Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada • Fall 2010
From Theft to Translation
Worn-out copies of God’s Word is the ambition of a dizzying, 22-language Bible translation effort in the Timor region.
Sign Language Translation Gains Momentum Fortunately, Some Things Don’t Change
Foreword Fall 2010 • Volume 28 • Number 3 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.
It’s Really Cool! Dwayne Janke
Editor: Dwayne Janke Designer: Laird Salkeld
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Senior Staff Writer: Doug Lockhart Staff Writers: Janet Seever Staff Photographers: Alan Hood, Natasha Schmale Vice President of Communications: Dave Crough Word Alive is published four times annually by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada, 4316 10 St NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6K3. Copyright 2010 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 $12 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 Note to readers: References to “SIL” are occasionally made in Word Alive. SIL is a key partner organization, dedicated to training, language development and research, translation and literacy.
Wycliffe Canada Vision Statement: A world where translated Scriptures lead to transformed lives among people of all languages. Translating Scripture, Transforming Lives Together with partners worldwide, we serve indigenous people through language-related ministries, especially Bible translation and literacy. Our goal is to empower local communities to express God’s love in both Word and deed—for personal, social and spiritual transformation. Wycliffe personnel currently serve globally in more than 1,300 language projects for about 936 million. However, about 2,200 minority language groups still wait for the power of God working through their own languages. Wycliffe invites you to participate in this effort through prayer, service and funding. 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 Cover: A young Tetun girl delights in reading a Bible story booklet in her mother tongue. Struggling to understand the Indonesian Bible, people in the Timor region are anxious to receive God’s Word in their heart language. Photograph by Alan Hood.
In Others’ Words “ Father of mercies, in Thy Word what endless glory shines; forever be Thy name adored for these celestial lines . . . . Teach me to love Thy sacred Word, and view my Saviour there.” —Anne Steele (1716-1778), English hymnist, in “Father of Mercies”
“Jesus is
ur first exposure to the dynamic, multi-language Bible translation effort in Timor and surrounding islands actually started in Darwin, Australia. Photographer Alan Hood, videographer Chris Coffyn and I had stopped over in Darwin, home to More On The Web: Watch Chris’ AuSIL (the Wycliffe partner field agenvideo about this Word Alive trip to Timor, called “Unfolding Stories,” at cy furthering translation in the region). In the AuSIL building, working <www.wycliffe.ca/wordalive>. in a quiet, air-conditioned office, was Misriani Balle (see photo pg. 33). Why was the 29-year-old Helong speaker from Semau Island here? To focus on her Bible translation work without village interruptions, she explained, and to interact about drafted Scriptures with Wycliffe’s Stuart Cameron, adviser to the project, living in Darwin. Fortunately, Misriani was gracious and spoke English, so we naturally peppered her with questions. What we discovered was a dedicated young Christian woman, passionate and excited about providing God’s Word in the heart language of her 20,000 people. “Wonderful!” Misriani exclaimed with a giddy voice and wide smile, when I asked how she felt about being involved with the New Testament translation, now nearing completion. “I’m just so happy; just so excited,” she said. “Because even when we bring the [draft] Scriptures there . . . directly speaking to us.” to the people in Semau Island, and I ask them to read it through . . . they laugh and they giggle and they understand. It’s so nice. I can’t imagine what will happen when it’s completed!” Helong people struggle using the Indonesian Bible, stressed Misriani. “We’re just guessing, guessing—guessing what Jesus says because it is hard to understand. . . . Translating the Bible into our language, they will understand . . . what Jesus means.” “Jesus is there . . . directly speaking to us. It’s really cool!” Several years ago, Misriani could not have imagined being a mother tongue translator (MTT). Her parents asked her to help serve “the white people”: namely, Stuart Cameron as he led community checking of drafted Helong Scriptures on Semau Island. “I noticed that one of the girls serving us cups of tea at break was showing a particular interest,” recalls Stuart (pictured on pg. 33), “and when I asked her a question about one of the verses we’d just done, she answered very well.” Realizing Misriani would have loved to continue her education, Stuart decided to arrange funding so she could attend Christian University in Kupang, Timor, and then join the translation team. “It’s one of those God moments,” he says. “That girl has gone on in leaps and bounds, and become an integral part of the team.” Many God moments fuelled this energetic Bible translation movement. It now involves nearly 100 MTTs in 20-plus languages of the Timor region. To quote Misriani, it is really cool!
6 Contents
Features Articles by Dwayne Janke • Photographs by Alan Hood
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Dog-Eared Scriptures
Worn-out copies of God’s Word is the ambition of a dizzying, 22-language Bible translation effort in the Timor region.
18 From Theft to Translation
Timorese pastor Gabriel Bria started his committed faith journey by stealing God’s Word. Now he’s translating Scriptures for his own people.
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30 Celling the Word
Translated Scriptures on hand phones are getting an enthusiastic response in Timor.
Departments
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Foreword It’s Really Cool!
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Watchword Sign Language Translation Gains Momentum
By Dwayne Janke
34 Beyond Words Hogging the Spotlight 35 Last Word F ortunately, Some Things Don’t Change By Don Hekman
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Watchword
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pioneering movement to translate God’s Word into sign languages for the Deaf continues to make significant strides in various parts of the globe. In India and Kenya, hundreds from the Deaf community attended the January launches of 32 Bible story passages on DVD in Kerala Sign Language (the sign language of Kerala, one of India’s southern states) and Kenya Sign Language (used by those pictured at right). It represents the first time both groups have access to God’s Word in an understandable form. Teams of deaf men and women, trained and equipped by Deaf Opportunity Outreach (DOOR) and Wycliffe International, did the translations and the video production. DOOR has six other similar sign language translations in progress in the Philippines, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania. In September, deaf and hearing translators from 14 countries in the Americas gathered at a consultation in Colombia to develop plans to translate Scriptures into every sign language represented. Wycliffe sign language surveyors, Jason and Elizabeth Parks, who have assessed sign
languages in countries such as Guatemala, Peru, Jamaica and Chile, were overjoyed to attend the pivotal meeting. “We were amazed to know that God had allowed us to be an integral part of this process,” said Elizabeth. “Through our survey fieldwork, many of these sign languages had been identified as having a translation need.” This past fall, Deaf people from several Asian countries formed an organization to promote sign language Bible translation all over their continent. The Asian Sign Language Translation Association was created at the meeting in Tokyo, Japan. Meanwhile, in Holland, a team is working to foster partnerships with groups and organizations that will see both the Old and New Testaments translated into Dutch Sign Language. It is estimated there could be up to 400 sign languages used by Deaf around the world. Virtually all need Bible translation (see Word Alive, Summer 2009), but work is underway in only about 50. Alan Hood
Sign Language Translation Gains Momentum
SIL Joins International Mother Language Day Observance
IL representatives participated in celebrations commemorating the 11th annual International Mother Language Day this past February, at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C.; UNESCO headquarters in Paris,
France; and in the Philippines. At the embassy, Dr. Paul Frank, director of SIL international relations, said about half of the world’s 6,909 languages are each spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. It is a fact that should serve as a call to action. “For languages to remain a viable means of cultural expression,” said Frank, “two things are needed: 1) communities need the capabilities, assistance and encouragement to develop their languages, and 2) they need a supportive environment for that language development.” Among the world’s smaller languages, SIL (Wycliffe’s key partner) is a major advocate, trainer and consultant in “language development”— actions that a people group takes to ensure that its language continues to serve its changing social, cultural,
Word Alive Wins 7 Awards
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ord Alive magazine earned seven awards for writing, photography and design in 2009 issues, from the Evangelical Press Association (EPA) and Canadian Church Press. Included was the EPA’s award of excellence for top magazine by a missionary agency. For details, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/newsroom>.
