Posts Tagged ‘The Seed Company’

God, When Will You Speak in My Tongue?

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

This poem is by James Lokuuda Kadanya, a speaker of the Toposa language of South Sudan. Toposa is still without Scripture.

God, When Will You Speak in My Tongue?

Far and near
It is said that you, God, speak!
How do you do that?
Is it in their tongues?
If it is truly so,
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

East and west, north and south,
The Creator speaks, it is said!
Not in the language as of birds;
But in other human tongues I cannot understand!
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

Children and grown-ups of other lands,
With their different tongues,
Know your voice.
In their tongues you speak a special message to them!
If you speak messages in different tongues,
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

In the world around, we perceive you,
Yet your language is not clear.
We want to know you personally,
We want to hear you speak to us.
If you know all tongues,
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

We search you as a treasure.
Our eyes look on mountains, rivers,
Even in caves, forest and world around us.
Many voices are heard, confused we become,
If your voice is one, as of that of the Creator of all,
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

Oh! God, Creator of all people,
You who do not segregate,
Is it possible to hear you speak?
Can you speak in my tongue?
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

When he wrote the poem, James was studying in a linguistics school, and he now works for a mission, spreading God’s good news around the country. As many as half a million people who speak Toposa still only have a few portions of the Bible in their language. Do something so that people like James will hear God speak their tongue.

This poem has been reposted from the blog of a partner organisation, The Seed Company. Read their blog.

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Posted in Africa, Culture, Languages, People | 2 Comments »

Seeds sprout

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

Wycliffe Bible Translators work with many organisations around the world in order to be effective in Bible translation. One of our partners is the American charity The Seed Company, which was set up to establish and fund new translation projects around the world.

The Seed Company and Wycliffe work together in many of their projects, including First Gospel. We blogged about one First Gospel project in Nigeria in September.

This year, The Seed Company passed a significant milestone: in the time they’ve been working, they have started 700 new Bible translation projects, 100 this year alone. It’s one step closer to their aim: God’s word for every language in this generation.

But they are eager not to get carried away with the numbers; the purpose of their work is never just numbers, but that more people will come to know God through his transforming word. Project number 700, the Etulo New Testament in Nigeria, is one place where this is evident.

While 90% of the Etulo people are Christian, their ancestry of tribal religions still clings closely to their culture. When they go to church, they sing, pray and hear the Bible in English, which loses a lot in translation and makes it hard to apply the Bible in any real sense. They have been trying to start translation since the 1960′s, but without a written alphabet for their language, the task was too daunting.

This year, work began on the alphabet and, working with specialists, it was completed within 2 weeks. Now translation work will begin in earnest.

You can find out more about the Etulo project on The Seed Company’s website.

This milestone for God’s work fills us with thankfulness for the prayers and support of people like you. Find out more about how you can continue to support work like this from the UK.

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Posted in Africa, Languages | No Comments »

Word for word?

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Conversationally, people often speak of ‘word for word’ translations. But in many instances, if translators attempted to translate word for word, there would be some very serious problems with the final translation. Take this example from a translation project in Nigeria:

Challenge: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:2 to “make room for me in your hearts”. Translated literally in the Tsikimba language, the phrase “make room in your heart” is a local idiom for “hold and nurture a grudge”.

Solution: The translators chose words meaning “open your hearts to us”, which means that Paul wanted to maintain good relationships with the Corinthians.

There are more examples of these kinds of hurdles that translators have to clear on The Seed Company blog. The Seed Company partner with Wycliffe Bible Translators, supporting and enabling the work of Bible translation worldwide.

Mistranslating the Bible, as might have happened in the example above, can hinder someone from hearing God speak in their own language, the language of their heart. It is important that well-trained and dedicated people work with translation teams like the Tsikimba team to ensure accurate and clear translation. Find out more about roles that help get the message through clearly.

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Feeding with God’s word

Monday, April 18th, 2011

The JESUS Film is being shown all round the world. Based on the gospel of Luke, the script has been translated into more than 1000 languages, and has shared the Story with billions of people in their own language.

Stephen, a translation consultant, was recently consulting during a workshop where the JESUS Film was being translated. One moment really struck him, as he saw the passion of the translators to share Jesus’ words with others in their own language:

At a recent translation workshop involving eight languages in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, we were only getting about two hours of city electricity every day between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. The translation center had a generator, but it was expensive to run and just came on at certain times. Early in the workshop, Dominique, one of the translators in the Yaka language, stood up after the morning devotional time and said,

“Yesterday afternoon we weren’t able to work because there was no electricity for our computers. We only have three weeks here to translate the whole script, so our time is very limited. I’m willing to skip lunch if we can take the money and use it to buy gas for the generator so we can work in the afternoons. How many of you are willing to join me?” Read more on the Seed Company blog.

Stephen works with the Seed Company, whose aim is to help accelerate Bible translation. The Seed Company, Wycliffe Bible Translators and many other organisations are striving to make the Bible accessible for the 300 million people without God’s word in their language.  Find out how you can be involved.

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Posted in Africa, Events | No Comments »

The Place of the Old Testament

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

This month, the Biblefresh* Understanding the Scriptures evening classes will be addressing the question, ‘Does the Old Testament have anything to say to today’s church?’  The lecture is sure to be as challenging as it is informative, as we grapple with how we ordinarily tend to approach God’s word.

Our speaker is Katy Barnwell. Katy currently works with The Seed Company, one of Wycliffe’s partner organisations.  Her role is based in Nigeria, where there are currently 15 Old Testament translation projects underway.

The evening class will be taking place on 16 March, at the Wycliffe Centre. Find out more and sign up for Understanding the Scriptures classes.

*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.

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Posted in BibleFresh, Evening Classes, Events, UK | No Comments »

Perseverance

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

The Seed Company is an affiliate organisation of Wycliffe that seeks to partner in particular with national workers in countries with Bible translation needs.

The Seed Company has set a goal of beginning translation in an additional 225 languages in the next three years. Ambitious? Yes! Impossible? Humanly speaking, yes. But that’s where faith and passion meet. By connecting supporting individuals, groups and churches with national translators and their projects, we can speed up the production of clear and accurate Scripture for those without it. It’s a great goal with eternal results! read more

They have produced a video interviewing some of the translators they’re working with in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their testimonies are a reminder of the horrific things that have happened in that part of Africa in the past few years, and beg the question “why continue?”

The video bears witness to the hope and faith of those involved in bringing God’s light to a dark and often forgotten land.

Find out more about The Seed Company and how you can support translators like those in the DRC.

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Posted in Africa, Multimedia | 1 Comment »