One Simple Vowel

Translator Lee Bramlett was confident that God had left His mark on the Hdi culture somewhere, but though he searched, he could not find it. Where was the footprint of God in the history or daily life of these Cameroonian people?  What clue had He planted to let the Hdi know Who He was and how He wanted to relate to them?

Then one night in a dream, God prompted Lee to look again at the Hdi word for love. Lee and his wife, Tammi, had learned that verbs in Hdi consistently end in one of three vowels. For almost every verb, they could find forms ending in i, a, and u. But when it came to the word for love, they could only find i and a. Why no u?

Lee asked the Hdi translation committee, which included the most influential leaders in the community, “Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?”  “Yes,” they said. That would mean that the wife had been loved but the love was gone.

“Could you ‘dva’ your wife?” “Yes,” they said. That kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband well.

“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?”  Everyone laughed. “Of course not!  If you said that, you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never got you water, never made you meals. Even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to just keep on loving her. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t exist.”

Lee sat quietly for a while, thinking about John 3:16, and then he asked, “Could God ‘dvu’ people?”

There was complete silence for three or four minutes; then tears started to trickle down the weathered faces of these elderly men. Finally they responded. “Do you know what this would mean?  This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected His great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.”

One simple vowel and the meaning was changed from “I love you based on what you do and who you are,” to “I love you, based on Who I am. I love you because of Me and NOT because of you.”

God had encoded the story of His unconditional love right into their language. For centuries, the little word was there—unused but available, grammatically correct and quite understandable. When the word was finally spoken, it called into question their entire belief system. If God was like that, and not a mean and scary spirit, did they need the spirits of the ancestors to intercede for them? Did they need sorcery to relate to the spirits? Many decided the answer was no, and the number of Christ-followers quickly grew from a few hundred to several thousand.

The New Testament in Hdi is ready to be printed now, and 29,000 speakers will soon be able to feel the impact of passages like Ephesians 5:25:  “Husbands, ‘dvu’ your wives, just as Christ ‘dvu’-d the church…”  I invite you to pray for them as they absorb and seek to model the amazing, unconditional love they have received.

Around the world, community by community, as God’s Word is translated, people are gaining access to this great love story about how God ‘dvu’-d us enough to sacrifice his unique Son for us, so that our relationship with Him can be ordered and oriented correctly. The cross changes everything!  Someday, the last word of the last bit of Scripture for the last community will be done, and everyone will be able to understand the story of God’s unconditional love.

No Longer a Foreign God

“Bible translation brings life transformation.  Their worldview changes when they know God speaks their language. He’s no longer a foreign God.” 

Peter Munguti, general secretary of Bible Translation & Literacy of East Africa:

Many in Kenya’s Bibleless people groups believe their languages have no value. Peter, the man quoted above, told this story recently: “A man in the Sabaot community of Western Kenya prayed aloud in his mother tongue in a gathering. Afterward, another man stood up and apologized to God for him praying in a language God wouldn’t understand; he then prayed in Swahili so God would understand.”

Peter’s passion for his people to know Jesus began in 1989 while at the university. “I was blessed to have been born in a community where the Bible was available,” he said. “When I received Christ as a young man in college, I became aware of people groups in my country who don’t know Jesus because the Bible is not available in their language.”

To read more about Bible Translation in Kenya visit the Seed Company

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Challenge of Translation

(This article in the original form can be read at the Seed Company's blog and was written by some dear friends.  The Kambari language project is one that Bob visited on his trip last summer to provide internet to some remote language projects.) 

The impact of God’s Word, when translated in the heart language of a person, is evident in the dynamic faith of believers from the U.S. to Korea, from Nigeria to Peru. However, to reach that point, Bible translators face unique linguistic challenges like this, every day:

Challenge: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:2 to “make room for me in your hearts.” Translated literally in the Tsikimba language, the phrase “make room in your heart” is a local idiom for “hold and nurture a grudge.” Solution: The translators chose words meaning “open your hearts to us,” which means that Paul wanted to maintain good relationships with the Corinthians.

