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Wycliffe Global Alliance Bible Translation Programs Released by the Executive Director, Kirk Franklin (1 November 2013; updated 20 February 2015)

Table of contents

Wycliffe Global Alliance Bible Translation Programs Philosophy Statement ...................................1

Appendix .................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Definition of Key Concepts Pertaining to the Alliance Bible Translation Programs Philosophy Statement ................................................................................................................................... 10

Translation Procedures and Church Participation by Paul K. Kimbi .................................... 13

Community Mobilization for Participation and Ownership: The Experience of CABTAL in Cameroon by Michel Kenmogne ............................................................................................................. 19

Some Best Practices for Kingdom Partnerships in Bible Translation Programs by Sebastian Floor ..................................................................................................................................................................... 26

How to Develop a Holistic Impact as a Bible Translation-focused Organization: LETRA Paraguay as an emerging national model by Victor A. Gómez ..................................................... 36

Wycliffe Global Alliance Bible Translation Programs Philosophy Statement

Introduction The purpose of this philosophy statement of Bible translation programs is to inspire and guide Participating Organizations of the Wycliffe Global Alliance (the Alliance). It is an expression of the shared values and fundamental beliefs concerning: i. The rationale for Bible translation programs found within the mission of God (missio

Dei); ii. The importance of having a focus on contributing to building and supporting the

process of holistic transformational impact within language communities and beyond, and

iii. Key principles that can guide how Participating Organizations strategically respond to the widely varied contexts where Bible translation programs occur. This philosophy and principles statement anticipates that the guidance of the Holy Spirit is critical in every Bible translation program since it is God who enables His mission to be fulfilled. The Alliance also acknowledges that others involved in Bible translation programs may have different philosophies or underlying assumptions guiding their involvement.

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I. Rationale for Alliance Bible translation programs a) Core Statements of the Alliance Vision: Individuals, communities and nations transformed through God’s love and Word expressed in their languages and cultures Mission: In communion with God and within the community of His Church, we encourage and facilitate Bible translation movements that contribute to the holistic transformation of language communities worldwide. Core Values

Statement Description

The glory of God among the Nations

Living and serving to God’s glory so people of all nations might know and glorify Him.

Christlikeness in Life and Work

Following Christ’s example in who we are and what we do (e.g. in thought, behaviour and action).

The Church as Central in God’s Mission

Believing the Church is created, called and equipped by God to evangelise the world and disciple the nations.

The Word Translated Trusting God to transform lives through His Word translated into the languages and cultures of the world’s peoples.

Dependence on God Depending on God and His sufficiency to equip and sustain for life and mission

Partnership and Service Serving in interdependent partnership as an expression of the unity of believers. Serving as a community through holistic ministry that facilitates translation, access and use of God’s Word.

b.) Insights concerning the mission of God, the Church, and the essential characteristics of

our triune God1 that we are called to reflect in our lives and work.

1. The ministry of Bible Translation is built on the mission of God (Deut 10: 12-22; Ezek 36:13-32, Rom 8:21-30, Eph 4, John 14:15-17). a) God’s self-revelation as the One who loves the world is core to His mission. God’s

involvement in and with the world and the nature and activity of God embraces both the Church and the world. As part of the Church we experience that revelation in our life together and we are called to become participants, with Him, in His mission of revelation, redemption and restoration.

b) The mission of God aims to redeem all of creation – seeking to restore the relationship He had with it before the “fall”.

c) Among many historical events, the Incarnation and Pentecost stand out as demonstrations that God can reveal Himself and that His Word is essentially translatable into any languages and meaningful to all cultures. Bible translation is one of the key methods God is using to reveal Himself in many cultures and language communities today.

1 These perspectives were originally derived from missiological reflections among Participating Organizations within the

Alliance and subsequently reviewed by all those participating in this process.

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2. God calls the Church to participate with Him in advancing His mission (Rev 7:9; Acts

10). a) We understand Church to be the community of individuals redeemed through

faith in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. This Church is united for participation in the mission of God through worship, communion and service by the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit (When used with a small initial letter, as in “church”, we are referring to local expressions of the Church.) 2

b) The Alliance understands itself to be part of the Church3. c) The Alliance serves the churches of peoples from diverse cultures and who speak

diverse languages.

