Literacy Graduation

In November, I (Adam) was invited to be the keynote speaker at the literacy graduation ceremony for one of the local church denominations. I was pleased to see forty students from three different congregations gathered together to receive a certificate acknowledging their progress in Enga literacy. I was also encouraged by the fact that most of the people who were graduating had little, if any, prior exposure to reading in any language. Before the literacy course, they were mostly illiterate. And so it was joyful to see people, many of whom were middle-aged or older, learning how to read for the first time in their lives.

Some of the literacy graduates and people in attendance at the ceremony

Often people in Papua New Guinea need encouragement to try to read in their own language. They just assume that they will not be able to do so, and so they either never learn how to read in their own language or they settle for reading Scripture in English or Tok Pisin, neither of which they understand as well as they understand their own language. To help people grasp the beauty of receiving Scripture in their own language, I shared from Psalm 119:103, which, in Enga translation, sounds like this:

The sweetness that happens when I heard your word, surpasses the sweetness that happens when I taste honey.

Applying this Scripture for the graduates I then said to them,

The sweetness that happens when you read God's Word in the Enga language surpasses the sweetness that happens when you read God's Word in other languages. Why? Other languages are not yours. The Enga language is yours.

I then told the graduates that when Israelite boys first started learning the Hebrew Scriptures, the rabbis would gave them a taste of honey to remind them that the Word of God is sweeter than honey. After that, I had the graduates come forward for a taste of honey to reinforce to them just how sweet the Word of God is when they read it and hear it in the Enga language. 

Tasting honey, which is not as sweet as God's Word in Enga

Please pray for these graduates as they have only just begun the long road toward becoming fully literate. We in America often take literacy for granted, and we forget how long it took us as children to learn how to read. It is harder for adults to learn how to read, especially when literacy is not a value of the surrounding culture and when there is little access to books or libraries! To promote an ongoing interest in reading, we gave each of the graduates a free copy of the Gospel of Matthew in Enga. Please pray that they will read it each and every day and improve in their newfound literacy skills.

Reading the Printed Gospel

When we decided to allocate to the Enga Bible translation project, we knew that we would need the help of local churches to promote literacy. With over 300,000 Enga speakers, there was no way that we could teach them all how to read. As excitement for the Enga Bible has grown, churches have begun literacy programs to prepare for reading the New Testament in their own language. What is most exciting about this development is that we ourselves did not start these.

Local Church Literacy School

To meet the demand for the growing interest in literacy, we decided to print 250 copies of the Gospel of Matthew so that those who are pursuing literacy will have something to read. Rather than selling these books, we are strategically distributing them as promotional copies to drum up further interest in Enga literacy. A couple of weeks ago, I gave copies to four pastors in town, and they each immediately began reading aloud. One of the pastors, Pastor Joe, was so impressive in his ability to read fluently that I quickly pulled out my phone and took a short video of him for you all to see.

Around the same time, our friend Jenny (not her real name) stopped by our house. You may recall that Jenny was the lady who was accused of witchcraft and was nearly tortured to death in the village across the river from us. While we were away in Ukarumpa, Jenny took it upon herself to take a short two-week course in Enga literacy. We wanted to see how much she had learned, and so we gave her a copy of the Gospel of Matthew, and she immediately began reading it. She wasn’t quite as fluent as Pastor Joe, but we were still highly impressed that a woman who had gone through such difficult trials had taken it upon herself to learn how to read. She is now teaching ten other women how to read. To see a video of Pastor Joe and Jenny reading, please go to (https://vimeo.com/296242115).

Translation Progress
We continue to make excellent progress toward the completion of the New Testament in Enga. During our current two-month stay in the village, we will complete the advisor check for Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, and perhaps even 1-2 Timothy and Titus. After returning from the village at the end of November, I will begin working on preparing the Pauline Epistles for advisor check. Preparation for advisor check involves reading the Enga draft translation and meticulously comparing it with the original Greek, making notes and drafting suggested changes. This is very tedious work. For example, in the book of Revelation alone, I have 891 notes to review with the team. Please pray for strength and endurance for me to complete advisor checking. While our work is challenging and tedious, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Enga New Testament and hope to have the entire New Testament completed within three years time.

Bird’s Eye View
A few months ago our friend and fellow missionary Anton Lutz brought his drone to our village house in Enga and took video footage of our house, village, and the surrounding area. We’ve made this footage into a short video along with commentary from the family so that you can get a better idea of where we live. You can view the video at the following link: (https://vimeo.com/296260973).

