field partner), translating books and doing administration work, while Aaron was still teaching.

Often interacting with Bible translators from around the world who visited the office, Kanya heard many compelling stories of their lives and work. Although intrigued, she wasn’t interested in confining her ministry to just Bible translation, because she felt the Great Commission shouldn’t be so limited. She wanted to do much more.

“I love youth group, I love student ministry, I love church planting,” she explains of her desire for holistic ministry.

Then she and Aaron found the opportunity they were looking for. One day after work at the SIL office, Kanya came home and told Aaron a story about an older couple in Mukdahan, Thailand. The veteran translators, John and Carolyn Miller, were in their 70s and had spent most of their lives faithfully translating the Bible for more than 80,000 Bru people across Southeast Asia.

It was discovered that the Bru language had a sister language called Tang, spoken predominantly in a highly sensitive neighbouring country. Kanya explained to Aaron that a Bible for the Tang people could be translated relatively quickly from Bru to Tang through a special computer program called Adapt It. However, the Millers, with their decades of experience working on the sister language of Bru, were looking to pass the baton to someone else to lead the work.

“She brought home that story of Mukdahan and I’ve never felt such a heavy burden on my heart to pray,” says Aaron. “I couldn’t get Mukdahan out of my head.”

Soon Aaron and Kanya travelled to the Mukdahan translation office, to meet the Millers and to teach the indigenous Tang staff English and translation principles. When the Millers met Kanya, they saw her as the perfect fit to take on the Tang project.

“It would be good for someone to help,” Carolyn told Aaron and Kanya. “This is just ready to be translated and all we need is people who are interested.”

They left, believing that if they didn’t take the torch from the Millers, no one else would.

With a relentless urging in their hearts that they should accept the Millers’ offer, they took the plunge into the world of Bible translation with Wycliffe Thai Foundation (see related story, pg.

6), finishing the Adapt It-assisted New Testament translation in four years.

SHARING THE GOSPEL “This is groundbreaking,” says Aaron, as he watches Toon, a young Tang literacy worker, read a Tang picture book to an elderly woman. They are sitting on the porch floor of her home in the northeast Thailand village of Woen Buek.

Engrossed in the children’s story about the friendship between a monitor lizard, a fish and a frog, the elderly lady is seemingly unaware of the Tang translation team watching with anticipation for her understanding of the story.

“Word-for-word comprehension isn’t there but most of the verbs and grammar are strong,” says Aaron, with excitement about her understanding of the story.

Realizing that the elderly woman understands Tang quite clearly, Toon’s co-worker Pong* transitions to reading the newly translated Tang New Testament to her. However, with the change in literature, her countenance changes as well. Now a puzzled look appears on her face as Pong reads from the Gospels.

“She doesn’t know the words for God or faith,” says Aaron, explaining why she is confused. In Buddhism there is no word or concept for one supreme God and creator.

Now, Toon and Pong tell her about Jesus. In the neighbouring nation Toon calls home, he could be sent to prison for being so bold. In fact, that’s what happened to his brother. Toon tells her about an amazing God who loves her and prays that the God from the story will bless her.

DANGEROUS FAITH

Without Tang Christians like Toon and Pong, the Bible translation work would be severely hampered. Both in their 20s, brave and sold out for Christ, these friends are able to do what Kanya and Aaron are unable to do in the neighboring country: freely visit the Tang people.

“Every time I go, I have to cover myself and just show my eyes,” explains Kanya. “If I stay at anyone’s house, that house takes a risk . . . I just feel so bad for them. They have to try so hard to hide me.”

Each time Kanya visits (Aaron doesn’t go at all), they are concerned that she may accidently do something that draws attention to her presence, prompting the police to detain the locals and escort her to prison, where they may fine her or ban her from the country entirely.

