I am pleased to announce that the Enga-English New Testament was completed and sent off to the printer on September 10. This was three and a half weeks after sending the Enga New Testament to the printer. Both editions will be printed by the Korean Bible Society and shipped to Papua New Guinea some time in the coming months.
The Enga-English edition, which we refer to more technically as the diglot (two languages) edition proved to be more challenging to typeset than the Enga-only New Testament. The biggest challenges were in the alignment of the two texts. This required choosing the correct font sizes and column widths so that the Enga (which is generally longer) lines up well with the English. The text is aligned with each new section break. For the most part this was seamless as in the example of Mark 1:14-15 that you see pictured here. But at times we had to leave some space at the end of the section in the English or Enga column so that the next section aligned properly.
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| Mark 1:14-15 from the Enga-English New Testament |
Despite the additional challenges, I am quite happy with how the diglot edition turned out. The dimension are six inches wide by nine inches high, and the volume is about 1,150 pages. Intermixed with the text are more than sixty beautiful black and white illustrations, and there are sixteen pages of full color photographs, which will allow the Enga people to see for themselves the geography of Israel and the surrounding area. In addition to the photographs and illustrations, the edition has thousands of cross-references to help the Enga readers discover the wider context of the New Testament. If you would like to see the Enga-English New Testament in PDF format, please click here. Please pray that nothing would hinder the production of the Enga-English New Testament or the Enga New Testament as they are being prepared by the Korean Bible Society. Please also pray that the books would arrive safely in Papua New Guinea.
Enga Bible Apps
In addition to completing the typesetting for the Enga-English New Testament, we were also able to get the Enga New Testament text and audio published to YouVersion, which is the most downloaded Bible app in the world. This app allows the user to play the audio recording of the Enga New Testament while reading the text. It also allows the user to show the words of Christ in red. While we wait for the Enga New Testament and Enga-English New Testament to be printed, people are already accessing the Enga Scriptures through the YouVersion app. The Enga New Testament is also available on the Scripture Earth app, which intersperses relevant clips from the Enga Jesus Film into the text of the New Testament. Besides those two apps, the Enga New Testament is now live on eBible.org, which has nice online interface for viewing the Enga translation, or the Enga translation side-by-side with an English translation. There is no shortage of ways for people to access the Enga New Testament through their electronic devices, which are becoming more and more prevalent among the Enga people.
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| The Enga New Testament in YouVersion |
The weekend before last we made our first college visit—to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. Although Jacob and Bella both participated in the activities, including spending the night in the dorms, it was Bella who was most interested in Taylor. Bella would like become an elementary school teacher, and she was very pleased with what Taylor had to offer. Not only that, but we were blown away by Taylor’s chapel. Although attendance is not required, nearly every student on campus packed out the auditorium with an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm. We have never seen anything like it! Not only that, but when one of the female students started singing on stage during worship, we recognized her as the cousin of Jacob’s classmate, who had visited Papua New Guinea less than a year ago and even served as Bella’s substitute Spanish teacher for three weeks. It was nice to see a familiar face. In the coming months, we have college visits scheduled for Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia; and, for Jacob, Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Please pray that God would guide both Jacob and Bella as they consider options for future schooling, and please ask God to provide scholarships to make it affordable!