3. Our triune God calls us to reflect His character and attributes when we participate in His mission (Acts 2; John 17; Eph 3-4; 1 Cor. 12: 12-31; Psalm 133; Col 3:1-17; Matt 25:3-46). a) The demonstration of God’s love for His creation has always been a combination

of proclaiming the truth and affirming it through action. Christ came to share the Good News, to reveal the Father’s love through his life and his death. So, too, must we reflect God’s love through proclamation and actions that reveal God’s love for the lost, the disadvantaged, the marginalized and the oppressed. This may require our experiencing suffering, hardship or deprivation.

b) The Trinity reveals the divine interdependent relationship that is part of God’s essence and a reflection of His love. God calls the Church to reflect His love by living and working through interdependent relationships while reaching out compassionately to the lost, broken and disadvantaged. Such behaviour demonstrates God’s love for all His creation.

c) The metaphor of the body, used by the Apostle Paul in his Letters, also offers a picture for understanding how God’s love is revealed through divine interrelationships; each part is unique and essential, however it thrives only through the support of the other parts. When a part chooses to behave in a self-centred way, the whole body suffers.

d) By working through interdependent relationships we demonstrate that we value and respect others for who they are and not only for what resources they have or tasks they can perform; we choose to build relationships and networks rather than work in isolation; we choose inclusiveness and promote participation in His Mission. In these ways, we seek to reflect His character and demonstrate love, humility, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation and patience.

4. Following the example of Christ’s obedience implies sacrificial vulnerability (Phil 2:1-

11; Jas 1-2; 2 Tim 2:1-13; 2 Cor 6:3, 11). a) Vulnerability begins with acknowledging the sovereignty of God in all matters and

our total dependence on Him. It also means acknowledging our limited understanding of how God is working accomplishing His mission in each community and the role that He desires us to carry out.

2 The institutional church is recognized as having and being distinguished by a diversity of styles, historical realities,

teachings, cultural nuances and expressions. 3 Alliance core value: The Church as central in God’s Mission.

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b) The process of Bible translation involves bringing the divine and eternal Word of God into a human language. Though seemingly impossible, it is indeed God’s strategy to advance His mission. Therefore, it calls on all involved to depend on God in this humanly impossible work.

c) Sacrificial vulnerability is at the heart of the Incarnation, as it is revealed in the birth, life and the death of Christ on the cross. When God the Son became a human being, He willingly submitted to His Father. Through the incarnation God revealed the grace of His Love for us. We could never fully understand His love without the sacrificial death of His Son.

d) Similarly, suffering and hardship should be expected as we, and the rest of the Church, participate in God’s mission. In this way we are a model of the image of our gracious Father in Heaven. God does not spare believers from the suffering caused by wars, famines, persecution and injustice in this world, but he does promise to give them the strength to endure and persist.

e) One of God’s gifts to provide comfort and security is the body of believers, the Church.

5. The mission of God is both holistic and integral. He desires transformative change

(Hos 2: 14-23; Matt 4, 11, 28; Jas 1; Col 3:23). a) God’s work in the world, the missio Dei, is about creating and sustaining shalom.

Shalom is not just the absence of hostility, but “peace with justice”. It is a holistic peace that considers all our relationships at four levels: with God, with creation, with other people, and with ourselves. It means to delight in serving God, to delight in our physical surroundings, to delight in community, and to delight in what it means to be a child of God.

b) By integral, we mean that both the “proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel”4 are essential. This emphasizes the need for integrating the diverse range of ministry activities that contribute to God’s work of holistic transformation.

c) The breadth and depth of change needed for holistic transformation will require perseverance for a long time, even generations.

6. The mission of God is to bless communities and those who serve them (Jas 2; 2 Pet

3:9; 1 Tim 2:4; Rev 7:9, Rom 5:1-5; Phil 4:10; 2 Cor 8 and 9; Acts 11). a) God gives humans languages and enables them to form cultures that help them

understand their identity and form communities. A community is a set of individuals who are conscious of an important link that binds them together, providing their sense of identity and allowing them to depend on each other.

b) God’s loving concern touches every individual, but it is in the community of the Church where the fullest experience of God’s love can occur. Similarly, as language communities experience the holistic transformation that the mission of God seeks for them, they will more fully experience and reflect God’s love individually and corporately.

c) Because “ownership” is nurtured through community participation and because God gives all people valuable qualities, it is important to recognize this and to find ways to encourage broad participation in Bible translation programs. Ownership is

