We are thankful to have Ned at home again. He had four long weeks of intensive training. The first two weeks was an Advanced Language Workshop where they were working on learning how to decode the tribal languages on a deeper discourse level. When you understand how languages are put together – how they make a main point, how they introduce characters, how they introduce a story – then you will be able to make your Bible translation and lessons much more understandable to the mother tongue speaker.
The next two weeks were spent actually checking the book of Ephesians for the Dinangat tribe. There were four Dinangat men helping missionary Ralf Schlegel check his work. There were 8 consultants-in-training checking the work. The check went very well and the Dinangat men were very grateful for everyone who came to help make sure the translation was clear and accurate. The Dinangat men even brought thank you gifts of peanuts and onions from their gardens for each consultant. It was quite humbling!
We are so blessed to have God’s word in our language. What an awesome opportunity to be part of bringing God’s word to more language groups in Papua New Guinea. Thank you for standing with us so that we are able to be here!