We had a group of about 70 youth (7th – 12th grade) here from North Carolina. In the morning we schedule presentations, in the afternoon we did good, old fashioned, get your hands dirty work. We had a great time!
One presentation was a Monolingual Demonstration. If you are like me….you thought, “huh, what’s that?” A monolingual demonstration in the “land of Wycliffe” is a demon-stration showing how a linguist first communicates with the people with whom he is going to translate a Bible for. He does not know their language and usually they don’t know the linguist language either. For the demonstration, they get someone the linguist does not know and English is not their first language. They only speak in their “mother tongue” through the demonstration. They are also not given any instruction on what the linguist is trying to accomplish, and are not brought into the room until after the linguist does the introduction to the group. Neither of them speaks English for the first 30 minutes. The linguist holds up dif-ferent common objects and hopes that the person knows to tell him what the objects are. The linguist will write down what the person is saying by sound in a “phonic international alphabet.” (It is not the usually ABCs that we have here in the US.) Usually after about 30 min the linguist can start putting simple sentences together. It was amazing to see a demonstration showing how the translation process gets started.
The second presentation was amazing! I know I won’t be able to justify it with my words…
Don Johnson (the missionary…not the actor) and his wife Helen presented a powerpoint spanning 53 years. It started January 8, 1956 when Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian were killed in Ecuador by the Waodani tribe. Don, along with 6 other missionaries went in by foot to find out what had happened to the men. I imagine most of you have either heard the story, or seen the movie or documentary. Don and Helen went back on sev-eral occasions to work with Rachel Saint, Elizabeth Elliot, the translators, and others that were there to serve. They had the privilege to preach, minister to the people, dedicate the first book of the Bible translated into their language, and for the 50 year anniversary church service, January 8, 2006 on “Palm Beach” where the men were killed. It is one thing to watch a movie or documentary….it is quite different to hear someone talk about it that was there, who took the pictures and when through it all with the families…. I think when most of us say, “Here am I Lord, send me,” we tend to look at the more adventurous side of things. Rarely do we think we will have to sacrifice as much as these people did.
Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian – Called to be martyred
Elizabeth Elliot (and 4 other women) – Called to serve the Lord as a widow.
Rachel Saint – Called by the Lord to witness to, live among, and serve those that killed her brother.
The last presentation was by Wycliffe and Wycliffe Associates. They ended the presentation with a demonstration that showed them why organizations like Wycliffe Associates existed. They had one kid get up in front, and he represented a Bible Translator. Then started asking the kids what that translator would need to do his job. A roof over his head. Who will build it? A computer. Who will fix it? Paperwork and money. Who will manage it or be bookkeeper? What happens when he gets sick? By the end of the demonstration half of the kids were standing up front holding a sign rep-resenting a job needed on the field for one (yes ONE) translator. If each kid would have handed their paper to the translator and sat down….the translator would be overwhelmed with paperWORK. When would he translate? It used to take 40 years to translate one New Testament. Now it takes 10-15….and recently they had one completed in 5 years.
“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” ~Nehemiah 8:10
Prayer Requests:
1. Wycliffe Associates, as well as the International Linguistics Center (the campus I work on) are starting a HUGE transition. Please pray that I can continue to learn my job and keep up with the transitions….and not get too frustrated with all of the change on top of change. :~)
2. That I would continue to get acclimated to Dallas as my new home…..so far I really like it….even the heat.
3. Financial Support
4. Finding a local church….still looking.
5. There is a lot of warfare going on right now, pretty much everywhere. Dallas, my family and my mind…
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!!!
Every Verse. Every Task. Every Tongue.
