Month: August 2019

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Missions is for others

There has been an explosion of short-term missions in the US. With it, has come a focus on the experience of the person going on the mission. Was it positive? What did the person learn? Are they now more motivated to pray, or to give? This focus is new. Historically, missions was about doing something good for others while it brought hardship, even danger, to the person going.

I am not opposed to missions having a benefit for the missionary. But, I have seen a number of short-term missions trips close-up and noted that they are not all created equal. For me, the most striking difference is between those highly focused on accomplishing something specific, and those preoccupied with the experience of the missionaries. Enough people have noted this that the Babylon Bee satirized it.

Young Ghanaian women reading the Bibles in their languages

There is a group who is unusually unconcerned with their experience in missions. I think of them whenever I see Africans reading the Bible in their languages. I’m not thinking of missionaries who came to translate but rather of those who gave and prayed. They don’t get any missionary experiences. They derive no direct benefit from the translations because they can’t read them. In fact, the translations done through their giving and prayers probably won’t benefit anyone they know. They gave and prayed to produce good for others. By faith, they expect an eternal benefit, but for the moment, their only benefit is hearing occasional anecdotes.

I laud them, not because they embody some humanistic ideal, but because their actions fit the model of Jesus, who came not for himself but for us.

Those of you who support translation through their prayers and giving are the most worthy of heavenly reward because you, of all those involved in translation, recieve the fewest earthy rewards.

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Church in Accra

Legon Interdenominational Church

This is my Sunday experience in Accra:

  • There are LOTS of children in church, perhaps as many as one child for every three adults.
  • There are many young adults in church. They compose about a forth of the congregation. At least two Sundays a month, an engagement is announced, occasionally two the same Sunday.
  • Our church has a well-attended Bible adult study before church just like the US adult Sunday School classes of my youth.

  • Covenant Family Church

    The church has a well-organized Sunday school program for kids.

  • The church is over full every Sunday. There are people sitting outside listening even though they can’t see.
  • Our church has a choir that performs every Sunday. The choir members all wear matching outfits made out of brightly colored African cloth. Correction, two choirs, each with different outfits.
  • Our English-speaking congregations has part of the worship time in a Ghanaian language. People are really engaged during those times and the worship is vibrant.
  • The sanctuary is full of ceiling fans blasting away. We look for a spot right under one.
  • People dress up for church, and they dress up their kids too. The ladies are in dresses or skirts and blouses. Some men are wearing ties. The little girls have frilly dresses, black shoes and socks with lace and ribbon. They also all have earrings.
  • During worship time, people wave their hands in the air, dance and twirl white handkerchiefs.
  • The PA system is turned up way too loud!
  • Instead of walls, the sides of the Church are a row of big doors that are opened to let in the breeze.
  • There is a long prayer time. When elections are near, we are instructed to pray against voter intimidation, stuffing ballot boxes, voters who take bribes, and politicians who offer bribes.
  • There is a LONG announcement time which includes lots of personal announcements – deaths, engagements, birthdays, etc.
  • Visitors are asked to stand and introduce themselves. It appears that many visitors actually like being asked.
  • The pastors wear clerical collars.

And that’s how I know I’m in church in Ghana.

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Africa loves to read and hear the Bible

A while back, a friend pointed me to an article about translating the Bible in Africa by one of Africa’s most well-known theologians – John Mbiti. Before launching into the main point of the article, Mbiti briefly assesses the impact of translations of the Bible in African languages. He writes that:

Reading the Bible in their language

Africa loves to read and hear the Bible read.

Thus, through its translation… the Bible is very present in Africa. In some ways, we find our traditional life reflected in it… It is wielding a tremendous impact on the Church and beyond… It is generating Biblical Christianity and invigorating Oral African Theology.