Drone footage of our house in Immi village

Jacob in the Hostel
Our oldest son, Jacob, decided to stay in the hostel during our current visit in Enga. He is now in eighth grade and very busy in school with many activities. There are many other boys and girls his age in the hostel, which is overseen by hostel parents. While we are sad that he is not with us, he seems to be thriving and enjoying a bit of independence. But please keep him (and us) in your prayers.

Upcoming Furlough
We our planning to begin our next furlough in late June 2019. We will begin our furlough in Western Pennsylvania, where we will be staying with my (Adam’s) parents. During this time we hope to visit friends and relatives in the East Coast area. In December, we will drive cross-country to Los Angeles and spend the remainder of our furlough there before returning to Papua New Guinea in June 2020. We hope to see you then.

The Perfect Bible

As a Bible translator, I have spent much time (probably far too much time) searching for the perfect Bible. And although I haven’t found it yet, the following five Bibles come the closest for me.

1. Bibliotheca
Bibliotheca presents the Bible in five volumes without chapter numbers, verse numbers, section headings, footnotes, or any other such “helps.” No other presentation of Scripture draws you into the text itself more than Bibliotheca. For this unique Bible, Bibliotheca produced the American Literary Version, which is a light revision of the American Standard Version of 1901. It is the most literal translation available today that still maintains the literary beauty of Scripture in English.



2. The Early Church Bible
Much like Bibliotheca above, the Early Church Bible presents Scripture without chapter numbers, verse numbers, etc. This Bible combines Sir Lancelot Brenton’s English translation of the Septuagint with the American Standard Version New Testament. The Septuagint is the Koine Greek translation of the Old Testament that was made before the time of Christ. It was THE BIBLE of the Early Church. If you have ever wondered why quotations in the New Testament don’t always match up with the Old Testament, it is because the apostles were quoting from the Greek Septuagint and not the Hebrew text. This Bible is available only in Kindle format.



3. My Grandfather’s ASV
I was fortunate to inherit my grandfather’s pristine edition of the American Standard Version, which he received from his Sunday School teacher in 1922 at the age of eleven. They do not make Bibles like this anymore. The traditional beauty of the red goatskin leather matches perfectly the classical beauty of the ASV translation, which will probably never be surpassed in its translational integrity. If I could only ever have one Bible, it would probably be this one. It is long out of print, but a high quality replica is still available.



4. Cambridge Clarion ESV
This is the modern-day equivalent of my grandfather’s ASV. Of all the English translations of the Bible that are popular today, the ESV is my favorite (with the NKJV a close second). And while I prefer formats like Bibliotheca’s for reading, nothing beats the layout of the Cambridge Clarion for more in-depth study. This is the Bible I read with my family each night.



5. UBS Greek Reader’s New Testament
In my mind, the only thing better than reading from a well-executed English translation of Scripture, is reading the original Greek of the New Testament itself. But Greek can be hard to read without a little help. The UBS Greek Reader’s Edition of the New Testament puts the definitions of infrequent words right at the bottom of the page, so that you don’t have to constantly flip through a lexicon. I am also eagerly anticipating the release of the Septuagint Reader’s Edition this fall, which presents the Greek Septuagint in the same format. (My Hebrew isn't as good as my Greek.)



The Perfect Bible
Thinking about this list makes me realize that we English reader’s certainly are spoiled when it comes to all the choices we have as we seek after the perfect Bible. In fact, this powerful video from our coworker Todd Lindley puts into perspective the embarrassing amount of choices available to us as English speakers. But the people in Enga (not to mention thousands of other languages around the world) do not even have a complete Bible in their language at all. Any Bible in their language would be the perfect Bible for them. And so while we have the luxury to pick and choose between various translations, formats, bindings, etc., many others around the world remain ignorant of what Scripture says. But thanks to your support, we are working together to change that! Please pray that the Engans will soon have what will be, in their eyes, the perfect Bible!

Yes and No

Although most English speakers are completely unaware of it, the way that we respond to questions formulated in the negative is very strange indeed. Let’s say Martha is going to the store and says to me, “Honey, I am going to the store,” but five minutes later she returns to the house. At that point I ask her, “You didn’t go to the store?” (a question formulated in the negative). Now, if Martha did not go to the store, she would reply, “No, I didn’t go to the store.” But if she did go to the store, she would reply, “No, I went to the store.” So whether she went to the store or not, she would answer with the word “No.” (Although the way she says the word “No” will probably be different in each case.) Nevertheless, if I were to ask Martha and say, “You didn’t go to the store?” and she were to reply with the word “Yes,” I would be thoroughly confused! As English speakers, our brains don’t know how to handle it when someone replies with the word “Yes” to a question formulated in the negative.