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political, economic and spiritual needs and goals. International Mother Language Day was born out of Bangladesh’s celebration of “Language Martyrs’ Day” since 1952, when many people marched to defend their right to use their Bangla language. Some of them gave their lives for the cause.
JESUS Film Project Begins for Guyanese Creole
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he JESUS Film will soon be available in Guyanese Creole for its two-thirds of a million speakers. This past March in Guyana, South America, Wycliffe workers and a Campus Crusade JESUS film team completed the important first step: an audio translation for the film. Guyanese Creole speakers listened to the film in a closely related language, San Andres Islander Creole, and translated it on the spot in their Creole language. The audio translation was then recorded to help provide an oral script, to be checked for accuracy by a translation consultant, who understands Guyanese Creole. The corrected oral script will be used by Guyanese Creole speakers, who will perform the various parts needed for the final video recording. No translation has ever been done before in Guyanese Creole.
Mary Steele
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Wycliffe Partners Challenge South American Students
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artners of Wycliffe Americas in the southernmost part of South America were out in force to present the need for Bible translation, as 2,000-plus students attended the seven-day CIMA conference in Cordoba, Argentina, earlier this year. Interacting with young people trying to discover what God has for their future, the Latin Americans in Translation and Literacy (LETRA) representatives manned an information booth and were
Second Time Around for Ghana’s Konkomba
in charge of a workshop focusing on Bible translation. Especially emphasized was the program Rumbo a las Naciones (Reaching the Nations), as it continues to seek Latin American workers to serve in linguistics, translation and literacy. The letters of the Urbana-style conference’s name, CIMA, do not have special significance; the word cima in Spanish refers to a mountain peak.
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en thousand copies of the second edition printing of the Bible in the Konkomba language arrived in time for Christmas 2009. The Konkomba people, who number about a million mainly in northeast Ghana and northwest Togo, Africa, had been asking for more than a year when new copies of God’s Word would again be available. It was 11 years ago that the Bible in their mother tongue was dedicated and distributed among the Konkomba, a farming people who practise traditional religion and are now turning to Christianity. Local translators, serving with GILLBT (Ghana’s national Bible translation organization), did the translation in about a decade, with Wycliffe personnel acting in an advisory/ consulting role.
Indonesian Translation Agency Sets Vision High
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artidaya, Indonesia’s national Bible translation agency and Wycliffe International partner, wants to begin work in 75 more Bibleless language groups by the year 2015. The vision is lofty. Kartidaya currently works with just 17 people groups in several areas of the country: North Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, Southeast Maluku, Central Java, Jakarta and Papua. To reach its goal by 2015, Kartidaya says God must move churches, believers and Christian organizations in Indonesia to catch the vision, work together and send out personnel for the task. Another major need is funds to build a training facility for those called to serve in Bible translation, since Kartidaya has outgrown its current office. Consisting of 17,500 islands, Indonesia is home to more than 700 languages. Hundreds still need Bible translation projects to begin.
JAARS VMS Creates Treasure of a Tool
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“treasure chest” of photos, plus technology, has fulfilled hopes at JAARS Vernacular Media Services (VMS) for a new media creation tool that helps to present God’s Word effectively to minority languages. A data DVD, filled with photo images, stories and video templates of short stories from Genesis is the first of an anticipated biblical collection from VMS at JAARS, Wycliffe’s technical partner agency. Jim Doll, VMS production team manager, credits God for bringing together two key components: the needed technology and access to more than 12,000 photo images taken during the filming of the Genesis and Luke Scripture videos, as well as drawings from the Read-N-Grow Picture Bible. Placing simple Bible story scripts and visuals for each scene in video templates, the VMS team has made video creation easy and customizable. “By simply recording the script in its mother tongue, a language group can produce a DVD that shares God’s Word in a way that will be understood by everyone,” Doll explains. “Applying software technology makes it simple to add special effects, transitions and titles, and to zoom or pan across photos or illustrations to add movement.” Original music and custom sound effects round out the package. Language teams can now use this tool to produce simple video stories, PowerPoint presentations, picture books, flipcharts and more. Meanwhile, JAARS VMS reports that it has been involved in producing 454 vernacular videos, including Luke and the JESUS film, in 363 languages in 34 countries, as of June 2009.
Word Count
Wycliffe personnel began 1942 Year Bible translation. receiving translations of 24 Languages complete Bibles, involving Wycliffe, so far.
receiving translations of 735 Languages New Testaments, involving Wycliffe. of 107,000,000 Population speakers in these Source: Wycliffe International
languages.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 5
ARTICLES BY DWAYNE JANKE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALAN HOOD
Worn-out
copies of Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Word is the ambition of a dizzying, 22-language Bible translation effort in the Timor region.
Between classes, students at the Christian University in Kupang, West Timor, eagerly peruse and buy Scripture portions and CDs in their various mother tongue languages. (See related story, pg. 30). Getting materials into the hands of people as soon as possible after translation is a key strategy of the Bible translation effort in the Timor region.
is mentally tough following Wycliffe’s Chuck Grimes’ monologue. He stands in front of a wall map of the Timor region (at right), giving an overview of the dynamic Bible translation movement among a cluster of languages here, 600 km northeast of Australia. Though Chuck speaks slowly and articulately, the sheer volume of places and language groups he points to, and the accompanying anecdotes he shares, can be, well . . . dizzying. A few things are apparent, though. Eighty-plus languages are spoken throughout the region. Their speakers live on dozens of islands scattered around the Sabu Sea. Upwards of 100 local people are currently involved in translating Scriptures and other materials into more than 20 of these languages. And Chuck, his wife Barbara, along with Australians Stuart and Maryanne Cameron, have the seemingly impossible task of giving leadership, advice, mentoring and training to the whole vertigo-inducing effort. “In one sense we’re overwhelmed by what God is doing. We’re overwhelmed by just the range of it,” admits Chuck later. “I know a lot of people in Bible translation don’t have the privilege of seeing fruit during the time they’re working. But we are overwhelmingly blessed by having people grateful for the translations, using the translations, and having lives transformed by the translations.” “It’s that kind of stuff that energizes us, in spite of being logistically very busy,” he says.
