Wycliffe Associates President, Bruce Smith, is in Papua New Guinea. He tells a lovely story of the struggles of the men and woman working on the Old Testament Translation for the Folopa people.
He starts with a story of rats…reminds me of our last post!
You can read his blog here.
http://brucesmith.wycliffeassociates.org/
Snake eating a lizard.
Source: ntnews
My friend’s daughter and family just moved to Papua New Guinea to serve as teachers to missionary children for the next two years. They are getting some field training and are in a classroom themselves for a few weeks.
They posted a photo of a snake eating a lizard in their classroom (not the photo above) on their blog. They casually mentioned, “There was some discussion as to whether we should leave the snake in the rafters so that it would kill the rats and mice in the classroom, or remove it.”
What? Who would think about leaving a snake to hang over your head while you were studying???? Trust me, if I were there, it would be a short discussion! Get rid of the snake!
Apparently, there were others like me. They caught the snake and it’s happily (we hope) living in a tank in the classroom for all to (safely) see.
This got me thinking about what other things might be obvious (and good decision-making!) and important to me, but not necessarily to others that share my space.
It’s all a matter of perspective. What’s important to me may not be to others.
What does God see as important?
People.
His Words.
It’s why we work for Wycliffe Bible Translators and have done so for the last 22 years. We’re in the “business” of both people and giving them God’s Words in their Mother Tongue.
It’s important to many of you too, since so many of you are our supporters and have been so for many years.
So thanks…once again. We love doing the obvious!
P. S. Is there anything that’s important to you but not so much to others? Drop us a line!
Yes, that’s someone’s head, but here is the group!
Last night we had about 25 people over ranging in age from 11-25. It was the youth group from our church, Next Level Church. We had the great opportunity of sharing with them about the Bible translation process, the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and why God’s Word is important to them too.
One of the stories we told was recently posted on Wycliffe’s web page. The translation committee in the Hdi language in Cameroon couldn’t find the world for “unconditional love,” the kind of love that God has for all of mankind. How could they translate verses about God’s love without this important word?
They knew that a verb in this language needed to end in an i, a or an u. They knew two words for love already, “Dvi” and “Dva” but would these words work? The coordinator got together with a group of men who spoke Hdi.
“Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?” he asked them? “Yes”, they said. “That would mean that her husband loved her once, but not anymore.”
Hmm, that doesn’t work for God’s love.
“Could you ‘dva” your wife?” “Yes”, they said. “That kind of love depends on the wife’s actions or what she did.”
That won’t work either.
“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?” he asked? Everyone laughed.
“Of course not!” they said. “If you loved your wife that way, you would have to keep loving her no matter what she did – even if she never made you meals or even if she went to live with another man. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t happen.”
The coordinator sat quietly for a moment. “Could God ‘dvu’ people?”
After several minutes tears started running down the faces of these men. They finally responded.
“Do you know what this would mean? This would mean for God kept loving us over and over for thousands of years even while we rejected him and were sinning!”
By changing one simple letter, the vowel at the end of the word, the meaning changed from “I love you because of what you do and who you are,” to “I love you because of who I am.”
Isn’t that a wonderful story about how God created this language so that people could understand the true love of God!
Thank you for supporting us in this important work. It’s so exciting!
Ken and Anne will be making two trips this summer. The first trip will be to Long Island, New York and the second to the state of Idaho.
South Bay Bible Church has joined them as a new partner in the work of Bible translation. As mentioned in a previous post, this partnership came out of a friendship from over 28 years ago. Our friend Scott Walker was kind enough to connect us with his church and we are thrilled about this new partnership. We’ll be speaking there the last weekend of May.
South Bay Bible Church
Idaho will be the next stop! Jim and Lyn Heath, longtime supporters, invited Ken and Anne to speak in their church. The fun connection is that both the Heath’s and Scott Walker and family were all with us as we started our marriage in the far away state of Wyoming! This will be our first trip to this church. We are excited about making connections and sharing our vision with a new congregation this coming July.
