Literacy

When people can read Scripture in a language they clearly understand, they can better interact with it and integrate it into their lives. That's why literacy programs often go hand in hand with Bible translation. And when they gain access to other translated resources like Bible studies and devotional materials, local churches thrive spiritually.

Literacy also benefits the broader community. It can preserve previously unwritten languages and help record traditional forms of oral history and storytelling. Literacy is also an important part of life-saving health and hygiene promotion and helps subsistence farmers grow more productively and sustainably. In a rapidly changing world, literacy opens doors to education, economic empowerment, and a better life for the next generation. 

The above text is taken from the website www.wycliffe.ca. You can visit it to find out about different projects that are engaged in literacy. It explains well the importance of literacy and why it is a necessary part of what Wycliffe does. In some countries literacy doesn't need to be a focus. For example, the translation may use a script that is already used by the "official" language of the country and the language community learned it in school. However, in many places a writing system has to be developed and people have to be taught how to use it and read it. 

While Wycliffe does have projects engaged with literacy, we also have members whose own work and ministry is focused on furthering Bible translation through literacy. Let me introduce you to one of our members, Nancy. She has worked with us for 12 years. Similar to my own experience overseas, Nancy lives in Asia, though a different country than I was in. Nancy is a literacy and education specialist. She is positioned to support both the educational needs of the community she works in as well as the spiritual needs. This started with first having to compile an alphabet and has progressed all the way developing reading and math materials, as well as Sunday Sunday materials. Nancy is involved in the development of those resources and also does teacher training events for school teachers and Sunday school teachers, who then return to their communities to teach their students. 

Nancy's work is a vital component of enabling people to access the word of God. A community has to be literate if the Bible is being translated in written form. Churches, leaders, and any Jesus follower needs to be able to use the scriptures in their own language to grow in their faith. Further, literacy is foundational to community development, capacity building, and scripture engagement. Fourty nine percent of the global illiterate live in Southeast Asia, and 27% live in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a lot of literacy work to be done in these parts of the world.

To learn more about literacy projects that Wycliffe Canada supports visit www.wycliffe.ca. To learn more about Nancy's work, and due to the sensitive location in which she ministers, please write to me for contact information.

Pray for the projects around the world where Wycliffe Canada is involved in Capacity Building. Visit our website https://www.wycliffe.ca/projects/literacy/ to learn more about how Wycliffe Canada works towards this pillar.

Pray for my own work in member care as we look at ways to better use my education and training to support Wycliffe Canada staff and our partners.

For the past year Wycliffe Canada has been on the search for a new president. In the middle of October we welcomed Jon Imbeau to Wycliffe. Give thanks for the success of this search, and pray for him as he gives direction and leadership to our organization. 

Over the next few newsletters I am going to reintroduce you to the vision of Wycliffe Canada and its four pillars, which are Scripture Engagement, Literacy, Engagement with Scripture, and Capacity Building. Each newsletter will focus on one pillar, introducing you to its meaning and purpose, as well as a member whose ministry represents that pillar.

A world where translated Scriptures 

lead to transformed lives 

among people of all languages.

Capacity Building is about strengthening the global church’s ability to carry out Bible translation. It happens when transformed lives bring glory to God. The translating of scripture has many steps and phases. A wide variety of people contribute to the task, leveraging skills ranging from linguistic and mother tongue education skills, to translation and exegetical knowledge, to IT support and typesetting, and even accounting and fund raising abilities.

The desire to build capacity comes from the recognition that local, sustainable ownership of translation is important. However, the needed experience and education are not yet available in many countries. A sense of ownership is important to meaningful translation and use of scripture. The more rooted in a culture a translation is, the more that meaning and nuance can come through correctly.

The world is changing. Factors such as politics, war, religious idealism, and less acceptance of foreigners are making it more difficult for our people to travel to and live in many countries where we work. The more local capacity exists, the less reliance there is on external skills and people. The result is a more stable translation project in an ever-changing international landscape.

One of our members tells of a workshop taught in Chad late last year, called Faith and Farming. The teacher at this workshop had attended a previous Faith and Farming workshop in Senegal. This material is being taught more and more across Africa by those who have themselves attended workshops. This is a perfect example of building capacity and multiplying the work of one into many. (To learn more about this initiative please visit the Faith and Farming website). Another way to build capacity is within Wycliffe Canada, as we recruit teachers and trainers to serve local colleagues. In this way, Wycliffe Canada strategically strengthens our focus regions with “value added” people and resources.