In Tok Pisin and many other languages of the world, people give the literal, logical answer to the negative question. So, in Tok Pisin, Martha would either reply, “Yes, I didn’t go to the store,” or “No, I did go to the store.” Again, as English speakers our brains cannot handle these types of responses. And I have found it best to avoid asking negatively formulated questions at all, because everytime I do ask one, I regret it. (Interestingly, our children have gravitated toward the Papua New Guinean way of replying to negative questions. It is not uncommon for one of them to answer negative questions in English the way a Papua New Guineans would answer a negative question in Tok Pisin. Again, this makes our brains hurt.) 

In Enga, it is even more complex because there is no word for “Yes”; there is only a word for “No.” So, to say “Yes,” Engans restate the action of the verb in the affirmative. For example, if I were to ask Martha in Enga, “Did you go to the store?” she would reply, “I went.” If she wanted to reply, “No,” she could either say “I didn’t go,” or “No, I didn’t go.” Engans also have shortcuts for the word “Yes.” One shortcut is to utter something in between a grunt and a sigh; the other is to raise one’s eyebrows. I still have trouble with the raising of the eyebrows. Often I find myself repeating a question over and over again when I forget that raised eyebrows means “Yes.” Instead, I think that people have just misunderstood me or perhaps did not hear me.

This makes things difficult when translating Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:37, “Let your word be ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no.’” This is further complicated by the fact that the context of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:37 is his command not to swear any oaths at all. Not only does Enga have no word for “Yes,” but Enga also has no proper word for “Oath.” At first, we translated the idea of swearing an oath as “say that you are speaking very truly,” but we soon discovered that such a translation would not work as Jesus himself frequently says, “Truly, truly, I say to you.” So after much consideration, we translated “swear an oath” as “say the name of something and then say very truly that you will do something.” We found this to be an acceptable translation because swearing an oath usually requires invoking the name of God or something else (such as the saying, “I swear on my mother’s grave”). Having solved the problem of translating “swear an oath,” we were then able to translate Jesus’ words, “Let your word be ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no,'” as “When you say that you will do something, just say that you will do it. When you say that you will not do something, just say that you will not do it.”

Who would ever have thought that the words “Yes” and “No” could cause so many problems in translation work⁈

First Draft of Enga NT Complete!

On June 1, when Reverend Maniosa Yakasa of the Enga Bible Translation team completed his draft of the last nine verses of Ephesians, our first draft of the Enga New Testament was complete. We began drafting the Enga New Testament on October 21, 2013, and so the drafting process took us four years, seven months, and eleven days.

We started out drafting together as a team, working only part-time when I (Adam) was with the team in Enga. However, as the translators developed their translation skills, the team of six began working together full-time, even when I was not present with them. And the last few books the team drafted individually, sitting together at the translation table, but working to draft the books independently.

Although our first draft of the New Testament is now complete, there is still much work to be done to check our translation and prepare it for publication. Because the translators are now equipped to draft the translation independently, I am free to focus my efforts on the checking of the translation, which is just as time-consuming as drafting, if not more so. Nevertheless, we are nearly halfway through the checking process, and our goal is to publish the New Testament within the next three or four years. In the meantime, the translation team has begun drafting the Old Testament. They have nearly completed their first draft of Genesis, while also making significant progress on their first draft of the book of Exodus.

In the journey of ministry (and life), it is important to celebrate important milestones that we encounter along the way. While there is still much work yet to be done before we publish the Enga New Testament (not to mention the Old Testament), we invite you to join with us in celebrating this important milestone, because you have played an important role through your prayers and giving to help us reach this point. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your faithful support!

Presenting the gospels in Enga at a recent Scripture dedication ceremony

There Are No Words
To understand the difficulty of translating Scripture into a language like Enga, I want to give you a little exercise. Try retelling the following story without using any of the bolded words.

A man had two dogs. The first was named Spot and the second was named Fido. He liked Spot more than he liked Fido. One day the man needed to buy dog food, and so he went to the store and bought some. When he had returned home from the store, he wanted to put on his slippers, but he saw that Fido had chewed them up. And he said to Fido, “From now on, when I leave the house, I will lock you in a cage, until you learn not to chew up my slippers.”

You probably encountered some difficulties in trying to retell that story without using the words in bold, even though the story is quite simple. Enga does not have any of the words that are in bold, and so we would tell the story like this:

Two dogs of a man existed. The first was named Spot and the second was named Fido. He liked Spot. He really liked Fido. One day the potentiality for the man to buy dog food existed, and so he went to the store and bought some. When he had stood at the store and returned home, he was thinking, saying, “I shall put on my slippers,” but he saw that Fido had chewed them up. And he said to Fido, “Sitting at this time, when I leave the house, I will continue to lock you in a cage; when you learn not to chew up my slippers, I will not lock you in a cage again.”