“The worst-case scenario for them is they put the pastors in prison for six months to a year and they can’t come out,” says Aaron of the government, which has one of the worst (OPPOSITE) Stacked on Toon’s scooter are literacy materials for the reputations globally for persecuting Christians. “We’ve had Tang people in a neighbouring country. Staff also transport the Tang translators die in prison . . . and get terrible diseases.”

New Testament across the border to distribute to the Tang people. It’s Although Toon and Pong have yet to be sent to prison, they’re a dangerous task but a risk this passionate team is willing to take to still persecuted in their home country, even by their animist get mother-tongue Scriptures into the hands of the Tang people.

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“ AFTER BIBLE TRANSLATION AND LITERACY, MUST COME EVANGELISM, DISCIPLESHIP AND DEEPER CHURCH MISSIONS.” neighbours. When Pong led his family to Christ in their remote mountain village, being the first Christians, they were treated as turncoats.

“They [neighbours] destroyed our properties and belongings, and reported to the government officer about us,” says Pong calmly.

Despite being attacked, Pong hasn’t lost heart. The fire for Christ runs deep in his heart. He says he can’t turn back because his people need the Word of God. “Only God’s Word can penetrate their hearts,” he says.

CAN’T STOP, WON’T STOP Since moving to Mukdahan four years ago, it’s been go, go, go for Kanya and Aaron. Along with working with her team to finish the Tang New Testament, Kanya has also been busy training Tang people (who’ve come across the border to the translation office) to teach literacy and the Bible in their heart language.

“I can say now that at least 100 people in the tribe can read the Bible in their language, where before no one could,” says Kanya. She estimates that there are more than 1,500 new believers since they began ministry.

On top of Aaron’s day job as office manager of the Wycliffe Thai Foundation office in Mukdahan, he and Kanya spend countless hours leading ministries in their church and in the community. This includes teaching English, and running prison and hospital outreaches.

“We feel that integration with the Thai church . . . is not only beneficial, it’s necessary,” say Aaron. “When we bring . . . the Tang people over, we want them completely involved in all the ministries that are going on with the church. We want them to see the liberty and the freedom that can happen on the Thai side.”

It’s with youthful energy and a passion stirred by the Holy Spirit, that the Johnsons focus on their calling—and the future.

Aaron already sees the progression.

“After Bible translation and literacy, must come evangelism, discipleship and deeper church missions.”

Tang Bible translation staff members Pong and Toon gaze across the river at the shoreline of their homeland. These two have a fire in their souls to share the gospel with anyone they meet and to see their people changed by the Word of God in their mother tongue.

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Por Dechsri stands in front of the childhood home that her family moved into after being banished from the northern Thai village of Pukiham. The Wycliffe Thai Foundation member’s story is one of redemption, trust in her Saviour and obedience to His calling.

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A Wycliffe Thai Foundation member stands strong as one of the first Christians from her village.

P

or Dechsri’s father is the centre of attention on a breezy day outside of his home in the northern Thai village of Puikham.

Hosting his daughter and a few of her friends, he dominates the conversation and stirs laughter with his stories.

“I worked so hard to send her to university and then she went off and became a Christian,” he tells the group as he smiles mischievously.

Por is tentative and quiet as her father shares his family’s redemption story.

The 30-year-old project co-ordinator of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)—a partner program of Wycliffe Thai Foundation—knows the tortured story intimately. Listening to her father, the pain of the past still lingers. She remembers the shame, anger and embarrassment she felt toward him—and the banishment and rejection they faced from their own tight-knit Bisu people.

On An Island “To tell you the truth, my dad made my friend pregnant and this was only when she was 14 years old,” Por explains. As punishment, police ordered Por’s dad to give away his family’s land and house to the teenager and her family.

Hated and stripped of their home, Por’s family moved from their ethnic Bisu village to an isolated rice field outside of the community. For the remaining years of Por’s adolescence, the

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family was in a sort of exile. Needing to attend school in a neighbouring town, Por had to walk the long distance through rice fields and then take a bus from there.

