It’s 4.30am and I (Sue) am surprisingly bright-eyed. I actually woke up before my alarm was set to go off. Why the excitement? Today I’m joining a group of people in the southern Philippines to celebrate the translation of the New Testament into their own language!
It begins with a three-hour bus trip. The palm-lined highway soon gives way to banana plantations and open farmland, then we’re hugging rugged coastline with crescent-shaped beaches snuggled in the creases of the road as it twists and turns. I catch a glimpse of some local fishing vessels in the crystal clear sea, then I blink and we’re back in deep tropical forest, and on and on the landscape changes as we head towards our destination.
When we finally arrive we head straight for the town’s newly-built church, and I find a seat towards the back of the room. The floor is covered with locally-woven mats, which in turn are covered by people – about 180 men and women from the surrounding communities are present (sitting on separate sides of the building of course, as is the custom.) The fabrics of the men’s shirts and the women’s head scarves and malongs (a traditional sarong-style skirt) paint a colourful patchwork as I look over those gathered. And a group of local women singing worship songs and performing a traditional dance adds beautiful harmony and movement to the colours.
The vibrancy of my surroundings seems fitting, given the momentous accomplishment we’re celebrating. The K_ language (for reasons of cultural sensitivity I can’t name the ethnic group) is spoken by around 70,000 people across four provinces in the southern Philippines. 30 years ago there were no known believers – now there are 100 Christians with a great hunger for God’s word.
Previously there was only a small diet of single books of the Bible in the K_ language, a tantalisingly incomplete picture of Jesus and the hope He offers. Yet today they’re finally able to hold in their hands the whole gospel message in words they can read and understand for themselves: a privilege that many Christians take for granted.
The actual dedication of the New Testament is both moving and challenging as I see the word of God treated with such reverence and delight. The translation is passed along a line of K_ church leaders, each one holding it in two hands and touching it to their heart and forehead. During the prayer of dedication we all stand praying with palms open, a normal practice of Christians in this cultural community.
A mix of people then take the floor: a visiting leader of one of the translation organisations encourages the K_ believers to celebrate this amazing achievement and use this new translation to passionately seek knowing God. Then a local believer shares that the word of God translated into his language has already been an instrument of change in his life – he’d had many years of living in darkness, now he is living in the light!
Translation and publishing work is very demanding and even getting one book of the Bible correctly translated can take years. You know when you get involved with a particular project that you may never get to see the final fruit. But days like today – where I get to witness the joy and thankfulness felt by the K_ people as they were finally given the opportunity to hear God’s words in their own language – make it all worthwhile.
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