Do you live nearby Long Island or Idaho? We’d love to see you! Send us a note and we’ll connect with you.
If you would like us to speak in your church or to your youth group/VBS…we’re available!
Here is a short video which clearly explains the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
It’s a lot of work! We each have a small part in this huge task.
Thank you for playing your part!
Several years ago I was given a new journal. I’ve only used about 1/3 of the pages up in three years. I’m terrible about writing down my thoughts on a regular basis.I’m pretty good about doing my devotions most days, and often make note of something that God is teaching me. But after praying about it, it often goes out of my head. How can I make progress if I don’t review what I learned?
There is something about recording and remembering. As I read through the Old Testament, I’m reminded of how many times God has people look back at how He took care of them or the promises that He made to them. He often had them pile up stones so that when they passed by they would remember a covenant. He even used pain, such as “touching” Jacob’s hip, so that he would be reminded of his dream.
God even uses different items to remind Himself! The rainbow that He put in the sky after the flood? It wasn’t for Noah. It was for God. (Check out Genesis 9:13-16).
So if God “needs” reminding, shouldn’t I do the same? Gwen Smith states that when David often looked back too. “His past victories fueled his faith and helped him trust God for his present deliveries.”
Happy Moments!
I saw this idea recently.Take an empty jar, and each time something good happens throughout the year, write it down and put it in the jar. At the end of the year, dump it out and remind yourself of all the good things that happened throughout the year. Some people keep a notebook, and write down one sentence each day. I’ve already made my jar and plan on keeping track this year.
As we start a new year, we are remembering all the ways that you have supported us throughout the last year. We’ve never gone hungry, we have a good roof over our heads, and we live in a peaceful country. We could write each of your names on a small piece of paper and put it in our “happy jar” because we remember you with fondness.
Thank you! Thank you from the Nigerian Bible translators that we serve. Thank you from the mother tongue translators in Southeast Asia we helped. Thank you from the Christians in a huge Asian country we have worked with. We look forward to serving with you another year.
Credit: Mars Hill
I’ve been in a Christmas funk! I just haven’t had the Christmas/Holiday/December excitement that I usually have. The month started off with the death of a church family member. John had cancer so it was not entirely unexpected, but it was still disturbing. I miss him. Then a young 16-year-old girl from our church died. I didn’t know her, but my heart was in pain for her parents. Following that we heard that an old friend, Tanya, who lived her life in a wheelchair and was still too young, died suddenly, leaving her 14-year-old daughter on this earth. And then of course, the awful tragic news of all those senseless deaths in Connecticut. Like you, I’ve cried several times a day, watching the news and thinking about the pain those families are in. In between this news, several friends have found out they have cancer and have a long fight ahead of them.
I have my own pain too. Nothing as dramatic as a death or cancer. But it’s my own burdens which weigh on me daily. I share it with my husband, we try to carry it together, but it is a heaviness indeed.
Each morning, like many of you, I try to read the Bible and pray. And when I am finished, I always feel better. My spirits are lifted up little by little. The other day I read about forgiveness and felt the weight of my own sin of holding on to my unforgiveness of others. If Jesus loved me so much that he came as a baby to die for me, the least I can do is forgive the people around me!
On another morning I was reminded about the sacrifice and the faith that it took for the wise men to travel for two years just so that they could worship Jesus! I was so humbled by their faith. It just renewed my faith and my heart welled up with joy as I remembered how amazing the Son of God really is.
So I live with hope. Hope for the future. Hope that God is still in control. Hope that I serve a God who knows what He is doing. Hope that my Savior will return for me one day in the clouds.
The people we serve and the people you support with your prayers and finances have no hope. They don’t have God’s Words to read each morning to get out of their “funk.” Isn’t that awful? And they still live in darkness.