“Especially in the rainy season it was very hard because I wore my student uniform,” she explains. “Because it was very slippery, I [once] fell in the mud . . . but I went to school anyway.”

With her family life in disarray, Por left for university, still broken by what her father had done, and in need of hope and a future.

At Chiang Mai University, Por enjoyed her studies in political science, but felt an emptiness and meaninglessness that she couldn’t shake. In her confusion, she began fervently reciting mantras from the Buddhist prayer book.

One day in Por’s senior year, a few ladies approached her and some friends, telling them about Jesus and inviting them to attend an event at their church.

“In the past I heard Jesus’ name, but I didn’t really know who He was,” explains Por. Like the rest of her minority Bisu people, she had a religious upbringing of both Buddhism and animistic spirit worship. “I thought Jesus was just like Buddha.”

Wanting to Know God That evening, Por and her friends rode their bicycles by the church. Oh, I would like to know what they are doing at church, she thought to herself. After her friends left, Por let her curiosity get the best of her. She walked into the church and sat down.

(OPPOSITE) When Por (at right, holding spoon) became a Christian, her mother (on the left) was devastated. She asked Por to go back to being a Buddhist like before. (BELOW) Now her mom and dad (holding Bibles in their language) have become devoted followers of Christ, despite persecution from others in the village. (RIGHT) Por’s father beams as he shares how God has been faithful to him and his family since he chose to trust Him with his life.

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After a few people shared their testimonies, the pastor asked the crowd, “Who would like to know God tonight?”

Without hesitation, Por lifted up her hand to accept Christ.

She was alone; the only one in the crowd that night to raise their hand. Yet, she says it was an easy decision.

Though the decision came easy, explaining to her family that she’d become a Christian—one of the first from her village— would be far from easy.

Seated for dinner with her mom and dad after becoming a Christian, Por bowed her head to pray, but the heat of her dad’s glare interrupted her devotion.

“God didn’t give you this food,” he shouted. “I gave you this food.”

More disappointed than angry, Por’s mom urged her to reconsider her conversion, saying that she was betraying her ancestors.

“People already hate us. Don’t let people hate us more. Please come back to Buddhism,” her mom pleaded unsuccessfully.

Finding Wycliffe Once Por finished her education, she had the normal concern many graduates have: she wondered what was next. Searching for direction from God for her first job, she asked Him for what she wanted.

“If you are God, show me that you can do everything,” she pleaded, asking God for an entry-level salary and an employer that would provide her a new laptop. Waiting for God to provide a job that fit her criteria, she was offered a position by Wycliffe Thai Foundation doing literacy work. However, it was well below the starting salary.

I graduated from university so I should get more than this, she thought. This is not God answering me. I don’t want it.

After declining the position, she was offered a job working for a fuel conversion company in Bangkok. It was exactly what she asked God for: the position offered her the desired salary, a new laptop and even a beautiful home.

This is for sure God answering me, she thought.

But it didn’t go as planned. Por didn’t pass the three-month probation period because her English wasn’t strong enough to communicate with her Singaporean boss. So, they moved her to a different position in a department that soon evaporated— leaving her out of work.

“During that time I felt that my spirit was very weak,” she explains. “I had no friends. I had a beautiful house, but I felt so lonely.”

Out of work, the door was still open for Por to join Wycliffe.

Despite the lower salary, she believed that working for Wycliffe might be the path God had for her. She began in a volunteer position in literacy for the first year. This soon evolved into her leading Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE)—a teacher (LEFT) Children attending a kindergarten class in Mae Tien, a remote northern village three hours drive southwest of Chiang Mai, are thriving as they learn in their mother tongue. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), a teacher training program developed in 2010, has since provided mother-tongue education for hundreds of students.

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training program that has seen 350 students from minority language groups attending mother-tongue kindergarten in their home villages.

Por loves the task God has given her to do.

“I have a heart for every people group. I want the people groups that I teach to be a good example for my people—to encourage them to love their language and their culture.”

