... and God said
Chris: While attending the Catholic mass as a young boy, I tried praying but I didn't know who I was praying to. I asked God to reveal himself to me, since I did not even know if he existed. I had many questions but no-one could answer them. Later I went to the USA for postgraduate studies, where I experienced loneliness and rejection. So when some local churches reached out to the foreign students, I accepted gladly and attended a weekly Bible study. This was like walking on the Emmaus Road with Jesus! My eyes were opened to the truth. God answered my boyhood prayers, I became his child, and there was no going back.
Ruth: Growing up in Tamil Nadu, south India, I resented some of the beliefs and practices in our Hindu society. I had a deep intuition that there must be a creator God, who is holy and caring, and I longed to know him. So when I heard about Jesus through a college mate, I immediately fell in love with this God. But I was afraid to commit my entire future to him. Soon after, while a few students prayed for me, I saw a vision of the Lord. I leaned on his knees and he put his hand on my head and blessed me. My heart filled with such joy and confidence that I no longer feared to follow him all the way!
Chris: I became disillusioned with biomedical engineering and had a great desire to study God's word and share it with others. One day, someone told us that she was trained to be a Bible translator but could not go on because of health problems. Something in my heart prompted me to ask, "Do you think I can become one?" I attended an introduction to Bible translation and the leaders confirmed this call. So after completing my research, I went through linguistics training to prepare for Bible translation. Then I returned to India, where I met Ruth. We got married, and the Lord led us to serve the 200,000 Madia people in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Ruth: While at college, I was praying early one morning when I heard God' voice saying he was sending me as his messenger. I didn't understand what it meant. A few years later I was fasting for a few days, asking God to show me his purpose for my life. God gave me a dream in which I saw a preacher telling a crowd of people about God's love in a moving way. But the people paid no attention. I urged them, but to no avail. Then I heard God's voice; it said, "Ruth, they don't know the preacher's language. Will you translate?" So I did, and the people listened and responded. But I didn't understand what that dream meant. Eventually, when I heard about Bible translation, God reminded me of that dream and confirmed his calling on my life.
Chris: I would like to improve my understanding and skill in order to produce a translation that sounds natural-as if it hasn't been translated at all! I want to train others to do this too. Also, we translators shouldn't be confined to one language; language teams should work together and help one another. We need to identify and train a number of specialists for every aspect of the translation process, who can work alongside several related language teams at the same time.
Ruth: Bible translation is not done just from one language to another but from one culture to another. The Bible is set in cultures that existed thousands of years ago, so the cultural detail-idioms, gestures, customs-may not be understood if translated literally. Clearly, we must understand the cultures of the Bible as well as the culture of the target language.
In our Madia village, every Friday evening, I tried telling Bible stories as interestingly as I could to a dozen women sitting round the fire. But it was extremely difficult to keep their attention. One would weave a rope, another would watch her toddlers, and still another would look for lice in her daughter's hair. There was a lot of coming and going; a neighbour wanted to borrow a tool, a man wanted his wife to bring the cows in, and so on. After hearing the story, they couldn't answer simple comprehension questions. I was frustrated, but I knew some were excellent at telling traditional folk-tales. So, one day I had the idea of using their traditional story-singing method. I sang a parable from Luke's Gospel, while the women sang the responses after every sentence, dancing in rhythmic steps. This way, they were totally involved, attentive and understood the Bible story!
We have published portions of the Bible in Madia but 95% of the people are non-literate. They may never want to learn to read! We can't give this oral community Scriptures only in print! I long for the Madia people to hear God's word through their traditional oral arts as well, and I would like to work towards that.
Father of all, please give Chris and Ruth the cultural understanding and the technical skill they need to produce translations that are accurate, clear and natural to Madia ears.
