Two Million Forms of 'Say'

In English we have 4 forms of the verb ‘say’: ‘say’, ‘says’, ‘said’, and ‘saying’. That’s it! Now, we can add auxiliary verbs to create various tenses, moods and voices like ‘I will say’ or ‘I would have said’ or ‘It was said’. but we will only ever find four forms of the actual word ‘say’. Spanish is a bit more complicated as there are 61 forms of the verb ‘decir’ (‘say’). But Enga takes things to another level entirely. In Enga, there are 2,322,432 forms of the verb ‘la’ (’say’), and that doesn’t even include imperative forms and other forms like infinitives! If you thought memorizing your Spanish or Latin conjugation tables was difficult, consider the fact that it would take roughly 5,000 pages to list all the possible forms of the verb ‘say’ in Enga.

How can there be so many forms? Well, Enga is what they call an agglutinative language. That is a fancy word that means that anything related to the action of the sentence is usually put on to the verb as a prefix or suffix instead of as a separate word. For example, the English sentence ‘I had already told him for you’, can be communicated with just one word in Enga: ‘lamaitekeo’. In that word, la means ‘say’, mai means ‘him’, t means ‘already’, ek means ‘for you’, e means ‘had’, and o means ‘I’. Let’s look at another example. The English sentence ‘I sensed that they had already sent [it] up for us’ can also be communicated with just one word in Enga: ‘pyalyetakaluiyami’. In that word py means ‘send’, aly means ‘up’, et means ‘already’, ak means ‘for us’, alu means ‘I sensed’, iy means ‘had’, and ami means ‘they’.

There are actually thirteen places where a prefix or suffix can be added to a verb in Enga. And in each of those thirteen places, there are between two and eight possibilities of prefixes or suffixes that can be added. There is a place for indicating negation, direction, direct object, causation, completion, indirect object, non-visual sensation, tense, person/number, mood, simulation, emphasis, and quotation. All those various places with different options causes the possible number of verb forms to grow exponentially, which is why there are 2,322,432 forms of ‘say’ in Enga.

Now even though there are so many forms of ‘say’, the vast majority of them have probably never been spoken aloud by anyone. In fact, the vast majority of the forms would sound silly because not all the information that can be expressed by the verb ever should be expressed at once—trying to do so sounds like nonsense. And in actuality, languages like Enga can be easier to learn than it might seem, because once you have learned the 34 prefixes and suffixes that attach to verbs, it is fairly easy to figure out how to create verb forms that you have never even learned. So you don’t need to memorize 5,000 pages of information. In fact, you can fit everything that you need to memorize onto a single-paged chart. Still, if I had my druthers, I would prefer just 4 forms of the verb ‘say’ instead of 2,322,432.

The Nativity Story in Enga

Seeing as how the Christmas season is now upon us, I thought you might enjoy hearing how the nativity story sounds in Enga. This is especially timely since we just recently finished the consultant check of the book of Luke. So here is a very literal back-translation of the nativity story in Enga from Luke 1:1-20. (Note: The brackets indicate words that are not in the Enga but are added to smooth out the English back-translation. The curly brackets { } indicate indirect speech.)

When the man [whom people] call Kurinius stood [as] governor of the land [of] Siria, the chief government ruler [whom people] call Agustas wrote a new law, saying {all the people [who] dwell, shall set [their] names on paper}, and then he sent it into all his lands [that] he ruled. Because he did that, all the people [who] stood in other lands went to their origin lands, saying their names {shall be set}. Then Josepe, because he [was] born of Dapiti's tribe, stood [in] Nasarete town in the land [of] Galilea and went to Dapiti's town, called Beteleme, in the land [of] Judia. That Maria [who was just mentioned], Josepe said he would take her as [his] woman, and he stood wooing her; because of that, while she sat, child in utero, they two went together, saying {we shall set [our] names}. After going and arriving in Beteleme and then looking, the houses [where] strangers sleep were full. Because that happened, when they two went and slept in a house [where] cows sleep, [and] when Maria's child bearing time came, she bore her first child, a male. Maria wrapped the child and then set [him] in the place [where] cows eat food, and then sat taking care of [him].

