Clapham Parish Church
Green Lane
Clapham, Bedfordshire
MK41 6ER
-Tea, coffee and a light lunch will be served
-Dr Barry & Julia Funnell will give a presentation on the work of Bible Translation.
-Dr Regine Koroma will give an insight into the training of Bible Translators.
-Pierre van Vuuren, who is working in Slovakia, will introduce, Marek Olah, a Romani Bible Translator, who will tell us about their work. Pierre and Marek will be visiting the UK in January.
Please come and discover what The Word for the World does by hearing from those who are involved, seeing videos from the field and a demonstration of how the Bible is translated. There will be open discussions, and to a time to partner with us in prayer.
The Word for the World and Pioneer Bible Translators are partnering in Bible translation projects in Tanzania. During November, Dr Barry Funnell, a consultant of The Word for the World, checked the translation of 1 and 2 Corinthians in eight languages in Morogoro, Tanzania. The languages were: Lughuru, Kwere, Kutu, Vidunda, Nguu, Zigua, Pogolo and Ndamba, all from East Africa. Group consultation is an innovative approach to consultation that saves money and time, because one consultant’s services benefit more than one translation team simultaneously.
This video explains how such a group consultation works.
Funding for the projects comes from The Seed Company, as well as a foundation in the United States and private donors. Prayer support is through intercessor networks. TWFTW thanks God for all who contributed in so many different ways to make this possible.
• Key organizations, churches and individuals who partner with TWFTW. This has given great speed to translation work
• Recent completion of training for 22 people, mostly with degrees in linguistics or theology, who will take the training to tribal communities where translations are planned
• Introductory Course in Consultant Training November 2010
• Consultant Workshop on Acts November 2010
• Good progress made in nine projects
Join this chariot! Let us work together to help bring God’s Word to the people of India in their heart language. Click to donate.
Insane India
I’m sure you have all heard of “Incredible India.” It’s a phrase most tourism companies have used to market the country and has been widely adopted by many people and organizations.
However, I feel that the given title is more appropriate. I do not mean “insane” in any derogatory sense, but rather in the modern sense of awesome, intense, extreme, and wildly different to anything else we westerners and Africans know!
India is a country of such diversity when it comes to culture, language, race, wealth, health, and religion that it is truly impossible to summarize India into a blog, or even a hundred.
The Seed Company and The Word for the World Bible Translators both have the same vision: That the Bible may be translated into every language on the face of the earth that needs it. The Seed Company and The Word for the World are partnering to bring the Bible to the people of Tanzania, Ethiopia and India. More partnerships are envisioned.
In this partnership, The Word for the World trains Bible translators and consultants, and manages translation projects.
From October 21 to 23, international leaders of The Seed Company met with leaders of The Word for the World in Kleinmond, South Africa.
On Saturday, October 23, there was a meeting of supporters/partners with the leaders. The purpose of the meeting was to enable supporters/partners to meet the leaders, and to hear more of the work of the two organizations. The Seed Company presented Dr Veroni Kruger, International President of The Word for the World, with a painting as token of appreciation of the partnership between the two ministries.
On completion of a 8 week stint in OT consultation in Ethiopia, I once again stand in awe of the grace of God - giving physical strength for very strenuous work, health in a culture not one's own, guidance and wisdom by His wonderful Holy Spirit ... where does one stop? His mercies are truly new every morning.
Ethiopia is a fascinating country - Huge, her people hospitable and hard working, a God fearing people whose influence on society is felt in the low crime rate. I find working with the teams absolutely invigorating. They have a commitment and perseverance that astonishes. Chatting to one of the teams about the obstacles they face in certain areas, and sort of wondering aloud how they will be able to do it, the only remark was "We will never give up!" - God bless them.
Coming from a culture where we name our children after parents or movie idols, I find their names intriguing:
Adani - Save
Andinet - Unity
Degu - He is cheerful
Gizadchew - Let him rule
Miskana - Praise
Salaam - Peace
Tesfaye - He is my hope
Tessema - He is heard
In working on Proverbs the Aari team came up with the following dynamic equivalent for Prov 5.15 - 18. The Aari's do not have individual cisterns. These verses mean nothing to them, as everyone drinks from communal springs. In Aariland however, each man has a specific tree where he is the only one allowed to put his beehives, it is a criminal offense to take honey from another man's tree or to put his beehive in that tree.
15. As you put the beehive on your own tree, and as you eat and enjoy the honey, let it be your own tree.
16. Can it be that you can put your beehive on another person's tree?
17. No one should put his beehive on your tree, it should be yours alone.
The concept of redemptive analogies is credited to Don Richardson. In two books, Eternity in their hearts (1981, 1984, 2006) and Peace Child (1975), he describes how stories and practices in pagan cultures often illustrate aspects that are essential to the Gospel. These stories and practices can then be utilized for the presentation of the Gospel. God has embedded the truth in strange places!
