GUAHIBO TRANSLATION EASY TO UNDERSTAND
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Mark and Dario doing a comprehension check of the book of Daniel. |
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August 28, 2008
by David Bell
Dario's voice was filled with excitement last week as he told missionary Mark Cain how easy it was to understand the newly printed Old Testament portions in the Guahibo language.
Mark had just spent a good weekend with Dario, a Guahibo student at a Bible school in Colombia, doing a comprehension check on the book of Daniel.
Dario said that every Guahibo on the river where he's from would easily understand it, and that a neighboring group who speak a different dialect would also understand it.
"No sweeter words can be spoken to a translator," wrote Joyce Cain.
A few hard-to-understand verses were discovered and Mark plans to fix those when he's able to work with his faithful translation co-worker, Luis. The timing for this will depend on the birth of Luis' seventh child.
Luis and his wife will travel to town for the expected delivery in mid-September. Going to town is a new step for the couple.
"Usually a Guahibo wife just has the baby out by the creek, cuts the cord and walks back into the village," wrote Joyce.
Luis will get together with Mark a couple of weeks after the birth, if everything goes well. Luis' wife is still suffering from a bout with malaria in June and is still very weak.
The two men also want to start the huge task of helping the soon-to-retire SIL translator revise the Epistles in the Guahibo New Testament. This is being done at the request of the Guahibo church.
"Pray that we can get the book of Daniel ready to be checked in November by a translation consultant," wrote Joyce. "It would be wonderful to get it to the place where we could print it."
Pray too that Luis' wife will have a safe delivery and recovery.
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