To create clear Bible lessons and Scripture translation, it’s not enough to know the words people use in another language.
Even knowing how they string those words together in a sentence won’t get you there.
You need to know how words and sentences work together in stories and conversation. You need to find out if some stories are told differently from others. For instance, you might tell a parable or a fable one way, while using an entirely different form to talk about your trip to the market yesterday.
There’s a lot more, too, and that’s why Liv Poulsen had to finish up what is called a discourse analysis paper before she could continue translating the Bible into the language of the Badyaranke people of Senegal.
“Since I came back [from home assignment] I have also been working on some corrections that needed to be done in the discourse analysis paper,” Liv wrote. “Now I am continuing in Bible translation.”
Meanwhile, Eric Stottlemyer, one of her co-workers, has begun to write evangelistic Bible lessons in Badyaranke.
The next key step is finding the right Badyarankes to help Liv with translation and Eric with writing lessons. “We need people that are reliable and who faithfully will make corrections where they are needed,” Liv wrote. It’s not unusual for people to not want to correct anything, out of respect for the missionaries. But that’s exactly what is needed – after all, the Badyarankes are the experts in their language.
Pray that Liv and Eric are able to find the right people to help, and pray that they and the rest of the missionary team to the Badyarankes will be able to use their time wisely to build relationships as they translate and prepare lessons.
Taken from – Finding the right help: 3-25-2011 by Ian Fallis, Field News/ Mission News http://usa.ntm.org/field-news/finding-the-right-help