Sea of Opportunities
You begin to sense this busyness—aptly described by the Grimeses as “almost drowning in a sea of opportunities”—on a tour at their place of work. It is the one-storey headquarters of the Language and Culture Unit of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor (known locally as GMIT), located in bustling Kupang, the provincial capital of West Timor. It’s a comparatively slow day at the office, but in one room, a four-man translation team from the Lole language, spoken on the nearby island of Rote, sits around a computer screen. While it is wearily hot and humid outside, the team labours in air-conditioned comfort on the final draft stages of the New Testament for their people. “If they work in air conditioning, they can work eight-hour days, rather than the normal 9 to 2, which is what a lot of the government offices do,” says Chuck. “So they find the air conditioning gives them a lot more stamina.” At any one time, varying numbers of the 20-plus, far-flung translation teams come to GMIT’s Language and Culture Unit office. They get advice from the Grimeses, review the results of testing draft translations in their communities, or work with outside consultants to check translation. Some visit to record audio Scriptures for CDs or Bible videos. It is not uncommon to have up to 40 people in the office’s courtyard dining area for lunch. As translated Scripture portions and other materials continue to arrive from a printer in Jakarta, Indonesia, the storage room contents have spilled over into a second meeting room. “Which means the teams are kind of lining up, on top of each other, asking to use rooms,” says Chuck.
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Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca
(Above, right) The Lole language team works at the headquarters of the Language and Culture Unit of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor (GMIT), in Kupang. The team is translating Scriptures for their 20,000 people living on Rote Island, southwest of the main island of Timor. Various islander teams must journey on
wooden boats (above) to reach Kupang for such activities as translation consultant checks and audio/video Scripture recording. Rough seas often make it too dangerous to travel during the monsoon seasons that begin in mid-December and mid-June.
Word Alive â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 2010 â&#x20AC;˘ wycliffe.ca 9
“We don’t want Scriptures in here or in boxes. We want them out there. But there has to be a place to start [the distribution]. “Last year we probably moved through 250 boxes of Scripture portions, from full New Testaments to single books,” explains Chuck. “We quite regularly average distributing 30,000 Scripture portions a year.” As the translation movement expands in the Timor region, the overtaxed office (sitting like a small sibling next to GMIT’s four-storey headquarters) will need to double in size. A Wycliffe Associates construction team is returning this year to do more upsizing.
Multilingual Challenge
Chuck and Barbara Grimes—kids of parents who served in Mexico with Wycliffe, and in Brazil with technical partner agency, JAARS, respectively—came to Timor with no agenda for a vigorous Bible translation movement. They had worked as Wycliffe translators in Maluku, Indonesia, for 10 years. Then, while pursuing their PhDs in Canberra, Australia, the Grimeses rubbed shoulders with a studying Timorese man. Rev. Dr. Tom Therik was academic dean of GMIT’s Christian University in Kupang and adviser for a fledgling Bible translation project for his Tetun people. Therik invited the Grimeses to teach Bible translation principles to the Tetun translation team and introduced them to the Christian University leaders. The Grimeses accepted an invitation to teach at the university’s theology department in 1995. It was through this relationship that GMIT leaders saw Bible translation close up and personal, as the Grimeses worked on the side with visiting mother tongue translators from their days in Maluku. GMIT, a Timorese-run denomination with a Dutch Reformed heritage, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. Leaders were reminded that church-founding missionaries from Holland had
Geography: 63,000 sq. km (slightly bigger than Nova Scotia). 550 islands including Timor, Fores, Sumba, Rote and Alor. Coastal lowlands, with interior mountains on larger islands. Northern & southern string of islands have volcanoes and uplifted coral, respectively.
Timor Region At a Glance
Location: North of Australia, between the island of New Guinea and Southeast Asia.
Climate: Tropical; semi-arid with long dry seasons from Mar./Apr. to Oct./Nov. Government: Eastern half of Timor governed as part of East Timor (Timor Leste); West Timor and other islands comprise Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Economy: Mostly subsistence agriculture with heavy dependency on corn, plus some rice in lowlands. Major income sources on location, but include cattle, fishing, coffee & seaweed.
Wycliffe’s Chuck Grimes chats with a senior church leader in front of the headquarters of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor (GMIT), located in West Timor’s capital city of Kupang. Chuck and his wife Barbara began teaching at GMIT’s Christian University in 1995, before serving the denomination in the current wide-ranging Bible translation effort.
People: Numerous ethnic groups, each speaking their own language. Urban centres include merchants of Chinese & Arabic heritage, & other regional immigrants.
Kupang
Religion: East Nusa Tenggara - 90% Christian (Roman Catholic & Protestant); 9% Muslim; 1% other. East Timor - 97% Christian (predominantly Roman Catholic); 3% other. Languages: 80+ local languages; some also used as languages of wider communication. Indonesian is official language in East Nusa Tenggara; Tetun & CHINA
Portuguese are the official languages in East Timor, although Portuguese is not spoken by most of the population. Local languages range in size from 1,000 to 1 million speakers. Bible translation status: Bible/NT available in 6 languages • Bible translation in progress in 20-plus languages • Approximate total remaining Bible translation need – 60 languages. Literacy Rate: 85% of adult population (15 years and older) in East Nusa Tenggara; 50% of adult population in East Timor.
PHILIPPINES
Sources: The World Factbook; Operation World (21st Century Edition); NTT Dept. of Statistics, Ethnologue, Wikipedia, SIL.
Population: 4.5 million in East Nusa Tenggara; 1 million in East Timor.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA INDONESIA
Alan Hood
Timor
AUSTRALIA
“ The Indonesian Bible is very hard to understand, even for educated Indonesians, even for people with university degrees.”
Wycliffe’s Barbara Grimes and several staff at GMIT’s Language and Culture Unit office unpack and sort Scripture booklets (printed in Jakarta, Indonesia). They are being translated into 22 different languages in the Timor region. Bulging at the seams, the storage room is only a temporary stopover for materials being aggressively distributed throughout the region—at a rate of up to 30,000 portions annually.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 11
Barbara Grimes is pleased to see Christian radio stations, some run by GMIT, broadcasting audio recordings of Scriptures as they are translated into local languages. Besides planting the seeds of God’s Word in far-flung communities, such multilanguage broadcasts publicize and promote the acceptance and use of the translated Scriptures.
