Hey there to all of you.
We have had many blessings this summer. Here are a few.
During the first week of
June I set up a new translation office at our place in Grano de Oro. As I was
going through my stuff, I flipped open a book and my eyes fell on a subtitle
which said: LACK OF VERNACULAR BIBLE. It was a discussion of the mass
conversion of Armenia
One of the major problems
in the movement was that the Armenians did not have the Bible in their own
tongue. In fact, their language had not yet been reduced to writing. So for the
first century of its existence, the Armenian church had to get along with Syriac
and Greek versions of the Bible. In church services the preachers had to
translate from these versions into the vernacular for the benefit of the
people. Not only did people not have a Bible to study on their own, but the
preachers themselves were deficient in their understanding of the Syriac or
Greek, so their renditions of the text were at best deficient. To make matters
worse, when the Persians came into control they forbade any use of the Greek
language and burned Greek books. The present Armenian alphabet was devised to
stabilize and strengthen the Armenian church in its struggle to maintain its
existence against Persian aggression. Eventually the Scriptures were
translated into Armenian thereby strengthening the church of an entire nation.
(Taken from Historic Patterns of Church Growth by Harold R. Cook p.26.)
It reminded me one more
time why we are translating the Bible. 60 years ago my parents began studying
Cabécar and reducing it to writing. Now there is a growing church, but they
still clamor for more of the Scriptures in their own language. Until the entire
Bible is translated into Cabécar, the church cannot be all that it could be in
terms of faith and impact.
In my last update I
introduced a certain Román, whom I believed God had led me to hire to help me
draft Old Testament text into Cabécar from Hebrew. I needed someone to help me
in Leviticus with names of body parts, all kinds of chopping, cutting,
slitting, pouring verbs, and spatial concepts like down, out, on, with in
Cabécar. Roman started work on June 11 and has proven himself as an
excellent worker. He is adept in both Spanish and his own language and has a
very strong personal commitment to Christ. He is catching the vision not only
of translating the Bible into his language, but of going to homes and
individuals trying to persuade them to read or listen to the Scriptures in
their own language. He lives in an area where people have a low view of their
own language so this is exciting.
June 30 we had a
teaching conference to introduce the translation of Daniel 1-7. August
30-31 we will have two days to work over Leviticus 1-7 with friends from
churches all over the mountains. I am looking forward to being able to share
with them the wonder of the work of Christ and how we come to God from these
chapters.
Aug 2nd five of the
kids took me to our other translation site in Valle de la Estrella. Saturdaythey
got the place looking nice before leaving Sunday. David Lopez came
and we worked the next ten days on Daniel and final printing issues for the
Cabécar New Testament. I am privileged to have such gifted help.
On the home front Keiry
keeps the house going and the shelter for our needy friends open. Rebekah is
recruiting new patients for this semester and trying to close out loose ends
from patients from last semester. Joel thoroughly enjoyed his second quarter at
the Esepa Bible ollege. He also accompanied me on a scripture distribution trip
to Cabecar and Bribri villages in the south. Hannah continues bossing the guys
around at her job and making coffee for them. Mark thinks it should be illegal
to have physics on Saturdays this semester after having classes Monday through Friday.
Ruth is praying for a good average on the college entrance exam on Sept. 20th.
John and Abby continue to enjoy school, help with chores, and doing some home
school in English in the evenings.
Keiry and I celebrated our
25th wedding anniversary on July 23rd. We are so grateful to our Father
for all his grace and goodness to us. We want to thank each of you too for your
gifts, prayers, and care for us during some part or throughout all of these
years. May you be blessed and encouraged in return.
Your friends,
Timothy and Keiry Jones.
