{"id":965,"date":"2022-11-18T20:03:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T16:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/?p=965"},"modified":"2022-11-19T18:03:33","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T14:03:33","slug":"what-is-a-creeping-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abidinginhesed.com\/ministry\/2022\/11\/965","title":{"rendered":"What is a creeping thing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
An update on the Nigeria checking session<\/span><!– <\/p>\n\n\n
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Translation in Nigeria<\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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In Genesis 1 and 6-9 there\u2019s a category of animals, variously translated into English as \u201ccreeping things,\u201d \u201ccrawling things,\u201d \u201ccreatures that move along the ground,\u201d \u201csmall animals that scurry along the ground,\u201d and etc. As we discussed how to translate this term we came across the word \u201chuhor\u201d which means to move on the belly. This seemed like a promising term but we wanted to make sure it didn\u2019t just mean snakes. So we asked for some other animals that could \u201chuhor,\u201d and the answers varied by person. One would say centipedes, people weren\u2019t too sure about lizards, but at least one said that a rat could \u201chuhor,\u201d that is, sometimes he drags his belly along as he walks. So, for now we\u2019re using this word as part of the description of these animals, but with a question mark on it. We will have to see what others say when they check it with the community. What animals would you consider to be \u201ccreeping things\u201d? <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Thank you for your prayers for my Nigeria trip and your prayers for the family at home while I was away. It was a success in almost every regard. The visa-on-arrival process was painless and relatively quick. The first startling thing was how aggressively the customs agents asked us all for \u201ccoffee money\u201d as they were processing our passports for entry. Our mentor has been to Nigeria frequently and said she\u2019d never experienced such requests at passport control. I will be sharing more of the \u201cexperiences\u201d on our blog so you can read them if you\u2019re interested\u2014we\u2019ll put links to those in future newsletters but you can always check abidinginhesed.com\/ministry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After settling into the guest house where we stayed and worked we met our primary contact, Rev. Benjamin Dapel Matawan, director of the newly formed Neighborhood Bible Translation Initiative<\/em>. This organization has been formed by Ron pastors for translating the Old Testament into Ron and to be a platform for doing translation in the communities around them that do not have a Bible in their language. It\u2019s really exciting to see a community doing this themselves! <\/p>\n

Every morning we started by singing a song in Ron that they taught us. Monday morning the Ron team looked around and said, “We have too many people to do this all in one big group. Let\u2019s split up and cover more ground.” We made a quick plan for two groups, and then changed it to three. <\/p>\n

From Tuesday on we had groups with two translators, two consultants-in-training, and our two consultant mentors floated between the three tables. Each consultant-in-training led the discussion for about three days. I got to dive right in on day two. The Ron really hoped that we could actually check all of Genesis with this division, but it became clear before too long that our pace would not be nearly fast enough for that. There was simply too much new: new translators, new consultants-in-training, a new book, many new terms\u2026 Genesis 1-11 has a lot of unique vocabulary! We spent hours on sky\/heavens and firmament, and we\u2019re still not sure it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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In the end, we checked Genesis 1-12, 24-25, 39-40 (the little chunks came from our over-optimistic division of labor), rechecked and harmonized Genesis 1-11 as a whole group (since three groups had taken different chunks), recorded Genesis 1-11, and packaged and distributed an app to them with the Genesis 1-11 text and audio that they could take to their communities for feedback. The last evening, we could hear parts of Genesis playing from all over the room because everybody just loved having it. We are very hopeful that their community and churches will be excited about this work and will continue to invest in it.<\/p>\n

That hope has another big cause: the community checking training held on Saturday was a smashing success. Praise God that around 50 people came and excitedly learned a bit about how to check a Bible translation and got to practice it with an intentionally \u201cbad\u201d translation of the Tower of Babel story. Five packed tables excitedly weighed in on what was missing, what was added, what was distorted, and the best way to say it in Ron. On top of that, representatives from a few of the Ron\u2019s neighboring people groups came\u2014ones without scripture\u2014and were so inspired that as they sat off to the side they started drafting a translation of the same text and read it out to us all at the end.<\/p>\n

It was a good trip, but also good to be together as a family again after almost three weeks apart.  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Some prayer requests from the Ron translators:<\/p>\n