I want to introduce you to a fellow Wycliffe Canada member and Ontarian, Rachel Nweke and her husband Uche. Rachel explains her ministry as being about, “stewarding, strengthening and strategizing with SIL, our main partner, and other national Nigerian partners.” In Rachel’s work in mobilization as a mission coach, she learns the personnel needs of our partners around the world, and in turn, recruits Canadians accordingly, so as to strengthen the Bible translation work they are doing. She also supports the Scripture Engagement team with SIL Nigeria in their Faith and Farming initiative, which is the story above. Most, if not all, the languages where Bible translation work is being done in Nigeria, are spoken by farmers. Yet, there is often a disconnect between the life of a farmer and the life of the church. Rachel helps to bridge this gap with the specific training that she has. More about her and Uche’s ministry can be found at https://www.wycliffe.ca/member/nweke-rachel-and-uche/.

Pray for the projects around the world where Wycliffe Canada is involved in Capacity Building. Visit our website https://www.wycliffe.ca/projects/capacity-building/ to learn more about how Wycliffe Canada works towards this pillar.

Pray for Wycliffe Canada as we interact with partners and recruit the right people to support and meet the needs identified by our partners.

Pray for Wycliffe Canada as we have key spots to fill including our next President.

Reconciliation

 

https://mikeduvall.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/a-beginning-finally/

  

I was recently skimming through various newsfeeds and came across an article preview, from Christianity Today entitled "A Deeper Debate Over Drums in Church" (August 2017). I am able to read the first few paragraphs though and want to share a part of it here:

When white missionaries first spread the gospel to indigenous tribes, they often did so in     ways that undermined tribal language and culture. Almost all Native Christian leaders agree on that...But leaders remain divided over what contextualizing their faith should look like—and what role sacred objects, like drums, have in Christian worship.

The article caught my eye at first because I was surprised to see such a topic still being discussed. Then I read a bit further and realized it was about the place of sacred drums in the context of Indigenous churches. Since I can't read the entire article I don't know what it concludes. However, it reminded me that I've been wanting to write about a related issue. Stick with me and you'll see how this fits with the work of Bible Translation. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) began in 2008, with the 94 Calls to Action published in 2015. Residential schools were operated by various Christian denominations in Canada, in conjunction with the Canadian government, with the purpose of assimilating Indigenous people into mainstream society. This was achieved by stripping Indigenous families and communities of their culture and identity. This is not distant history in Canada as residential schools operated for over a century from 1870's to 1996.

Through your support of Wycliffe Bible Translators you are connected to the Bible translation movement, and so I am sure you are aware that we value culture. We recognize that the Bible speaks best to people in their heart language, that lives can be transformed through scripture, that families and communities do measurably better when they can experience translated scripture that is informed by and rooted in their culture, not removed from it. This is the very antithesis of the mandate of residential schools. Wycliffe’s values include the recognition that worship is based in culture. For example, the Psalms were originally written as songs and meant to be sung. Most churches and followers of Jesus do not regularly sing the Psalms in their worship. Nor do we use the same instruments that were used during the times the Psalms were written. Churches may not all have the same worship style, but I've yet to meet one that hasn't changed what worship means now from what it meant in the past. 

There has been a shift over the years in the translation movement, from less focus on the foreign translator being the expert and owning the process and therefore bringing their own cultural bias, to more focus on national colleagues being guided through the process. This shift happened over years and many and hard lessons. Eventually those in the Bible translation movement realized that a Bible translation must be community owned, led, and driven. This allows the translation to be rooted in the culture it is meant for, which leads to greater space for understanding and transformation. 

The shift in best translation practice represents the results we want to see from the TRC and 94 Calls to Action. Acknowledging that what was done in the past, was wrong, and finding a better way forward today. In both translation and the TRC, it means allowing indigenous communities to lead and translators, governments, churches, and organizations to follow alongside. 

Going back to the article at the top of this letter, there was harm done in teaching and forcing Indigenous communities to abandon all elements of their culture for them to be acceptable to Jesus and Canadian society. There continues to be harm done as the past influences the present by causing division in the indigenous Christian community today. We all have been invited by these communities, through the 94 Calls to Action, to follow their lead in addressing what they have decided is important. Bible translation organizations are sometimes fortunate enough to be invited back to these communities to help them translate scripture in a meaningful form. 

I believe the spirit of the text of 2 Chronicles 7:14-15 is applicable here. Pray with me that all who have benefited from the acts of the past (that's most of us) will look for and step into opportunities to address the wrongs of the past. 

Then if my people who are called by my name 

will humble themselves and pray and seek my

face and turn from their wicked ways, I will

hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and 

restore their land. My eyes will be open and my 

ears attentive to every prayer made in this place