Back from Pakistan!

We had a great time in Pakistan!
Thanks to all of you who prayed! We were safe, and Gale had very exceptional strength.

Gale with friend, after henna party

We were able to make both village visits we had planned, but Gale, Hannah, and Ava did not stay overnight. They came to join Brandon and me in the morning.

Hannah and Brandon’s work in Pakistan is to encourage mobile literacy schools for a semi-nomadic “Shepherd Group.” One highlight for me was when I met one of the school supervisors that Brandon works with. I asked him if it is a good thing that their people learn to read, and he gave very good answers. (So they can read medicine labels, so people don’t cheat them at the market and in contracts, etc.) Then I asked him if he thought their language was dying. He said, “It was… until we started to have books in our language.” And immediately he got his backpack, and pulled out a nicely bound green book. It was the Gospel of Luke in the Shepherd Language, which he opened and read to me. He is proud of the book and is hungry for more like it, but he seems to not be yet a follower of the One the book is about.

Both Hannah and Brandon did amazingly well translating for us in all sorts of situations. If you pray for Hannah and Brandon, a major prayer request is to continue to make good progress in language learning. They are doing great, but ask for wisdom and strength to learn more, especially since they are working with two languages. Currently Brandon is concentrating on pursuing more fluency in the national language. I asked the school supervisor, “Do you think Brandon should learn your language?” And he quickly said “Yes, because he works so much with us.” Because Shepherd women don’t speak the national language, Hannah has already started to learn the Shepherd Language, but is also a full-time Mom. It is easier for Brandon to get out and about to have conversations daily. Hannah is much more house-bound because of the cultural restrictions for women, so will need extra creativity in finding ways to learn.

Other prayer requests include to pray for Brandon and Hannah for endurance in a country where they will face constant culture stress. The stress comes in multiple forms, such as frustrations in shopping, the extra time necessary to get things done, beggars at the door or marketplace, demands from friends, house helpers and language teachers, sickness, and a very dusty environment. Please also pray for wisdom in working well with coworkers. Another important request is that more books of God’s Word be translated into the Shepherd Language.

...some seed fell on good ground

Dr. Luke's book

Everywhere we went heads turned to get another look at Ava! If we were out walking, people frequently pulled out their cell phones to snap a picture.

life of the party

Don’t miss it!  link to slideshow with 30 pictures.

Or if you want to have more time to look at individual pictures, here is a link to the album. Click on a picture to enlarge it, then use the navigation window at the upper left to choose other pictures.

Unpacking The Shack

A friend of ours recommended our reading The Shack, by William P. Young. I did, and enjoyed it. You see, I was reading it in an uncritical way, and I was focusing on the strengths of the book. In particular, I was happy to read things that help us think of suffering from God’s perspective. In my case, I think of Gale and Rachel’s long-term health challenges. So passages like this were interesting to me:

“A bird’s not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly. Remember this, humans are not defined by their limitations, but by the intentions that I have for them; not by what they seem to be, but by everything it means to be created in my image.” (page 100)

I also enjoyed the picture of there being such love among the members of the Trinity:

“Love and relationship. All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within Me, within God myself. Love is not the limitation; love is flying. I am love.” (101)

However there are very serious issues in the book, because of the faulty portrayal of God and his relationships with mankind. I became aware of this when we visited one of our supporting churches, Franklin Road Baptist Church, in Indianapolis, where Larry DeBruyn is pastor. Larry has written several perceptive and very well researched articles that are published on Herescope.com. (The link should take you to all the articles on The Shack. If not, go to herescope.com and search for “shack.”) A search of Herescope will yeild the following articles by Pastor Larry, plus several other reviews.

• THE SHACK, “Elousia,” & the Black Madonna, IMAGINATION, IMAGE, AND IDOLATRY
• THE DIVINE-HUMAN RELATIONSHIP Part 1, 2 and 3: The Consequence of Role-Reversals in The Shack
• THE SHACK and Universal Reconciliation— Relationship, Rules and Reconciliation
• Sin Separates— THE SHACK and universal reconciliation
• Universal Reconciliation— The Theological Implications

Our pastor here in Siloam Springs recommends the article by Tim Challies found at challies.com.