This short exercise illustrates that when we translate even relatively basic stories from the Bible into Enga, we often encounter difficulties because of the differences in basic vocabulary. I am always surprised at the types of things that take a long time to translate, and I am often sitting there wondering why something that is so clear and obvious to me causes such challenges to the translation team. It is easy to forget about all the “bolded” words that they don’t have. (And of course, they have many “bolded” words that English does not have, which can make even basic speech difficult for me.)

By the way, in this brief example, I don’t even touch on the cultural background that most people in America would understand immediately, such as the fact that Spot and Fido are traditional names for dogs and that dogs chewing up slippers is a traditional problem of owning a pet dog. Of course, in Enga culture, a dog would never be permitted inside the house, and “slippers” would refer to what we would call “flip-flops.” And the idea that anybody would buy food for a dog would be considered ludicrous, as would the idea of keeping a dog in a cage when the owner is away from home. While finding the right words to use in translation is difficult, accounting for cultural assumptions in the biblical text can often be just as difficult

Being a Missionary Kid in PNG

During our last stay in Enga Province, the kids put together a short video about life as a missionary kid in Papua New Guinea. They did such a good job, that we decided to let the video stand alone as our update for July. Enjoy!

A Successful Rescue

On Monday morning, May 7, during my morning devotionals, I (Adam) was struck by the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, "...we ourselves had the answer of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver, on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us..." In that passage, Paul is discussing the trials he faced in Ephesus and the fact that he was ready to die as he went about his ministry, trusting that God was able to deliver him, and that God will indeed one day raise us from the dead even if we were to die for our faith. For reasons unbeknownst to me at the time, this Scripture penetrated deeply into my heart, and I was praying that God would give me courage to put my life on the line for him, trusting that he would deliver me.

As the translation team and I have been working on a public service announcement to combat the terrible practice of falsely accusing women of practicing witchcraft and then torturing and killing them, we have been struck by the words of Jesus, who said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Mat. 16:25). Jesus makes this statement in the context of discussing the persecution that he and the disciples would face. The thrust of what Jesus is saying is this: If you deny your faith to save your life in this world, you actually will lose your eternal life. But if you give up your life in this world for my (i.e. Jesus') sake, you will find true life. I have been teaching the translation team and preaching in churches that we, as Christians, need to combat this practice of falsely accusing women of practicing witchcraft and then torturing and killing them. If we just stand on the sidelines and let it happen because we are worried about saving our own lives, then we have missed the point of what Jesus has taught us.

On Tuesday, May 8, the day after reading 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, I was at work as usual with the translation team. We finished up work at four o'clock as usual and the rest of the team left. But because of some unusual computer problems, my coworker Nete and I stayed after work for about thirty minutes trying to resolve the problems. As we were just about to leave, Frank, one of our coworkers, returned with the news that two women were locked in a small trade store just outside of town, having been accused of stealing the heart of a young child and eating it, thereby causing the child's death. It was now time to practice what I had been preaching.

We immediately decided to try to rescue the two women, knowing that accusations like this typically lead to women being burned with hot iron rods and ultimately killed. So we went to the police station and picked up a police officer (who was unarmed) to go with us, as well as a relative of one of the women being held, and then we drove my car to the market area where we had heard that the two women were being held. During the short two-minute drive to the market area, I was afraid. Yet I prayed and asked God to make a way for us to rescue the two women. I then called Martha and asked her to pray as I proceeded ahead despite my fear.

As we arrived in the market area, someone pointed out to me the trade store where the women were being held. As I looked, I saw that the store was actually not locked; rather the door was wide open. So I casually walked into the store and saw a woman sitting on a pool table with some men gathered around. One of the men was interrogating her. I asked her, "Are these men saying bad things about you?" She didn't reply, and so I took her hand and began leading her out of the store. I must admit that I was experiencing tunnel vision and did not see the other woman sitting on the other side of the pool table. Fortunately, the relative of the other woman did the same and took her by the hand and led her out of the store as well. We calmly walked to my car and put the ladies inside. Then I sat in the driver's seat and went to shut the door. As I shut it, a man grabbed the door to prevent me from shutting it. But I just pulled the door hard, and he let go. I immediately locked the door, which was good, because he immediately tried to open the door once I had shut it. We wasted no time and drove away, the whole event taking less than three minutes or so. To be honest, I was shocked that we had so easily gone in and retrieved the two women. Praise the Lord for making a way!

After we left, we decided to take the two women to our house for the night. We live about a fifteen minute drive out of town in another tribe, and so we knew that they would be safe with us. I called Martha to tell that we had gotten the women and were coming home for dinner. She was equally shocked that the whole event had transpired so quickly. When we got to our house, the women told us their story, and we prayed with them and ate dinner together—tacos! (I imagine it was the first time either of the women had ever sampled such food!)

