For the past week or so, they've been gathering with a small group in their local church to read a draft of the translation that the team's been working on. Once they read a section of it, the team asks the group some questions, to make sure the translation was clear, to make sure it's being understood in the right way, to make sure the language is accurate and natural, and to see if there are suggestions for how it might be improved. I've not really been a part of very much of this sort of work, since I'm involved in the literacy work. So it was really interesting for me to go along and see this sort of "community check".
The checking was happening in a local church, just about a 10 minute walk from the compound. Unfortunately, it was a HOT day today, and we were all just dripping from the effort of walking in the mid-afternoon sun! But it wasn't too far to go, and by the time we got there, a bit of a breeze was blowing into the church, so it wasn't too bad. The church is a simple building, made from mud walls with a tin roof.
Inside, it's just a few plain wooden benches for the congregation to sit on, but lovingly decorated with a few sparkly garnishes!
Churches here always have a few brightly coloured soft chairs up in the front for the "guests of honour" to occupy. Of course, we got to occupy them today - no refusing hospitality around here!
I went with my three DkC colleagues, along with Jennie, a new colleague from Taiwan who's with us for 10 months. She took a bunch of photos with me in them, but I don't have those yet! While waiting for everyone to arrive, the DkC team spread out their tools:
And we got to work. Once all twelve members of the checking committee were there, the team leader started with a short devotion from the New Testament, which they have had published since the 1930s.What fun it was to see these guys get out their battered little New Testaments and read along with him!
I must admit, I just get such a kick out of seeing people here reading! I see it so rarely, that I have to take photos anytime I see someone reading... especially if they're reading the Bible in their own language! Does my little heart good to see folks with books in their hands.The devotion was taken from... um... hmmm... now I forget. Somewhere in the Gospels where Jesus heals the lepers and only the one comes back to thank him. That section was chosen as the devotion because the section that we were checking today was from Leviticus 13, where God gives all those commandments about some rather gruesome skin diseases!
But the people were really into the whole checking thing! I was so pleased to see them really paying attention, interacting with the team, answering questions, asking questions, and having some really animated dialogue about... well... it was all in DkC, so I'm not sure exactly what it was about, but they kept pointing to the text that the leader was reading, so I think most of it was fairly on topic!
I just loved watching the animated discussion! I find people from this particular community such characters - they have so much expression in their faces, and aren't afraid to just speak their mind, even the women!
So even though I sat there for a couple of hours, pretty much having no idea what they were talking about (except that I could follow along the text from the English Bible I'd brought along), I wasn't at all bored, because the discussion as so animated! I even picked up a few of the words in the language - the word for "mold" and "Lord", to be exact. I'm not sure when those words might come in handy, but I have added it to my repetoire of "fire", "good morning", "it's all good" in that particular language!It's also been really interesting talking to this team about their Old Testament translation work. The DkC community seems to have some very strong ties to the ancient Hebrew culture, actually. In their own origin stories, they worked alongside the Hebrews, building the pharoah's pyramids. And crazily enough, so many of their traditions are almost exactly the same as those of the OT. They have so many of the same kinds of feasts, they do their animal sacrifices in the same way, they even have a lot of the same laws, as set out in books like Leviticus.
It will be wonderful to see how God uses those cultural similarities to lead this community to Christ, just as he led the Jews to Christ in the New Testament.
Of course, a field trip anywhere wouldn't be complete without a random guy declaring his undying love for the "tall one". I think Jennie will continue to go out with me, so the "tall one" gets the attention, rather than her!
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