Tim’s review ends with an excellent quote from John Piper:

Since time immemorial humans have wrestled with
the question of how a good and loving God could
allow evil–the kind of evil we see on display all
around us in this world and the kind of evil William
Young describes in The Shack. How do we react to a
world where a man can steal and kill a young child?
Where is God in the midst of such suffering? And
digging deeper still, what possible reason can there
be for such suffering? John Piper answers this
question in a convincing manner in Suffering and
the Sovereignty of God. Suffering, he says, exists in
order to display the greatness of God.
“The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of
the glory of the grace of God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering. The suffering of the utterly
innocent and infinitely holy Son of God in the place of utterly undeserving sinners to bring us to everlasting
joy is the greatest display of the glory of God’s grace that ever was, or ever could be.
“This was the moment–Good Friday–for which everything in the universe was planned. In conceiving
a universe in which to display the glory of his grace, God did not choose Plan B. There could be no
greater display of the glory of the Grace of God than what happened at Calvary. Everything leading to it
and everything flowing from it is explained by it, including all the suffering in the world.”

Ava Grace is born!

Ava Grace Baughn, was born to Hannah and Brandon on December 15! She was 8 pounds.

See the Our Kids tab for pictures!

Our “life is now hidden with Christ.” Huh?

I think a lot off people wonder why it takes so long to translate the Bible. I love my job, but it is a big responsibility. There are stern warnings in Revelation about people who take away from, or add to, what is written! And our goal is to translate in an accurate, clear and natural way.

Colossians 3:3 is a good example of the big translation challenges I face daily: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Let’s just focus on “life” and “hidden.” Well, I know the normal words for those in the Double Stuff language, and those are easy words in English. I can even read the words in Greek. But what does Paul mean?! First we look at the context. We need to find out what Paul means in saying, “you died.” Clearly, this isn’t normal death, otherwise the Colossian readers would not be reading this letter! He is talking about our reckoning about ourselves that we have spiritually accompanied Christ in his death and resurrection, as in chapter 2.

So does “life” mean resurrected life? How am I going to translate that concept? And, more difficult yet, what does it mean that this life is “hidden.” Who hid it?— and why is it hidden? Shouldn’t our new life be seen? There are so many questions, and unless I can find answers, the translation will end up a bunch of meaningless words. Ah, but we Bible translators have some wonderful tools! One is called Exegetical Summaries, and this is what it says for our two words, “life” and “hidden.” (If you are in a hurry, skip to the non-indented text!)

QUESTION—What is meant by Greek zwe hemòn ‘your life’?

1. It is a present possession [Alf, Ea, EG, EGT, Herm, ICC, Lg, Ln, Lt, Mou, Mrt, NTC, SSA, TNTC, WBC],
and will be consummated in the future [Alf, Ea, Herm, Lg].
It means their resurrection life [Alf, EG, EGT, SSA],
their new spiritual life [Ea, EG, Ln, SSA],
their true life [Herm, ICC],
which is seated in the heavenlies [ICC],
their higher life [Lt],
eternal life, which began at the time of the new birth [Lg].
It is their quality of life and devotion to Christ [Mrt].
It is a comprehensive term and includes life in a spiritual, ethical, and bodily sense [Alf].
This life replaced the old life to which they had died [SSA].
It is a participation in Christ’s resurrection life, having been raised with him to new life [WBC].
It means salvation, the life God created in them through their faith, which life is a present reality as they put their trust in Christ, live with him and obey him.
They keep this life in their possession by setting their minds on the things above [Herm].
2. It is the eternal life of the future, which is possessed in hope in the present [My].

QUESTION—What is meant by Greek kekruptai ‘has been hidden’?