Frank, my coworker, returned to the market area later that afternoon to assess the situation. We were slightly amused when he told us that the people were saying that I must be the chief practitioner of witchcraft, who had come to rescue my own, and that my coworkers were my minions. Such accusations reminded me of the fact that when Jesus was casting out demons and opposing the work of Satan, he was accused of doing so by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. And Jesus' words in Matthew 10:25 rang true to me in a way they hadn't before: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household."

The following morning we drove the women back into town and met with the Provincial Police Commander, wondering if we should return to the market area to try to clear the names of these two women from any wrongdoing. His second-in-command is in charge of incidents of killings on the basis of false accusations of witchcraft, and he met with us as well. He advised us not to return, but to invite representatives of the tribe who had accused the women to come to the police station to hear our explanation of why we had come to rescue the women. Although we sent word to the people to come, nobody did, probably because they were afraid of getting arrested.

One of the women went to another village in another part of the province where she would be safe. But the other woman has two young grandchildren whom she looks after. So she was determined to go back to the village and get her grandchildren and then go stay in another part of the province where she would be safe. We were fearful that something might happen to her when she went back, but we have not heard any reports that anything has happened to her, and we assume that she is safe.

As the two women spoke with the police, we were able to ascertain the details of why they had been accused. A young child had recently been rushed to the hospital and subsequently died. As the child was being rushed to the hospital, his mother's cell phone had inadvertently been dropped or left behind. The younger woman of the two accused, whom I will call Nancy, went along with the parents of the child to the hospital, and a boy gave her the phone to take care of. Well Nancy had recently been in a car accident, and so she is suffering from memory problems. A friend of hers later asked if she could borrow the phone and Nancy gave it to her. Her friend later returned the phone to the mother of the child who had died. When the mother received the phone back, she asked the woman who had returned it to her where she had gotten the phone. When she heard that she had gotten the phone from Nancy, she accused Nancy of stealing the child's heart and eating it, thereby causing the child to become sick and die. That's it! That is the supposed evidence for which Nancy has been accused of eating the child's heart, thereby causing the child to die. By the way, the mother who made this accusation claims to be a Christian.

Later some other members of the tribe began interrogating Nancy and threatening to kill her unless she confessed to eating the child's heart. So, under duress and fearful of being tortured and killed, she made a false confession of eating the child's heart. Then they began to ask her whom she had been with that day. She mentioned that she had bought a sausage from the other woman who was later accused, whom I will call Patty. And because a sausage is an edible item, they assume that Patty was involved with supposedly eating this child's heart. And so the two were both being accused and interrogated.

This mindset is almost impossible for westerners to understand; indeed, it is hard for me to understand as well. The translation team and I have completed a public service announcement that will be played in market areas throughout Enga and, hopefully, on the radio. The announcement teaches people that sickness and death is not caused by women stealing a person's heart and eating it, but rather by things like bacteria, viruses, diet, etc. We also teach the people that those who makes false accusations are being influenced by Satan and are telling lies, and so people should not believe such things. And in the announcement we urge Christians to stand up and oppose this terrible practice, teaching that Christians who support this practice are not true Christians. (If you would like to read an English translation of our public service announcement, please click here.)

The week after we rescued these two women, my coworker Nete told me that people were accusing a woman in his village of practicing witchcraft. Fortunately, she has not been interrogated or tortured, but Nete invited me to speak to the village about such things, and so I went and urged them to recognize that they have no real evidence, that the accused is innocent, and that such accusations are lies from the devil.

We need your prayers! These false accusations are sweeping across Enga, and many innocent women are being tortured and killed. Please pray for this practice to end, and pray that people will listen to the public service announcement that we have prepared. Your prayers have power, and when you pray, you are directly attacking the enemy, who is wreaking havoc among the people of Enga. Together, let's put and end to his work.

Please know that we are now back in Ukarumpa, our home away from Enga, until September, so we are not in any danger. Also please know that the Police Provincial Station Commander has spoken with the leaders of the tribe that was holding the two women captive and explained that I am a missionary who is translating the Bible into Enga, and that these rumors that I am somehow the kingpin of witchcraft are completely false.

False Accusations of Witchcraft

When we arrived in Enga in late March, we heard a disturbing report that two women who live across the river from our house had been accused of practicing witchcraft and were then burned with hot iron rods. After asking around, we discovered that one of the women was killed, while the other was still alive.