Tsikimba is part of a cluster of languages called Kambari. The Kambari Language Project seeks to meet the literacy and translation needs of this language, along with the related Tsishingini and Cishingini. Please pray for them and this huge undertaking, as well as Chris, who is helping the Kambari team with their administration and financial management. Praise God that the completed Tsikimba New Testament arrived in Nigeria earlier this year! Fewer than 1 percent of Tsikimba people are Christians, so pray for God’s Word to penetrate this community.


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"This is what I want"

In his book “The Fire of the Word,” Chris Webb tells the following story.

On a cold winter morning in February 1208 a young man named Francesco Bernardone went to a small church to hear mass celebrated.  As the service ended, Francesco approached the priest quietly explaining that he had not understood the Gospel reading done in Latin. Would the priest kindly read it again?  

The cleric obliged...line by line...this time translating Jesus' words filled with faith, hope, love and charity, and a call to head the Gospel message: "The Kingdom of heaven has come near!"  As he listened and understood the words, Francesco's heart began to race. Hearing the calling of the Spirit on his own life, he exclaimed, “This is what I want!"  

This conversion and subsequent obedience to God is now legendary:  Francesco is known to us as St. Francis of Assisi.  Francis, because he heard the words of Christ in a language he understood, experienced the Bible as a life-changing book.  "So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ" (Romans 10:17, NLT).

His experience is far from unique–the transforming power of God's voice, when heard and understood, has been repeated down through the ages.   Efi Tembon, the director of the Cameroonian Bible translation organization, CABTAL, tells a story about a woman in Cameroon who went to a “listening group” where the oral Scriptures were read in her heart language.

The day she attended, the group listened to a Scripture passage about how God wants us to treat widows and orphans. Afterwards the group discussed the passage together. The more the woman listened, the more troubled she became.  She remembered that many years before, her husband’s brother had died. As is common in the area, her husband had seized the land that belonged to his brother, leaving the man’s widow and children out.

The woman went home from the listening group and shared with her husband what she had heard. “We need to give that land back to the widow and her children,” she said. Her husband was convicted. They called the widow and her children, asked for their forgiveness, and gave the land back to them. God brought reconciliation between the two families. 

Efi cites this as an example of the way the Scriptures—translated into the mother tongue and presented in the form that fits the culture—are changing hearts and lives and bringing people together. “We are now stronger because we come and listen to the Word of God every day.”

In Revelation 3:20, this same John says that not only did Jesus move in among us, but He seeks a personal relationship with us: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (NLT). 

This is the message that Francis heard and understood...Jesus not only spoke his language, but He moved into the village where Francis lived and became his Friend, changing his life forever.

We could look back many centuries before St. Francis of Assisi, or forward many years into the future, and we would find the same thing true: God’s Word changes lives. And now, as the pace of Bible translation accelerates, the Word (Jesus) in many communities is going door to door calling out in a language people hear and understand.

Listen to what Chris Webb says, and be encouraged:  "This ancient book has spoken into my contemporary world with startling clarity and irresistible authority....The Bible is…a thin place through which the presence of God breaks into this world and bursts with unpredictable consequences into our lives...The Bible clearly has the potential to provoke the most radical and far-reaching changes in individuals, societies and nations.“ (“The Fire of the Word,” 28, 30-31)

Engrossed as we all are in the opportunities and challenges of our daily work, we sometimes need to pause, step back, and contemplate the bigger picture.  Let’s not lose sight of the tremendous power of this Word of God, and of the goodness of God in allowing us to have a role in releasing its power to the world. And on a more personal note, let’s not forget that God wants to release the power of His Word in each of our lives, too.

Another guest post

I (Bob) got the opportunity to do another guest post on CCC Murphysboro's devotional blog. In our readings we're in 2 Kings where King Josiah finds the Book of the Law. Read my comments on the blog here: cccmurphysboro.wordpress.com

Translator by Necessity

To read the whole Bible in a year you have to read an average of 3 chapters a day. Some of you have perhaps done that, and know how much time and effort it requires. Now imagine that while you're reading, you're also writing those 3 chapters out by hand as you read them. Now, further, imagine that you are translating it into a different language as you work, checking for accuracy as you go.