Since beginning ECCE in 2010, the program has touched 10 villages in northern Thailand. Seeing the impact of mothertongue education, the local government has caught the vision, taking ownership of the work in some of these communities during the past few years.

Inside, though, Por’s father longed for the relationship with God enjoyed by the rest of his family. Soon after he started praying to God about his problems, the Lord answered him.

“We’d be out of money or really needing money for something and then I’d pray about it and God provided,” he explains. Seeing God’s provision, he started studying Scripture to learn what sin was. Soon he realized that he was a sinner in need of a Saviour.

Forgiveness and Hope

Por has carried the difficult memories of her father’s sins with her throughout her life. Prior to becoming a Christian, she admits that she was afraid of men because of his adultery.

“Please help me not to fall in love with any man in this city,” Kids Thriving she prayed early on at university. After she became a Christian, however, the true desires of her heart came to the surface.

A modest, thin-walled schoolhouse with dirt floors houses “I totally changed my prayer,” she admits. “And finally God the kindergarten class in Mae Tien, a tiny northern Thai village southwest of Chiang Mai that is home to the Pwo-Karen people. gave me my husband.”

Seeing her father today following Christ brings with it tension.

Here, the benefit of education in the Pwo-Karen mother tongue It pushes Por again to look to Christ to help her forgive her is obvious and somewhat surprising. For this small class of six father, whose actions caused hurt. students, learning is like a game. They practise writing their “It was very difficult in the beginning to forgive my father,” vowels as if the first person to finish will win a treat.

Por admits, of the complicated feelings she still feels. “I think I’ve It was much different for Por when she was growing up. She forgiven him [now], but not completely.” struggled to learn during elementary school because she was She sees that he isn’t the same man he once was, and that he taught in the national Thai language rather than her mother tongue of Bisu. These students, on the other hand, are thriving and are not and her mother now share the same heavy burden of being a Bisu Christian that she feels. Once hated in the village for his sins, only on-par with other students in the region, they’re ahead. he is now also hated by many in the village for the God he serves; In a neighbouring village, Paruedee, an ECCE-trained a God who forgives sin and eases shame. kindergarten teacher, has seen her students thrive.

“Every day we get chewed out,” he explains, saying the villagers “They’re eager to get the answer, they’re eager to answer are jealous and angry that, since turning to Christ, his family has the questions,” she explains. “When the school sent them to a been blessed with a successful rubber tree plantation. competition they got the high score; they won the prize.”

“I tell them God gave me everything I have and everything Letting Go belongs to God. That usually ends the discussion.”

Por’s father now has the same trust in God that Por had when While Por’s work in minority language groups across Thailand she made her “easy” decision to live for Christ. Although today has changed the lives of many young children, her home village there are only a handful of Christians in the community, Por’s has still been a hostile environment to navigate as a Christian.

However, with great courage she has confidently stood for Christ father sees hope on the horizon.

“I envision the day when they’ll accept us as part of the village and seen walls crumble.

Years ago, Por boldy posed a challenging question to her father and no longer cut us off,” he says.

“We still have trust in God.” (who still likely felt shame at getting a 14-year-old pregnant): “Do you know you’re a sinner?”

He’d been reading his Thai Bible, but he still didn’t know what his daughter meant.

What is this “sin?” he wondered.

Both Por’s mother and her brother had already turned to Christ, but her dad was still holding on tightly to his vices. Liquor (OPPOSITE) Growing up, Por visited Buddhist temples like this one was his main companion as he and Por’s mother teetered on the in her home village of Pukiham and also participated in animist verge of divorce. traditional practices. Since Por’s family became Christians, they have “Well, if you want to believe go ahead,” he told his wife, “but experienced isolation because they no longer pay respect to Buddha believe on your own. I’m not going to.” and refuse to pray to the ancestors during annual festivals.

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miraculous touch A local evangelist uses Bible storytelling to prepare a Buddhist woman for God's healing.

