Posts Tagged ‘Papua New Guinea’

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IT matters

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

“‘Make straight a highway for our God’ (Isaiah 40:3-5). In our own way, that’s what we are called to do—to create a highspeed digital highway, as direct as possible, smoothing the way for translators’ work flow, so the peoples of the earth can receive God’s word and see the glory of the Lord.” Rob Scebold at a JAARS conference in September.

Technology has revolutionised the way that Bible translation is done. For the early European translations, one scholar considered translation options alone, surrounded by other translations, laboriously writing a manuscript out by hand, to be printed using clunky materials over many months on a printing press. Mistakes were common and costs were unbelievable.

Many people think we still do translation like this. Certainly translations are considered, but increasing amounts of discussion are shared over the internet. Yes, libraries of resources are available, but easily available on computers. Printing can still take a long time, but to get something of a draft quality now can take just a click of a button, and publishing digitally can spread a translation around the world in a matter of minutes.

In their latest magazine, JAARS – a technological partner of Wycliffe Bible Translators – expand on some of the leaps that have been made forward in software to support Bible translation. Among them…

  • WeSay and myWorkSafe, programmes developed in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, which change dictionary making and file backup into something straightforward for mother-tongue translators who are inexperienced with computers. Dictionaries aid the work of translators and progress literacy, and in an environment where powercuts, loss of internet and computer failure are common, backing up is essential.
  • ScriptSource – an online database for linguists, researchers and font designers to share information about scripts and needs for new characters.
  • Pathway prepares finished documents for publising straight away, arranging items in the right formatting meet the highest standards of publishing at a click.

For more about the exciting and new developments in software coming along with Bible translation, read JAARS latest magazine, Rev 7.

If you are free this Saturday and around the High Wycombe area, you can find out more about how technology is changing the way translation is done at our public event ‘The Bible: the Story everybody needs’. Find out more.

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Posted in Multimedia, Serving Overseas | No Comments »

How far would you go?

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

One of the stories in our latest magazine was about the astonishing transformation God worked among the Pinai-Hagahai when the word of God came to them. The translated Scriptures were distributed on solar-powered media players. Read what happened when one family’s media player broke…

"Scriptures in my language"

‘What would you be willing to do to hear God’s Word in your language? Would you hike for half a day? Would you cross a rugged mountain? Would you navigate a vine bridge suspended over a raging river?

‘That’s what Wapena Mei did in order to obtain a small solar-powered device that has a recording of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts in the Pinai-Hagahai language. You see, Wapena knew it would be worth the trip because he had already been listening to the oral Scriptures for more than a year. But when his family’s player broke and they learned that 70 more would be distributed in a village across the mountain, his wife gave him the charge, “Go and get us another one of those MegaVoice units.”

‘Wapena was successful in his mission and he and his wife Makome will again be able to listen to the Pinai-Hagahai Scriptures in their small dwelling as they go to sleep at night. Wapena also uses it as a resource to prepare sermons for preaching in area churches.’ Account by Karen Weaver. Read more on thewordislife.net.

You can read more about the initial response to the media players in our magazine, Words for Life.

Pinai-Hagahai is a language of Papua New Guinea, the country with the greatest need for Bible translation in the world. Wapena Mei can hear God’s word in his language, but many more in his country and around the world have never heard even a single verse. Share God’s Story.

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Posted in Languages, Pacific | No Comments »

‘An interesting and varied life’

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Earlier this month we were saddened to hear of the death of Irene Walker. Irene had been a Wycliffe short-termer from the 1970’s. But, looking back at her life, the phrase ‘short-termer’ doesn’t really cover it.

In 1975, at the age of 55, Irene made the decision to use the freedom of her retirement to go to Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe. She volunteered, providing important teaching and administration skills. Irene returned home after her first 3 ¼ years, but soon felt that she should return to this work.

Her letters home tell of some of her amazing experiences:

December 1980

November 1st was a very special day for the people of villages on the banks of the Sepik river for on that day their own Yessan-Mayo New testament was dedicated![…] The previous day some of us had flown out from Ukarumpa and then travelled upriver in two canoes joined by planks of wood, enjoying the beauty of the river, the birds and foliage, and the little villages on the bank.  It was a wonderful experience to rejoice with the people in song and prayer and reading from their own New Testaments.

March 1981

I have acquired a car; bits of it are held together by tape but all vital parts work and it successfully negotiates mud, a flood, a plank bridge and herds of water buffalo between the centre and the aviation department.