During Bob’s trip a year ago to Nigeria, one of the projects the team visited was the Bwaatye. A Lutheran bishop became a translator out of necessity. he saw the need for his parishioners to have the Bible in their own language. They could read it in English or the local trade language, but those words couldn’t speak to them as strongly as their mother tongue. The problem was that Bwaatye did not have a written form. The Bishop's wife was uniquely qualified to assist her husband: as a professor of linguistics at a local university, she created a writing system for her husband to use as he began translating the Bible.  He began writing out the Bible in Bwaatye by hand, in his spare time, and only recently discovered there were resources to help him including The Seed Company

Working with The Seed Company has allowed him to hire assistants and also to have a computer and specialized software to do his translation.  Having his work in electronic form makes it simpler to revise sections as they review them, quicker to send sections to consultants so they can be checked for accuracy and precision, and easier to get books printed as sections are completed. He was committed to seeing the Scripture in his own language when he thought he would need to do it by hand and alone. It is a joy to consider how much faster the Bwaatye people will have it with the help of technology.

Passing on Technology

Bob is now back at Orlando working in the main office. While it's nice to be back in comfortable surroundings and working with modern equipment, we still feel doubts: we wish we could be overseas, serving in the "real work". Although we know consciously that the work God has us doing here in the US is just as vital in the big picture, it doesn't feel the same (to our pride and self-image).

It's nice to get occasional reminders and encouragements of how we fit in the big picture of the hundreds of Bible translations going on around the world. One way the IT department of Wycliffe USA supports language projects is by donating laptops that are rotated out of use by the US staff. They are sent out to translation projects that request them. By US business and technology standards the computer may be old, but national translators are glad to update their ancient computers. Recently Bob's team received this note from a team in Nepal who was recently given one of the laptops.

Thanks for your prayer and support to our Project . We got the computer along with its battery and cds. It's very helpful for our work. Thank you for it. Before we had two computers but those were really really old and did not work properly. Your donation came at the perfect time and will be very useful. We start our next translation training session in just two weeks. Please remember us in our prayers and thank you for your support. 

In Him, thanks, Peter

Serving without going

When we resigned from Wycliffe we had some money in a special account to help us set up our home in Nigeria. Due to regulations on US non-profit organizations and the way these funds were categorized, we were not able to get these funds back and were able to choose another project to give to. We contacted our Nigeria colleagues for advice on what projects needed the money, and they sent us a list of projects in need of funding.

The project we chose was somewhat bittersweet: we will be contributing to upgrading the network at the main Nigeria Group office. This is one of the systems Bob would have maintained had we traveled there to work. It is a nice feeling that we continue to support the team there even though we are not able to go in person to work side by side. Missions all around the world have desperate needs for just this kind of practical, simple devices to help them accomplish what God's enabling them to do.

the Server Room at the Nigeria Group Office

Thankful for the Words of God - Giveaway

This week we are giving away These Words Changed Everything, the story of Chamula Indians of Mexico hearing God's Words for the first time and how it radically changed their community

Enter the giveaway HERE.

The Chamula people couldn't comprend how the Ken and Elaine Jacobs, SIL translators, could devote their full attention to the translation work, and still have a means to provide for their living expenses.  When the Jacobs explained how other people in America were praying and sending them money so they could do the translation, the Chamula believers were amazed.  In gratitude upon the completion of the translation the leaders in the Chumula community  wrote a letter of thanks to the Jacobs' supporters in America.  A portion of it is quoted in the book and I share here with you.  

Because you have a goodness of Heart similar to that in the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, you felt it to be of extreme importance to send to Mexico Ken and Elaine Jacobs who were chosen by God to do the word of translating God's word for us. Now, the entire New Testament has been translated into our Chamula language, and we are able to say that we, the Chamulas of Chiapas, have in our possession and in our own language the Word of God. 

Before the coming of the Scriptures, year after year passed, and we never knew what God had to say to us. Now we Chamula Indians in large numbers are hearing God speak. We have come to know of forgiveness of our sins; we now know that God sees us well through Jesus Christ and what He has done; and we have come to know that we have new life through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, Brethren, accept our greetings and thanks as payment for what you have done for us. For, in reality, this is all we have with which to pay you. We have no silver or gold. The only thing we have to extend to you is Col a val.... 'Thank You'! (p 149)

How Grateful are you for having scripture you can easily read and study?  I know I take it for granted too often.  