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variety of thoughts raced through the mind of Kriangsak Takham (“Yo”) as he saw his tiny, 85-yearold friend Gaew (GA-oh) walking back and forth across the tile floor of her village home.

“I was afraid,” he admits. “I didn’t want her to collapse.”

Only minutes earlier, after sharing a Bible story with Gaew in her mother tongue of Northern Thai, the 39-year-old Thai evangelist had laid his hands on Gaew’s deformed legs, asking Jesus to heal her so she could walk.

“The story of the lady with the bleeding problems came into my head,” explains Yo of the healing recorded in the gospels. He told Gaew that for 12 years the desperate woman had spent her lifesavings on physicians, trying to find relief for her suffering— but no one could heal her. However, when she touched Jesus’ robe she was instantly healed.

“Now God can heal you too,” he told Gaew, after praying for her. “God will give you strength.”

When Yo placed his hands on her legs that day, Gaew says her pain left and she felt lighter and stronger. After Yo left the room to use the washroom, she tested her strength, lifting herself off her bed where she was sitting, and began to walk.

When Yo returned, he was surprised and in disbelief.

“Is this real?” he asked Gaew, as he recorded her on his cellphone camera.

“Yes,” she insisted, telling Yo she had been unable to walk for the past 14 years.

“Oh, thank God that He sent you to me so I could hear the story and now know that God is holy and can heal,” Gaew said.

To carefully verify Gaew’s story, Yo showed neighbours the video he recorded of her walking.

“Yes, that’s the old lady that couldn’t walk,” they told him.

Yo realized that she was indeed telling the truth and that Jesus truly does heal.

BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP Gaew first met Yo when he came to her home village near Chiang Mai, Thailand, looking to share the gospel through a style of Bible storytelling called oral storying that he learned from a workshop held by the Wycliffe Thai Foundation (see story on pg. 6). Finding Gaew and four others in the area who were interested in learning more about Jesus and the Bible, he returned regularly.

During each visit, Yo gradually introduced Gaew to the Christian message—from creation to Christ—through short, twominute Bible-based stories. Yo memorized and told each story in everyday language.

Afterward, Yo asked Gaew questions: What did she like about the story? What did it teach her about humanity and God? With each story, Gaew became more amazed with Jesus and began to read for herself in the Bible the stories that Yo had shared with her. She has since finished reading the entire New Testament, despite limited eyesight that requires her to hold the Bible inches from her face in order to read.

Sitting in her village home near Chiang Mai, Thailand, Gaew (far left) shares how her deformed legs were healed when Kriangsak Takham (“Yo”) ( seated right) prayed for her. The local evangelist visits her monthly to share oral Bible stories.

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“You’re just praying that God will open their hearts and then you find a time that you can share a story that is relevant to their lives.”

“At the beginning she was still going to the Buddhist temple,” explains Yo. “I couldn’t explain right away that she couldn’t go to the temple. That would have stopped everything. I wouldn’t have been able to come to her house and share stories of Christ and God with her.”

Yo believes that sharing the gospel through stories is more natural in the Thai culture than “just taking out the Bible and (OPPOSITE) Yo (in the background) has seen Gaew and others healed opening it. after praying for them. He tells of another lame elderly woman who “You’re just praying that God will open their hearts and then stood up and walked after he prayed. (ABOVE) Participants design you find a time that you can share a story that is relevant to their a flannelgraph during an Oral Storying workshop in Chiang Mai. lives,’ he says. “I think that’s very powerful.”

EMPOWERED PROCLAIMER After being healed, Gaew walked around the village, telling her family and neighbours that Jesus healed her. She even went to the village’s Buddhist temple to tell the congregation about Jesus, sharing stories about His restoring power. Her neighbours, though, didn’t take too kindly to her boldness, telling her that Thailand’s religion is Buddhism, not Christianity.

“They said they worship the Buddha,” Gaew explains, as she sits on the clean tile floor of her village home. “I’m not angry or mad at them . . . that’s what God teaches us to do: to not get angry, but to love them and share with them about Jesus.”

