Archive for October, 2011

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Read all about it: new magazine out now

Monday, October 31st, 2011

The newest edition of Words for Life, our bi-annual magazine, is out now. It’s stuffed full of stories and photos about what’s been going on in Bible translation. Read more about revival among a people group in Papua New Guinea:

‘Because the Pinai-Hagahai live in such a remote area, there was a serious problem of lawlessness and crime when we started our work. Within months of our arrival in the language group, our village house was looted and destroyed, people were robbed, beaten, raped, and wounded, and the whole village was abandoned and burned down. The criminal activity in those days was so severe that I sometimes thought, “This is indeed a God-forsaken place.”

‘But God had neither forgotten nor abandoned his lost sheep.’ There’s much more to this story in Words for Life.

The newest edition of Call to Prayer is out now too. See the needs and rejoice in God’s provision for…

  • Murug, illiterate and selling chickens to support his 6 children, who listens to them read from Genesis in his language every night.
  • a Wycliffe Youth team, whose trip to Togo opened their eyes.
  • Seyidi, who has been sharing Bible stories in his language at the local market every week for more than two years.

Both Words for Life and Call to Prayer are available online. If you like what you see, you can sign up to receive them regularly by mail or email.

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Celebrations in Tanzania

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

On Monday last week, the book of Luke was celebrated after its publication in Ikoma, a language of Tanzania.

Mark Woodward, a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators (UK), was part of the original team sent to evaluate the need for Bible translation among the Ikoma and other nearby people. Now, six years later, they have the first book of the Bible in their own language.

You can read more about the Ikoma from Mark Woodward on his blog. Photos are from Michael Nicholls – read his blog.

 

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The meaning of a Bible passage – resources online

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

As part of Biblefresh*, Wycliffe Bible Translators have been holding monthly evening classes to equip people in local churches to get more out of the Bible. But sometimes we have conflicting opinions on Bible passages: how do we know the ‘real’ meaning of a passage?

On October 12, Barrie Evans spoke about how we can understand the meaning of a text. Providing a brief and easy-to-understand introduction to ‘hermeneutics’, Barrie took us through examples – both historical and current – of getting into the heart of the meaning of a text.

You can listen to or download ‘How to understand the meaning of a passage’ as a podcast below. Or you can listen on our website, and watch the slideshow as you go.

More information on our Understanding the Scriptures Evening Class series can be found on our website.

biblefresh logo*Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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An unanswered call

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Recently readers of our Call to Prayer bulletin have been praying for the indigenous people of Brazil*.

Highlighted today:

South Americans read new ScripturesFive hundred indigenous and Brazilian missionaries are needed to strengthen and continue work already started. In addition, 147 ethnic groups are unreached. Of these, 27 are very remote and 25 are little known. In the last few years, many communities have asked for God’s word, but no-one has been available to help. 

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom 10:14)

Over 340 million people in the world today are without God’s word in their mother tongue.  Some of them know what they’re missing, and are hungry for it.  Who will feed them?  God is reaching out to them through the work of Bible translation, and you can join with Him in giving the story.  Pray.  Give.  Go, or tell others about it.  There’s something everyone can do in response to this urgent need, whether home or abroad.

*More information on indigena.org.br

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Get a grip on the Bible

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Do you ever struggle with those seemingly slippery Bible questions? Do you ever find it hard to get your head around the ‘boring’ bits of the Bible? Help is at hand…

The end of this month sees the start of a series of Biblefresh teaching days running across the country. The ‘Get a Grip’ days each cover a series of subjects, concentrating on intellectual, practical and spiritual applications for getting into the Bible.

Classes tackle issues like genocide in the Bible, evolution and how we approach a difficult passage. You can get to the classes in any of four locations:

  • Glasgow, on 28th October
  • Cardiff, on the 3rd November
  • London, on the 7th November
  • Durham, on the 8th November

You can find more about classes, locations and booking your place on the Biblefresh website.

But even if you can’t get to one of these days, you can get insights on unconventional or troubling passages from a new Biblefresh book called Get a Grip. Buy it here.

Biblefresh has been a year-long celebration on the anniversary of the King James Bible to help people get back into the Bible. You can still get involved.

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A new British Bible

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

2011 has been a significant year for one British Bible, as we celebrated the 400th anniversary for the King James Bible. It has now become very significant for another British Bible.

The first complete Bible in Cornish has just been published. Despite Bible portions having been available in Cornish since a translation of Matthew in the seventeeth century, this is the first time the whole Bible has been translated.

Cornish has been considered by many to be an extinct language: its last mother tongue speaker died 200 years ago. However, it has been undergoing a revival recently. There are Cornish radio programmes and magazines. Road signs with both English and Cornish are becoming a more common sight. Last year, the first Cornish-medium preschool opened.

The translator, Nicholas Williams, puts the decline of Cornish down, in part, to the absence of the Bible in the language. The new translation, he hopes, will play a major role in the continuing rise in interest:

“One of the reasons we lost the language was because there was no Bible in Cornish. The Welsh had one (in Welsh) from the time of Elizabeth I, but the Cornish didn’t. As well as being the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures it is one of the defining books of our culture. Once you have the Bible you have created your literary heritage and I hope this book will be influential in the Cornish revival.” Read more about the Cornish translation in this report from the BBC.

Many millions of others, around the world, are still without the Bible in their language. Likewise, they struggle to maintain their cultures and languages when surrounded by more dominant languages. But unlike today’s Cornish speakers, they can’t read the Bible in another language they understand equally well. They need it in the language they understand best.

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What does Dickens have to say about Bible translation?