“ Barbara and I say we want to have worn-out, dog-eared copies of the Scriptures out there. That’s one of the evidences that we can see that people are actually in the Scriptures and using them. We’re confident that if they do, that we will see
12 Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca
transformed lives.”
championed Bible translation in the 1920s among one language group on Timor—with amazing and lasting spiritual fruit. GMIT is one of the largest churches in Indonesia, with 1.3 million members, 900 ordained ministers and 2,300 congregations, some having as many as 8,000 members. But a major challenge GMIT faces is its multilingual membership. “The logistics and economics of ministering to over a million people who speak 60 different languages is really challenging,” says Chuck. GMIT ministers in an area with great poverty, lower levels of education and limited proficiency in Indonesian. “The Indonesian Bible is very hard to understand, even for educated Indonesians, even for people with university degrees,” he adds. “One of the reasons why some pastors tell us they rarely preach from books like Romans, Ephesians, Colossians or Hebrews, is because in the national language Bible, it’s even hard for educated ministers with theology degrees to understand.” As Rev. Dr. Eben Nuban Timo, current GMIT moderator, has put it: “If we remember the command of Jesus before He ascended to heaven, He commanded the disciples to bring the Good News to all people. And Timorese people . . . are also the people of God. They need to hear the gospel according to their own languages.”
Deeper Roots
“The diversity of languages among GMIT members is valued as a resource that is a gift from God,” explains a church strategic plan, “and at the same time this diversity is a cross-cultural communication challenge in the life and ministry of GMIT.” Wanting to address the need for increased vernacular ministry, GMIT created a Language and Culture Unit to serve all churches in the region. The goal is to translate at least the New Testament and the book of Genesis for every one of the languages in the region that needs it, as well as Christian material, such as liturgy, confessions of faith, Bible dictionaries, devotionals, Bible recordings, Christian education and scholarly material. To enable this to happen, in 2004 GMIT signed a formal agreement with Wycliffe’s partner field agency, with whom the Grimeses and Camerons serve. Barbara Grimes says vernacular Scriptures and related materials will go a long way to deepen discipleship in GMIT so it can be increasingly used by God as a light to the greater region. “He actually will do a lot of amazing things with a strong church. But until you have the roots in the church grounded deep in the Scriptures, it’s just going to be a ritualistic kind of Christianity.” While the Timor region language projects are multi-faceted, the Grimeses put a special emphasis on translating God’s Word so it will be used. “Barbara and I say we want to have worn-out, dog-eared copies of the Scriptures out there. That’s one of the evidences that we can see that people are actually in the Scriptures and using them,” Chuck says. “We’re confident that if they do, that we’ll see transformed lives.” To that end, translated Bible portions and other materials have been circulated as quickly as possible after the usual careful consultant-checking process. This ensures extra user feedback on how adequately a language is written and whether key biblical terms are communicating correctly—and it whets people’s appetite for more heart language Scriptures. Besides printed booklets, the translated materials are distributed on CD, the Internet, and even cellphones (see related story, pg. 30). They are also used as content for broadcasts in various local languages by several radio stations.
Can’t Put Them Down
Tagging along with the Grimeses and various translation teams as they travel around Timor illustrates the great receptivity to the translated materials. After a Sunday service at the Mizpah Church, in a village 40 minutes drive east of Kupang, a table of Scriptures, books and CDs attracts an energetic circle of believers. Kids pick up Bible storybooks and New Testaments in Kupang Malay, the region’s trade language and their mother tongue, and begin reading with ease. Many have never read their language before. However, they are able to transfer their familiarity with the efficient writing system of Indonesian—which they often may not understand well—over to their own language. “Do you see that?” asks Chuck, smiling with satisfaction at the
“ One of the things that I realized is the national language Bible never alighted on my heart the way the Scriptures in my
Lena, also a member of the Dhao Bible translation team, trims some booklets she printed on a risograph machine. They will be distributed as part of a pilot project for bilingual education materials, being developed by Barbara Grimes and June Jacob, a Kupang translator, who helps manage the GMIT Language and Culture Unit (see related photo, pg. 28), and who has already finished the New Testament in her own language. Creating school reading and health education materials in local languages is part of GMIT’s vision for holistic ministry.
own language do.”
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 13
chorus of eight kids almost entranced as they individually read aloud. “Once you get them started, they just don’t put it down.” And the Scriptures are making an impact, sometimes even before they are distributed. The Grimeses tell the story of how one translator, a pastor and counsellor, was approached by village people distressed that a neighbour had packed his bag to leave his wife and family. Uncertain what to say, the pastor read from a proof sheet of a yet unprinted booklet on marriage. It is based on the 1 Corinthians 13 “love chapter” that had been translated into Kupang Malay. “The guy just started bawling his head off and said, ‘Why hasn’t anybody ever told me that before?’ ” recalls Chuck. “The problem is, the meaning of that beautiful passage just doesn’t come through when they read the Indonesian Bible. He heard it one time in his own language and it went straight to his heart.” The husband reconciled with his wife.
Gripping the Heart
In another case, a highly educated senior GMIT church leader started reading Scriptures translated by a Language and Culture Unit team into his mother tongue. “He said after several months, ‘You know, I have been read14 Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca
ing that stuff and one of the things that I realized is the national language Bible never alighted on my heart the way the Scriptures in my own language do,’ ” recalls Chuck. “He used the same verb as that of a bird alighting on a twig. So, in other words, we would say, ‘it never gripped his heart the way the Scriptures in his own language do.’ ” Then there is the secondary impact of the translations, stress the Grimeses. Some older Timorese, after reading Scriptures in their mother tongue, have grown in their hunger to access more useful information for daily living, deciding to pursue more education. Youngsters are eagerly reading the Gospel of Mark because it is in their own language, developing reading skills far beyond the usual for their age. Explains Chuck: “A school teacher father [of one such child] said, ‘We really need to continue doing this translation, not just for the spiritual growth, but for the educational progress and literacy growth of our whole society.’”
Player/Coaches
The Grimeses describe their role in the Timor language work as “player/coaches.” “The challenge that we were given from the church,” explains
“ The challenge that we were given from the church was that we were to train Timorese to do the job and to not depend only on bringing in foreigners to actually do it.”
On a beach at sundown in Kupang, West Timor, ocean breezes bring relief after a hot and humid November day. The dry season is nearing its end. Timorese, many of whom are subsistence farmers, wait anxiously for the crucial moisture of rainy season that provides their food and livelihood.
