We arrived in the St Louis area on Saturday night and spent yesterday at church preparing for a week of VBS. Today was the first day, and wow, we are tired.

We’ll be sharing about the needs, the challenges and the process of BIble translation all this week – Monday through Friday from about 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

We’d appreciate your prayers for this adventure. We’ll have all the age groups (Pre-K through Jr. High) coming through our classroom at different times throughout each morning. Pray that they are open to learning about God’s heart for the Bible-less peoples of the world.

Here is what we hope to cover this week -

• Monday – Creating an alphabet (for languages that don’t have one) – so far so good!
• Tuesday – Teaching people to read (importance of access to translated Scripture)
• Wednesday – Making a draft (what kinds of challenges do Bible translators face, especially cultural challenges)
• Thursday – How do you make sure the translation is a good one (making sure a Bible translation is accurate, clear and natural)
• Friday – Using the Bible (why all the work to do a translation anyway)

We are using curriculum that is available from http://www.wycliffe.org/Resources/Kids.aspx

Thanks for your prayers for us this week – for wisdom and strength and that we will be a blessing to these kids! We’d also appreciate your prayers for Becky’s staff who are covering for her this week up in North Dakota! And for her students!

Also, our financial need is down to $550/month. This week we’ll be connecting with at least two other churches in the area. Pray for God’s grace as we share with them our ministry and ways they can be involved.

We head back to North Dakota on Sunday afternoon.

In Christ,

Hugh and Becky

This afternoon we received an urgent phone call, telling us about the dire need for a Linguistic Field Methods instructor at the Wycliffe affiliated training program at the University of North Dakota (SIL-UND). Linguistic Field Methods is required before anyone can serve as a Bible translator with Wycliffe. Becky taught this course last summer and was part of the staff the previous year.

SIL-UND

Teaching at this training program is part of the vision that God has given us in ministry… to enable translators with skills and knowledge. Currently there are 20 students signed up for this course.

As we shared in our last newsletter, we are not allowed by Wycliffe policy to “work” in our ministry roles until we are 100% supported. We are currently at 76%.

You might ask, “Is there someone else who can teach this course? After all, Wycliffe is a big organization, isn’t it?” We’d like to offer two answers to these questions; both are valid.

1. No, there is no one else to teach the course. If this is the ministry that God has called us to, then he hasn’t called someone else to teach this course.
2. Yes, Wycliffe is a huge organization. And there are other qualified people to teach the course. However, there is a great need for developing qualified people to teach courses like this. This is part of what Becky will be focused on as the Professional Development Coordinator.

There are two things you can do. You can give and you can pray.

If you want to become part of our financial team, please let us know at http://www.pro.thejourneyler.org/give (This links to Wycliffe’s secure online giving for our ministry).

Otherwise, please pray with us with focused prayer that:

1. God would move us from 76% to 100% supported.
2. God would provide a Linguistic Field Methods teacher for these 20 students. And that through the process God would give these students the successful preparation (inside and outside the classroom), which they need to be successful Bible translators.
3. The Professional Development Coordinator will be able to help grow people who can fill these needed academic roles that prepare Bible translators for fieldwork.

Feel free to invite others to become part of God’s solution to this situation.

In Christ,
Hugh and Becky

In an invited lecture, Chan discussed his project to document the various number systems used by the world’s nearly 7,000 languages. Chan has documented number systems in more than 4,000 languages to date, finding systems in base 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, 15 and 20, as well as mixed systems and body-part tally systems. Certain South American indigenous languages simply distinguish “one” from “many.”

Chan’s research focuses on transcriptions of little-known, under-described and endangered languages. His goal is to record and preserve the traditional counting systems before they disappear. Data for the remaining 3,000 languages, however, is difficult to obtain. Chan makes the results of his research freely available on his website and is always eager to receive data about languages not yet recorded.

Due to rapid globalization, an indigenous number system can be even more endangered than the rest of the language even if the language itself is not endangered. In language communities around the world, counting in the minority language is the domain of older members, while the younger ones prefer to express numbers in a dominant language.

The traditional number systems of many small languages are rapidly being displaced by those of dominant languages. Even though numbers interact with the rest of grammar and may have unique morphosyntactic rules, many published grammar studies fail to describe them. Therefore, it is urgent to document this important linguistic data before it is completely forgotten.

This is a re-post from SIL International.

• How we will be interacting with Area Activities.
• There is a long tradition of doing Bible in the Americas, but there are many new challenges.
• We also met the people we will be working with!

We are confident that this is where God wants us right now, and we are excited about it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Banner for International Mother Language Day 2010, UNESCO

(21 February 2010) During the eleventh annual observance of International Mother Language Day, SIL representatives participated in celebrations in the Philippines, at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC and at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. International Mother Language Day provides an opportunity to recognize linguistic diversity and the importance of multilingual education. It originated as an international counterpart to Bangladesh’s Language Martyrs’ Day, which was established in 1952.

In her message for International Mother Language Day, Director-General of UNESCO Ms. Irina Bokova, said, “Languages are the best vehicles of mutual understanding and tolerance. Respect for all languages is a key factor for ensuring peaceful coexistence, without exclusion, of societies and all of their members.”

Dr Paul Frank's address at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C., 21 Feb 2010

Dr. Paul Frank, Director of SIL International Relations, addressed those gathered 21 February at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC: “Bangladesh provided the original inspiration for this annual worldwide observance. Bangladesh has celebrated this day as Language Martyrs’ Day since 1952, when many people marched to defend the right to use their Bangla language. And some people—the language martyrs—gave their lives for this cause.
We are indebted to the people of Bangladesh for providing an example for all of us to follow.”

Banner for 21 February 2010 gathering at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Frank also mentioned, “According to SIL International’s Ethnologue, some 3,500 of the world’s 6,909 languages are each spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. That is not very many people to maintain a unique heritage! We could easily be discouraged by such statistics, but we should not be. Instead, may such facts serve as a call to action. Languages need not be lost. For languages to remain a viable means of cultural expression, two things are needed: 1. communities need the capabilities, assistance and encouragement to develop their languages, and 2. they need a supportive environment for that language development.”

In the Philippines, where SIL co-sponsored the First Philippine Conference-Workshop on Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education, held 18–20 February, the schedule included a Cultural Night and Celebration of International Mother Language Day.

As part of the day’s events on 22–23 February, UNESCO in Paris is organizing an International Symposium on Translation and Cultural Mediation. Dave Pearson, Barbara Trudell, Agatha van Ginkel, Bill Bremmer and Maik Gibson are representing SIL at the Paris event.

This is a re-post from SIL International.