..because the world's 36 million blind are not an endless pool of need,
but a vast reservoir of potential disciplemakers.
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(A personal note: A number of you are aware, and some have asked about Beth’s health, as she suffered a cardiac event about a month ago. We are adjusting to a new, quieter “normal” as we deal with some uncertainties around her condition and new meds and blood pressure adjustments. Our Hope, as always, is our gracious Lord.) |
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SeedPlayers and Bible Translation |
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Back in the day, when I was a teenager on a Wycliffe mission field, translating the New Testament was a career-long task, mostly done by someone (or a succession of “someones”) from the global West with local translation helpers. Many years were spent learning the language, creating an alphabet, and “reducing” the language to writing. Then additional years were needed to produce reading primers and teach literacy. More than once the original translators were retired before the New Testament was dedicated. I had the privilege of photographing several of these events, sometimes with the now-feeble initial translators making one final, glorious visit for the occasion.
Things have changed. Now the driving force behind translation is often an existing indigenous or near-language church, and the work is frequently done by a local or near-language team. When there are Western participants, they are often translation consultants, or “field coordinators” who bring a variety of ministries together to find personnel, and fund, translate, publish, and distribute Scripture – perhaps for 8 to 12 separate translation projects.
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And sometimes, a “warp speed” option is selected – if the culture is primarily oral and further written materials are not envisioned – the entire written process is skipped, in favor of an oral/audio translation that a team can discuss, draft, check, revise, and even publicize and distribute, all from a collaborative cellphone app! As you can imagine, these newer approaches radically shorten the timeline, with New Testaments now routinely completed in 3-5 years.
Whether the choice is for a written or oral translation, SeedPlayers (and other audio devices and cellphones) can be really helpful, because when the first book or portion is completed, it can immediately be distributed, rather than waiting for a publisher, or printing, or literacy, or the project end. Also, by the time the New Testament is finished, a new culture of listening to Scripture may be in place, along with deep familiarity with portions of it.
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I love seeing God move through others in unanticipated ways. So, imagine my delight when I recently realized that the 55 sample SeedPlayers a supporter had funded for Southeast Asia had gone to a global translation conference. Each was given to a field coordinator (see above), so several hundred translation projects were potentially exposed to this tool! Pray that the Lord would move, as He sees fit, to speed His Word forward.
Oh, and one more thing. Because the translation process is now so much faster, more Old Testaments are being translated – something rare when the work of a New Testament alone consumed a missionary’s career. A U.S. pastor recently told me that he is so eager to see the Old Testament distributed in Kenya, because it contains so much context for the Gospel, and many of the questions he fields could easily be answered from Old Testament Scripture.
So thank God for ministries like Faith Comes By Hearing (who have recorded several thousand New Testaments) and Davar Partners (whose passion is delivering the full Bible). Incidentally, our new SeedPlayer model, with shelf/book/chapter navigation and the ability to skip forward and back within a chapter can effortlessly handle one or more full Bibles.
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Blessings in Christ,
Joel
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P.S. We are trying something we are calling “Sample Seven.” If you know a translator who can send us their Scripture audio and a U.S. shipping address, as resources and time allow, we will send seven SeedPlayers for them to start building a Scripture-listening culture among their people group. |
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