4 Micah Network Partnership Guidelines December 2005.

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a critical component for sustainability. Just as God invites the Church to participate in His mission so that it might grow to maturity through participation, God desires communities to participate in their own transformation. A critical component for achieving long-term sustainability of change is conducting Bible translation programs so that ownership of the goals and process becomes established within the community.

d) It is important that Bible translation programs acknowledge the disadvantaged and excluded and encourage bringing them into the life of the larger community.

e) For those from outside the community, one of the great blessings is the transformation of their relationship with the community; entering as a guest and working as a co-labourer will allow them to leave as a friend.

f) God also blesses those who serve by building their faith and shaping their character through challenges and hardships. He demonstrates His faithfulness by bringing joy and the fruits of the Spirit to those who labour in ways that honour Him. He also shows His love by letting those serving share His heart as the community responds or does not respond to demonstrations of His love.

II. The transformational impact God desires for language communities guides and shapes Bible translation programs (Col 3:9-17) a) God desires to see transformed communities wherein relationships between people and

Himself, with each other and with His creation are reconciled so that they can experience the wholeness (shalom) He intended for them through Christ. This thereby brings glory to Him. Transformation is a continually occurring process, which will continue throughout the life of the believer.

b) God desires the transformation of all language communities. He carries out His mission through the blended participation of many organizations and continuous significant engagement of the communities. Participation involves individuals but also local organizations and institutions, especially the church.

c) Bible translation is a foundational activity God uses to advance holistic transformation. Bible translation programs at their core enable the process of the “indwelling” of God’s Word into a language, and the hearts and minds of its speakers. Thus, speakers are better able to participate and live in the fellowship and harmony of the community of the triune God.

d) It is reasonable then that Bible translation programs be planned and implemented so that they contribute not only Scripture translation and language development, but also contributes to God’s building of a sustainable foundation for His on-going work of transformation.

III. Key Principles for Alliance Bible translation programs

1. The ministry of Bible translation is built on the mission of God

Principle: Because mission begins with God, a primary response should be to seek to conform our wills to His will through prayer and supplication on the part of the church and those desiring to engage in a Bible translation program.

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a) As we listen to God, we will also listen to the community and other partners so that program initiation, relationship development, planning and implementation will advance in response to inspiration from His Spirit. Promoting an externally pre-determined strategy undermines such a goal.

b) God’s work happens in God’s timing and holistic transformation for any community will be an on-going process. The interdependent model of Kingdom work (some sow, some water, some tend, some harvest) requires building a strong relational foundation for sustainable long-term progress.

c) While ideal participation of all potential partners will not be possible this side of eternity, God is honoured whenever truly interdependent participation is pursued and achieved.

2. God calls the Church to participate with Him in advancing His mission

Principle: The present and future context of the Church is a critical factor guiding the planning and implementation of all Bible translation programs.

a) The achievement of transformational impact is critically dependent upon active

church involvement in Bible translation programs. b) We seek to serve both the Church universal and the church as it exists within the

Bible translation program context. It is expected that churches will play an important role in the decision-making, resourcing and quality-control processes of the Bible translation programs as early as possible.

c) While programs may begin with limited church roles, expanding that involvement needs to be a continuing priority until significant involvement is occurring. Moreover, because the reality of the Church in any given context is rather a segmented one, Bible translation should be developed as a strategic and non-threatening means for promoting the unity among relevant churches.

d) Whereas a local church may not be present in some contexts, the Church is universally present in all language communities through prayer and other intercessions. Working to support the development of a local church presence must always be part of the long-term considerations of a Bible translation program. In this regard, it will be important to build relationships with the Church at the national-level or beyond and to position Bible translation programs within those relationships. Thus, Bible translation could play a pioneering role to foster the outreach of the Church to new areas.

3. Our triune God calls us to reflect His character and attributes when we participate in His mission

Principle: Building the necessary foundation of interdependent relationships required for Bible translation programs to contribute to transformation requires Alliance organizations to model the character of God.

a) It is expected that a wide array of people and organizations will ultimately become

involved in Bible translation programs that seek holistic transformation – the community, churches, partner organizations, secular organizations and government.

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b) Building and maintaining Kingdom relationships among partners must be a paramount value for Alliance Participating Organizations because Alliance behaviour that reflects the Trinity reinforces the message of the Word and challenges efforts to pull apart and work separately. The Alliance Participating Organization is called to be an agent of reconciliation and restoration.

