As you know, the Luke Check finished on April 25th, and we wanted to fill you in on what the ensuing 3 ½ weeks have held! So in a nutshell:
A Rest – We had to have a few days rest when the check was first finished as we were exhausted so we went to Cagayan for 3 days, caught up with some friends, went to the dentist and got purchased food and supplies as we normally only get to do this every 1-2 months.
More Checking – The team of translation consultants are very experienced in doing translation and they went through our translation of Luke with a fine toothed comb, and at the end of the check they had come up with a list of things that they wanted us to consider and look at some more – mainly in the area of the use of figurative language. The work of going over each of the suggestions and considerations that they asked us to and also writing a report about our findings to the consultants has taken us about 2 weeks to complete. Part of the checking process that we did was to make up a questionnaire which we sent out to a wide variety of people – from 10 – 60 years old, schooled and unschooled, saved and unsaved – with extracts from the book of Luke and then questions on the particular areas we were checking. A sample of the questions we were asking were:
“What did Jesus mean in Luke 9:24 when He said that whoever will save his life shall lose it?”
“What fire was Jesus talking about in Luke 12:49 that He said He had come to cast on the earth?” .......and many others like these.
We are now almost to the end of the whole checking process – maybe one more weeks worth of work left – which includes running the whole book of Luke through a spell checker one last time to make sure the spelling is all correct, getting it in the right format and proof reading it and then sending it off to the Printers for publication.
Globals – there are words used throughout the scriptures in the Tala-Andig translation like ‘chief priest – adagiyon ha tigpapamuhat’, ‘glory - himayà’, ‘worship - simba’.........and on and on, hundreds of words......that compile our key terms list. As we translate we keep learning new words and some of the new words we learn are actually a better match meaning-wise then another word we have previously used. As we have worked through the book of Luke, our Tala-Andig vocabulary has grown and we have been compiling a list for over a year of words that we have to globally search for through the Tala-Andig translation and to change or update. This is what we have been working through this week and it has been most tedious but we finished it today.
Midwifery Seminar – Belinda and I recently taught a midwifery seminar here and have worked on a midwifery manual and we have a few more days of work on this to complete the final draft of this manual so it can be printed and distributed.
Schools and Church Buildings – Paul has 1 school room and three church building that he is in the process of building. He has been very busy getting all the materials on site and with all the other preparations involved. It is important to get all of the materials on site before the rains come as it will possibly close the road down to an extent.
Teaching the book of Acts – While we were in Australia, Josh was teaching the book of Mark along with the other bible teachers here. He finished that series just last Sunday so Paul is now going to continue his series on the book of Acts, teaching chapters. 17-28. A lot of preparation goes into this and also into writing a commentary/study guide on these chapters as a resource for the church to use as they do not have access to any English commentaries due to them not being able to speak English.
Teaching Maths – Jubab’s maths curriculum is getting more and more difficult and Paul having the most mathematical mind on the team here, has now taken on teaching Jubab’s Maths Class which takes a couple of hours each day.
Leadership Development – Paul continues to have imput and teaching times with the elders and leaders of the church and is currently developing leadership development studies.
Ladies’ Retreat – June 11-12, we are having a Ladies’ Retreat at a Bible Camp facility a couple of hours drive away from here. I am leading a study on the book of 1 John during the retreat and have been preparing and studying for this. This study has to be written so it can be printed and re-produced and used as a study guide in the outreaches.
Book of Romans – this is the next book we are translating. Last week we started working on Chapter 1 but our proposed schedule for starting full-time work on this is mid-June.
Visitors – hurray!!! A visit from precious friends from Ballina who are coming the end of this week!!! It will be so wonderful to be with them again as we have been homesick and have been really missing them.
A typical day........there is not really such a thing here. This morning started with an early visit from a grieving brother whose father died unexpectedly last night. Awhile later, there was another problem (of much less importance) when we discovered there was no water for a shower or even a bucket-bath as the water had totally run out in our tank. The deep-well is producing no water as the water tables are so low, and we are dependant right now on rain water. Thankfully we have started to get some rains.
We have worked all day on finishing the Globals (explained above), our heads feel like they are about to burst from concentrating so hard on such a tedious task, and we are working now on getting some dinner ready for our co-workers Bugs and Elsa, who just returned from a visit to Cauyunan.
Tomorrow will bring a totally different set of happening that all compile to make up our lives here in Lapoc and every day is challenging, busy, sometimes heartbreaking, often stressful but also full of joys and in the midst of every crisis.....is the undergirding peace and strength from our Heavenly Father.
Please keep praying........ there are days (we have to admit) when we feel homesick for Ballina, and there are days we feel overwhelmed, and there are times when we are faced with a request and we just don’t know what the right answer is to give, and there are times we feel so exhausted, and we make mistakes, and there are the days when we cry silently “rescue us Lord”.....but we keep pressing on for the joy set before us and because of the verse God has been laying on our hearts: “For the love of Christ constraineth us.....”
This is our sister Jenita.......the Lord brought us here because she is one of His chosen ones that He wanted reached.
This week she has been crying, her heart is heavy
with struggles but she has One who is saying to her,
“Come unto Me........and I will give you rest.”
So for our Lord and because of His sheep that have yet to be brought into the fold.....we press on!
We probably don’t often think about the long process of translation that went into our English Bibles before we had them in our hands but lately we have been very aware of the tediousness of the translation process as we go through the final check of the Tala-Andig book of Luke.
Remember in February last year we started the translation of Luke in Ballina? Well this week is the culmination of the past year’s work and also of your support and prayers for us throughout this whole process so it is a very exciting milestone!