The head of the village doesn’t like her evangelistic spirit either.

The leader blamed Yo for bringing a foreign religion to the village, believing that he came to take advantage of her.

“Gaew said to him that I didn’t come to rip her off,” says Yo. “She explained to the head of the village that I am like a representative of God and that I came to share the gospel with her.”

Despite Gaew’s miraculous story, she remains the only believer in her family and her entire village. Her friends and family say they are happy that her God healed her, but also believe that local shamans heal the sick.

“Miracles are very normal,” explains Yo. He says animist gods—or what he believes are fallen angels—often do miracles, and signs and wonders. One man, who Yo recently led to Christ, explained to him that when he was a shaman, those in his community would often bring him people who were possessed by evil spirits and he would cast them out.

“Jesus cast out demons. He (the former shaman) said he used to do it too,” explains Yo. “Fallen angels, they work very well to deceive people as a team.”

Storytellers are trained to tell short, two-minute chronological Bible stories ranging from creation to Revelation, giving the listener the context they need to understand the gospel and their need for Christ.

LOST AND AFRAID Shortly after Jesus healed Gaew’s legs, she had a vivid dream. In it she was lost in a village late at night and couldn’t find her way back home. All around her were strange people whose directions confused and disoriented her.

As she searched for her way home, she approached a group of people, who strangely gave her only a cold look. She kept walking and approached a group of children jumping rope. Asking them where to go, they pointed ahead—into the hollow darkness.

When she followed their directions, she was overcome and lost.

Scared, she put her palms together and prayed to Jesus for help.

Suddenly a bright light formed a narrow path ahead of her to walk home safely. Then she woke up in her bed in the darkness, feeling her heart beating after the vividness of the dream. She gave thanks to God, happy to be awake and alive.

Gaew believes that this strange village in her dream was the land of the dead, which is where Buddhists believe they go when they die.

Despite Gaew’s developing faith in Christ, she still has many Buddhist beliefs as well. But as Yo and Gaew visit in her home, she shares how her beliefs about the old religion are changing. She tells him that when we pass away we will be with God in heaven.

“God prepares everything for us there already,” she explains. “I don’t have to worry about the old belief that if somebody dies in the community, they have to sacrifice food, water or belongings.”

She tells Yo that God already provided the sacrifice.

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“Jesus is God, He’s the only Son and helps many people in this world to wash away their sins.”

MORE MIRACLES Yo is back at Gaew’s home for another visit. She can no longer walk. Four months after she was healed, she slipped in the mud while working in her garden, snapping her Achilles tendon in one of her legs. Despite the setback, she exudes a calm joy as she hosts her guests.

Sharing a passage from her New Testament, she struggles to make out the words. Needing more light, she slides herself toward the doorway and continues without any trouble.

“He healed the sick and even called the dead to life,” she exclaims after she finishes her reading.

“Jesus is God, He’s the only Son and helps many people in this world to wash away their sins.”

After a leisurely visit, it’s time for Yo to leave.

But first, he prays again for the healing of her legs.

Like before, the prayers cause her to rise to her feet. With a hand from Yo, her deformed legs slide with difficulty across the floor.

Appearing like her legs could collapse, she takes about four steps and then stops. She is tired.

Comfortably seated, Gaew has a peace about her. She realizes that her legs may fail her again, but also that Jesus has given her something much greater; He’s given her spiritual healing that is eternal.

Christ is alive in her soul.

After being prayed for by Yo once again, Gaew stands and takes a few faltering steps. When Yo first experienced God using him to heal others he was surprised. “I thought God would probably use somebody else who is more godly,” he explains. “I didn’t know it would work with me; God used me.”

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Beyond Words What Really is Translation Accuracy?