The Bible has found a home in Africa, and Africa has become a Biblical continent. Statistically the Bible has become very much an African book. Many African readers and hearers of the Bible spontaneously identify themselves with the Bible through its content of (ancient) Jewish culture, family traditions, farming, history, pastoral (livestock) life, persecutions, suffering, death rituals, and religiosity…

Paul Hema reads the Bible in front of his humble dwelling in Burkina Faso

Our neighbor reading the Bible in Bambara

At a deeper level, the translation from Biblical languages into local languages encourages creativity and the proliferation of oral theology. This has already been happening (in the field) spontaneously among the Christians, the laity and clergy, young and old, women and men, through their composition and use of local hymns, songs, and music, instead of, or in addition to imported Western hymns translated in Kiikamba. They sing everywhere with or mainly without instruments – in the fields, in buses, walking, fetching water, herding, at school, in Churches and market places. They say or give spontaneous prayers (at home and Church services), sermons or meditations, religious education (in schools, Sunday School and their homes), all produced in one’s mother tongue.

It is easy to visit churches in the big African cities, and even a number of the smaller ones, and conclude that Christianity in Africa is doing quite well using English or another European language. But the reality is different. Christianity in Africa has its roots in the Bible in African languages even if a number of Christians are now educated and practice much of their public worship in English or another European language. The goal of getting the Bible into all the languages of Africa is still relevant even as English spreads.

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No new understanding

After the dedication of the Jamaican New Testament in Jamaica, a ceremony was organized in London to introduce it to the sizable Jamaican community there. The organizers didn’t know what kind of reaction they would get. After all, those attending would have an excellent command of English. In addition, some have been critical of doing a translation in the Jamaican language also called Patwa. Critics contend that the language is too crude and undeveloped for a translation.

As part of the ceremony in London, they read some short passages from the translation. The Jamaicans present shouted with joy. They all stood. They waved their arms and jumped some with eyes full of tears of joy.

This reaction is a bit surprising. After all, they were hearing passages they had heard in English many times. There was nothing new. They were not getting a first, new or better understanding because the passages are so well-known in English. The passages nevertheless had a dramatic, fresh effect when packaged in the heart language – their mother tongue.

That is interesting and moving, but is it important? I think so. After all, Jesus said we are to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, implying that the soul and heart are as important as our understanding. Words that activate our emotions – that touch our hearts – are more likely to change our behavior and our thinking – to align our hearts with God’s. Without those effects, understanding isn’t worth much.

The Bible in the mother tongue goes so much deeper than mere understanding – just imagine those Jamaicans in London waving their arms and dancing around with eyes full of tears.

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Locked up information

Nataly Kelly, the leader of Translators Without Borders, say’s that for many people around the world, “the information that they need is locked up in languages they don’t even speak”. Translators Without Borders is a translation agency. They translate all kinds of things – books, health information, and so on. They started out translating between European languages where they hired translators or took them under contract.

When they expanded into Africa, they discovered that few African languages have trained translators. There was no one to hire or take under contract. This is not just a problem for the translation agency. It means that the life-critical information is not available: how to protect against AIDS, malaria, cholera, how to treat diarrhea-induced dehydration in children (a leading cause of death in children under five). The information is there, but it is locked up in languages the people don’t speak. She says:

Ironically, the people who need that information the most – information about health, science, technology and so on – have zero access to it because of the language barrier… So the richer countries have an abundance of linguists while three billion people are starved for translators in their languages. This is a serious handicap

Failed translation of “sugar free”

If Nataly has a client who wants a pamphlet on heart-heathly diets translated from English to German, she can readily find an experienced and qualified translator. But finding a translator to translate a pamphlet on how to avoid Ebola into the Kpelle language of Liberia (where the an Ebola outbreak took place not long ago) can be a challenge. You will find people who speak both English and Kpelle, and who are willing to translate to earn a little money although they’ve never translated before, but finding one who will do an accurate and clear translation is another matter.

Sometimes people wonder why translating the Bible into a new language takes as long as it does. One of the reasons is that you have to train the translators. A professional translator will spend several years studying their craft, so the training is not something that can be done in a week or two. For the translations where we have been involved training good translators includes carefully choosing the translators, giving them a first course of minimal training (usually about 2 weeks), then having a translation expert closely follow and critique their translation so that they are learn on the job, and then setting up a system where their translations are reviewed by members of the language community. This results in such clear translation that people are often surprised. I have often heard them exclaim that the translation is “so clear”, or “sweet”, etc.

Small selection of booklets produced by Ghanaian translators

Once they have been trained, the translators can translate anything – the Bible, health pamphlets, agricultural information, even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . And they do, unlocking life-critical information for their peoples.