Last month I reported that we were “starting to finish” the Enga New Testament. This month I am happy to announce that the Enga translators are doing their final read through of fourteen New Testament books. Assisting them in this final check is Benjamin Leo, the man who owns the land where we built our house. Benjamin is providing input as someone who has not been involved in the translation process and who has no formal education. His background puts him in a perfect position to help us identify any aspects of the translation that might be difficult for the average person in the village to understand. The books included in this final check are 1 Thessalonians through Jude. Once this check is complete, these books will be considered finalized and ready for audio recording. Please pray that the translators and Benjamin will find anything that needs to be corrected and that the final edits of these books will give us a translation that is accurate, clear, natural, and acceptable, which are the four translation goals that we aim for. By the way, the translators are currently working out of our house in the village of Immi, where they are spending the night during the week to reduce the number of times they use public transportation. This is to reduce their potential exposure to COVID.
While the translators are doing their final check of these 14 books, I am doing my final check of the book of Matthew, which includes verifying that the parallel passages in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the same where the Greek is the same and different where the Greek is different. I am now halfway through Matthew, so please pray for endurance for me to finish the task. Once I finish my final check of Matthew, the final checks for Mark, Luke, and John should be much easier and faster because I will have already checked most of the parallel passages.
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| The translation team doing their final check of 14 books |
On Friday Martha and I both received our first dose of the COVID vaccine. We were quite surprised that we were able to get vaccinated here in Papua New Guinea so soon. Australia has donated a large number of vaccines to Papua New Guinea, and our clinic on the center where we live was the recipient of a number of doses, which were then made available to the local community. Because Martha is a teacher and because I have asthma, we were given priority to receive the vaccine. Honestly we were anticipating not being able to get vaccinated for many more months, but we are thankful that we now have an added layer of protection as we plan to head to the village for three weeks later this month during the school break. During our upcoming trip, I hope to do the face-to-face portion of the consultant check for some of the eight books for which this check has not yet been completed. Please pray that the consultant checking will go well.
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| Receiving my first shot of the COVID vaccine |