The check started on April 14th and since then we have been involved in a process of checking that takes hours and hours of concentration and checking verse by verse with the consultant team working alongside our language helpers. It is very hard work but very rewarding as the end of this means having the book of “Lucas” printed and put in the eager hands of the Tala-Andig people!
One exciting aspect of this check is that two of the translation consultants are ladies who are ‘Mother Tongue Translators’ and have come down from the northern part of the Philippines along with their mentor to do the check!
Another exciting aspect is that we have two young people, Ryan and Isabel (two of our university students) who are also sitting in on this check and learning a lot about translation principles. They want to train as ‘Mother Tongue Translators’ and help us in the future as Tala-Andig Bible translators.
P.S. April 23, 2010 Hurray!! Today we finished the check of Luke!! We praise God!!!
GOD is amazing us and exciting us and filling us with wonder at all HE is doing!
This is some of what has happened in the past two weeks:
*We ordained another elder - Gabril – in the church here in Lapoc. *We baptised 193 new believers! *Six hundred plus gathered for a believers conference from many different villages. We saw people serving each other – the cooks for the conference cooked for two days and nights with no sleep. *We saw the oldest believer here in Lapoc, Maas, get baptized by her previous enemy. *We had a prayer time with hundreds of believers sitting outside the church in groups of five.
Everything that happened just amazed us and is the evidence of God working here in this place in ways we can only wonder at.
Special Prayer Points for this week:
·Barb (Jubab’s teacher) is in HongKong at the moment seeing a Doctor. Please pray ferventlyfor her health and safe return here to Lapoc.
·Preparations for the Translation Consultant check of the book of Luke starting April 13.
This is an account of our first few hours back home here in Lapoc – this actually happened on Feb. 1st so it is over a month ago but we didn’t want to inundate you with updates so we are spacing the news out!
Arriving in Lapoc.......
So.......as dusk was approaching our laden down 4WD weaved its way up the dusty track (that is dust you can see in this picture, not fog!).
On board was Mrs. B and Mrs. Pems and all of our belongings as well as groceries and supplies enough to last a couple of months.
As we pulled up near the top of the road leading into the driveway to our house, we saw crowds of people waving and cheering.
You probably know what happened then – our eyes began to fill with tears and we had this great sense of being back amongst loved ones.
Feet back on Lapoc ground......
We hardly had time to put our feet on the ground and we were surrounded by our friends and family in the Lord Jesus!!
Paul almost disappeared in hugs and handshakes – a lot of the children had grown so much in the 15 months we were away that we could hardly recognize them!
Jubab’s dog Sparky was jumping all over us! People were crying – so were we!
Jubab disappeared amongst his friends.
Babies......
While we’ve been gone, there were new babies born to our friends who we’d never seen!
Their chubby little arms and soft cuddles were something I had been looking forward to!
And in the midst of all the reunion and excitement and hugs and tears......
........there was another surprise for us!
A party.....
Our neighbours and friends had been cooking and preparing all afternoon for a surprise party for us when we arrived!
There were special songs - in this photo, the women scripture teachers were singing to us! After this the Bible Teachers sang a song as well and then there was a short message and welcome address to us from our co-worker Rodil.
And then the ladies served a beautiful meal to everyone who had gathered and the time of fellowship and laughing and cuddling babies went on well into the evening.
We had lots of help after the party with the unpacking and that went late into the night and we finally got to bed absolutely exhausted but soooooooo happy to be back with our precious friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord here in Lapoc.
So that was our first evening back home here in Lapoc, and since that evening many more exciting things have happened and are happening as God continues to walk with us on this missionary journey here in this place. The things our God is doing are more amazing then words and emails can do justice to.
Let me introduce you to ‘Mrs. B’ as she is affectionately known to us! She comes from Victoria, Australia, and she bravely left her home and her family last month to come and teach Jubab Gr. 6 this year! She misses her grandchildren and family dreadfully and yet she is willing to live in a very remote village in the ‘middle of nowhere’ to help us. Heaven sent her to us and we are so, so THANKFUL for her!
Not only do we have ‘Mrs. B’ here but also ‘Mrs. Pems’ her sister! Two beautiful ladies who have added a bunch of fun and wisdom and spice to our life here in Lapoc. (They keep cooking us yummy things!)
And not only is Mrs. B teaching Jubab but she is also teaching our co-workers’ children, Daisy and Ally, as well! Which is such a huge help to our whole team and which has added a lot more ‘life’ to the classroom!! Jubab is just rapt to have classmates – especially (may I add) such lovely ones!
Mrs. B is a school teacher with LOTS of experience and is just wonderful in the classroom with our kids, and her sister Mrs. Pems came over for a few months to help Mrs. B adjust to life in Lapoc. But already Mrs. Pems has filled a big gap - doing everything from helping our kids in the classroom with reading to helping out with medical issues (she is an expert midwife), and also cooking wonderful meals! She is even going to teach some midwifery classes to help us train some of the women here in midwifery (with a bit of help from us translating.)
And while they are teaching our kids, this is what Belinda and I are doing: Belinda can help her husband Josh in developing Tala-Andig Bible lessons and also in her ministry of discipleship of the women.
And I can be in my office full-time working on the translation of the New Testament which is the main focus of Paul’s and my ministry at this time.
Here I am working on finishing off the Tala-Andig translation of Luke.
Belinda teaching a computer class, so that someday our Tala-Andig friends
can help us with every aspect of the ministry here!
By the way, Mrs. B and Mrs. Pems’ names are Barb Bjerking and Heather Pemberton!
Their ministry here illustrates the team-work that is necessary for missions to be a reality and a success, and your part on this team contributes greatly also to the work of the Gospel in this place so can we please tell you again how much we PRAISE GOD FOR YOU!!!