Unfortunately, this was not the first time we had heard of such activity. For the past few years, reports of men accusing women of witchcraft and then burning them with hot iron rods has been on the rise. Such accusations usually arise when a person unexpectedly becomes sick or dies. Ignorant of the underlying medical causes, some Papua New Guineans seek out what is called a “glass man” (something like a witch doctor who claims to be able to use magic to discern who has caused the sickness or death). The “glass man” performs his “magic” and then accuses one or more people of taking the sick or dead person’s heart and eating it. In Enga, the accused are almost always women, and we have heard reports that the accused women are often divorced, which means that they have no husband to protect them.

While we have been praying about this problem for a while now, the fact that it happened in the neighboring tribe, just across the river from where we live, brought home the reality of just how terrible this practice is.

Jenny showing us the burn marks on her back

A few days after hearing these reports, I heard that Jenny (not her real name), the woman who is still alive, was in Wabag town. I was able to track her down and speak with her. As soon as I met her, I told her, “I know that you have done nothing wrong. My wife and I want to pray for you and help you, so please come to our house this afternoon.” She agreed, and later that day she came to our house. We prayed for her and then listened as she shared her story. With her permission, I took a video of her telling her story, which I am posting online for you to see. It is difficult to watch because of the terrible things that were done to her. But at the same time it is a powerful testimony of God rescuing her when all hope seemed to be lost.

Out of respect for the Jenny's privacy and safety, please do not repost the video online or share it. As you watch, please know that Jenny's young daughter is safe and sound. Also please be aware that she tells her story in typical Papua New Guinean fashion, which means that she repeats the story a couple of times, adding additional details each time. You can view the video at (https://vimeo.com/263589097). You will need a password to watch the video, so if you would like to watch the video, please send me an email to request the password. (Please note that I will not release the password to anyone living in Papua New Guinea because I want to protect Jenny's privacy.)

After praying with Jenny and listening to her story, we gave her some assistance and walked her back to her village. Although she did nothing wrong and there is absolutely no evidence that she has done anything wrong, most of the people in her tribe have decided that she is a witch or “poison woman.” As a result, they don’t want to have anything to do with her. Our hope was that, by walking her back to her village, the people in her tribe would know that we do not think that she is a witch. As we arrived in her village, I made a short speech in the market area. I told the people that Jenny was not a witch and that she had done nothing wrong. I then told the people that they needed to have compassion on her and help her since she was still too weak and injured to work her garden.

In light of what has happened to Jenny, I have decided to begin preaching in various churches in Enga to encourage the Christians to stand against this terrible practice of falsely accusing women of witchcraft and then burning and torturing them. Sadly, many Christians are afraid that these women truly are practicing witchcraft. They are also afraid that, if they stand up for these women, they too will be accused of witchcraft. It is eerily similar to the Salem Witch Trials that happened in America in the late 17th century.

Please pray for Jenny as she recovers from the terrible ordeal she has had to endure, and please pray for her ongoing safety as she is still living in her village, where many think that she is a witch. Please also pray for the Christians of Enga that they will know that such accusations are false and that they will firmly stand up in opposition to the torture of innocent women. Please also pray for us as we do all we can to raise awareness and encourage people to oppose this terrible practice. Thankfully, the government of Papua New Guinea is opposed to this practice and is taking action to curtail such killings and torture.

Inspired Exhibit

At the end of February I received an email from David Addington, a former boss of mine and dear friend who is also an ardent supporter of Bible translation. He informed me that he would be coming to Port Moresby in March as part of his work with an organization called Inspired Exhibit. With a stunning display of over 100 rare biblical manuscripts and collateral items, the exhibit chronicles the remarkable story of how the very words of God, written with His own finger on tablets at Mt. Sinai—were carefully copied, preserved, and through great toil and sacrifice have come to our generation, languages, and the tablets we now hold in our hands. He invited me to come to Port Moresby to be a part of the initial meetings to bring this exhibit to Papua New Guinea. So I flew down to Port Moresby to be a part of the meetings and met up with David and Dr. Scott Carroll, an expert in ancient documents who has been involved in putting together some of the largest collections of Biblical manuscripts in the world.

Dr. Scott Carroll (left) and David Addington (center) presenting to government officials at the National Parliament. (You don't see me because I am taking the picture.)

It is not uncommon for Papua New Guineans to assume that the Bible was originally written in English and that Christianity originated in English speaking cultures. Similarly, Papua New Guineans often have questions as to why they should trust the Bible. In fact, during a meeting at the Parliament building, the Clerk of Parliament shared that his own children had recently been questioning the reliability of the Bible. But the government officials were quite impressed when Dr. Carroll unrolled a three hundred year old Torah scroll written on calfskin and showed them the ten commandments written in Hebrew. And everyone was in agreement that when Papua New Guineans see even older manuscripts of the Bible and learn about how the biblical text has been transmitted through time, they will gain appreciation for the fact that the Bible is not an English book that originated in English speaking cultures, but that God is a God of all people regardless of a person's ethnic background or language. Similarly, they will see that the Bible has been faithfully preserved throughout history and is a trustworthy and reliable record of God's message for humanity.