At that night time, some men [who] stand and take care of sheep were standing and taking care of sheep there at [the] Beteleme land boundary. As they stood, an angel of the Lord came and then suddenly stood with the men. When the light of [the] Lord distributively shone, the men saw and then died [figuratively] with great fear. When they did that, the angel spoke to them and said, “Feel ye not fear! This good word I am coming to tell you, all the people will hear and then feel great joy. Now, at this night time, in Beteleme, the town of Dapiti, [the] Lord Kraisa, [who] will save you, has been born. The child [is] wrapped with cloth, lying in a place [where] cows eat food. When you have sought and seen the child, you will think, saying [that] this word I am saying [is] true." When the angel had said that, a very big gathering [of] angels of heaven came and suddenly stood [where] he lay and then praised God, singing this: "We are praising the God [Who] Stands In The Top-Most Sky. In this down below land, his people [concerning whom] he feels pleasure are receiving lightness [of] heart."

When the angels had said that and had gone upon [the] sky, the men [who] stand and take care of sheep spoke to one another and said, "Let's go quickly [to] Beteleme to see what [the] Lord said to us, saying {something happened}. After saying that, they felt eagerness and went and then saw Maria with Josepe sitting and taking care of the child in the place [where] cows eat food. After seeing [them], they revealed, saying the things they heard when the angel spoke words to them about the child. When they revealed and spoke, all the people [who] heard that word were amazed. When they did that, Maria heard and then took and carried all those words in her heart and then sat thinking. As those [who] stand and take care of sheep were returning, they said [that] the things they heard the angel say to [them] and [the things] they went and saw [were] obviously true and then they returned, praising God.

Praise God for the good news in Enga that Christ the Savior is born! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Merry Christmas to you all!

61 Percent!

I am happy to report that we have now drafted 61 percent of the verses in the Enga New Testament! At our current pace, it is my sincere prayer that we will be able to finish drafting the New Testament by 2020. Of course much work remains after drafting including various checks, audio recording and printing. But 61 percent is worth celebrating!

Just ten days after retuning to Papua New Guinea from furlough in July, the translation team and I (Adam) completed a four-week course on the book of Hebrews. We quickly discovered just how much more difficult Hebrews was than the gospels. Gone were the easy translations like ‘Jesus went to Galilee and taught the people’. Now we were facing difficult metaphors, strange vocabulary, complex sentence and paragraph structures, and obscure references to Old Testament practices seemingly in every verse (see below for an example).

The translation team in Ukarumpa for the Hebrews course

After completing our draft of Hebrews, we focused on completing our consultant check of the book of Luke. This first required a final read through of the book by the translation team to check for naturalness—in other words making sure that the translation is clear and sounds like how Enga people speak. Then we brought two Enga speakers, who had not been involved in drafting, to Ukarumpa to check the book with a consultant, who checks for accuracy and understanding by using a back-translation of the Enga text into English.

Benjamin, the man who has donated a portion of his land for us to build our house, and a pastor named Eki Napru came for the check, which involved reading through the text again verse-by-verse in Enga and then answering questions from the consultant in Tok Pisin. Although the consultant found room for improvements here and there, he was very pleased with the quality of the translation. The final step is to record the translation, which we hope to do some time after the New Year. Praise the Lord for enabling our work to this point!

A Difficult Translation
Almost every verse in the book of Hebrews was difficult to translate. But 12:18-21 was especially difficult. We ended up having to completely restructure the verses in chronological order so that the passage flowed well and made sense in Enga. We also had to state explicitly some of the information that is implied in the source text. Below is the draft of our translation. Compare it to an English translation of the same passage.

Before, when the Israel native people went and were at the Sinai Mountain, God said to them, “If a person, cow, goat, or anything comes very close to this mountain, hit and kill it with stones.” When they heard that, they died with fear (i.e. ‘were very afraid’). Then in the midst of the mountain becoming dark and quaking, and flames of fire going about, and a great wind blowing, and lightning striking, and thunder clapping, God spoke words that they heard. After hearing, they said to Moses, “Tell God not to speak words to us like that.” Then Moses, having seen all the frightful things that were happening, said, “Great fear is making me tremble.” That is what happened, but now the people who are going with the purpose of going to where God is, need not fear as those people feared as they were going close to Sinai Mountain.

