Celebrate the Kabwa New Testament!

Our friends in Tanzania who speak the Kabwa language are celebrating the arrival of the New Testament!

The Kabwa translation team worked in the same office with Ben and the Jita team. Ben had the privilege of working alongside the Kabwa team on various projects.

The day of the New Testament dedication was a joyful day filled with singing, dancing, feasting, and reading God's Word in the Kabwa language. 

We pray that many Kabwa people will be transformed when they read the good news about Jesus.

Here's a cool video that captures the highlights of the dedication event:

Kabwa NT Dedication Event

photos by K.Grindall and A.Kamphuis and R.Meszaros

From Antioch to Ephesus and beyond

Hi friends,

I have a trivia question for you:

How many miles is it from Antioch to Ephesus?

Google maps says it's around 600 miles. But why is that important? It's important because I'm typesetting the book of Acts in the Bende language of Tanzania, and the Bende translators would like to include maps of Paul's missionary journeys. Here's a map I created of Paul's third missionary journey:

I inserted all of the appropriate Bende translations of the place names on the map. That all looks good. But then I came to the map scale down in the corner. The Bende people don't measure distances with miles...or kilometers. They measure distances with steps. The Bende word is Ntaabhulo. Therefore, I had to come up with a scale that roughly shows the distances in steps. Here's what I came up with:

The translators say it looks good!! Now I can create the other maps of Paul's missionary journeys as well as a map showing all the languages represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

This whole experience gives me a new appreciation for how far Paul travelled in his missionary journeys.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to help make God's Word accessible to people in a language that they can understand. Now the Bende people can better understand God's Word!

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

{If you haven't joined our team as a prayer and financial partner, we invite you to be a part of this amazing ministry. Check out our Wycliffe partnership page here: https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/2EBEFB}

Typesetting all around Tanzania

Hi friends, 

I've been working on a lot of typesetting projects for language groups all over Tanzania. I thought it would be fun to give you a quick tour of Tanzania, and show you the different projects I've been working on.

 Let's begin in the town of Musoma. This is where we lived when we were in Tanzania. Musoma is in the northern part of Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Victoria. That's where we worked on translating the Bible into the Jita language. Then I also typeset the Jita New Testament. 

Then we go down to southern Tanzania, to the Manda people. There are 43,000 Manda speakers. I typeset the book of Ruth in the Manda language.

Now back to Musoma, to the Ngoreme and Isenye people. These are brand new translation projects that are just getting started. I typeset the Christmas story from the book of Matthew in Isenye and the Christmas story from the book of Luke in Ngoreme.

Right now, I'm working on a project for the Simbiti people, also around Musoma. I'm typesetting a booklet of Genesis, Ruth, and Jonah. 

Then over to western Tanzania, to the Bende people. There are 125,000 Bende people. I'm typesetting the book of Acts in the Bende language.

It's so fun to be involved with translation projects all over Tanzania. We love seeing people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation enjoying God's Word.

Thank you for partnering with us in bringing the gospel to the people of Tanzania!

{If you haven't joined our team as a prayer and financial partner, we invite you to be a part of this amazing ministry. Check out our Wycliffe partnership page here: https://www.wycliffe.org/partner/2EBEFB}

Christmas stories for 2 new languages

Ngoreme translators holding booklets of the Christmas story in their language

 Hi friends,

After typesetting five drafts of the complete Jita New Testament, I finally sent it off for final approval!! It's a huge step, so we're very excited.

While I'm waiting for that final approval, I'm working on two new typesetting jobs for other translation projects in Tanzania. The Ngoreme and the Isenye have just started translating the Bible into their languages, and they wanted to print the Christmas story for people. I typeset a booklet of Luke 1-2 in the Ngoreme language and then another booklet of Matthew 1-2 in the Isenye language. Right now the translators are taking these books to their villages so that they can get them into people's hands by Christmas time.

