Prayer Letter Archive

February 2005

Many Malaumandan Christians, like this man (Eso), await the opportunity read the Bible in their own tribal tongue.

Recently some exciting news came out of Malaumanda. There is now a portion of the Bible translated into the tribal language and ready to be given to the Malaumandan people!

Translating into a tribal language is a very technical procedure. The multi-step process insures that accuracy of the passage is secured and that understanding is being achieved by the reader. Both of these areas must be in place for the translation to have the function that God intended. It is not an easy task in an extremely cross cultural context.

After many hours of painstaking labor Barney Enns has gone through the necessary steps to have this portion of Scripture ready for distribution. Many of the village Christians are eager to read some of God's word in their own language.

This content of this portion of Genesis was initially taught to the tribe by Jeff back in 1999. Since that time many logistical and circumstantial setbacks have hindered the actual translation process from advancing. Teaching has continued since that time but without the benefit of being able to refer to finalized translated portions of Scripture in the tribal language.

Rejoice with us that the written word is now available for the Malaumandan church! Further chapters in Genesis and Mark are in progress. There is still a huge amount of translating and teaching to be done. Pray the current team still working with the tribe will make steady progress toward their goals.

Efforts are being rekindled to teach literacy classes to those in the tribe who are still unable to read. Some adjustments have been made to the tribal alphabet to assist in these efforts.

Prayer Needs: