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"The king shall have joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah."

Psalm 21:1-2

MISSIONARY IS NERVOUS ABOUT TEACHING

NEWS

Pray for Rachel as she teaches translation principles to Punan believers.

December 11, 2007

by Dena McMaster

Punan church leaders want missionary Rachel Searcy to teach translation principles at an upcoming Bible conference.

This means Rachel will be teaching these principles in a language that does not always come easily to her. "I sat at my desk today typing lesson plans with a nervous knot in my stomach," Rachel wrote. "Some days I feel like I trip over my tongue more than I say anything intelligible. And I'm supposed to teach?"

She will be teaching on several topics to help the leaders understand the need for accurate and clear translations to help the people value God's Word:

• A lesson on reading the Punan language: Most of the men in leadership are excellent readers in the Indonesian language but have had little practice reading Punan.


• The importance of the meaning: In animistic cultures meaning is not important. Since all things are controlled by evil spirits, logical explanations have little value. "Incantations don't particularly have to mean anything in order to appease the spirits. In fact, most of the time those incantations use a secret language anyway. It is essential, then, to establish that God gave His Word in order that it be understood."


• Making the meaning of Scripture clear to the reader. Many things can confuse meaning. "The tendency is to think that one can translate each of the words from the Indonesian translation of Scriptures into a corresponding word in Punan. Languages don't work that way. They differ in more ways than just the words used to name things." There is a level of information "left implicit in original texts" due to "shared culture between writer and reader" that needs to be made explicit.


• There are several steps involved from drafting to checking. A few have been working with Rachel on the booklet, "How the Jews lived," so they should be able to demonstrate the first steps of the drafting process and tape the draft for clarity.