Pioneering in Timor
To move Bible translation forward, the dynamic multi-language team working energetically in the Timor region has had to pioneer in two important ways: software and translation strategy. As the Wycliffe personnel in Timor introduced computer software used elsewhere for Bible translation, they found that the Timorese translators routinely mangled their draft Scripture files.
“Most of them had never used a computer before,” says Chuck. “We began to realize that pretty much all of the software is designed for educated Westerners, who already have a body of knowledge about what computers are supposed to do.” He turned to an old Wycliffe friend, John Wimbish, a developer of some previous translation software in the organization. Wimbish, who serves with The Seed Company, a projectfunding partner of Wycliffe U.S., created a program called Our Word (pictured at left). Specifically aimed for the low-end user, the “bullet-proof” program has worked extremely well. “It’s being used on about 50 computers around the world so far. We now have several whole New Testaments that have been drafted on it and are nearing completion.” Chuck’s record for successfully training someone to use the software is 10 minutes. That was the amount of time he had with a local translator on a remote island who
showed up just before Chuck needed to catch a ferry. That team has been using Our Word effectively ever since. Another new strategy being used in the Timor region is the “front translation approach.” When the first four language projects started, the Grimeses expected the work to progress simultaneously. But Timorese teams suggested that the Kupang Malay translation be done first, so they could model their translation on it. Kupang Malay is spoken mostly around the capital city region but is also used more widely as a trade language. Their request was embraced. Now each team drafts their translations based on the Kupang Malay Scriptures, published and dedicated in 2007. These act as a front translation for all the others, accelerating the time needed to finish each NT. Before the Kupang Malay front translation was available, several teams tried to draft their mother tongue translations from the Indonesian Bible, which the Grimeses describe as “difficult for many to understand.” It took six months to draft the Gospel of Mark. The story was far different when the Kupang Malay New Testament was available. “One guy said it took him 10 days,” recalls Chuck. “Another guy in another language said it took him two weeks.”
“ We cannot stand up and say our brilliant five-year strategic plan was to do this. God had much bigger things in mind. He’s taken it way beyond what we thought or imagined.”
Barbara, “was that we were to train Timorese to do the job and to not depend only on bringing in foreigners to actually do it.” So from the beginning, the goal has been to train, mentor and advise teams of usually three or four mother tongue translators. The teams consist of both younger and older people, male and female, and represent a wide range of backgrounds, from subsistence farmers, to schoolteachers More On The Web: To see and even a few ministers (see related differences between some of the story, pg. 18). Timor region’s languages, visit The translators come from lan<www.wysite.org/sites/cbgrimes>, guage groups, explains Barbara, click “Issues in Translation” and which are quite different from each “How similar are the languages?” other. Some are mountain people, growing corn on the hillsides and raising cattle for their livelihood. Others live in coastal lowlands, where the short rainy season provides enough moisture for wet rice cultivation, and people tap palm trees for sugary sap. Still others make their living primarily from the sea, as traditional fishermen and seaweed growers. “Another difference is linguistic,” Barbara adds. “We have two major groups of languages in this region representing languages that are as different as English and Chinese.”
Holy Jealousy
Initially, the Grimeses and Camerons worked with four language teams, but then “holy jealousy” began to increase that number. “Probably the last 14 or 16 languages have started on their own,” explains Chuck. “People heard about translation going on in these other languages and said, ‘Our people need this, too, and we want to be involved in this.’ “So for several of the languages, the first time we ever knew something was happening, or met anybody involved in translation, was when they showed up at our doorstep with a draft of the Gospel of Mark. They said, ‘Now what do we do?’ ” As current mother tongue translators gain experience and further training, the Grimeses envision more and more of them becoming advisers and consultants. “They are already operating as managers and co-ordinators at a very high level,” explains Chuck. “If for some reason our plane should fall out of the sky, we want them to be able to keep going—keep going well, keep going robustly and keep going with very high quality. “People see Chuck and Barbara Grimes, and Stuart and Maryanne Cameron and think, ‘Wow, four people working on all these languages.’ We don’t see it that way,” he stresses. “We are part of a much bigger team. Our team includes church leaders. It includes 100 or so indigenous translators and Timorese advisers. It includes Timorese administrators.”
25 More Years?
The Wycliffe personnel serving in the Timor region are amazed at what God has done so far. “We cannot stand up and say our brilliant five-year strategic plan was to do this,” says Chuck. “God had much bigger things in mind. He’s taken it way beyond what we thought or imagined.” One senior GMIT leader has gone so far as to call the cluster
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“ People are hungry for the Word of God, and these translations are feeding that hunger! This has never been possible before.”
language work the beginning of “a revolution” in the region’s churches: “People are hungry for the Word of God, and these translations are feeding that hunger! This has never been possible before.” The revolution, though, has a long way to go. The agreement for the translation effort with GMIT’s Language and Culture Unit is for a 25-year period. That doesn’t seem to scare Chuck, 54, and Barb, 53, parents of teenage and grown children. “If God gives us that kind of time, that would be fine with me because it’s such a privilege to be here,” says Barbara. “Our commitment here right now is as long as the Church wants us and God keeps us here.” With potentially 60 more languages needing Bible translation work in the Timor region, it’s difficult to imagine the Grimeses going anywhere else, anytime soon.
(Opposite page) Wycliffe’s Chuck and Barbara Grimes have settled nicely into life and service in Timor, as they work to help Bible translation expand in the region. Known as incredibly hard workers, the Grimeses still find time to get away from their labour. (Above) On many Saturday afternoons, they join a walking/ hiking club for some exercise outside Kupang. While different routes are used for each excursion, the Grimeses’ ministry path isn’t liable to change for the foreseeable future. With up to 60 more languages needing Bible translation, they are planning to be in Timor for the long haul.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 17
From Theft Timorese pastor Gabriel Bria started his committed faith journey by stealing God’s Word. Now he’s translating Scriptures for his own people. “ My heart was saying, ‘Just take that Bible.’ But it was also saying, ‘Don’t steal the Bible—you’re Christian!’ ”
R
ev. Gabriel (Gab) Bria’s passion to understand, share and translate God’s Word was sown when he got his first Bible in a most peculiar way. He stole it. It’s a comical story, and appropriate for this 4 ft. 8-inch Timorese dynamo (opposite), whose eyes emit a glint of fun and whose highly animated face expresses a fiery Christian commitment. Working as a government agriculturalist 32 years ago in West Timor’s capital of Kupang, Gab was asked to coach a soccer team that went to play in the nearby village of Oenesu. Raised in a Catholic home, the young man nervously agreed to billet one Saturday night with a local Protestant family. “They were Protestants and we were Catholics, and we just weren’t supposed to get along,” a grinning Gab explains through an interpreter. “I was hesitant to spend the night there, but when I saw they had a Bible, I was intrigued. I had never seen a complete Bible before.”