Principle: Growth and maturing is reinforced through humbly receiving and acting upon the feedback of those with whom you have relationship.

a) It is through intentional and transparent learning processes that Alliance Participating

Organizations can demonstrate their commitment to continuously improve how well they reflect God’s image and character as they participate in the implementation of Bible translation programs.

b) Working from within relationships is both a gift and a challenge. Kingdom relationships require continuing commitment; therefore Bible translation program strategies should balance this need when challenged by program deadlines.

4. Following the example of Christ’s obedience implies sacrificial vulnerability

Principle: For Bible translation programs to align with God’s mission, a spiritual unity is needed among the Christian partners. The building and maintaining of this unity is the highest priority for those involved.

a) All cultures have only a partial understanding of what it means to live and work

vulnerably, trusting God for the harvest. Without spiritual unity, built through vulnerable relationships, those involved in Bible translation programs will have an even more limited understanding of how God is at work in their context. Sharing and building a more inclusive understanding of how God is present and active is foundational for each Bible translation program.

b) The example of how Christian partners collaborate and treat one another powerfully reveals God’s love to the language community and to all others involved. The ability to work in community is one of God’s gifts to those who participate in His mission. But it requires intentionality to realize this unity. Time and resources as well as thoughtful evaluation indicators are needed to have fruitful collaborative work plans and activities. Foundational relationship building work is needed before planning and implementation begin.

c) Decision-making processes need to include intentional reflection, discernment and broad participation so that God’s voice is more likely to be understood and unity of direction is established.

Principle: Acknowledging and responding to God’s sovereignty requires looking for how God is working when plans, schedules and other goals are not achieved or when resources are not available.

a) While planning, goals and management bring much value to projects, God seeks

much more than outputs in His mission. Rather than judging success according to the accomplishment of plans, it is important to seek understanding of what God is doing

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when plans do not work out. The discernment of God’s purpose and His activity should inform not only the evaluations done but also the shape of future plans.

b) Often the disruption caused by the loss of a critical program resource (people, money, permissions, etc.) can be a reminder to look for how God is at work and can help reveal how God is providing comfort in the midst of the hardships connected to the disruption.

c) Reliance on God, keeping faith and trust in focus, is a critical element for planning.

Principle: Because the well being of each member of the community working in a Bible translation program is essential, taking physical risks should be a shared, rather than individual, decision. Vulnerability and obedience allow the Spirit to work through many channels including the unity of the community.

a) Historically, the power and prestige of the “sending” countries accompanied the

missionaries. In this context, decision-making was not often shared with the hosts/participants. But Bible translation programs that seek transformation are built on communities of participants, not on the work of an individual. Sustainable progress will require networks of committed people, institutions and organizations cooperating with one another and recognizing their vulnerability through working interdependently rather than self-sufficiently.

b) The array of forces resisting Bible translation programs is vast, powerful and capable of inflicting great harm to believers and those involved. While God is stronger, He chooses to manifest His strength through the community of believers working together. Therefore, each participant should find his/her strength in Him and in the community of believers rather than in any other system or power outside of it.

5. The mission of God is both holistic and integral. God desires transformative change Principle: Transformative change requires an expanding and deepening commitment from all those involved.

a) A broad coalition sharing a vision and commitment is fundamental for creating

sustainable processes that will serve the community over time. b) External resource providers must also take a comprehensive view towards Bible

translation programs so that they don’t unintentionally encourage unsustainable activities through how they support the specific aspects that interest them most

c) Acting in support of greater interdependence, increased capacity, and development of sustainable processes by the community will increase the potential of the community for greater long-term engagement and success.

d) While many different organizations will make contributions, transformation is an on-going process, therefore it is critical that strong networks, partnerships and alliances hosted by local stakeholders be formed that can grow in effectiveness over time.

6. The mission of God is to bless communities and those who serve them

Principle: Languages, cultures, identities and being a community are all God-given gifts meant to bless humans.

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a) The mission of God is done with and for people and communities. All those from

outside the community, who partner or network together, should respect the community and act in ways that preserve or enhance its dignity.

b) For those from outside the community, one of the great blessings is the transformation of their relationship with the community; entering as a guest and working as a co-labourer will allow them to leave as a friend.

c) For Bible translation programs to reflect local concerns, communities--both people and institutions--should participate in decision-making with external partners, mindful of their ultimate host responsibility. Power relationships must be monitored so that they do not undermine sustainability.

d) Outside organizations, as resource partners, need to have a commitment to working with the community to promote a healthy sense of local ownership and growth in its capacity and ability to guide its transformation process. This affirms the call to interdependent relationships and community within the missio Dei and not toward self-sufficiency.

