Postscript

For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.
– Habakkuk 2:3 ESV

God’s timing doesn’t always feel perfect.  Speaking for myself, I think I can be the queen of impatience. I like when things happen now; I’d rather not wait.   And yet, God has shown me over and over that when we have patience (yes…when I have patience), things can come together in expected ways – better ways.

We’ve been meeting with people in the Kapingamarangi community over the last few days learning more about their Bible translation program.  The theme I’ve been hearing in our interviews is God’s perfect timing.  This community waited a long time before they began their translation project.

It was the Nukouran people who first introduced the Kapingamarangi to the gospel in the early twentieth century. It was also the Nukouru who helped them begin to figure out how they could do a Bible translation.  The Kapingamarangi asked a Nukouran man to help them contact someone who could help them get their translation project started.  Thus began more than ten years of dialogue with people involved in Bible translation work in the Pacific…and lots and lots of waiting.

Caleb, who leads the Kapingamarangi translation committee, shared with us that they  ”waited, waited, waited.” But, he went on to talk about God’s perfect timing. “Sometimes God says you need to wait. God had a time for us to have it.”

While they waited, they prayed.  God began to work in hearts.  When the first requests for help went out, not everyone in the community was sure this was the best thing to do.  While they prayed, God brought unity.

Caleb shared with us that the work ahead of them to translate the Bible into their language seemed impossible, but while they waited and prayed he learned “that nothing is impossible with God. With him anything can be done.”

Several years passed.  Finally, someone experienced in Bible translation work was available to work with them as an advisor for their Bible translation program.  The time was right. The whole community had gained interest in the project during those years they waited, and when the project began more than 20 volunteers from the community were ready to begin translation and about 100 volunteers were available for checking.  In just four years they completed a translation of the New Testament in their language! During those years they waited they also raised funds through copra production and the sale of handicrafts.  It was enough to cover the costs for printing their New Testaments.

They went on to translate about half of the Old Testament, but by then a couple of other communities in their other region became interested in starting translation projects, too.  Instead of continuing on, the Kapingamarangi community released their translation advisor and also raised funds to help these new project begin.

When those new projects had their own translation advisors assigned, the Kapaingamarangi translation committee started up their translation work again. Now they hope to complete a translation of the whole Bible into their language by the end of the year.

Praise God for his timing!

Learn more about the Kapingamarangi Bible Translation project

* Photo of members of the Kapingamarangi Bible translation committee by Elyse Patten

Some people are born for translation.  Well, at least in this case, that is actually sort of true. Betty (back left) leads the team translating the Bible into the Nukuoru language.  Her mother was the first one in her family to be involved in translation.  She helped the team translating the New Testament into Nukuoru.

Betty shared with us that when she was young she sensed that God wanted her to work in translation like her mother had done.  After years of education including Bible college and coursework to learn biblical and modern Hebrew in Israel, Betty continued the translation work for which her mother had been involved.  Now, Betty and her team hope to complete the Old Testament so that the whole Bible in Nukuoro can be finished by the end of the year.

The team works from the island of Pohnpei were many from the community have settled.  Their home island is a boat-ride away from Pohnpei and is still inhabited by a few hundred Nukuoran people.

* The photo of the Nukuoran Bible translation team was taken by Elyse Patten. 

Our flight today took us from Guam to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).  The view from the plane was amazing.  I’ve never seen islands like these.  Many of them had bright aqua-blue rings around their shorelines making them visually pop out of the endless dark blue of the ocean.  I’ve never seen anything like it.

Several of the islands together with reefs formed atolls.  According to Wikipedia an atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon.

This is a view of the Nukuoro atoll from a satellite in space.  More on Nukuoro in another post.

We saw several  islands like this through the clouds from the plane.  It is incredible how many little islands like this there are. Thinking about how people made their way to these islands by canoe blows my mind.

Our next six days will be on the island of Pohnpei, FSM. We’ll be meeting with Islanders involved in four different translation programs.  Should be a good week!

* Top photo of island by Elyse Patten

One of the most important aspects of Bible translation work is training.  Training ensures the sustainability of translation work – that local communities can do it far into the future.  This is needed because Bible translation is an ongoing job.  While a translation of a book of the Bible, the New Testament or even the whole Bible may be complete for a time, the work of translation is never really done.  Languages change as do the needs of communities.

For communities first receiving portions of scripture in their language, Bible translation training happens in a variety of ways.  Some happens on-the-job, some is acquired in workshops, however some levels of training are best received from universities.

In the Pacific one university that is working to begin a formal Bible translation training program is Pacific Islands University.  Located in Guam, PIU has just begun to offer a minor in Bible translation with the hopes of developing this program more in the future.

We met with Dave Owen, the president of PIU.  He shared his passion for this new Bible translation program as part of his vision to see more Pacific Islanders equipped to engage in the theological dialogues of the global Church.

The goal of the Bible translation study program is to see more Pacific Islanders equipped to engage in every aspect of Bible translation projects.  This will help more local churches around the Pacific to be equipped to provide  translated biblical resources to their congregations well into the future.  Those resources may be new translations of the Bible in languages that haven’t had it before, revisions to existing Bible translations, or even the translation and development of other biblical resources like commentaries, Bible studies and more.

I’m heading to the Pacific to work with my colleague, Elyse, on gathering stories about Bible translation work on the Pacific Islands.  It’s a first for me.  I’ve never been to this region.  We’re meeting in Guam (which by the way is part of the USA) and then going to an island in the Federated States of Micronesia called Pohnpei.  It’s actually the first time the Wycliffe News Network will be covering publicity stories for Wycliffe here. We have several stories in mind that we hope to get from here, and we also hope to get a collection of images from this region for Wycliffe’s photo library.  I’m quite excited about this opportunity!

The Pacific has three distinct cultural groups: Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian.  Each of these cultural groups has numerous language communities. While we’re in Pohnpei, we plan to visit with a couple of Polynesian communities and a hopefully a couple of Micronesian communities as well.

You can pray for this trip:

• Pray for safe travels
• Pray for God to give us wisdom to interview the right people and ask the right questions.
• Pray for us to be able to get some great photos to illustrate our stories well and for our photo library.
• Pray for the production of the final stories – for each story to bring glory to the work God is doing in this region and for them to inspire more people to become involved in Bible translation work worldwide.

God’s work is so vast.  It’s exciting to be able to see Him at work in a part of the world where I haven’t been before.

Learn more about Bible translation work in the Pacific Islands.