After a further 3+ years, Irene returned home. But she still wasn’t finished with Wycliffe. She volunteered with the Wycliffe office in Northern Ireland, representing Wycliffe at churches and helping in the office. All in all, Irene’s short-term work lasted more than 14 years.

She is fondly missed, and her life – by committing to supporting the work of Bible translation – has touched many lives. You can read more about Irene from Wycliffe’s Northern Ireland coordinator John Hamilton, on his blog.

Find out how you could be part of Wycliffe’s work in any number of ways.

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God so loved the world…

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

Beth and Stephanie were doing short-term work in Papua New Guinea. They had spent some time with the Neme people and, for four days, had been exploring alphabet possibilities — seeing how it would be best to write the Neme language.

They were getting comfortable with the script and decided to try it out. Their test text: John 3:16.

It contains some very difficult concepts to translate. They spent many hours explaining and rewriting. With great exitement, they began to write it with permanent marker on a cotton flour sack. Everyone was eager to join in — one writing, one reading, several holding the sack tightly, and many more giving the writer constant instruction.

When they finished, everyone was smiling. There were tears in the eyes of the Neme speakers as they read it. The translation back into English is something like this:

‘Because God strongly loved all world’s-people, he sent-from-afar his one-and-only-son. Whoever hears-and-receives-continually him, he will not die, continually raw will-get.’

The Neme people had first heard the gospel almost 70 years before in a language that was not their own. But this was the first time they had heard God’s word in their own language.

But a Bible translation programme has yet to begin among the Neme people. They make up 0.0001% of the people in the world without any translation begun in their language. Find out more about how you can help to share God’s word with them.

This story comes from a previous edition of Words for Life, our biannual magazine. Read our newest magazine for more stories from Bible translation. You can also hear regular stories by signing up to our e-newsletter.

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Posted in Pacific, Short-term | 1 Comment »

View from the Ground

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

It can take five days travelling, by boat and on foot, to reach some language communities in Papua New Guinea. The same journey by plane takes a couple of hours. Small aircraft not only make transporting resources easier, but they can act as ambulances and their use is a matter of life or death.

A Runway in Papua New Guinea

So it’s important that the runways, small though they are, are maintained for planes to take off and land. David, an aviation partner of Wycliffe’s, says,

“Without the airstrips, translation within this country would cease. Air travel within Papua New Guinea is crucial to get the task of Bible translation completed.”

But heavy rains and thick vegetation growth mean that constant work is needed to maintain the runways. If a runway becomes unusable, workers are isolated.

Wycliffe Associates in the US, who partner with Wycliffe, have committed to raising funds and doing maintenance on strips that are falling into disrepair across Papua New Guinea.  The $50,000 they aim to raise will purchase essential maintanance gear, like shovels and wheelbarrows, as well as enabling ground-clearing work to be done where more runways are needed.

Read more about this project and the work of Wycliffe Associates in the USA.

In Papua New Guinea alone, there are still over 500 language groups where no translation work has even begun. You can help to share God’s story with them in their own language.

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Days to Departure: 304

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Luke and Laura are getting ready to head out to Papua New Guinea to work with a language group. They will be starting to  develop a writing system with them, help with literacy and (eventually) help to translate the Bible!

After years of planning, Luke and Laura are getting down to the practicalities of praparation as they get their medical MOTs. They  have also begun to blog their experiences as they prepare to do God’s work in Papua New Guinea. In the East Sepik region, where they are headed, there are 100 language groups which still don’t have the Bible in their mother-tongue.

Papua New Guinea is a mosaic of languages:

“With 800+ languages, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world!  About 180 languages have the NT, and another 200 have current translation projects, but hundreds of languages still need translation! All of this is found on an island the size of Sweden, just a two hour flight from Australia, with a population of 6.8 million people (about the size of  Libya).”

You can read more on their blog about Luke and Laura’s journey so far and what’s to come.

There are many different ways you could also be involved in helping people to have the Scriptures in a language they really understand.

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Many Roles: Transport

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

It’s not easy getting to Walagu.  It’s in a remote area in Papua New Guinea.  A local man claims it takes him a two day hike, with early mornings and late nights, through the jungle to reach the nearest road.

Imagine this journey for new arrivals, backs packed with Bibles and study materials, as well as all the other resources needed for living in this remote community! But the Onubasulu people, a people group of around 1,000 living in Walagu, want God’s word in their language – so Beverly committed to go.

