Every Sunday afternoon, one of our co-translators, Ryan
(standing in the yellow smiley shirt), teaches the newly translated scriptures
that we've been working on to a group of elders and bible teachers. They have some wonderful discussions and love
studying these newly translated scriptures that they've never had before in
their own language. Sometimes they study all afternoon and into the night. They
can sometimes have other church leaders arrive from places up to 2 or 3 hours
away to join them.
There is great benefit from these studies that Ryan is
leading. One is that Ryan can pass on
the knowledge and understanding of the scriptures that he is gaining from the
translation work while it is fresh on his mind and these church leaders will in
turn be able to more aptly teach and apply the scriptures. Another benefit is
that while the translation is still in process, they can have imput and suggest
a word that is a more fitting translation or point out anything they don't
think is translated clearly. The feedback we are getting is encouraging, they
are saying that the Tala-Andig translation is easy to understand and readable,
they are loving studying it and finding that it is speaking to their hearts
much more than the Cebuano Bibles they have been reading in the regional
language which they also know as they are bi-lingual. Last Sunday, Max came
across a quote from the book of Isaiah in the passage they were studying from 2 Corinthians 6:2, for He says, “At the
acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”— and
Max shared with the others how he really felt a great thrill go through him when he read this verse in his own mother tongue for the first time!
So on a Sunday afternoon, if the Lord lays this on
your heart, please pray for Ryan as he leads this study. Pray for his
preparation times, and pray for clarity of thought and understanding as he
presents these precious truths he's been entrusted with to his
fellow-leaders. We have reached our goal
for the year of finishing up to Hebrews 7! We praise God for the progress!!!
What a wonderful year of translation it has been!!!!! This month of December we plan on taking a
break, working on some other things that need to be done, having family time
and a bit of rest and relaxation and then we will start back with translation
on Jan 4, 2016. Our goal is to have 85% of the New Testament translated by the
end of 2016. Lots of prayer needed.