“The key God gave us to the heart of the Sawi people was the principle of redemptive analogy – the application to local custom of spiritual truth. The principle we discerned was that God had already provided for the evangelization of these people by means of redemptive analogies in their own culture. These analogies were our stepping-stones, the secret entryway by which the gospel came into the Sawi culture and started both a Spiritual and a social revolution from within.” (Peace Child [Regal, 1974], p. 10)
Here is a redemptive analogy from Ethiopia.
Among the Maale there is a man called a “Maale Master”, who acts as “asylum-person”. Belonging to a tribe of priests, he helps to appoint the king and is like a high priest.
When a murder has been committed, by accident or pre-planned, he hastens to the accused, in order to prevent war between the clan of the murderer and the murdered. He sends messages to the two clans promising that he will organize reconciliation, and that therefore no revenge should be taken. He warns them that, if they disobey, people of both clans will die.
He summons the two clans to a meeting, where he separates them into two groups. A lamb is cut in half, and strung up in a structure specially built for the occasion. The two groups pass through the dripping blood, walking from one side to the other. By this act, they are reconciled. There is no more talk of revenge and no fighting. They are totally reconciled. The message is that ‘killing each other for whatever reason is wrong.’ By this ceremony, even the murderer is completely absolved.
The analogy is obvious:
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed, … but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1 Pet 1.18, 19)
Paul points out that God reconciled us to each other and to Him through the cross (Eph 2.14-16).
Diplomas and Certificates were presented to the students by Dr Regine Koroma, TWFTW International Training Director.
A total of 39 students received a Diploma in Bible Translation, and 7 students received Certificates. The diplomates represented 23 different languages of Ethiopia. Most of them were from existing Bible translation projects and a few of them were from possible projects in the near future. Twelve of the diplomates were from SIL Ethiopia translation projects whose training expenses were covered by their respective translation projects.
How suitable is the program for use by bible translators?
Having used an earlier version of BibleWorks for a number of years, and having examined the latest version, BibleWorks 8, I would like to strongly recommend it to all who are engaged in the work of Bible translation. Click here to read the full review.
The value of the program confirms the validity of the following statement from the company vision statement, as is appears on the BibleWorks website.
The purpose of BibleWorks, LLC is to provide pastors, teachers, students, and missionaries with the tools they need to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). There are other companies that exist to do this as well, but BibleWorks comes to this task with some unique differences in approach and philosophy: We exist to serve the church, not to make a profit, and all of our business decisions are made with that in mind. Our goal is to provide a complete package containing the tools most essential for the task of interpreting the Scriptures in the original Greek and Hebrew, and to do it at a price that poor pastors and students can afford.
More details are available at the BibleWorks website: www.bibleworks.com
Tessema Wachemo and his team in Ethiopia juggle all thirteen translation projects – some doing drafting, team checking, field testing and yet others being consulted on - all of it simultaneously.
TWFTW thanks everyone for the diligent prayers and financial contributions as the Gamo, Gofa and Dawro New Testaments have finally been type-set by The Seed Company (TSC) in the USA. The teams are currently doing final proof reading after which the manuscripts will be returned to TSC to be sent to the printers. TSC and the Bible League USA (who partners with TWFTW) will take care of the publication.
Scripture portions in seven languages were dedicated and distributed to the local people. For some of them, such as the Sheko and Shenasha, this was the first written material ever in their languages. The people responded with great self-confidence and pride to have such wonderful resources “in their hands and hearts”. People from government, the community and churches attended the ceremony, which afforded everyone a chance to mingle with each language group.
Interpretation by the AFM Atteridgeville of Ps. 150
Antoinette van der Meulen, a consultant from TWFTW, went to Ethiopia to check TWFTW’s translations. Following is an excerpt from a personal letter...
"One day, long ago, when I met a Bible translator for the first time, I asked her so many questions that she eventually said, “You don’t trust me”. Now I have to ask myself the same questions. It is an art to be able on the one hand, to translate the Bible so flexibly that it sounds natural in the target language and on the other hand, to convey the meaning honestly and accurately. Fortunately the translators have the necessary combination of respect and creativity to overcome this tension. It is refreshing to read the Bible through their eyes. Interesting idioms arise and they are touchingly glad about their redemption. Photos that I took in Israel in 2007 helped to illustrate places and objects. It is also amazing to see what photos and information one can find on the internet. So often the reaction was, “This is amazing!” Here and there words or names simply had to be changed. For example, Bethesda which means, in Amharic, “a kick on the head” J. This was replaced with the Hebrew (as quoted in Greek) “Beethzatha”, which completely satisfied the translators. Some difficult concepts for translation were “grapes”, “altar”, and “silver” which are unknown to this specific group. But time and again a solution was found. Ebenhaeser.
Prayer request:
That the Lord will call people to do consultations. I don’t understand the extreme shortage of consultants. There are, after all, people in the world who have a good knowledge of Greek and/or Hebrew who could help. Click here for the complete letter from Antoinette van der Meulen.
Let us bring God's Word to all people in their heart language
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