It means concealed [Alf, Ea, EGT, Herm, Lg, Lt, Mrt, NTC, SSA, TNTC, WBC]
from human view [Herm, Lg, Lt, SSA, TNTC, WBC]
as a secret [TNTC],
from the world [Lg, Mrt, NTC],
from oneself [Lg, Lt, TNTC, WBC].
It means invisible [Ea, EGT, Ln, My, NTC, TH, WBC],
belonging to the eternal [EGT].
The full meaning of the Christian’s life has not yet been revealed [TH].
The life has not yet been manifested [My].
When the Colossians were baptized, they were buried out of sight and the world could see them no more, meaning that the world knows nothing of their new life.
This is why their new life should not know anything of the world [Lt].
God, the source of our life, and Christ, its channel, are concealed.
Our connection with God and Christ is also concealed, in the sense that it is an inner experience [Ea].
This verb has a connection with the ‘secret’ of 2:3 [Mou].
It means hidden in heaven, which implies both security and being concealed from human view [EG].
It means safe [BAGD, NIC]
and secure [NIC, WBC].

Whew! Which is what Paul really meant?! Please pray for us for wisdom in translating!

Bear in mind that we are translating for people will little education or background in Christian teaching. Here is what our current “Double Stuff” draft says:

[In this world, we don't any longer live like before we knew Christ.]* Now it is as if we have died to that way of life. And we consider that our spirits are in Christ’s hand in heaven, where Christ lives in unity with God.

“Our spirits” will be understood in the sense of our true spiritual lives, and “in Christ’s hand” will be understood to mean that He keeps them safe.

My plan is to work on Colossians next. Last September, at the translation workshop, we only worked on chapter 3:1-3. Recently I enjoyed working on 2 Thessalonians. I’m hoping to check these letters with various groups of people in March, if the Lord opens the door for me to visit Oreo land. Please pray for that also!

Thanks for praying for us!

Phil & Gale

A little church of Christians where once a cult reigned

*The first sentence of the translation above is implicit information in the original text, which has been made explicit for our audience in this draft. It remains to be seen if this information will be in the text. It could be placed in a footnote.

Translation Workshop— September and October

I really enjoyed teaching at the translation workshop through all of September. The workshop dealt with how to translate in a clear, natural, and faithful way. After a few days off, in October, a second workshop was on computer programs to aid translators.

Click on a thumbnail picture to see a longer descriptions about each one. Then to see other pictures, you can click on the next thumbnail.

Ted is just starting to translate for 120,000 people.

Titus is translating for six million.

Ralph and Alice are seeking God’s will for where to translate.

Jan feels called to Oreo Island.

Bob and Doris feel called to Bob’s home island.

translation workshop participants

another view of the translation workshop participants

Participants for the computer workshop.

End of August Prayer Requests

Thanks to all of you who check here for information that
will help you to pray for us. Believe me: We need your prayers!

