Teams of missionaries and their tribal co-workers from several locations in Mexico gathered to learn more about working together to produce accurate, clear Bible translations in tribal languages. Jill Goring, New Tribes Mission's international translation coordinator, led the workshop.

Each morning Jill would teach about Bible translation in English, with a translator for Spanish-speaking missionaries and tribal people. In the afternoons, each team would work together on Scripture translations.

Jana Price, an experienced Bible translator who helps other missionaries with translation, worked with the Tepehuan team as they translated Luke 15:11-32.

"They worked through all of the procedural steps and had a translation ready for a consultant check by the end of the two weeks," Jana wrote.

It was good preparation for Joe and Jana Price's future ministry. The couple formerly served in Venezuela and will now be helping missionaries in various Latin American countries.

"I loved working with these missionaries and am looking forward to doing consultant work here in Mexico, starting in February," Jana wrote. "At that time I will be checking translation for three translation teams."

Please pray that the lessons learned and practiced in this workshop bear fruit in good, clear and usable Bible translations that will enrich the lives of tribal believers. Pray also for the Prices in their transition to a broader ministry.

The team made great strides to see Scripture well translated so it can be clearly understood in the Puinave language.

Other Puinaves looked at the two weeks of translation as "helping Larry," but Larry saw that the men had caught the essence of what the Lord had put in the missionaries' hearts -- "that it be a time when we would help and support them in the ministry the Lord has given them among their own people."

Since one of the men had never participated in the translation process, and another was a bit rusty at it, the group reviewed the guiding translation principles. The team then taped a native Puinave story and wrote it out so the men could see how natural the written word can sound in their language.

They all enjoyed reading it, even improving the wording over the oral version. That step prepared them to move on to a relatively easy-to-translate story from the life of Jesus.

"We printed up a bunch of copies of those two exercises for them to take home to give out to others, to encourage everyone to practice reading in their language," wrote Larry, who along with his wife, Sarah, served among the Puinaves first in Colombia, then Venezuela, and now again in Colombia.

The bulk of the time was spent drafting key parts of the book of Job. That gave the team an opportunity to work their way slowly into increasingly more complicated material in preparation to translate more of the New Testament.

Sarah did a content check of the first draft, pointing out things the team had either overlooked or failed to capture the sense of.

"That helped us to get it more accurate," wrote Larry, "then further revision of the wording helped get away from things which sounded stilted."

The translation team completed all that Larry had hoped in Job and the men were able to take some copies of it to read to other Puinaves to see how easily they can understand it.

"After all, that's the objective of all we do," wrote Larry, "[to] enable people to understand what God has to say to them in His word."

"Now we have before us the challenge of settling into a rhythm of work which will be workable for the long haul, translating the remaining two-thirds of the New Testament."

Please pray for a settled conviction in the hearts of the Puinave men, and any others the Lord adds to the team, to dedicate themselves sacrificially to this work until it is complete. Pray too that God will provide all they need in order to do it.