Dr. Carroll pointing out the Ten Commandments written on a three hundred year old Torah scroll.

Not only will the Inspired Exhibit teach people about the history of the Bible and its transmission over time, it will also be an opportunity for Papua New Guineans to learn about Bible translation into their own languages today. The exhibit will include a station for people to listen to the Bible in their own languages and download Scripture text and audio in their own languages. Thus, Papua New Guineans from the more than eight hundred language groups in the country will be encouraged to become an ongoing to part of the preservation and transmission of Scripture.

Connecting with church leaders and government officials in Port Moresby.

The exhibit is tentatively scheduled for sometime between March and June 2019 in Port Moresby, Lae, and Mt. Hagen, the latter of which is just a two-hour drive from Enga. Please pray for all the many details to come together for this exhibit to take place, which will be a great boon not only to Bible translation efforts but to the Christian faith here in Papua New Guinea.

The Gospel of John

A couple of weeks ago we finished our consultant check of the Gospel of John. This was the first book that we have checked since moving to a more literal translation approach. It was also the first check in which we were able to include a woman in the checking process. The results were very promising. Both of the people who came to check the work consistently understood the literal translation, including the underlying spiritual meanings. Lovey Reto, the woman who joined us, was particularly helpful in providing feedback into the translation. We hope that we may be able to involve her in checking books with groups of women in the village since the majority of church members in Enga are women. Please pray that Lovey would be available to help us and that we would get helpful feedback from groups of women to counterbalance the mostly male input that we get from the translation team.

Having a laugh while checking the Gospel of John

The Beatitudes
In September, I explained in detail our decision to shift to a more literal translation style by examining Matthew 5:3, which says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the Kingdom of Heaven." The Enga translation at that time was more of a dynamic translation and read, "God blesses the people who are poor in spirit and want him to help them. Those blessed ones will be in his kingdom." Not satisfied with the approach we had taken to this verse, we decided that we were going to attempt a more literal translation. This is what we have come up with: "God blesses the people who are like poor. Does poor here mean “humble”?—that’s how we translated our literal KK. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those blessed ones." This is a much more literal translation of the text, but it still sounds very good and poetic in Enga. You will notice that we had to make a couple of minor adjustments to conform to Enga ways of speaking, but, for the most part, it captures the literal meaning of the text in a way that sounds good in Enga. Please pray that God would continue to help us find the balance between translating literally and translating in a way that sounds good and makes sense in Enga.

Future Plans
Later this month we head back out to Enga for nine weeks to finish revising the last half of Matthew to bring it into alignment with our more literal approach to translation. We will also make minor adjustments to the Gospel of John that we discovered in the consultant checking process. Finally, we will review my advisor notes for the book of Acts. After we have reviewed those notes, I will back-translate Acts in preparation for a consultant check of that book. Translation work is moving along very well. The team, working in three groups of two, is nearly finished drafting Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians. After that, only the book of Ephesians will be left to draft, and then the New Testament drafting process will be complete. There is still much work to be done in checking and correcting these drafts, but finishing the New Testament drafting process is a milestone that we look forward to with much anticipation and excitement! Please pray that nothing would hinder our work. Thank you so much for your ongoing prayer and support which enables us to complete this work.

Engan Proverbs

The first time that I visited the Enga Cultural Center, I was fascinated as I read some of the traditional Engan proverbs on display. The short, pithy sayings communicate truths not only about traditional life in Enga, but also about life in general. Let me give you some examples. The proverb, “With words alone nothing is done,” communicates the reality that “talk is cheap,” and action is required to actually get anything accomplished. The proverb, “When an opossum is sitting in the tree, don’t say that you are going to eat it,” is similar to our saying, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” and communicates that it is not wise to make plans that are based on something that hasn’t actually happened yet. The proverb, “Pigs are bound with rope; men are bound with words,” reminds me of the saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” and communicates that words can be more powerful than brute strength when it comes to dealing with people. 