In the English-speaking world, there is endless debate about whether Bible translations should be literal (like the ESV) or dynamic (like the NLT). We are lucky that we even have the choice between the two in English! Languages like Enga are so different from the Greek and Hebrew source texts that a literal translation is virtually impossible. The translation must be dynamic in order to make any sense in Enga. The end result is a translation that is very clear to Enga speakers, but the process involves a great deal of effort. It was so difficult to take the meaning from the source text and communicate that same meaning in Enga that on a couple of occasions it took us two hours to translate just one verse!

 

Bella taking first place at Sports Day

Sports Day
Every year the primary school has a Sports Day, where all the students complete in events. Jacob, Bella, and Asher all received ribbons, but Bella truly excelled, taking first place in three individual events: sprints, long jump, and sack race. She also finished second in the long distance run. Congratulations Bella!

A Place to Call Home

Last month we shared with you about God providing us with a potential place to build our home in Enga in the village of Immi. We want to thank you for all of your prayers and give you an update on our building plans.

The day after we arrived in Enga, we met with Benjamin Leo, the man who has offered a large portion of his land for us to build our home. We talked very openly about all of our expectations, and he was in agreement with us. The following week we met with all the community leaders and shared our testimony of how God brought us to the work of translating the Bible into the Enga language, and again we shared our expectations. The community leaders were all in agreement and eagerly welcomed us with open arms.

The village of Immi, where we will build our home, is part of the Dyuapini tribe. The Dyuapini tribe has historically been known for its incessant tribal warfare. However, a new generation of leaders is arising among the tribe, and they are refusing to continue the cycle of violence. At a ceremony on September 28, the Dyuapini tribe paid compensation to their (former) enemies, which is a customary way in Enga to apologize for past wrongs and put an end to fighting. At the ceremony, they gave 27 live pigs, 10 cooked pigs, 2 cows, and over $10,000 to establish peace.

The Dyuapini tribe giving compensation to their (former) enemies

Benjamin and I along with the community leaders made the decision that, just prior to the beginning of the compensation ceremony, I would get up and share a brief testimony in Enga, explaining how God brought us here, the work we are doing, and our expectations for building a home in Immi village. So I stood up and address the hundreds of people gathered around, yelling at the top of my lungs in Enga and sharing the heart of why we are here.

The last remaining order of business is to sign a Memorandum or Understanding regarding our house with the community leaders, which we are doing this very day as you receive this email.

We are thankful that God has given us this opportunity. Even though the Dyuapini tribe has a history of violence and tribal warfare, Martha and I both sense that this is where God wants us to be. We sense that God is moving among the Dyuapini tribe and that He wants us to be a part of the community. We pray that we can be a light in what has traditionally been a dark place.

We are scheduled to start building our house on January 23, so please pray with us that all preparations will go well. Thank you for your continued partnership, without which none of this would be possible. We greatly appreciate your support.

Food on the Back Burner is Still Cooking

During our furlough in America, I didn’t study Enga very much. Instead I was focused on visiting friends and family, speaking at churches, helping Martha homeschool the kids, and preparing for our return to Papua New Guinea. And when I did study language, I chose to brush up on my Greek rather than spending much time on Enga. You might say that I put Enga on the back burner for a year.

Because I had focused so little on Enga during our furlough, I was quite surprised at how well I understood people during my first trip back last week. I was understanding speech at a level of comprehension that I never had during our first term, and I was able to speak with a greater level of fluency than before (although still far from fluent). Even though I had put Enga on the back burner for a year, it was apparently still cooking!

We had also, by necessity, put our plans of building a home in Enga on the back burner about six months before we left on furlough. The Lutheran Seminary in the village of Birip where we had planned to build our house became an unsuitable choice due to church politics that were outside of our control. So we waited, and we have been praying ever since. Many of you prayed with us as I went to Enga last week to find a new location, and so I want to give you a report of what I found.

