100 years is a long time

Mary Steele MBE at Buckingham Palace

In a recent blog about the impact of the translated Bible on the Bimoba people group in Ghana, I referred to Mary Steele who was involved in the translation of the Bible into the Bimoba language.

Mary is planning to spend her summer back home in N. Ireland but is currently consultant checking the Book of Acts in the Avatime language. A few days ago she sent me a request for prayer for this work imbedded in a touching story about the Avatime people’s wait for the Scriptures in their heart language…

They have been Christians for a hundred years but still have no Bible in their language. The Avatime people live in the Volta region of Ghana, in the southeast of the country. The majority of them profess to be Christians, but as yet they do not have a Bible or even a New Testament in their language. The Gospels have been translated and we are now checking the book of Acts.

There is a feeling of spiritual opposition to the work of Scripture translation in this language, and it seems to go with difficulty. Please pray for spiritual victory, and that the Word will be a blessing to the team, Divine, Jacob and Gershon, and myself, as we work just now on checking the book of Acts in the Avatime language (pronounced Avateemee – but the Lord will know who you mean no matter how you pronounce it.)

Also please pray that the work of translating and publishing the New Testament, and eventually the whole Bible, in this language, will go ahead smoothly and quickly. A hundred years is a long time to wait.

Thank you for helping to bring the Bible to the Avatime people, by your prayers.
Mary Steele

If you Google Avatime, you can read things like this on Wikipedia…

Avatime is a tonal language with three tones, has vowel harmony, and has been claimed to have doubly articulated fricatives.

Avatime has nine vowels, /i ɪ e ɛ a ɔ o ʊ u/. It is not clear if the difference between /i e o u/ and /ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ/ is one of advanced and retracted tongue root (laryngeal contraction), as in so many languages of Ghana, or of vowel height: different phonetic parameters support different analyses.

Avatime has vowel harmony. A root may not mix vowels of the relaxed /i e o u/ and contracted /ɪ ɛ a ɔ ʊ/ sets, and prefixes change vowels to harmonize with the vowels of the root. For example, the human singular gender prefix is /ɔ ~ o/, and the human plural is /a ~ e/: /o-ze/ “thief”, /ɔ-ka/ “father”; /be-ze/ “thieves”, /ba-ka/ “fathers”; also /o-bu/ “bee” but /ɔ-bʊ/ “god”.

… all of which gives some insight into the work of a linguist translator like Mary!

If linguistics turns you on – read more. Whether it does or not, please pray for the Avatime team in their work right now.

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Move Over Love

For many years in Wycliffe Bible Translators UK, we have a used an exercise involving six volunteers to demonstrate what translating the Bible involves – and what it isn’t!

Personally I’ve lost count how many times I’ve used it around Ireland with churches and youth groups and seniors groups and children – and one year at our STEP programme in the south of France, we used it in French in Anduze Methodist Church.

Move Over Love in French in Anduze 2002

Ashley & Anya’s work experience blog quoted Move Over Love in the blog title.

Now there is Move Over Love online…

It’s obviously not as interactive as the live version with six slightly nervous volunteer translators and audience participation, but here’s hoping it will bring this simple but excellent insight into Bible translation to a wider audience.

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Derry: now that’s what I call culture!

THE four largest Christian churches are uniting for a special evangelical initiative that will see a copy of Luke’s Gospel delivered to every home in Londonderry during UK City of Culture 2013.

The leaders of the four main Churches will be launching the free gift for all in Foyleside Shopping Centre on Monday, January 21 2013.

Bishop Ken Good (Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe), Monsignor Eamonn Martin (Catholic Diocesan Administrator for Derry diocese), Rev Robert Buick (Moderator of the local Presbytery) and Rev Peter Murray (leader of the Methodist Church in the district) will join together with choirs and perfomers from local schools to launch A Free Gift for All.

A spokesperson for the initiative said: “The christian message is something that crosses divides and is good news for every person. Not only do we want to celebrate this special year in our city we also do so as a recognition of the common christian heritage of our city.”

The project involves the four churches joining together to distribute a special copy of Luke’s Gospel to every household in the city.

This joint initiative is a contribution from the churches to mark the 2013 UK City of Culture in the city. It is also a sign of a common commitment to the good news of the Christian message.

The public launch of A Free Gift for All will see choirs from schools across the community perform at this unique event. Pupils from the different communities, in some instances, will join to walk together to the event. There will also be performance art to mark the event.

Published on Tuesday 15 January 2013  in Londonderry Sentinel

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Don’t read the Bible this year…

Did you make a New Year resolution to read the Bible more in 2013? If you did, how’s it going? If you didn’t, why not give it a go.

Wycliffe UK Blog linked to a post on five ways not to read the Bible and then added a sixth..

Don’t read the Bible as if it was written only for the UK

At Wycliffe, we talk a lot about the fact that the Bible is God’s message to the whole world, not just a select few, and that everyone should have the opportunity to see and hear the words of God. This perspective can give us fresh understanding of the Bible: we begin to realise that the Bible doesn’t mean only what we think it means in the UK! The insights that one community and culture get from God’s word may be completely different – and of the same value – as another’s. Finding out how other cultures read the Bible could help us see the Bible in a completely new way.

Read the rest of the Wycliffe UK blog post

Wycliffe has resources to help you read the Bible with new perspectives from around the world:

• Bible studies for small groups and individuals: Choose your words carefully and The whole Story in five acts
• Activities for church and small groups: Get the word out and the Idea bank
• Talks and lectures: Understanding the Scriptures

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12 quotes from 2012 – No.12 and last!