Linking up with Faith Filled Friday

Forgive My Enemies - video

The Word of God is ALIVE and ACTIVE in changing peoples lives. One week before the dedication of the Gospel of Luke, three hundred homes in the village of Bambalang, Cameroon, were burned by a neighboring village. But hearing Scripture in their own language has brought comfort and forgiveness.

Don't forget to enter to win a copy of These Words Changed Everything: Startling News that Rebuilt a Maya Worldview.  Enter HERE

These Words Changed Everything - Giveaway!

I just finished reading These Words Changed Everything and wanted to share a part of the story with you.  Do we really understand what its like to get to hear the Words of God for the first time?  We are overloaded with scripture references in our everyday lives and take it for granted.

This book is a telling of the struggles and triumphs of the translation project for the Chamula people of Mexico.  Ken and Elaine Jacobs began working with SIL in 1957 and completed the New Testament translation in 1988 and were privileged to be consultants for the translation of the Old Testament which was completed in 2001.

As people with easy and immediate access to scripture its next to impossible to comprehend what a Bible translation project means for a language community.  In addition to hearing about the living God for the first time in their own language, the literacy benefits are priceless.

I want to share with one of my readers a copy of this book, donated by the publisher, Stem Int'l.  In addition to facilitating short term mission trips and training they publish materials to equip, support and improve short term missions efforts.



To Enter leave a comment sharing why you are passionate about Scripture and your email
For extra entries leave a separate comment letting me know you did one of the following:

• follow this blog on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, 
• share about this giveaway or
• pray for Bibleless People regularly.  

Contest is open to all US residence only, entires will be recieved until Monday April 30, 2012 at midnight.  Winner will be notified on Tuesday May 1st.

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Tell Me a Story

Do You Have a Bible?

After Bob's visit to Nigeria last year, he returned with the following story,

 we love because it illustrates the eagerness of people to hear the Bible in their own language.

I was traveling with another American and two Nigerians in a van to two towns on the other side of the country (a 9-hour drive) to install BGANs, a satellite internet system that they could use to connect their laptops to the internet. This system would allow them to collaborate with consultants on translating hard verses or difficult ideas, it would allow them to report on their work as they finished it, and allow them to back up their work remotely in case something happened to their work computer.

There are military checkpoints from time to time on the roads, and we were stopped at one. The soldier asked the driver who we were in Hausa, the local trade language, and the driver replied that we were missionaries. As soon as the soldier heard that, he looked at us Americans in the backseat and asked us, in English, if we had a Bible. I was a little worried at this question because it sounded like a challenge, like we were being asked to prove we were missionaries by producing a real Bible. Embarrassingly, my only Bible was on my smartphone, and my friends' was buried in his suitcase, so we were fumbling around having trouble locating one.

Fortunately, while we were engaged, the other Nigerian in the front seat was continuing to talk to the soldier in Hausa. He learned that the soldier was asking because he wanted a Bible for himself. The man explained that we weren't giving away Bibles, we were translating them, and he asked what the soldier's heart language was. It turns out that the soldier speaks a language that was currently in the process of being translated, and he was able to assure the soldier that we were working on it and he would be able to have the Bible soon not in English, but in his own language. We left with an encouragement that people really are eager to have the Bible for themselves, and that God arranged this encounter for us to see firsthand peoples' desire to have His Word in their own language.

You can help sponsor Scripture translation projects, OneVerse at a time

Investing in Scripture

I love our church, you never know what the Pastor will do to make his point.  He has been known to preach on a treadmill, pass out candy, scale a ladder, balance on a 2x4.  A few weeks ago they gave everyone money.

The money wasn't ours but we were instructed to invest it, make it grow or add to and give it away.  It wasn't ours in the first place, we were the stewards.  People were given varying amounts from $1-$50.  Bob and I together were given $22.  We had until Easter to make a plan and give it away, and return the enclosed card sharing what we did with the money.