Monday, October 17th, 2011

Charles Dickens was an adamant spokesperson for the poor and oppressed of Victorian London. In Bleak House, he describes the experience of Jo, a street-sweeper, illiterate in a world filled with the written word:

Jo as represented on the cover of Bleak House, 1853

It must be a strange state to be like Jo! To shuffle through the streets, unfamiliar with the shapes, and in utter darkness as to the meaning, of those mysterious symbols, so abundant over the shops, and at the corners of streets, and on the doors, and in the windows!

To see people read, and to see people write, and to see the postmen deliver letters, and not, to have the least idea of all that language — to be, to every scrap of it, stone blind and dumb!

It must be very puzzling to see the good company going to the churches on Sundays, with their books in their hands, and to think (for perhaps Jo does think, at odd times) what does it all mean, and if it means anything to anybody, how comes it that it means nothing to me? From Chapter 16

While Jo’s experience may be fictional, the desciption is true to what life was like for many in the UK 150 years ago. And while it happened in this country a century and a half ago, the impossibility of reading is still the experience of millions of children around the world today.

Where Wycliffe Bible Translators begin work with languages — analysing grammar, developing writing systems, translating the Bible — literacy is close at hand. It is an essential part of bringing the word of God in any written form. People are brought from the isolating position of the modern-day Jo, and can read and write their own language. The world opens up to them.

Help them to read the words of God’s word.

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Breaking new ground in Cameroon

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

It’s usual for most of us to take on one new challenge at a time.  But within the last couple of weeks since the beginning of October 2011, CABTAL*, a partner in Bible translation, has started serving 8 new language communities!

Cameroonian lady standing in a doorwayAs you may have read in our previous post about Vision 2025, the pace of Bible translation has accelerated drastically since 1999, because our desire is for everyone to have access to God’s word in their mother tongue in this generation.  We have had to adopt new ways of working, utilising new technology, seeing many new translators take up the challenge for their own language community, and we are finding teamwork is bringing a powerful synergy to the translation task. 

In Cameroon, the new languages in focus include Mpumpong, Esimbi, Isu, Moghamo, Yemba, Tuki, Mankon, Mofu-Gudur, and Ngie. Some of these communities will need a community mobiliser and a linguist to start developing the phonology** of these languages in order to have an alphabet. 

The start of language work opens a door into a whole new world for these communities: bringing literacy, mother-tongue education, and most importantly the opportunity to hear God speaking to them in their own language.

As the pace increases, there are many more ways in which people can join with God in what He is doing through Bible translation, both at home and abroad.  Find out more about how you can help Give the Story.    

*CABTAL: Cameroonian Association of Bible Translation and Literacy www.cabtal.org.  Read more about CABTAL on a previous Wycliffe blog post.
** Phonology: the systematic study of the sounds of a language.

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Touching the World

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

On Saturday, October 22nd, St Martin-in-the-Fields host a celebration of accessible Bibles, called Touching the Word. It highlights the variety of Bibles available that make access easier for people with sight loss – whether through large print and Braille Bibles, audio Bibles or e-reader and online versions.

As well as celebrating in conjunction with the 400th anniversary of the Authorised Version of the Bible, this years also marks 52 years of Torch Trust and 100 years of the Guild of Church Braillists. These two organisations are working with RNIB, Compass Braille and Premier Christian Radio* for this event.

The day starts off with readings from Braille Bibles for an hour ahead of a service in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, at 11.30am. The celebration is free to attend and bookings are open at premier.co.uk/biblecelebrations.

As well as providing wonderful and suitable prompts to thank God and celebrate the Bible’s accessibility here, the centenaries of the Authorised Bible and the Guild of Church Braillists point us to the inaccessibility of the Bible for millions around the world. Through Bible translation and literacy, Wycliffe are helping to change that. You can help too.

Biblefresh: a movement of churches, agencies, colleges and festivals seeking to encourage and inspire churches across the UK to a greater confidence and appetite for the word of God.

*Find out more about these organisations on their websites: www.rnib.org.uk, www.compassbraille.org, and www.premier.org.uk.

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David Brainerd: 1718 – 1747

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

David Brainerd was not an archetypal candidate for a heroic and inspiring missionary. Before going into ministry, he had already failed his attempt at farming. On to university, where he was expelled in his second year. He was ill thoughout his adult life, have contracted tuberculosis, which eventually killed him. He also struggled with depression, even praying for death on occasions. His first two years in mission saw only two converts from the Native American communities amongst which he worked.

On this day in 1747, he died aged only 29, at the home of the theologian Jonathan Edwards. Edwards looked beyond these continual difficulties. He was so encouraged by the commitment of Brainerd’s life, he decided to publish a biography, recounting trials, turned-down-offers of a more comfortable life and 3,000 miles covered on horseback.

This book of Edwards’, The Life of David Brainerd, became his most popular work. Since its publication, it has never been out of print. John Wesley prescribed its reading for every preacher. Brainerd’s life, as retold in the book, has been cited by many missionaries as influential in their lives, including Henry Martyn, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Robert McCheyne and Jim Elliot.

His work and expulsion from Yale were also major factors in the establishment of Princeton and Dartmouth Universities. And the Brainerd Hall is the only  the university building at Yale to be named after an expelled student. A lot of influence for a man who during his lifetime was seen to be a sickly and melancholic failure!

Brainerd’s life was not constrained by what he appeared to be. He knew that God invites anyone and everyone to participate in his work. God is doing amazing things around the world through Bible translation. You could participate by praying, giving, going or telling someone else about the 340 million people who still don’t have a single word of Scripture in their own language. Visit wycliffe.org.uk to find out more.

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