Lee Bramlett with Hdi colleague

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK Blog ended the year with a list of 12 Quotes for 2012. I decided to trickle them out on a daily basis

This final quote is another story that I have covered before under the title One Little Vowel.

This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected his great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.

Hdi translation committee, Cameroon

It’s all about the verb to love: the Hdi people used dvi and dva, but what about the dvu form..?

“Could you dvu your wife?”  Lee asked. Everyone laughed.

“Of course not!” they said. “If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say dvu. It just doesn’t exist.”

Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, “Could God dvu people?”

There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded.

“Do you know what this would mean?” they asked. “This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected his great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.”

Read the whole story via the link Hdi translation committee

Almost 2,000 languages don’t have access to any stories  in their mother-tongue. Give the Story.

If you are reading this somewhere in the UK or Ireland, you might be interestred in our Wycliffe one day event First Steps

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12 quotes from 2012 – No.11

Des and Jenny Oatridge with the Binumarien people

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK Blog ended the year with a list of 12 Quotes for 2012. I decided to trickle them out on a daily basis

Quote number 11 is a story that I have blogged before. In fact it’s the one that inspired the 385 views on my blog one day last week.

Jesus must have been a real man on this earth then. He’s not just white man’s magic.

Binumarien speakers, Papua New Guinea, on hearing Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1.

My post was entitled No-one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit beings  Here is an extract…

‘No-one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit beings,’ Fofondai stated.

‘It’s only real people who record their genealogical table,’ A’aaso added.

‘Jesus must be a real person!’ someone else cried, his voice ringing with astonishment.

Then everyone seemed to be talking at once. ‘Fourteen generations, that’s two hands and a foot, from Abraham to King David … ’

‘And two more hands and a foot, to the time of the kalabus (the captivity) … ’

‘And another two hands and a foot till Jesus’ time … ’

‘That’s a very, very long time.’

‘This ancestry goes back further than ours.’

‘Yes, none of ours goes back two hands and a foot three times.’

‘Jesus must have been a real man on this earth then. He’s not just white man’s magic.’

Almost 2,000 languages don’t have access to any stories  in their mother-tongue. Give the Story.

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12 quotes from 2012 – No.10

Di Jameikan Nyuu Testiment

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK Blog ended the year with a list of 12 Quotes for 2012. I decided to trickle them out on a daily basis

Quote number 10 is from the West Indies! It’s about the translation of the New Testament into Jamaican Patois – which has not been without some controversy.

We have blazed a trail that no one in the 400-year history of our language has done. To suggest that certain languages are not worthy of the word of God is arrogant and ignorant.

Rev Courtney Stewart, general secretary of the Bible Society of the West Indies, on the publication of the Jamaican (also known as Jamaican Creole / Patois) New Testament

Read more by following the link above.

Almost 2,000 languages don’t have access to any of the Bible in their mother-tongue. Give the Story.

You could become involved with Wycliffe Bible Translators UK in 2013! You could be part of the amazing things God is doing through so many people to bring his Word to his world. Take a look at First Steps – and help bring the Bible: the Story everybody needs to those who don’t have it.

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12 quotes from 2012 – No.9

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK Blog ended the year with a list of 12 Quotes for 2012. I have enjoyed reading them and decided to trickle them out on a daily basis

Quote number 9 is from a Nigerian Anglican Bishop saying how important Bible translation is in his country.

It means that Jesus is one of them, he is their brother, is their Lord. He can understand their language, he can speak it… It means that he understands their problems… When they talk to him, he is not a stranger.

Bishop Ndukuba, Nigeria

Wycliffe Bible Translators believe that the Bible is the best way for people to come to know who God is. But how can you access that knowledge without any of the Bible in your language? Bishop Ndukuba, a bishop in Nigeria, has seen how the translation has helped people, churches and communities come to know God more. Have a listen to what he has to say:

Nigeria has one of the largest remaining needs for Scripture translation in the world. If you believe, like Wycliffe and Bishop Ndukuba, that all people should have access to the Bible, find out how you could be part of getting God’s words to people’s hearts.

Almost 2,000 languages don’t have any access to God’s Word in their mother-tongue.

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Wow! 331 views on my blog today…

Book of Kells: Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ

… and the day isn’t over yet!

Sometimes a blog just gets noticed, gets viewed – and maybe even gets some comments. Certainly I don’t know how it happens…

The blog which attracted the attention today was No-one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit beings which I posted on 2 November 2012.

It’s an amazing story from Papua New Guinea of how the genealogy of Christ was crucial in bringing a people group to faith in God.

I you take a look, who knows how many views I’ll get by the time USA goes to sleep… up to 333 as I post!

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12 quotes from 2012 – No.8

An Ikoma woman with the newly published book of Luke

Wycliffe Bible Translators UK Blog ended the year with a list of 12 Quotes for 2012. I decided to trickle them out on a daily basis

Quote number 8 is about stories! Stories in the Bible – a book that is just full of great great stories!

This is such a good story! We didn’t know the Bible had good stories in it!

Ikoma speakers, Tanzania

Think about your favourite Bible stories – and then read more about the Ikoma people discovering good stories in the Bible by following the link above.

It was reading a brief commentary in a Tearfund magazine about the story of Peter and John healing the crippled beggar in Acts 3, that led my wife and me to join Wycliffe Bible Translators 24 years ago.

But that’s another story…

Almost 2,000 languages don’t have access to any of these stories  in their mother-tongue. Give the Story.

You could become part of the Wycliffe Bible Translators UK story yourself in 2013! We are full of thankfulness for the amazing things God is doing through so many people to bring his Word to his world. Take a look at First Steps – and help bring the Bible: the Story everybody needs to those who don’t have it.

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