We hope you will pray for Lynda, Poppy, Lewynna, and Nety. These are the four young women and members of our translation team who will be going to the Capital City for the translation course.	All except Nety have recently had health problems which caused them to not be able to work. Lynda has a potentially serious problem with high blood pressure.
Lynda’s work is especially valuable because she has an Masters Degree in Bible from the Philippines, and she is very able to use English translation helps. A special long term prayer request for her is to be able to further her studies in Dallas— something I would  like to see happen. Lynda will soon finish a preliminary draft of Acts.	Lynda
Poppy has been working full time for over a year in the Double Stuff translation project— longer than the other three. The first syllable in her name is pronounced the same as the first syllable of “potato.” I rely on Poppy for so much! She has done preliminary work on 1 Peter, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews. She also has been helping Nety and Lewy in their first project, the book of Mark. Poppy also has worked with Isaak in comprehension checks of John and 1 Peter. She has a great desire that the Liturgy of her church be translated into everyday language like we are using in the translation.	Poppy
Lewynna is pronounced “lay-WEE-nah,” but she often goes by Lewy. She graduated with honors from the same seminary as Poppy. When I found out that she often helps seminary students with  their research projects using the Internet, I started asking her to do many computer-related chores for our team.	Lewy
Nety studied law at the local university, and she is a cousin of Poppy. She is at a disadvantage because of not having studied Biblical Greek, but she has worked very hard to be part of the team. I have seen both Lewy and Nety grow in ability as they have worked through Mark. They are starting work on James now.	Nety
All four team members are taking classes to improve their English skills, and would love to study outside the country.
	Please pray for the choice of a local organization to sponsor the Double Stuff translation project. It is important that the sponsor be one that works well with other organizations, and one that can request visas for expatriate personnel. If you understand how Bible translations can be controversial, I hope you can see the importance for sponsorship which can represent our work well in the eyes of the government and in a context that includes other religions.
	We plan to finish the New Testament in 40 months.* But at least $30,000 in funding will be needed to support the Double Stuff team, to pay for wages for our team members, and for things like office rent and Internet fees. Praise the Lord for that an anonymous group has provided a challenge grant for half that amount! They will double any gift given by you, our brothers and sisters. Please write to us for details on how to give, as the instructions are not the same as giving to our personal support. If you don’t know our e-mail address, you can leave a comment at this web site and give your e-mail address. (Your comment will not appear for everyone to see, as I will delete any comments that include e-mail addresses. This is to protect you from spam e-mails.)
	I will be one of five teachers for the translation training course that begins September 1. Because I am the only teacher who has completed a New Testament project, the team assigned me the hardest topics. Please pray for me! These topics include things that are so difficult to explain, and I have never taught this subject. I hope that I can give practical assignments that will inspire as well as teach. Please pray also for health for the 21 students, and for me.
And please remember Gale, that God will be with her while I am away.	Many thanks to all of you who have read this! Together in Christ, Phil & Gale
	*Footnote concerning our 40-month goal: We anticipate that not all of the New Testament will be consultant checked at the end of the 40 months. A check by an outside consultant is the final step before publishing approval. We do hope that the whole New Testament will be ready for a consultant check by that time. We are also hoping to have a draft of Genesis and Exodus by the end of 40 months. And we already have half of Proverbs in draft form now.

July Prayer Requests

Lewynna, Nety, and Lynda

Hi, Everyone!
We just sent out a printed prayer letter, and will soon send out an e-mail update. Big changes are happening that affect our organization in Oreo Land. The changes mean that foreign Bible translators are finding it difficult or impossible to get visas into this country. Because of this, our translation into the colloquial form of the national language is more important than ever, as it will enable national Bible translators to translate into their local languages.

Here are our current prayer requests:

• Our previous organization can no longer sponsor our translation project, so we looking for one or more local sponsors. Please pray for God to lead to the right sponsor, since this decision will determine if or how widely our translation can be published. And getting the “right” sponsor will make it more likely that I can get visas for my trips to Oreo land.
• Judy (a member of our translation team pictured in an earlier post) and her husband, Jim, are waiting for visa sponsorship. It is really crucial for them to get a visa. Please ask God for this.
• In September and October, I have been asked to help teach a course in translation and translation software to around thirty national translators. The course will take place in the capital city. Please pray for my preparation and visa.
• We need help in sponsoring Lynda, Poppy, Lewynna and Nety to attend this course.
  Please ask God to supply transportation costs and other expenses.

Isaak and Poppy

• The Internet connection for our team has been better recently. Thanks for praying!

• Currently Lynda is making great progress on the first draft of Acts. Nety and Lewynna are working on Mark. Poppy is helping Isaak with checking, and also has been working on Colossians and Philippians. She also often consults with Nety and Lewynna, as they are still new in our team. Boas is starting on Matthew. And I am  stretched trying to keep up with all of this. I schedule my time to give input and encouragement to them all. Isaak will soon finish the checking of John and 1 Peter. All that remains is for these books to be checked by a consultant, and then they can be published. Praise the Lord for this progress!

Checking John's Gospel

• New arrangements are being made for the transmission of funds in order to pay wages for our team members. They work for the Lord, but need our support in order to live and give themselves to the work. The new arrangements will mean that I no longer have the luxury of operating in the red from time to time. If there is no money in the project account, our team members will not be paid their wages. Please pray for God’s help for us as we make some funding proposals.

Thanks for your partnership in serving Him for whom all is possible and who is never taken by surprise.

