Whew!!! It has been a busy two weeks. We just completed the Team Translation Workshop (TTW 2012).
The TTW is for the missionaries who have recently completed learning a tribal language and are ready to begin translating the Bible into their tribal language. It is required for the whole missionary team to attend the workshop since there are many ways each person on the team can help move the translation along at a faster pace even if that is not their main responsibility.
There were actually two workshops going on concurrently. One included 17 nationals from 8 different tribes including three national teachers. This workshop was held in the national language – Melanesian Pidgin. The English TTW had 17 missionaries representing 6 different tribal languages plus Ned and another consultant as the teacher/facilitators.
I, Linn, was responsible for the logistics. I had some amazing ladies who organized all the housing for the missionaries and national helpers along with meals for everyone. That left me with organizing child care for the 21 children of the attendees – including three of my own. It was an exciting and encouraging time to see the missionaries and their translation helpers gain a vision for “turning the talk” into their own heart languages.
There were some incredible people attending the workshop! It was encouraging to meet Seong and Mina Mun from S. Korea. They are 62 years old serving in a village in the Highlands as their only missionary. They finished learning the tribal language at age 59!
Ezra and Paal from the Patpatar tribe were also an example to us. They traveled a couple of miles every day to hear the Gospel when it was presented in their tribe. The day before leaving for the TTW – Paal’s brother died. It was a very hard decision to make and went against their families’ wishes but they felt like the Lord had given them this opportunity to attend and that they should be here.
One more lady I would like to tell you about is Kariang. She has been helping with the Mengen translation for many years but has never been able to attend a TTW due to having many young children. Most of her family is not Christian and her husband had said she could not come out. She prayed quietly and the Lord worked a miracle in her husband’s heart – allowing her and her one month old baby to come out and take part in the TTW. She was very excited to be here.
I know this is getting long – but please be praying for Ned these next two weeks as he is checking translation in the Lusi and Mengen tribes. He flew by helicopter this morning. The Lord gave beautiful weather which was a big praise. Another HUGE prayer request is that Ned’s computer quit working last night!! He has hard copies of what he needs for the translation checks but cannot continue on with his own translation until either the computer is repaired or replaced or I guess he can take over my computer. 🙂 Anyway, we need to figure out something pretty quickly.
There are some uploaded pictures of the TTW and a music video of a song the national translation helpers wrote during their time here. Go to www.sinco.nl and click on the Jan. 15th entry. The blog is in Dutch but if you go below the third picture and click on the link it will download the music video which is in Melanesian Pidgin.