Two Fighting Voices
Gab sat in stony silence as the father of the household told stories after a hard day of work in his gardens. Then, before the evening meal, the father prayed. “I was amazed at his prayer because it was relevant to what was happening to us right at that time,” recalls Gab. In contrast, Gab had always repeated memorized prayers. At bedtime, the family read a passage from the Bible in Indonesian and again prayed in an intimate way to God. Gab retired to bed, gripped by an inner turmoil. “Two voices were fighting inside me, so I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “My heart was saying, ‘Just take that Bible.’ But it was also saying, ‘Don’t steal the Bible—you’re Christian!’ ” At 2 a.m., he crept out of his bedroom, took the Bible and hid it under his pillow. Embarrassed about stealing something, he felt like he was being judged.
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to Translation
“The two voices kept fighting inside me saying, ‘It’s okay. It’s God’s Holy Bible.’ The other voice said, ‘You’re not worthy of being a Christian!’ “But I cried out silently, ‘Holy Spirit, help me.’ That was my first spontaneous prayer. After that I was at peace, and I slept.”
“ So I confessed my sins as the stealer of their
But It Bore Fruit
The next morning, Gab stayed quietly in bed as he listened to the bewildered father searching frantically for the Bible. After the village church bell rang, prompting the family to leave for the Sunday service, Gab got up, put the stolen Bible in his soccer ball bag and left. “And since then, I’ve always read the Bible.” After that event, Gab’s life took a radical turn. He soon began studies that led to his long-term pastoral service with GMIT, the Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor. A few years later he was leading evangelistic services. Ironically, he ended up preaching at the church in Oenesu, attended by the family from whom he stole the Bible. It was time to make amends. “So I confessed my sins as the stealer of their Bible,” says Gab, laughing. “They said, ‘It’s no problem; it doesn’t matter. You stole our Bible, but it bore fruit!’ ” 20 Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca
Bible. They said, ‘It’s no problem; it doesn’t matter. You stole our Bible, but it bore fruit!’ ”
Though he ministers in an Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor (GMIT) congregation near Kupang, in the southwestern part of Timor, Rev. Gab is especially at home among his own 500,000 Tetun people in the middle of the island. As musicians proudly play Tetun celebration music (right), Rev. Gab energetically joins some traditional dancing that he learned growing up (left).
(Below) Rev. Gab and Wycliffe’s Barbara Grimes, who is adviser to the Tetun Bible translation project, visit with the bishop’s secretary-general serving the Tetun people’s Catholic majority population. Though most Catholic priests seem content to minister with the Indonesian Bible, Rev. Gab and Barbara are encouraging them to also use Tetun Scriptures. Such gentle lobbying will continue as the New Testament translation nears completion.
Fruit, indeed—and lots of it. Much has happened to Rev. Gab, now 60, since that holy theft in 1974. He is a respected GMIT pastor, evangelist and speaker at large rallies, having ministered to hundreds of lives around Timor and on surrounding islands. He now is pastor at Mizpah Church, in the village of Tetebu Dale, east of Kupang. Notably, he is also a Bible translator of the Scriptures into his own Tetun [TEH-toon] mother tongue, spoken in the district of Belu in the central region of Timor. The translation work is part of GMIT’s Language and Culture Unit, assisted by Wycliffe’s Chuck and Barbara Grimes (see story, pg. 6). Barbara is adviser to the Tetun translation team.
Preventing Slumbering Faith
Gab’s concern for Bible translation has long been evident. When doing his internship for the pastorate, he was sent to the Tetun speaking area. This was a perfect fit. It was here that Gab was raised in a farming family, helping to care for livestock and tend gardens as a boy. He is still a farmer at heart, raising livestock behind the house he and his family live in near their current church. During his internship, Gab realized he had to use his mother tongue to be effective among the 500,000 Tetun speakers. “The Indonesian Bible, they can hear it, but they don’t really understand it and it doesn’t really penetrate their hearts,” he explains. “Their faith goes to sleep and sometimes dies. “When I was preaching, I would read the Indonesian Bible and orally translate it into Tetun. And then I, along with some of my friends . . . we started compiling songs and hymns in Tetun.” Tetun speakers always respond better to ministry in their heart language.
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“ The Indonesian Bible, they can hear it, but they don’t really understand it and it doesn’t really penetrate their hearts. Their faith goes to sleep and sometimes dies.” (Below) Camera-shy Tetun-speaking girls in Rev. Gab’s home region burst into giggles during his visit. (Opposite) Rev. Gab leads some of his Tetun clan relatives in a traditional working song, as they pound sago tree pieces into powder for extracting the starch. Sago paste was the Tetun people’s traditional staple food before corn and rice were introduced into the region.
Eager to have a Tetun Bible, Gab worked for five years on a draft of the New Testament. Tragically, the one copy of the manuscript was misplaced and never published. “I was very disappointed and I didn’t know what to do. So I basically went back to the older traditional way that I had done it—just translating orally when I was preaching.”
One More Time
In 1999, while finishing his theology degree at the Christian University in Kupang, Gab was asked by Wycliffe’s Chuck Grimes to consider translating the New Testament again. Grimes has been impressed with Gab’s heart for serving God and people, and realized he was a gifted communicator. “I’ve seen him sing in a dozen different languages,” says Grimes. “I’ve seen him preach in four different languages. He picks it up very quickly.” Gab didn’t hesitate, realizing that the Grimeses were promoting a translation of God’s Word done with better training and guidance. They want to produce quality translations that are clear and meaningful, and done with more community involvement. “We really need that [translation], so people can grow and so the church can grow,” says the Pastor. A Tetun translation team was formed. Two of the original
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Rev. Gab is a much-sought-after speaker, whether it is among his own Tetun village people (above) or in one of hundreds of GMIT churches located throughout Timor (opposite, bottom). Some of GMIT’s 2,300 congregations include up to 8,000 people.