I knew I wanted to use it to sponsor a verse of Scripture translation for the Vidunda people of Tanzania.  I've been praying and sharing about them but I haven't given yet.  A verse costs $26, a mere $26 but money has been extra tight with our recent move so we hadn't done it.  We recieved $22 so I began thinking of a creative way to find the other $4 for a verse.

We have this change jar that has made the last 2 moves without being counted or cashed.  I figured there had to be at least enough in it for the rest of a verse.  We started counting it and found more than enough for another verse as well.  So we used our $22 +the change to sponsor Matthew 26:24-25

24 For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!" 25 Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, "Rabbi, am I the one?" And Jesus told him, "You have said it."

Very fitting verses for Holy Week.  We read these verses and wish for a more powerful verse, but for Vidunda when they hear these 2 verses they will have LIFE!  Its a good investment to us since the Word of God is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), and always provides a return on your investment (Isaiah 55:11)

Join me in sponsoring one more verse for the Vidunda people in Tanzania.

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Aaron Shust on Bible Translation

Aaron Shust is a OneVerse Artist sharing his passion for seeing every person hear God's word in their language.  

The Easy Choice

Bob started his new job at Wycliffe last week.  We want to share how God has faithfully provided this job and answered our specific prayers.  Bob applied for a dozen jobs in January while we waited to see where God wanted us.  He prayed that God would provide the job we needed, and also that God would make it clear what direction He wanted us to go now by what job He provided, and would make the choice easy. Bob also called his supervisor from Wycliffe, the job he left in April  2010 to focus on our partnership team in preparation to serve in Nigeria.  She did not know any potential openings in his old department, so we applied elsewhere.  Bob quickly got a call back from another position in Orlando and began the interview process.  These interviews provided us hope as we waited for an offer.  Bob received positive feedback and completed 4 of 5 interviews.

Then we got a call.  There was an unexpected opening in his old department. Bob applied and was quickly offered the position.  He was also still in the running for the other position. Both jobs had attractive qualities.  We were waiting to finish the interview process, when we got an email informing Bob that the other position was pursuing another candidate and not Bob.  Suddenly we had only one offer, and the decision was easy; just as Bob had prayed.

We are excited to be back at the Wycliffe USA Mobilization Center in Orlando, as we continue to support Bible Translation around the world with IT and our blogging.

Last week we got to share our passion with some friends from Carbondale.  Eboni and Kyla visited us during Spring Break.  Eboni realized how much we take having accessible scripture for granted when so many people desire it but still have to wait.

Why is the Bible important to you?

Bible Translation is NOT boring

I remember it vividly.  My fiancée and I were sitting at a Mexican restaurant in downtown St. Louis during the Urbana06 mission conference in St. Louis, MO.  It was a day we were supposed to fast but I had worn myself out in the days leading up to the conference, so we were stopping so I could eat.  Knowing we wanted missions to be a part of our family vision we were looking at various organizations to be a part of and who could use our respective skills: IT for Bob, and media for me.  While we were studying our list and deciding who to talk to a second or third time Wycliffe was mentioned, but I told him Bible Translation looked boring and I didn't see how my gifts would fit.  I had grown up hearing about Wycliffe and our church supported Wycliffe missionaries but it never struck me as something special. 

 What's the big deal about giving people another book to put on their bookshelf?

Fast forward 2 years.  Bob was getting restless at his dead-end call center job and began looking for something else.  He had gone on some short-term trips with Wycliffe during college and was on an email list that advertised a job opening at the Wycliffe USA Orlando office.  He applied and was offered the job.  So we moved to Orlando and Bob started his job.  I still didn't quite have a passion for Bible Translation.  It wasn't until we began meeting coworkers and other missionaries who had done a translation that I began to understand its importance. 

It's not just another book; for many it's their First Book.

I began to hear that most of the languages that are in progress and waiting to be done have an extra hurdle: they need a written form of their language.  It's literally never been written down at all.  For these people groups the process of Bible Translation is more than another book on the bookshelf: it's opening a doorway to the outside world.  The literacy that comes along with a Bible Translation project opens up opportunities for education and advancement.  It changes the culture from the inside out.  