At first we were told about a parcel of land that the owner of the largest trucking company in Papua New Guinea was making available to missionaries (specifically Lutheran missionaries) to build homes. Because of the aforementioned church politics, the owner of the company wanted missionaries to have a place where they could live that would be free from such politics. The site would not only have missionary homes but also a police station and a small shopping center. It sounded like a very promising opportunity. When I went to visit, however, I found out that, while there is a great vision for the land, the development is in its very beginning stages, and is not suitable to our timeframe of building in January. Furthermore, the land has been a hotbed of tribal fighting in the recent past, so the owner of the trucking company has cleared the land of its inhabitants, which would leave us relatively isolated. So, while that area might be an excellent place to build a home in five or ten years, it is simply not ready yet.

My fallback position was to build a home on the land of our lead translator, Maniosa Yakasa, in Sakarip village. This is where I stayed during my brief visit, and I love the people and the area. However, the land is packed with homes and there is very little land available. If we had no other choice, we could probably build there, but we would have very little space to ourselves. In the long run that could be a problem because when you are living in a foreign culture, you need a certain amount of private space where you can withdraw at times to avoid cultural fatigue.

On Saturday, I went to the Assemblies of God church in Birip (the same village where the Lutheran Seminary is located). It is a peaceful village, and the pastor of the church had told me a while back that we could build a house on his land (although he would probably want us to pay him to use the land, which, for reasons I won’t go into now, is a bit of a red flag). But without many other options available, I decided to check it out. When I arrived at the church I found out that the pastor had died and there was now a new pastor. So that was the end of that option.

After stopping by the church, I walked a couple of miles up to the village of Immi to visit my friends, Max and Benjamin. Immi was the village where we had stayed in a bush house for five weeks after allocating to the Enga project. When Benjamin and Max found out that I was coming, they walked down the road to meet me. We then walked up to Benjamin’s house, and I told him about our desire to build a house. Then he said, “Why don’t you just build here on my land?” and he showed me a huge sweet potato garden just down the hill from his house. I said, “Well, if we build there, then you won’t have any garden to grow food.” He replied, “We have lots of other land besides this, this is just a small piece of land. You’ve been such a good friend to us that I want to give you this land for free to build your house so that we can be together.”

Benjamin's Land in Immi (It is hard to tell from the picture just how big the sweet potato garden actually is.)

Immi has a reputation for being a place of tribal fighting. But for the last few years, they have been committed to peace. In fact Benjamin told me in the strongest way possible that they have sworn off any more fighting. They’ve even given payments to their enemies to express their sorrow for what they’ve done to them in the past. Benjamin has come to learn that Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and while he used to be a warrior, he is now whole-heartedly committed to following the way of peace. I told Benjamin I would talk with Martha about his offer, but inside I was glowing. My heart told me that this was where I wanted to be. My spirit told me that this was the answer to prayer we had been seeking for more than a year and a half. This piece of land was just what we needed to thrive: large enough to give us some privacy, close to the main road with something like a driveway for the car, free from the church politics that made us abandon our plans before, and in a place where we have good relationships with the people. There is no electricity in the village yet, but it may be coming soon. Nevertheless, there are some risks. If we build on Benjamin’s land we will not be in the security of a protected institution as we would be if we built on a seminary campus. Instead we will be among the people. That carries a certain level of risk, but our hearts yearn to be among the people. After all, Jesus left the perfection of heaven to come and live among us, therefore should we not be willing to do the same? There is also the risk of tribal fighting flaring up, which could prevent us from being able to stay in the area. But that is a risk in almost every part of Enga, and we know that the people of Immi are now committed to peace. So we ask you to pray with us as we pray about building on Benjamin’s land. We are marking Sunday, September 4, as a day of prayer and fasting about this important decision, and we would ask you to join with us in prayer that day. And if you feel led to do so, you could even join with us in fasting for the day or even just for a meal. And as you pray, we invite you to share anything that God may reveal to you regarding our decision. While we are excited about this possibility, we want to cover it in prayer before making our final decision, and we know that your prayers for us will only help us all the more. Thank you for your partnership with us and for your prayers, and let’s rejoice that when we put our difficult circumstances on the back burner that they are still cooking in the eyes of God.