You make it possible for them to one day live in Light and to live with HOPE. And they will never be able to thank you. But we can.
So, thank you! Thank you for your faith, your love, and your hope. We couldn’t be serving the Lord, helping to bring the hope of Jesus to the world, without you.
Have a Merry, Hopeful Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Anne and Ken
Many Christian schools and colleges begin their daily classes with prayer. Some begin with song and dance.
Ken was in Nigeria last month teaching a very sophisticated Bible translation program to twenty-four Mother
Bible Translation class
Tongue Translators (MTT), many of which had received their first computer just the week before. He knew it would be a daunting task for the MTT’s to go from no experience to actually starting their Bible translation in this software in two short weeks, so they began each day asking for God’s help. Rather than a simple prayer of guidance, our Nigerian colleagues took a different approach – song and dance.
Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
The one on the left is a village learning how to translate the Bible in his own language.
Follow this link (https://vimeo.com/54242680) and you’ll readily see a multitude of Nigerian tribes represented as they stand and dance praising God in song and worship, thankful for new skills to begin typing their New Testament in their own language!
I am thankful that God understands and loves praise and worship from all nations, tribes, and tongues. I know you are too. Your gifts and prayers enabled us to serve our Nigerian brothers and sisters on this trip.
Noun: A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.
Ken and Anne with Virginia.
We have so many great advocates in our lives. Just recently we met one for the first time. Her name is Virginia. Virginia is on the missions committee at United Armenian Congregational Church in North Hollywood, California. On November 4, we were able to speak and worship at this church which has been supporting us in our work with Wycliffe Bible Translators for many years.What a great time we had sharing with some of the members in the fireside room! Virginia passes our newsletters on to others in the church, prays for us, and makes sure that we’re not forgotten. What a great Advocate she is to us.
About two weeks ago we discovered another Advocate in Scott. We met Scott and his family almost 30 years ago when we were first married and moved to a distant land called Wyoming (WY-O-Ming!). We lived in the same remote town for two years and worshipped together in a small, country church. We then moved to New York to serve for five-year with Children’s Bible Fellowship before joining Wycliffe in 1990. We lost contact with Scott after we left Wyoming but last week, out of the clear blue sky, he contacted us by phone. What a pleasant surprise! Reminiscing about our Wyoming days with Ken he later said, “I’d like to pass your name on to our church here on Long Island to see if they could take you on as one of our missionaries.” Wow, wouldn’t that be a blessing.
Within two days we received another phone call from Scott asking if we could quickly send to his pastor all the information we had about ourselves and Wycliffe. The pastor, as we discovered, was meeting with the missions committee the next day and wanted to evaluate Wycliffe and ourselves. We gathered our ministry material and sent it off – PRONTO.
Two days later I received a phone call from the church’s pastor. “Where can we send our first gift for you and your husband?” Wow! With the ailing economy, our funds have been very tight so what an incredible blessing this will be. And, I simply couldn’t believe how fast this happened.
Jesus is our advocate to the Father. Where would we be without that? Virginia and Scott have been our advocates to the church. Where would Ken and I be in ministry without advocates to the churches like Virginia, Scott, and yourself?
We cannot thank you enough.
The real chief presents the gifts.
My colleague, Bruce Bridges, and I were honored at the end of our Intro to Computers/Paratext workshop ceremony. I was given a hat as the “chief” of my class and both Bruce and I were given shirts to remember our Nigerian colleagues by. The feedback from the course was positive and they asked repeatedly if we would come back and teach the courses again in the future. I know that I will miss my new friends. Many of them have gone from never touching a computer before to learning a sophisticated Bible translation program in 3 short weeks.
Ken and Bruce wearing their gifts.
Bruce and I proudly wearing our Nigerian gift shirts indicating that we are now one of them.
We closed our ceremony with one of their favorites verses and proved that indeed, white men CAN dance! (fuzzy photos to prove this will be posted after Ken arrives!)
The Haugh Herald 