Credits: The Seed Company

I'm excited to be a part of this change for the Vidunda people of Tanzania as they gain access to more scripture in their language.  Its a powerful thing when you hear Jesus speak your language.  Join with me as we support the Vidunda people OneVerse at a time.  

Check out what others are saying about Bible Translation as we link up at OneVerse!

Who are the Vidunda?

OneVerse is a program of the Seed Company (TSC), part of the Wycliffe family of organizations, that gives you the opportunity to be directly involved in Bible translation.  They support translation projects that are being facilitated by native speakers and nationals in the country they are working.  TSC comes along side a project and provides training, computer equipment, office supplies, and the living expenses for the translators family.

The OneVerse Bloggers are working together to sponsor the Vidunda project in Tanzania.  More than 60% of the Vidunda people consider themselves Christian.  However many of them still hang amulets on their children to protect them from evil spirits and curses. Because they have been hearing Scripture in a language foreign to them, most Vidunda people have little idea what is actually teaches.

Damas and Kiliani, Vidunda translators

The work of Bible translation is long and intense, as the translators work word by word,  verse by verse, to accurately produce a translation that will be used by the language community.  For $26 you can sponsor one verse of scripture.   Imagine being responsible for Matthew 14:14 You would be responsible for them learning that Jesus has the power to heal!

"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick."

You can get involved by clicking the button at the top of the left sidebar or below to sign up as a partner.  OneVerse at a time the Vidunda will get their New Testament, join us in being a part of it.  

Bible Stacks: Scripture Wealth

We're linking up with the other OneVerse bloggers today, check out the other posts and add yours at Meredith's blog!

We bought Lydia, my daughter her first Bible recently, it made me consider how many Bibles we own. I mentioned this to my family. So we went on a hunt. We gathered them from around the house, we even pulled a box out of storage. We had Bibles of all shapes and sizes, different translations, one with pictures, one on CD for use on the computer and many were sitting in a box unused. Scripture Wealth.

It wasn't until our family got involved with Wycliffe that I began to realize how much I take having the Bible for granted. While we have extra Bibles sitting in a box collecting dust, there are people around the world who can't wait to get their hands on even a portion of scripture in their language. For Aksamina, a language helper for the Berik people of Indonesia, it was her dying wish for her husband, Essau, to help finish the translation for their language.  Essau saw their New Testament dedicated in 1993.

JOIN US!
I challenge you to discover how wealthy you are in scriptures.  Do the same exercise and share your thoughts with us.  One lucky person with get their thoughts shared on the OneVerse blog and get a free t-shirt.  You can link up with us at Meredith's blog or if you don't have a blog you can share with us on the OneVerse Facebook Wall. What are you waiting for, go discover your wealth and show the world!

400 Posts!

Wow!  I have been blogging for a long time.  I started this blog in 2007 as a way to keep our family involved in our lives when we moved away from home as newlyweds.  Its had many transformations and its growing still today.  I'm taking the time to highlight the top ten popular posts on the blog in celebration of my blogging milestone.  Enjoy!

10. We Made It to Illinois!
9. Cynthia's Thoughts: Change vs Transition
8. ICC - Date Change
7. Cynthia's Thoughts: "I am the same God"
6. The stuff in our lives
5. We're Official!
4. Third Thursday Blog Hop: The Power of the Sun...
3. Birth Story- Caleb Robert
2. What's Next: Dealing with Depression
1. Replaceable

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January Newsletter

Our January Newsletter is available now.  Already this year has been one of tough decisions and severe soul-searching for us. Our plans have changed significantly. I alluded to the big changes that are in store here.  You can download the newsletter here.


This is our final newsletter as members of Wycliffe.  Due to some health issues we are resigning from Wycliffe, so we can settle and focus on getting well.  We are leaving the door open to rejoin the organization in the future.  Our immediate future is uncertain, but we are continuing to trust God as we have for the last 12 months to meet our needs.  We are planning at this time to relocate, once again, to Orlando, where we feel most at home as a family.  


This blog isn't going anywhere but we are praying about how we can intentionally use it in our new season of life.  Stay tuned for new things!