By Danny Foster

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Accuracy gets easily confused with literalness, even though they mean different things.

s a cross-cultural worker, one of my greatest frustrations when I served with Wycliffe in Tanzania, Africa, was having to speak through an interpreter. But it wasn’t the hassle of always having to depend on someone to communicate that frustrated me. The real problem was the mistakes you start hearing from the interpreters as you learn the language and then have the constant feeling of being misrepresented.

This frustration has become a strong reminder for me of how important it is to translate Scripture well. Bible translators stand between God and man, Spirit and flesh. Through language, we bridge the gap across cultures, time and even worlds. Getting translation right is essential and that is why Wycliffe Bible Translators is committed to processes that safeguard translation quality.

In this and subsequent “Beyond Words” columns, I will address individually the four qualities of good Bible translations: accuracy, clarity, naturalness, and acceptability.

Let’s start with the issue of accuracy.

If you ask just about anyone—even someone with no linguistic training—what makes a translation good, most people will tell you that it has to be accurate. But what does accurate mean? Surprisingly, while most people can identify that accuracy is important in translation, very few understand what it is. That’s because accuracy gets easily confused with literalness, even though they mean different things. Literalness has to do with the degree of similarity between linguistic forms (e.g. words and grammar). Accuracy, on the other hand, has to do with the similarity of meaning.

Here’s a humorous example that illustrates the difference quite well. Years ago I invited some Tanzanian friends over for dinner. I put the food out and said, “We’re going to eat ‘Canadian-style,’ so come to the table and just help yourselves.” All of this was stated in Swahili, but unfortunately, as a novice speaker, I translated it literally (i.e. word-for-word). Now you may see no problem with what I said. However, my Tanzanian guests broke out into an awkward mix of laughter and horror.

That’s because “help yourself” translated literally into Swahili has the same meaning as “relieve yourself” in English! So, yes, my translation was literal. But accurate? No way! A much better translation would have been for me to tell my guests, “serve yourselves.”

When we talk about accuracy in translating God’s Word, we’re talking about meaning and the rule is: nothing should be added, deleted or changed. But it can be difficult to see how this gets applied if you’re only looking at the words. A good translation will, on the surface, look very different from its source text. That’s because meaning emerges out of a larger context than just single words or phrases. The translator must consider that readers bring a whole set of assumptions to the text.

Think about the Old Testament book of Ruth. At the outset, Naomi loses her husband and both of her sons. For some people groups around the world, these tragic events would suggest that Naomi was a witch. Of course, we know that she wasn’t, but the Bible does not state this outright; the author of Ruth had no concern about the Hebrew audience jumping to this conclusion.

Translators must make every effort to understand the assumptions that people will draw on to fill in the gaps. They must find ways to ensure that the translated text in the target language means—as much as is possible—the same as it does in the source texts (more than one source text is always used). Sometimes then, preserving accuracy in Bible translation requires making certain things explicit right in the text itself, or relying on other means, such as introductions, glossaries, illustrations and occasional footnotes to help readers.

So at the end of the day, the language used will be very different in a translation, but the original meaning is still preserved. The translation, therefore, is accurate.

Danny Foster is president of the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL), a partner of Wycliffe Canada that trains personnel to serve in language work, including Bible translation. CanIL operates at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. and Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, Ont. Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca 37

A Thousand Words Reaching For More

In the city of Chiang Rai, the Wat Rong Khun art exhibit is known by tourists as the White Temple. The hands reaching out from a crowded lake symbolize unrestrained desire. The bridge is a reminder that happiness is achieved by withstanding temptation, greed, and desire. When visitors enter the White Temple, they see a dramatic mural that portrays a demonic fire-tinged scene, interspersed with diverse images that include nuclear warfare, pop icon Michael Jackson and the comic book hero Spiderman. The message? People are wicked.