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APPENDIX Note: The following appendices are provided as resources that provide commentary on the Statement. They include examples of how elements of the Statement are influencing various Alliance Organizations.

Definition of Key Concepts Pertaining to the Alliance Bible Translation Programs Philosophy Statement

The definitions contained in this document are meant to help the reader of the Wycliffe Global Alliance Bible translation philosophy statement understand the meaning behind the key concepts. While they are not standard definitions, they do represent the current understanding and agreement among those involved in developing the statement. The missio Dei The missio Dei, or the mission of God, is understood to capture four key ideas. First, its ultimate purpose is to establish Christ’s rule over all redeemed creation. Second, The Church, the Body of Christ, is instituted by Christ but brought into reality by the work of the Holy Spirit. Third the Church in its formation and life is meant to be the reflection of the interdependent and communal relationship that is the essence of the triune God. And, fourth, God is the owner, the initiator and the primary agent of the missio Dei, but the Church exists to serve and participate in it. Through that obedient service the Church is to be a reflection of the loving community that exists within the Triune God. Bible translation program A Bible translation program is construed as a series of activities that have rendering Scriptures into other languages as the anchor point to language development, multilingual education, literacy and Scripture engagement. This is done in order to further the reign of Christ among the recipient communities. Bible translation Bible translation is the process of the in dwelling of God’s Word into a language so that its speakers can participate and live in the fellowship and harmony of the community of the Body of believers here on earth and with all faithful people in eternity. This in dwelling comes through the many ways that God reveals Himself, including His Word primarily, but also through the life and witness of believers, especially those immediately in relationship with a language community. Bible translation movement The Bible translation movement references all those who participate in the mission of God by contributing to the broadly defined goals of Scripture translation. It is a community of organizations, churches and individuals with shared interest and activity, not a single organized or structured association.

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Shalom The term shalom points towards wholeness, through justice and truth, which inspires hope for what is expected (Hag 2:7-9, Isa 2:2-4; 11:1-9). There is a sense of completeness, both in terms of restoration (forgiveness) peace, safety, welfare, reconciliation with God and fellow man. We understand the wholeness to include every part of creation and every aspect of and activity in human life (Rom 14:17; 8:6). Shalom also has complexity since it is the state of creation after the mission of God is fulfilled but it is also something that can be experienced in partial measure now in the life of the community of believers and something which the community of believers can bring to the world through actions done in obedience to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the concept of shalom goes far beyond peace construed as absence of war to mean a state where everything is functioning in the way that the Creator intended. Language program A language program is an intentional, planned and organized process that has as its purpose language development and service of the goals of the communities of those languages. Note: This definition is offered with a caveat: Language program in our internal conversations is practically defined by SIL International as programs pursuing all three SIL Ends. In order to promote the notion that the Alliance is not developing a philosophy about SIL language programs, we intend to use the phrase “Bible translation program” instead to refer to the Alliance’s field involvement. This approach gives SIL and the Alliance two complementary perspectives from which they approach the work in the field, allowing overlap and offering opportunities for effective collaboration. The Church The Church in its essence is the collective expression of individuals redeemed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, united for his worship, for communion and for mission by the power of the Holy Spirit. The institutional expression of the Church is recognized as having and being distinguished by a diversity of theologies, styles, historical realities, teachings, cultural nuances and expressions. Of itself, the Church is not the Kingdom. It is instead the community in which the signs of the Kingdom are most clearly evident. It is also, as God’s main instrument for His mission, the messianic community in the service of and witness to the Kingdom. It is the community charged with continuing the messianic mission in the same Spirit and strategy that characterized Jesus’ mission. Facilitation Bible translation program facilitation is skilled assistance provided without control in order to allow all the participants involved to make their appropriate contribution towards the progress of the Bible translation program especially by participating in decision-making concerning all aspects of the Bible translation program. Participation Bible translation program participation refers to the contribution that different individuals and agencies make in a Bible translation program.