The Runway at Walagu

In these situations, the benefits of the work of JAARS are obvious: JAARS provide transport and travel subsidies to people working in remote locations such as these.  Their work not only enables many more people to hear God’s story, but they also provide for immediate physical needs, providing access to resources and medical transport.

Read what Beverly has to say about the benefit of the work of JAARS:

Being able to fly the men and their work materials there in just a couple of hours instead of taking an all-day ride in the back of an open truck and then a two-day walk is such a help and blessing. And the material arrives in better shape, too. Believe me, you would not want to try walking with your study Bible, or a stack of literacy materials, for a couple of days through the rainforest. More.

The continuing work of translating the Bible for people speaking every language needs a huge variety of people and skills.  Whatever your skills, you can be involved.

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Posted in Asia, Missionary life, People, Serving Overseas | 2 Comments »

Wagi Survey

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Juliann is involved in language assessment in Papua New Guinea, researching the use of local languages to help decision makers know how people can best have access to the Bible in their heart language.

She and the rest of the team have just come back from a survey of the Wagi people…

After visiting five villages, driving for over twelve hours, writing down 950 Wagi words and phrases, and talking to more people than I can count . . . it’s back to life in the office.

… One of my jobs on this survey was the “Language Use” questionnaire. Basically, we want to know who speaks which languages, when, where, and to whom. Knowing how often people (especially kids) speak the Wagi language helps us get an idea of how likely it is that people will still be using Wagi fifty years from now. In some places in PNG, kids are speaking Tok Pisin (the trade language*) more than their local language. In these places there is a chance that when today’s kids grow up, their local language might be lost. read more

There are around 2,500 language communities in the world with no Scriptures, whose languages still need to be assessed before translation projects can be started. If you enjoy traveling to new places, meeting new people and discovering where and how various languages are used, why not think about whether you could be a language assessor, paving the way for God’s message of love to be translated into languages and lives!

*A trade language is a language spoken across several language groups, mainly for the purpose of trading which each other.

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Computers, Teamwork and Missionaries

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Kahunapule is a software developer supporting Bible translation in Papua New Guinea. He has written about how he used to view missionaries, compared to how he sees his job, and mission work in general, now.

When I was very young, I had an idea of what a missionary was: a person who went off to extremely remote areas of the world, far away from anything resembling the civilization we were used to. He or she had to learn new languages, convince people that it was better to listen than to eat the messenger, and somehow get lots of people saved or die trying. The missionary image in my young mental image worked pretty much alone. The classic cartoon image of the missionaries tied up in a large cauldron, boiling over a large fire almost always came to mind.

… Now that I have had some experience, I have a different view. For example, I’ve never seen a large cauldron out in the jungle. (Other dangers, sure, but no cauldrons.) I see and experience lots of teamwork. I see lots of applications of appropriate technology in getting the Word of God to people, even in very remote areas. I have also noticed a lot of variety in the vocations represented on the mission field. I also see a wide variety of mission fields, with a wide diversity of cultures, languages, economies, and stages of development. read more

Kahunapule goes on to explain how the body of Christ is made up of many different parts, all with their unique ways of contributing to God’s mission.

If you thought being a missionary was about living on your own in the jungle you might like to read the rest of his post. Or if you have IT skills that you never imagined could help someone know God for themselves, take a look at the IT World of Wycliffe website.

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Kwomtari Grammar

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Before Bible translation can begin in any language, as well as making sure there is an adequate writing system, it is important that the grammar of the language be studied. Even though translation work is almost always done by mother-tongue translators, it is still important for them, and outside advisors, to have a good grasp of the grammar of the language in order to ensure that the translation is in fact bringing the same meaning as that of the original Greek or Hebrew.

Not only that, but a grammar description of a language can give a minority language group a real sense of dignity and pride in their language as it is documented linguistically for the first time.

Dan has written recently about a grammar description of the Kwomtari language in Papua New Guinea (spoken by only 600 people) which was written by two British ladies working with SIL, a partner organisation of Wycliffe.

[The expatriate couple working with the Kwomtari] said if it wasn’t for those two girls, they may not be here today – they really helped in providing encouragement and understanding of how the language works. Murray Honsberger gave a few thoughts about how all the parts of the body have their unique and very valuable roles to play. We cannot function in isolation. read more

The Graduate International Programme that Dan mentions is no longer something that Wycliffe UK advertises as such, but the option of 4 months of language training followed by 2 years overseas is still the preferred option for those wanting to serve in a language project. There is also the option of taking 4 months of further training to gain an MA in Field Linguistics after the overseas assignment.

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Posted in Languages, Pacific, Training | 3 Comments »

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