Alan Hood

Last Word Waging Love on Islam Roy Eyre, Wycliffe Canada President

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We have an obligation to bring the light of the gospel and to be a voice for the marginalized— including immigrants to Canada.

s Syrian refugees arrive in our country, Canadian reaction is mixed. We all feel the tension between safety, a sense that we have to do something, and a desire to deepen our long-standing reputation as a nation that welcomes immigrants. Many of these reactions are driven by politics, self interest and fear. But how should the Church react?

Let me start by addressing what this has to do with Bible translation. Wycliffe’s heart beats for minority language communities everywhere. For too long, we have allowed concerns about safety for work in sensitive locations to silence our advocacy to the Canadian Church for minority languages among Muslim populations. Wherever a minority language community is ensnared by false gods and local religion, we have an obligation to bring the light of the gospel and to be a voice for the marginalized—including immigrants to Canada.

The biblical mandate is far more than simply a duty to respond to any humanitarian crisis. We are to love as we were loved, forgive as we were forgiven and show grace as we were shown grace. We are to execute justice for the orphan and widow, and love the foreigner living among us, because we were foreigners (Dt. 10:18-19).

We are to reject fear, which does not come from God, instead showing perfect love—even to strangers—because God first loved us (1 Jn. 4:18, 2 Tim. 1:7). We are even to think of strangers and aliens as potential fellow citizens and family members, because we gentiles were once alienated from Jews, and were strangers to God’s covenant (Eph. 2).

In his book, A Wind in the House of Islam, David Garrison says that when violence is done in the name of Islam, Muslims are attracted by a God of love and faithful Christian witness that turns the other cheek. Conversely, when Christians respond to violence in kind, motivated by fear or hatred, Islam begins to look more attractive.

The Church has a responsibility to lead the way because so many of these refugees are Muslim. I'm grateful then, that many congregations in Canada are adopting families from Syria and other Muslim countries. But there's a way to do it well, and that’s where Wycliffe can share some ideas from its extensive crosscultural experience. If your congregation is considering multicultural ministry, prepare and equip yourselves: • L earn how to reach across different cultures, how to really listen and learn from each other. Refugees are not a homogenous block; instead, they are made up of a mix of religions, and indigenous languages and cultures.

• F ind a local ministry serving refugees who can then walk alongside you in supporting these families as they transition to life here.

• C onsider how Syrian Christians and Syrian Muslims respond in different ways to the western Church and use appropriate Scriptures in a form and language that will be understandable and effective in reaching their hearts.

To learn more, see Wycliffe's collection of language and culture acquisition resources and links to other ministries at churchresources.wycliffe.ca.

We have an obligation to wage love when the world urges us to wage war. The Church’s role doesn’t stop with overseas ministry, and this influx of refugees into Canada is a good example of serving the world as it comes to our door.

Ethan Livingstone

Word Alive • Summer 2016 • wycliffe.ca 39

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Wycliffe Canada Featured Partnership

Invest in the Wycliffe Thai Foundation

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ou can help propel translation of God’s Word in many languages in Southeast Asia, through your gift to the Wycliffe Thai Foundation (featured in this issue of Word Alive). Here are the basic details of this important Bible translation partnership, which you can support through Wycliffe Canada.

Name: Wycliffe Thai Foundation

Location: Thailand and bordering Southeast Asian nations Language Groups: More than 300 in the region Overview: Wycliffe Thai Foundation is encouraging, facilitating and championing Bible translation among Thailand’s Christian community. As they engage young people in all aspects of Bible translation, literacy and use of translated Scriptures, they are answering God’s call to the nations around them. The Thai church is key to seeing missions advance in the region. The director of Wycliffe Thai Foundation explains, “We are Thai. We can easily learn neighbouring languages and adjust to their cultures.”

Timeline: Ongoing Funding Need: $$77,200 Your donation today helps spread God’s Word through Wycliffe Thai Foundation ministries!

• Use this magazine’s reply form (fill in the box that mentions Wycliffe Thai Foundation).

• Give online at projects.wycliffe.ca.

• Call 1-800-463-1143 toll free and indicate your gift is for “Wycliffe Thai Foundation.”

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