 

Some Engan proverbs on display at the Enga Cultural Center

While I am always interested to ponder these proverbs whenever I am in the cultural center, there are two proverbs that I am drawn to more than all the others. The first is, “The small tongue kindles a big fire.” What is fascinating about this proverb is its similarity to James 3:5, which says, “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” The second proverb is equally fascinating; it says, “What you do for someone else; that also he does to you.” This sounds like a paraphrase of the golden rule in Matthew 7:12, which states, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” It seems that even before missionaries ever arrived in Enga, God was already revealing His truth to the people. And just as Jesus came to bring fulfillment to the Law and the Prophets, my prayer is that the people of Enga will see that that traditional wisdom and sayings that God gave them in the past also find their fulfillment in Jesus and the good news that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

More Engan Proverbs
Since I have whet your appetite for traditional Engan proverbs, let me share a few more with you. Like many Enga proverbs, the saying, “When you see the sun, don’t put out the fire,” has a surface-level meaning as well as a hidden meaning. The surface-level meaning is this: just because the sun has risen in the morning doesn’t mean that you won’t still need a fire to cook with and to keep warm by at night. The hidden meaning is similar to our expression, “The grass is always greener on the other side,” and basically means, “When you see something that appears better than what you have, don’t underestimate what you have and leave it for what appears to be better.”

Another proverb states, “Once you have split a taro, you cannot put it back together.” Often when people share food like a taro, they do so by splitting it in half and handing a portion to someone else. But once you have split the taro apart, you obviously cannot put it back together. The hidden meaning of this proverb speaks to relationships and suggests that once a relationship is broken, it cannot be mended. Sharing food is indicative of good relationships, and so this proverb is particularly apropos.

Another proverb communicates a similar message; it states, “You can put an ax back, but you can’t put words back.” The idea is that a person can always return an ax to his belt, where he normally keeps it, but once he has spoken words, he cannot take the words and put them back in his mouth. This proverb reminds people of the importance of thinking before they speak.

The proverb, “Don’t try to knock down a hawk while looking at its shadow,” communicates the necessity of looking at the heart of a matter and not just the surface. The proverb, “An earthworm that crawls around is destined to die,” indicates that a person should not wander around aimlessly. And the proverb, “A sprouting bean seed will always climb a bean stick,” is a hidden way to say, “If you incite trouble, it will always stay with you.” 

An earthworm that crawls around is destined to die

God created the entire world as an expression of his personality, and as we study creation we learn about God’s character. As Romans 1:20 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.” How thankful we are that God has prepared the Enga people in advance to receive the one who is the exact imprint of God’s very nature!

Lead Us Not Into Mistranslation

Recently Pope Francis suggested on Italian television that the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation” (Mat 6:13; Luk 11:4) “is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.” He went on to say that, “It is Satan who leads us into temptation; that is his department.” As a result, Pope Francis suggested changing the English translation of the Lord’s Prayer to “Do not let us fall into temptation.”

The problem with the Pope’s suggestion is that the Greek text of Matthew 6:13 and Luke 11:4 is quite clear, and the traditional rendering “lead us not into temptation” is a faithful and literal translation of the text. “Lead us not into temptation” is exactly what the Greek text says. It is a request to God on the part of the one praying that God not lead us into temptation. Interestingly, the Greek word translated as ‘temptation’ can also be translated as ‘test’ or ‘trial’.

Pope Francis’s comments highlight a common question that we Bible translators ask ourselves—do we translate what the text actually says, or do we translate what we think the text should say? The temptation is great to translate what we think the text should say rather than translating what the text actually says. But there is great danger in doing so, because we begin to insert our own ideas and interpretations into the text, obscuring what the text actually says and promoting our own particular brand of theology. Now, it is impossible to avoid all interpretation in the process of translation, but interpretation should generally be avoided if at all possible.

Incidentally, a couple of years ago before Pope Francis made his comments about the Lord’s Prayer, someone suggested to me that we should do the exact same thing in Enga. The Enga translation of the Lord’s Prayer says, “Do not bring us and go into the tempations to do bad.” That is a very literal translation that captures well the meaning of the Greek text. But someone suggested that we should change our translation to “Don’t abandon us, telling us to go into the temptations to do bad.” The person who made this suggestion, like Pope Francis, wished to defend God’s character as someone who does not tempt to sin. However, after considering the suggested translation, we decided to stick with our more literal translation.

The problem is that we often do not have the perspective that we need to see the bigger picture of the biblical narrative and the nuances of the text. Pope Francis is correct that God himself does not tempt us to sin, and that temptation is the devil’s department. However, the Lord’s Prayer does not suggest that God himself tempts us. Rather it suggests that God can lead us into temptation, just like the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit did not do the tempting, He just did the leading. God can lead us into a time of temptation, but He Himself doesn’t tempt us.

The point is that we should not seek out opportunities to be tempted. We should avoid temptation and actively ask God not to lead us into temptation. Yet we must also recognize that God, in His sovereignty, may at times choose to lead into temptation, just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.

No, the Lord’s Prayer does not need to be corrected. And that is the lesson we Bible translators must learn: When the Scripture seems like it needs to be corrected, it is a good indicator that it is actually our understanding of God that needs to be corrected.