NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Gordie Hunt with a translation co-worker

How would you translate “letter of recommendation” in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 for a people group who never knew writing before?

That’s the question Gordie and Nancy Hunt face as they put God’s Word into the language of the Manjui people of Paraguay.

“But what about a people who recently come out from living in the jungle and still hunt for deer and pig, and had never even seen paper until we came along?” wrote Gordie and Nancy. “This one is going to take a bit of explaining.”

And it gets harder. Paul also says in verse 3 that this letter was written in their hearts.

“Again, we have a difficulty here because the Manjuis only see their heart as a blood pump,” the Hunts wrote. To the Manjuis, emotions reside in their “insides,” so that may work for the translation.

Still, saying a letter was written on their insides is potentially very confusing for the Manjui readers, who are used to concrete expressions, not figurative ones. However it is translated, Gordie wrote, the expression “is going to take quite a bit of explanation. I can’t wait to sit down with my translation helper on this one.”

Liv Poulsen and Badyarankes

Have you ever learned a foreign language?

Other folks sure have a strange way of talking, don’t they? Not only do they use completely different words, but often they string them together in a far different way. It’s a wonder any of them can understand each other.

I am, of course, just kidding. But I’m doing it to make a point.

If you’re going to create Bible lessons and Scripture translations that make sense in another language, you have to know far more than the words the people use.

Even knowing how they string those words together in a sentence won’t get you there.

You need to know how words and sentences work together in

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Dave with Ludi, another of his translation co-workers.

Tossito couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

He’d been helping Dave Ward develop evangelistic Bible lessons for the Brooke’s Point Palawano people, so he was getting a preview of what the rest of his people would soon be hearing. Dave is working on some of the first lessons, and he was telling Tossito about Lucifer.

When he told Tossito that God gave Lucifer a position over the other angels, but Lucifer rebelled and one-third of the angels joined him, Tossito was stunned.

“Na! Na! Na! Na! No way!” Tossito said, “He rebelled against God? No way! Why?”

What an excellent question. Lucifier was a creation of God. God gave him a position because he was created for that position, not because he earned it or merited. It was God’s choice. Why

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Lonsi and Sanam and their children

Lonsi and Sanam have a head-start.

For months, the Akolet couple has helped Adam and Julie Martin translate Scriptures, so they’ve been hearing God’s Word ahead of their fellow Akolets, who are now hearing evangelistic Bible lessons in Papua New Guinea.

But they didn’t understand how to obtain salvation.

And then, while helping translate the prophecy of Joel in Acts chapter 2, Lonsi and Samam heard “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

“Let me stop you there and ask you,” Lonsi said.

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Two of the Mwinika men helping translate.

“Good bread! Fresh bread!”

The loud calls of the woman in the street came right through the walls of the house where Phil Henderson and some Mwinika men were translating Bible passages in preparation for teaching.

Then a potential buyer started calling back and forth with her, sounding out price and quality and quantity. The concentration was broken, and they stalled in John Chapter 6.

But one of the men pointed back to a verse they had just translated: “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35)

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get back to work. She is just selling bread that doesn’t last.”

Bible teaching began this month among the Mwinika people. So this came from a man who has yet to get the opportunity to place his faith in Christ. But his priorities were straight.

There’s plenty of stuff that doesn’t last calling out for our attention. Don’t let it distract you from the eternal.