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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn March we had the privilege of being able to watch (from afar) as 15 communities in South Asia received the first copies of the New Testament in their language. We heard stories of how Christ had transformed the lives of the translators, bringing them out of darkness and despair, and of their joy at now being able to bring the same hope they had found to the rest of their communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many stories reminded us of the necessity of translation in a world where it sometimes seems like everyone understands at least one of the world\u2019s major languages. We heard about an isolated region where formal education is limited and even the pastors often did not know words in the text they were preaching from. Using scriptures in the national language, they had to guess or make up interpretations. Those pastors can now preach from the Bible in their own language and the language of their congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We heard from a Christian who moved from one region of the country to another to spread the gospel. She had always believed that everyone in that region spoke the national language alongside their mother-tongue. To her great surprise, she discovered upon arrival that millions did not. She began working to coordinate and lead translation teams. In March, she celebrated the successful completion of the New Testament translation into four languages with speakers from each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 16 million more people now have the hope of the New Testament available in their language for the first time thanks to the hard work of local translators and the tools unfoldingWord is developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scripture Celebrations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nNext week Wycliffe will be celebrating another eight languages that now have scripture as well. We invite you to join the celebration Wednesday May 26 at 2pm Eastern time. Languages from around the world\u2014Africa, Asia, and the Americas, ranging in population from 5,000 speakers to nearly a million\u2014now have scripture that they didn\u2019t have before. That\u2019s a reason to celebrate! RSVP to join the festivities and find fun translation activities and international recipes at www.wycliffe.org\/celebrate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, back in North Carolina…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe\u2019re adjusting to life with a new baby and being a family of five. We’ve celebrated six years with Mira and one month with Anastasia. Anastasia is growing well, and her older siblings can\u2019t get enough of her, but are still adjusting to Mommy\u2019s time being spread more thinly. Please pray that our family would embrace joy in this season (and that we\u2019d get enough rest!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benjamin continues to work on developing resources for translating Exodus from his office at home. One of the more interesting things I have done recently is create an article for our key terms resource. I kept seeing \u201cI am Yahweh\u201d in the text and knew we needed to address it somehow. I researched where and how it appeared through scripture and spent time in some commentaries to try to get a good idea of what is going on when that appears. Here is what I ended up with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement \u201cI am Yahweh\u201d is used to mark out a command, historical event, promise, or prophecy as something that is particularly important, as something that happened by Yahweh\u2019s power, or as something that will happen regardless of circumstances. This certainty is based on Yahweh\u2019s character and strength as the all-powerful ruler over all things. At the same time, the statement is used to give Yahweh\u2019s people understanding of who he is and what his name means. By reflecting on the command, historical event, promise, or prophecy so marked, the listener will understand more of who Yahweh is. Leviticus 11:44\u201345 makes it clear that by following the holiness laws that follow the people will become holy like Yahweh.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Now to link to all 214 occurrences! This will enable our resources to display information each place it appears both when translators are translating and when teams are checking the translated text. Once our partner networks get to a portion of scripture containing an \u201cI am Yahweh\u201d statement they will translate this article as needed. (For instance: some of our Russian partners who speak English will translate it into Russian; then their Roma partners who speak Russian can reference it when working on the Roma translation\u2014more about that project next month.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nPraises:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
- For the Word available in new languages!<\/li>
- For Anastasia’s safe arrival<\/li>
- For a good visit with Shanna’s parents<\/li>
- For resources that have been completed and translated for use by translation teams in several parts of the world<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
Prayers:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
- For the new scriptures to be powerfully used in these communities<\/li>
- For ongoing conversations about our next location<\/li>
- For details to work out smoothly for summer travel plans<\/li>
- For a smooth adjustment to new family rhythms<\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the next few months, we want to give you a glimpse of work that\u2019s going on through unfoldingWord (the organization we are assigned to work with) in different regions of the world. This month\u2019s highlight is: South Asia In March we had the privilege of being able to watch (from afar) as 15 communities… Continue reading Reasons to Celebrate<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yKnB-dI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}