Prayer Request

Tomorrow morning Adam will leave on a short trip to Enga to seek God's wisdom and look for a suitable and available piece of land where we can build a house. Having a house in Enga will allow us to spend a lot more time there, working on translation, distribution, scripture use, and building awareness about the translation project. We are sending this brief message to ask that you all join us in prayer for safe travels and for God's clear direction and favor. Pray that the Lord will provide a good place where each member of our family can thrive. We are believing and trusting that God will provide. Your prayers are much appreciated.

Children at Jacob, Bella, and Asher's school praying for our house
while building a model house with blocks

The Transition Blues

I have come to recognize that feeling. It is a mild sadness and depression accompanied by a sense of unease and disorientation. It is the transition blues. I (Adam) go through it every time we go to the village and come back, and I am going through it now after our arrival back in Papua New Guinea. At first it was scary. I would think, "What's wrong with me? Am I ever going to feel any better?" But I have come to recognize that it soon passes, which helps me get through it each time.

Now don't get me wrong. We are happy to be back in Papua New Guinea. Although our bodies aren't used to life here anymore. We're having to adjust to the altitude again. (We live at 5,500 feet.) We have to get used to walking up steep hills again, which, in all honesty, we never fully get used to. And, most of all, we have to get used to the extra work of cooking everything from scratch (and having to wash all the extra dishes that come with cooking everything from scratch). Couple that with having to unpack our entire house, we have been so tired at night, that we don't even mind not having Netflix anymore (which we couldn’t watch anyway since our Internet connection is about as fast as a carrier pigeon).

This transition blues is not fun but lasts for only a short while

But each difficulty of life in PNG has a silver lining, and we cling to those. All of the walking up steep hills is great exercise. Cooking things from scratch is a great excuse for Martha and I to spend more time together, and we enjoy the challenge of trying to make our own mayonnaise, bread, and Greek yogurt. All the extra dishes to wash provides a great opportunity for the kids to learn responsibility and contribute to the family. Not having good Internet is a great reason to spend more quality time together as a family and less time staring at our individual screens. And the transition blues causes us to seek the Lord more fervently for the joy that only He can provide. And when we seek Him with all of our heart, He is so faithful to respond in His great love.

Hebrews Epistle Course
Ten days after we arrived back in Papua New Guinea, the Enga translation team came to Ukarumpa for the Hebrews Epistle course, which is a four-week course lead by an experienced translator to guide us through the translation of Hebrews. We have now completed our first two days of the course. We are so thankful to have guided help in translating this difficult book!

How do you make your own yogurt?
It is easier than you might think. Just mix powdered milk with cold water, sugar, and a little bit of yogurt starter in a container and then let it sit in a larger thermos-like container with boiling hot water for about 12 hours and voilà, you have yogurt. For thick Greek-style yogurt, line a colander with a big coffee filter and let the yogurt drain overnight. Not only is it good for you, but it is a great way to keep your digestive system healthy (a very important consideration for long-term living in PNG).

Homemade Greek yogurt!

How are the kids?
The kids were very excited to return to Ukarumpa and see our dog Yana. Since getting back they have been asking for play dates incessantly (although we have encouraged Jacob to start asking instead if he can ‘hangout’ with his friends). Asher, who is our worrier, has been a bit nervous about going to school, particularly as it relates to who will drop him off, pick him up, and how he will get to his classroom when the bell rings. Bella was so excited to get back to Ukarumpa when we were still in America that Martha started to say that Bella thinks Skittles grow on the trees in Ukarumpa. We were worried that she might be disappointed when she got back. But on our first day back, she just kept talking about how much she loves it here, and she has been very happy to be back. Jacob, on the other hand, has mentioned that he misses America, although he is quickly making friends with some of the new boys in his sixth grade class. He has also joined band and is learning the clarinet.

Prayer Request
We are currently scheduled to build our home in Enga in January of 2017. While God has provided the funds for the house and it is halfway put together in Ukarumpa, we still do not have a place to build. Please pray that God would reveal a place for us to build where we can have good relationships with the community and thrive as a family. I (Adam) am planning a short trip to Enga this month to find a location.