“ They say, ‘Wow. This is what sticks in our hearts because we were born with this language. Now we realize that Jesus can speak Tetun!’ ” Having grown up in a farming Tetun family, Rev. Gab is still a farmer at heart. He keeps cows, pigs and chickens behind his home near the GMIT church he pastors outside of Kupang.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 25
(Above) Roadside signs indicate the locations of churches in the Timor region. This includes churches among Tetun speakers, almost all of whom profess to be Christians. Rev. Gab says for many, this is true in name only. A lack of understanding of the Indonesian Bible is a major factor. His vision is for everyone to have God’s Word in their mother tongue, like these enthralled teens reading Scripture portions already translated (above, right).
members have died, but two younger Catholic speakers of the language have now joined the team, carrying on the work along with Gab. Though extremely busy as a pastor, Gab finds time many evenings to work on the translation. It’s a valuable process because it helps him clearly understand Scriptures, which he can then use to preach the following Sunday. A draft translation of the Tetun New Testament has been completed, and only one book remains to be consultant-checked. But as community testing of the drafts has already revealed, Gab knows Tetun speakers are excited. “They say, ‘Wow. This is what sticks in our hearts because we were born with this language. Now we realize that Jesus can speak Tetun!’ ” explains Gab. “Then they say, ‘Please bring some more, bring some more, bring some more.’ ”
Confidence and Life
Gab says that while almost all Tetun speakers profess to be Christians, for many it is in name only. While considerable numbers have learned to read in Indonesian schools, most are subsistence farmers, relying on maize, rice, sorghum, and cassava for their livelihood during a short, intense rainy season. “Their lives are quite closed,” says Gab. “But understanding the gospel in a clear and understandable form, they gain confidence so they’re ready to face challenges, and their lives aren’t so closed and afraid.”
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“ I thank God that I stole a Bible,” he concludes. “The Bible is what gave me life and I want that life to be in other people as well.”
Gab’s dream is that church leaders—both Protestant and Catholic—can be better equipped for ministry with the translated New Testament. But, he realizes, quite a number must still be convinced of its value. “It’s like they sort of look down on speaking the local language,” he explains. “Sometimes, as church leaders, we’re more focused on the form of things than actually communicating the gospel.” While widespread acceptance and use of God’s Word in Tetun may still be a challenge, Gab is eager to see the Scriptures ready and distributed among his people, hopefully in 2011. “I thank God that I stole a Bible,” he concludes. “The Bible is what gave me life and I want that life to be in other people as well.” For the Tetun people, it soon will be.
When the outgoing Rev. Gab approaches fellow Tetun speakers in his home region, they often squeal with delight. Quick to be the clown, this short dynamo always manages to be the centre of attention. He takes every opportunity to encourage others to join him in singing Christian songs with lyrics in their mother tongue.
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June Jacob, manager of the GMIT Language and Culture Unit, is mobbed as she distributes Bible storybooks in the Tetun language to eager students at a church-run school. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not because the kids are grabbing something free. Instead of running off with their printed treasures, they stand where they are and read them from cover to cover. With a New Testament on the way, this is a good sign for translators like Rev. Gab.
Rani Therik (above, left) helps a student at the Christian University in Kupang, West Timor, get familiar with using the Kupang Malay New Testament, just downloaded on his cell phone (right).
30 Word Alive â&#x20AC;˘ Fall 2010 â&#x20AC;˘ wycliffe.ca
Translated Scriptures on hand phones are getting an enthusiastic response in Timor.
B
y a courtyard-facing hallway at Christian University in Kupang, West Timor, Wycliffe’s Barbara Grimes and several colleagues set up a table covered with Bibles, CDs and Christian reference books—translated into various languages of the region. Husband Chuck has already gone to guest lecture at an early morning theology class, where Timor’s heat and humidity will drench him in perspiration. Beside this hallway distribution table from the Language and Culture Unit of the Evangelical Protestant Church of Timor (GMIT), is colleague Rani Therik. Taking up much less room, the unusually tall, 34-year-old Timorese man powers up a laptop computer and starts a software program or two. He is preparing for a much different kind of distribution of God’s Word to interested university students. It will happen invisibly and absolutely free of charge. Even before Chuck Grimes vocally advertises the distribution to his pupils, others from among the 550 theology students here stroll by between classes, stopping to peruse the table and buy some items. They are intrigued with the materials, including those translated into Kupang Malay, the first local language in the region to have a New Testament through the Language and Culture Unit’s efforts (see story, pg. 6). “Some are saying, ‘Oooh, that’s our language,’ ” says Barbara Grimes, overhearing the gathering crowd. “If they grew up in Kupang, Kupang Malay is their language.” Rani begins interacting with the passersby too. Dealing with one student at a time, Rani pushes a few buttons on his laptop and their phones. Wirelessly and in a few blinks time, each student has the entire Kupang Malay New Testament “ Any method we can use to (plus Genesis)—on his or spread the Word of God is great.” her cellphone. “It usually takes 10 seconds,” says Rani. “It’s a pretty small file—only 633 kilobytes. It’s very good, simple software.” Rani gives each recipient a quick orientation to these electronic Scriptures (including finding where they ended up, since each phone stores them differently). He also shares his email address, in case they have questions or problems later. This day, at least 20 smiling students walk away with God’s Word on their cellphones. The little distribution session is part of a strategy in this southeast corner of Indonesia to make translated Scriptures and other materials as accessible as possible by digital means, via CDs, the Internet and cellphones.
DOING SOMETHING But what’s the big attraction about cellphone Scriptures? “Any method we can use to spread the Word of God is great,” says Rani, who adds that the Indonesian Bible is already available on hand phones. Most everyone, especially the younger generation in Timor, seems to own a mobile phones, which are often more dependable than traditional landlines, says Rani.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 31
“People rely a lot on mobile phones here, I guess, in this part of the world.” According to some sources, cellphones outnumber landline phones more than four to one here. You don’t have to look far to see the technology’s influence. Across the sprawling Christian University campus, dotted with palm and coconut trees, a group of students sits on the edge of a cement-walled flowerbed. As they laugh and chat with one another, many have their eyes and fingers locked on their phones. Several of the students for whom Rani downloaded the Kupang Malay New Testament are quick to explain their interest in it. “We take our phone everywhere: on the public transportation, at home—so wherever we are, we can read it [God’s Word],” says one female student. “And especially since it’s in the Kupang language, it’s easier to understand.” Another young woman says Christians commonly send Scripture verses in cellphone messages to other people to encourage and challenge them, especially on Sundays. “We can do something with God’s Word,” she explains. Rani says he is noticing Timorese referring to God’s Word on their cellphones at Bible studies and church services. “It’s not really common yet for people to use that in church, but you see more and more people do it already.” CELLPHONE LOVE STRUCK The love affair with cellphones in Indonesia is what got Wycliffe’s Stuart Cameron to initiate the effort to distribute translated Scripture in the format as part of the Timor region language cluster project. Cameron, an Australian, has watched the situation since serving as translation adviser to the Helong language team, which is part of a cluster of translation projects in Timor (see “Foreword,” pg. 2). In many ways, he says, developing nations are using cellphone technology far more extensively and effectively than developed countries. “Ever since mobile phones or hand phones or cellphones came into Indonesia, people have “ It’s almost like the most important just fallen in love with them . . . Even your motorcycle thing you can have is a cellphone. .taxi driver has a phone. He might even have two!” says It’s just remarkable.” Cameron. “It’s almost like the most important thing you can have is a cellphone. It’s just remarkable. They’re so cheap and they’re everywhere.” “I guess in the back of my mind was this unconscious thought of how can we utilize that?, but not really knowing what to do.” In early 2009, while attending a Wycliffe conference in Australia, Cameron heard colleagues from Eurasia make a presentation. They casually mentioned that putting translated Scriptures on cellphones was a great distribution alternative in their sensitive area, where borders may be closed to printed books. Hearing about cellphone Scripture in use elsewhere prompted Cameron to research the idea in earnest for the Timor region. On the Internet, he discovered the relatively new Go Bible application. Written by an Australian, it runs on most mobile phones.