Please pray with us for the Ngoreme and Isenye people. In fact, try this: while you're celebrating this Christmas season, whenever you read the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus from Matthew or Luke, just take a minute and pray for the Ngoreme and Isenye people. Pray that they would believe that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, from Matthew 1:23. Pray that they would believe the good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, Luke 2:10-11.

the Christmas story in Isenye

Thank you so much for partnering with us in bringing the gospel to the people of Tanzania. We couldn't do this without you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Finished the third draft of the Jita New Testament

 Hi friends,

I finished typesetting the third draft of the complete Jita New Testament. After the previous draft, the proof-readers gave me some helpful feedback about spacing and layout to improve the clarity and readability of the text. So I processed all of their feedback and I personally think it looks really good!

As I was working through the text one book at a time, I came to John 3, where Jesus says,

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

The Jita team thought it would be helpful to insert an illustration of Moses there so I arranged the page like this:

Of course, this is also the passage that contains the beautiful gospel summary of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..."

As I prepared this page, I was again struck with the reality that the Jita people will soon have not only John 3:16, but the entire New Testament in their own language. I found myself thanking God for the privilege of being part of his glorious kingdom work.

Anyway, after I finished arranging this page nicely, I glanced at the page number:

Yep, 316. John 3:16 is on page 316. That's fun!

Well, I finished the third draft of the entire New Testament and sent it back to the proof-readers again. Hopefully, it's ready to be sent to the printers. Please keep praying for us and for the Jita New Testament. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We appreciate you!

Summer Flowers, Scripture Progress, and Spiritual Attacks

 

Jeannette's flower garden

Hello friends, 

This past summer was full of wonderful blessings and difficult challenges for our family. 

Jeannette planted a flower garden and enjoyed incredible results. Every day our house was filled with fresh dahlias, celosias, snap dragons, and hydrangeas. We were amazed at how our Creator invented so many beautiful varieties of dahlias. Some of the plants were taller than our kids!

Ben finished typesetting the second draft of the entire Jita New Testament and sent it off for review. He received helpful feedback from a Jita translator, a fellow typesetter, a translation consultant, and multiple publication checkers. Now he is working on the third (and hopefully final!) draft. Ben's next project will be typesetting the book of Acts for a language in southern Tanzania. 

Sadly, this summer we have also been afflicted with multiple sicknesses and injuries. Jeannette and I had COVID. Luke had a stomach sickness that lingered for a couple weeks. Kara has been struggling with stomach/esophagus pain and discomfort for a few months now. We've taken her to multiple doctors and specialists but they can't identify the problem. On top of that, Kara dislocated and fractured her elbow. She is still in a lot of pain even weeks after the injury. And just to make things worse, she occasionally has severe dizziness.

We recognize that the enemy wants to use these sicknesses and injuries to make us discouraged and to tempt us to despair, but we praise God that we are holding fast to Jesus during these trials. The Holy Spirit is reminding us of the promises of God's Word like, 

Psalm 5:11-12  Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. 

and

Isaiah 26:3-4  You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

We trust that our heavenly Father is faithful even during trials. He is wise and good and all-powerful, but more importantly, he is always with us. Please pray for healing for our family, and pray for wisdom as we finish typesetting the Jita New Testament. 

Thank you!!

First Draft of the Jita New Testament

 

Hi friends, I finished typesetting the first draft of the New Testament in the Jita language. And I think it looks pretty good! It was a slow process, because I'm still learning how to do typesetting, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

One of the things that surprised me was the number of unique elements that occur on a printed page. For example, here's a page from the book of Luke,

There's page numbers, headers, footnotes, sections headings, parallel passage references, chapter numbers, and verse numbers. Each of those elements has its own style options. I had to manually format each of those elements so that the page looked good to the translators.

One of the things that gave me the most trouble was the tone marker on Jita verbs. When I first started typesetting, the tone marker was too close to some of the surrounding elements. It looked distracting and confusing. It took me a long time to identify and solve that problem.

So I sent the first draft to Neema, one of the Jita translators, so that she can review it and make sure everything looks good. While she's reviewing the first draft, I can start working on all the extra stuff that goes into the printed New Testament, like the title page, Introduction, Glossary, color pictures, and maps.

After Neema finishes reviewing the first draft, we will make any changes necessary, and then produce the second draft. We're getting closer to publishing the New Testament in Jita. Please keep praying for us!