Any comments, concerns or critiques on the back translation?

Efesusi 4:12-13

12 U nan ?a ni ni? nan ke un mann Uwonb?r a ninfob bi?n le wee bin fir tun Uwonb?r a toon ki che U ma Masiya a gbanann n maa ki do, 13 Nin ti bi?n nan n nan fir kpaag bim?b ti yada-n wee ki chegir ki bi? Uwonb?r a bija-n, wee ti binbemin gbee ki foo Masiya a binbemin a magir.

(by Sarah) Last week Nathan worked from home and avoided the translation office. A land dispute had risen in the town where the office is located. The situation was HOT. People had taken up arms and were ready to fight. We praise God that this issue has cooled down. We are also grateful for a couple church leaders who literally risked their lives to help the peace process.

Our daughter shares her perspective as an MK (Missionary Kid) on African village life on the LBT blog here.

The Komba translation team just met with a consultant to review the books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

Just for your information, thus far these books have gone through the following procedures. First, Nathan prepared a paper to help the translators know what to expect when drafting the translation. Then one translator read that and went through all the procedures for drafting a text. After completing the first draft, the book was shared with the whole team (four of us). We made comments and notes and then came together to edit it as a group. After we finished, it was sent to some reviewers in the community for them to write comments and make feedback. Then we collected their comments and went through them and decided whether to accept or decline their proposals. That is how a book gets ready for consultant checking. Then the team meets with the consultant where he goes through sections of the books and looks for mistakes, misunderstandings, or ways to improve. He will leave us with a report with what we need to do to make the book content ready for publication. We will then be responsible to make the changes he suggests.

(by Sarah) Our watchman has a sheep that is more like a pet. They “baaa” to each other and the sheep hangs out with the watchman all day long. Last night the watchman went home but not the sheep (it was probably hanging out with our two dogs). When I went out to get some exercise, the dogs got very excited and started jumping all over me…and so did the sheep. I was being ambushed. I have this large rock that I do some step exercises on. The dogs attempted to do the exercises with me…and so did the sheep. Someone was gonna get a twisted ankle or her paw/hoof stepped on. So I decided to do something different and started jogging around our circle drive. Off course I was followed, but the dogs quickly got distracted chasing each other…but not the sheep. I finally had to walk the sheep home. When the sheep recognized where it was going, it broke out in “baaas” and started running on the path. The reunion between the watchman and sheep was a raucous of baa-s. I wonder if this was the type of relationship that the poor man and his sheep had in the story that Nathan the prophet told to King David regarding the Bathsheba incident. Hmmm.

(Sarah) At the end of March the kids from our missionary homeschool co-op that meets in Tamale performed a musical. It was amazing and fun (yes, I’m totally biased), but one of my favorite parts was when the electricity went out. The room immediately went black and the song continued. This is such a normal occurrence that I don’t think it even occurred to the kids to do otherwise. Within a minute several audience members had dug flashlights out of their bags and bright lights from a couple of cameras were pointed at the stage area. The lights came on after a few minutes but our “lights out” happened again during our 35 min. performance. The response of the kids, as well as the powerful flashlights that the audience had with them, made me think about how the concept of “normal” is quite relative.

This2 minute video greeting is designed to update you on the prayer needs of the Komba  translation team as we head into the ‘last lap’ of the New Testament process. We hope to complete the NT work necessary for publication by the end of 2012. This video greeting could be used for personal web viewing, downloaded for small groups or even to be played during a church offertory. Thanks for remembering this team and its work in your prayers!

Some of you keep up with the Esala Ministry and the Komba New Testament translation through our snail mail letter called the Constructive Word. Our theme verse for our ministry is Ephesians 4:12-13.

Preparing God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up \v 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

After several years of work the Komba NT translation team is pleased to announce…Da Da Daa… a solid draft (not yet consultant checked) of that verse in Komba:

\v 12 U nan ?a ni ni? nan ke un mann Uwonb?r a ninfob bi?n le wee bin fir tun Uwonb?r a toon ki che U ma Masiya a gbanann n maa ki do, \v 13 Nin ti bi?n nan n nan fir kpaag bim?b ti yada-n wee ki chegir ki bi? Uwonb?r a bija-n, wee ti binbemin gbee ki foo Masiya a binbemin a magir.

Our friend and colleague, Chris LaBoube, recently quipped to three visitors from the United States, that in Ghana when you ask for something, you often hear, “Oh, it is just coming.” That is generally good news, but it may not translate to the five minutes your American time conscious mind was hoping for. So these visitors who I mentioned in my last post (they were more ‘visitors’ than we since we reside here, though we will always be in some sense visitors) started saying to us and to each other, “It’s just coming” whenever something was not readily available or required some waiting. That fortuitous phrase came to me again to describe the kingdom of God. It’s just coming. Read the rest of this entry »