32 Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca
It was free upfront, required no royalty payments for ongoing use, could be freely modified for the projects in Timor and handled unusual scripts. As a former geologist and now a Wycliffe translator/linguist, Cameron took on the challenge of making the files from the local translators run on cellphones with Go Bible. “At first it was a struggle, but I had success in the end,” he says. “I actually had to write something that would convert our files into the right form that could be imported into this package and then figure out how to get it onto phones.”
WHERE’S THE REST? Cameron sent some test samples of Kupang Malay Scriptures to the translation office staff in Kupang. The Timorese were completely thrilled with the idea, using them immediately in Bible studies as well as preaching from cellphones. And, they asked, “Where’s the rest of the New Testament?” Besides Kupang Malay, Scripture portions and hymn books from other local languages in the “ It’s just the way things have Timor region have been tested Go Bible. And in Australia, to be done now…. It’s just on adds Cameron, the Kriol Bible is now running on Go Bible for the way of the future.” Aborigines there. Rani, a civil engineer who does emergency relief work with the United Nations, but volunteers freely with GMIT’s Language and Culture Unit, has helped Cameron in these efforts. Some might see cellphone Scriptures as gimmicky, admits Cameron. But ease of use and accessibility is at the core of why they are popular, especially for younger generations. “It’s funny, because if More On The Web: For more on how Wycliffe is I talk to people above 45 harnessing digital technology to deliver God’s years of age, they say, ‘Why Word, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/wordalive.> would someone want it on their mobile phone?’ And if I talk to a 20-year-old, they say, ‘Why wouldn’t you?’ It’s just a generational thing.” The future goal in Timor for releases of newly translated Scriptures will always include cellphone technology as part of a mix of formats, says Cameron. “It’s now got to be in print form, we put it on the Internet, and we have the mobile phone form and a stand-alone CD form. “It’s just the way things have to be done now. . . . It’s just the way of the future.”
(Opposite) Cell phones outnumber landline phones more than four to one in the Indonesia region, so transmission towers are a common sight, even in some outlying rural areas of Timor. The population’s love affair with cellphones (right) grabbed the attention of Wycliffe’s Stuart Cameron, adviser to the Helong Bible translation team (above, with translator Misriani Balle—see “Foreword,” pg. 2). He initiated finding ways to distribute Scriptures onto the devices, with a great response.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 33
Beyond Words
Alan Hood
Hogging The Spotlight
It’s auction sale time after a Sunday service at Mizpah Church, pastored by Rev. Gabriel Bria (see related story, pg. 18). An elder from the church, east of Kupang, West Timor, displays a live young pig that someone from the rural congregation generously donated to raise money for the manse building project. The oinker fetches $30, considerably more than other items offered for sale: a bag of cucumbers and some cakes. But it all goes towards God’s work.
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Last Word Fortunately, Some Things Don’t Change By Don Hekman
10 years experience in another language project, and earned PhDs. Bible translation and the supportive language work require serious academic training, highly skilled people and attention to details. If you want accurate, readable translation, there are no shortcuts to careful work. We in the Western world have a love affair with efficiency, economy and speed. We would even love to promote Bible translation by saying we can now do it faster, cheaper and easier. And yes, translations can be completed more quickly than in decades past, through strategies such as coordinated projects. But there is still no substitute for rolling up the sleeves, learning language well, analyzing verbs, living in another’s culture and “skin,” building solid relationships, and translating one biblical thought and episode at a time. So when you think about how much has changed so quickly through the years, think gratefully and excitedly about how much remains the same. Translating the Bible is still Wycliffe’s mission. The Word of God is still penetrating hearts and cultures.
Dave Harder
W
hen you’ve been involved in Bible translation for as long as I have (nearly 40 years now), you’re struck with how much the process of translation has changed—and with how much it has stayed the same. We are usually impressed with the tremendous changes that have taken place. The Bible on your cellphone (see article, pg. 30)?! Forty years ago, we couldn’t have even imagined a cellphone. And we used to think phones were for . . . well, phoning. How archaic can one get! And co-ordinating translation projects in 20-plus languages at the same time (see “Dog-eared Scriptures,” pg. 6)? It’s difficult enough to manage a Translating project in one language group! Many the Bible changes in the world make this possible now: advanced education, softis still ware development, transportation, and communication, to name a few. Wycliffe’s Still, from my vantage point, what mission. I notice even more in the world of Bible translation is what fortunately The Word of stays the same. The mission and vision remain the God is still same: God’s written Word is at the penetrating heart of Wycliffe’s work—the Bible translated into languages that speak hearts and to people’s hearts. But not only translated. Bibles also get into the hands of cultures. people and on their cell phones. The Scriptures are read, listened to, and lived out—an influential element in societies, transforming people, renewing churches. What also remains the same is the language work that supports Bible translation. I’m speaking here of detailed linguistic work, devising alphabets, publishing grammars and dictionaries, developing literacy programs, authoring literacy materials, and producing print, audio, and video publications. I sometimes think we don’t talk enough publicly about these absolutely essential tasks carried out daily by Wycliffe personnel and their national colleagues. You will notice in this issue’s main feature story (pg. 6) that before Chuck and Barbara Grimes served as consultants in the multi-language translation project of the Timor region, they had
Remember, too, that Wycliffe still has a place for people (perhaps like you)—people with a heart for God, a heart for marginalized people groups of the world, and a willingness to train and engage in language work. And the joy and thrill at seeing people embrace the newly translated Scriptures only gets greater! Don Hekman is president of Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada.
Word Alive • Fall 2010 • wycliffe.ca 35
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ooking for greeting cards that remind people of ‘every tongue and tribe’ in God’s tapestry of people groups around the world? Search no further than Wycliffe Canada’s newest set of 12 folding cards (blank inside) with envelopes. Each one features watercolour images of children from Kenya, Peru and South Asia, beautifully painted by Wycliffe Canada’s Kathy Haasdyk. $6.00 per set, plus GST and shipping/handling. Use the reply form in this magazine to order. Or, visit <www.wycliffe.ca/store>, or call 1-800-463-1143, ext. 283.
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