Nyungwe Translation team 2006

 

While I was in the US on furlough, the Nyungwe translators continued working on a translation of the book of Genesis. Arriving back in Mozambique I got to go out to dinner with the Nyungwe translators and my colleague, Mikael Bister. It was great to see everybody and talk about plans for the coming year in translation. 

Mozambican Bible translators work together

Each October, Bible translators from all over central and northern Mozambique gather together at a training center in Nampula. They spend an average of two weeks together attending lectures and improving their skills before returning to their homes and resuming translation.

In this photo, some of the translators take a break from lectures in the shade of a giant cashew tree.

In October 2005, the translators built models of the Jewish temple and tabernacle. In the photo below they are studying a topographic map of the holy land that they built themselves.

A room filled with light

The church may be poorly lit, but there is an inner radiance coming from pastors as they meet to study the Bible. In this workshop in 2004, pastors and church members focused on the letter to Titus and its significance for churches in Mozambique. 

Remembering a friend

I received word last week that one of the Nyungwe translators, Lino Malcriado, passed away on January 21.  He was taken ill with gastritis and passed away in the hospital in Tete, Mozambique.  Lino is survived by his wife and two small children.  He was a talented young translator.  On the weekend he passed away he was scheduled to travel to Bible college to begin a year of training.

 

You can see a picture of Lino in this post.  He is the young man dressed in a white shirt.  Lino was instrumental in drafting the books of Titus and Mark in Nyungwe.

Some web links about Mozambique

Here are some web links that I’ve found to be informative on Mozambique:

 

Wikipedia – Mozambique

BBC Country Profile – Mozambique

It beats working in a cubicle

Our office may have ants and dust, and you may be able to hear the sound of goats in the background, but it’s a great place to work on translating the Bible into Nyungwe. Here the Nyungwe translation team works on a draft of Mark 9-16 while two young men look on. A translation goes through several stages before it is ready to be published. Every stage requires lots of people to be involved translating, typing, checking, reviewing, printing and more.

The Nyungwe translation is sponsored by an association of evangelical churches in Tete province. They make decisions regarding what is translated, who is involved in every step, and how the translation will be used.

They always need your prayers!

Checking the Nyungwe translation of Mark

It takes teamwork to translate the Bible. Left to right: Lino, Hessel, Eusebio, David, Semo, and Sebastian. Six people from four different countries come together to check the accuracy and naturalness of the Nyungwe translation. For two weeks they sat in a lovely outdoor gazebo checking the translation verse by verse. Languages used: Nyungwe, Portuguese, English and Afrikans. Everyone brings their own perspective to the table and we all learn from each other.

Once a text has been approved by a consultant it is ready to be printed and distributed to the churches who will use it. 

The Nyungwe Bible Translation

In Tete, Mozambique an association of churches is translating the Bible into Nyungwe, a language spoken by more than 250,000 people living in the region of the Zambezi River.