Phil & Gale

Isaak and Poppy, plus two local translators who have been helping to check John

What we want most to see

Here’s a picture I took of a Agustinus who was excited to share some verses with me from his Oreo New Testament:

One of the verses he liked was 2 Corinthians 5:1, which talks about our leaving our earthly bodies, which are like temporary shelters (which the Oreo make from broad jungle leaves), and that we will have eternal shelters in heaven.

Boas sent these to me last week:

Assisting is Yermias, who often has worked with me.

There were eight who were baptized that day.

Praising the Lord with all of you.

Phil

Back again! May prayer requests:

Here are prayer requests that go along with our recent update:

• Pray for new believers in two remote Oreo villages. Pray that God will reveal Himself in their hearts, and that they will have a hunger for God’s Word. Pray that they will not agree to follow any who seek to lead them to be involved with demons (such as when one of their family members becomes sick).
• One of my fervent desires is that the Oreo believers learn to love one another. One thing that has made Oreo churches weak is that the believers do not help each other when there are needs, or pray for one another. The Christian life cannot be healthy when people seek to live it only on a personal basis.
• Please pray that foreign-based organizations like ours will not suffer further reductions in visas for personnel.
• Since it is clear that the Lord wants national, mother-tongue translators to take a leading role in translating the New Testament for over 200 language groups, pray that He will raise up more qualified and talented mother-tongue translators. Pray also that ways will be found to train them!
• Pray for new partnerships to be formed with local organizations which can still sponsor visas in Oreo Nation.
• Praise the Lord for our new members, Nety and Lewynna. And praise the Lord that Lynda is able to give more of her time to our translation project (TfT, Translation for Translators).
• Please pray that the translation team’s Internet connection would continue to work, and that the speed and band width could be improved. Recently the team has been able to work in the morning, but the connection becomes too unreliable in the afternoon.
• Pray that one or more donors will be found who will provide a matching grant that will support our team during 40 months of translation work.

L-R in back, Isaak, me, and Boas.

L-R in front: Lynda, Evi, Poppy, Lewynna, Anne, Judi,

and in front of Judi is Trisye.

Nety is in front in the next picture.

Off to Oreo Land!

I’m off again to Oreo Land starting this Sunday morning, March 9, and I will be back home late on the 23rd of April.

Here are some of my plans, and ways you can pray for both Gale and me while we are apart:

• Please pray for the Lord’s guidance in finding and training 2-3 new translation team members. It won’t be hard to find seminary graduates who will be interested in our project. But we need people who have unusually high language skills and people who want to be team members not just for the extra income, but because they feel called by God for this ministry. Of course, the most qualified people are already very busy with other ministries.
• Please ask for God to help me in leading training sessions for all of the team members to work on basics of grammar and basic how-to’s of translation. We also need to continue making decisions on how to translate important key Biblical terms. Our team really needs this training to work efficiently.
• I’m looking forward to revising three newly-drafted chapters of Proverbs with the team, and checking them with groups of native speakers.
• 1 Peter and Titus are ready for revisions and group checking.
• I hope that we have time to check the second half of John’s Gospel with two different groups, then that book will be ready for the final consultant check.
• We plan to hold revival meetings in a remote Oreo village. Satan seems to have been working overtime in poisoning the relationships of a pastor in this village. Please pray that we may bring healing and restoration, and that we will have wisdom in all our plans and activities. Please also pray that the people will be encouraged to keep using their Oreo New Testaments.
• Please continue to pray for Gale remaining here in Arkansas. I will call home almost daily.

Some answers to February prayer requests are found below under February Prayer and Praise.

At the end of February, Isaak and Boas led in a retreat for pastors and others interested in teaching God’s Word. Even though the group picture is fuzzy, to see the people a bit better I have cut it in half for display. There are around 35 in the picture are from the Oreo area. This is the right side of the group, with Boas is in the upper right corner.

Poppy, who is part of our translation team, is standing on the far left. She reported to me that the people were very attentive and asked good questions, and were happy to learn practical things, like pointers for good sermon-making.

May the Lord bless you all with glorious and inexpressible joy! (1Peter 1:8)

Phil & Gale