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Participatory approaches reflect a mind-set and a variety of tools that help those who will be influenced by the Bible translation program to have effective decision-making and contributory roles in those activities. Ownership Bible translation program ownership is reflected by the capacity of the recipient community and churches to act as host of the program, participating in shaping the vision, in the decision-making and in the formulation of the goals for the results not only for the Bible translation program but also for the broader transformative impacts that are desired. Integral/holistic mission The “proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel” are inseparable components for promoting a transformative engagement with the Jesus Christ and the Gospel. The word “integral” is used in recognition of the diversity and range of ministry aspects and expressions that are essential and that must be integrated for holistic ministry that glorifies God and shares the truth and love of God with all peoples. This follows Christ’s example of service to the whole person. Recognizing that all people have physical, spiritual and emotional needs, integral and holistic mission and ministry desire to see people and communities made whole as the whole Gospel is lived out in every facet of life. Transformation The end result of the processes through which God restores (reconciles) relationships between people and Himself, with each other, and with all of His creation so that they can experience the wholeness (shalom) He intended for them through Christ and thereby brings glory to Himself. Transformation is a continually occurring process, which will continue throughout the life of the believer. Community A community is a group of individuals or organizations that are conscious of an important link that binds them together, thereby providing their sense of identity and causing them to depend on each other. The characteristics of a community of believers are those exhibited within the Trinity and expressed in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 13, James, and 1 John. Such a Kingdom community is essential for effective Bible translation programs. Sustainability Sustainability is the capacity to continue to fulfil one’s purposes for a long time. For example, the institutional church has continued for two millennia, however, its characteristics have varied greatly over that period. Rather than being a precisely defined element of a program, it is actually an “outcome” which results from both, pursuing holistic program goals, and choosing carefully the process by which the program is nurtured into life. Sustained impact depends on whether organizations, e.g. the church, government, the community itself, become viable and develop commitment, responsibility, capacity and ownership of the Bible translation and other development programs continuously into the future.

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Translation Procedures and Church Participation Paul K. Kimbi (CABTAL)

Introduction “Bible translation” is a term often used to refer to the wide range of activities that lead to the translation of a biblical text and the use of Scriptures in communities in which these activities are carried out. The ultimate goal of Bible translation is to see people and their cultures transformed by Christ’s love through God’s Word for His glory. Christ invited the Church to participate with Him in His mission of redemption, transformation and restoration (Matthew 28:19). This implies that translation projects should be organized in ways that promote the active participation of the church in these communities. How can the church therefore be more involved in the processes of Bible translation? This question presupposes that the participation of the church has not been optimal or has been weak in many areas. An answer to the question is the key focus of this paper. Why has the church not taken much responsibility in Bible translation in some areas?

“The church of the Global South has been on the forefront of mission for quite a long time. But their focus has been more on church planting than on Bible translation. One reason for this is their perception of what the translation process involves. Many church planters view it as a theoretical and scientific task that takes many years to complete. They also consider it to be the work of foreign linguists and biblical language scholars” (5Gravelle Gilles).

Gravelle provides some elements of the answer to the above question in his statement. There is a need to cross-examine this view and see to what extent Bible translation organizations and the church have mutually helped one another to embark on translation of Scriptures. Other reasons that have tended to limit church involvement in Bible translation activities include: 1) A lack of proper vision sharing concerning translation needs with churches before the translation begins in many communities. 2) The tendency to work with a few elite members of the community who might not be strong Christians in that community, which weakens the church’s contribution in that community. 3) Translation organizations do not often adequately address the question of ownership of the projects at the beginning of the translation work. The influence of translation organizations tends to be rather prescriptive than descriptive and in the form of guidance. 4) Translation organizations sometimes tend to over-emphasize the academic requirements needed for translation and thus detract attention from other kinds of contribution the church can make. 5) Some translation organizations tend to focus almost solely on the publication of the text, without adequately addressing the question of a proper format in which the translation will be used and without building capacity of the church for Scripture use. Many other reasons can be considered for the apparent lack of interest in Bible translation activities by the church but the goal of this paper is to review practices within translation

5 Bible Translation in Historical Context: The Changing Roles of Cross-cultural Workers (draft, Arlington TX).

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organizations that tend to discourage church involvement and suggest procedures that integrate more church involvement in Bible translation. The cross-cultural challenge in translation and the need of a purpose statement in a given translation project The translation team’s goal is to accurately and appropriately translate the meaning of the source message. But each language has its own unique form, its own lexical system, its own grammatical structure and its own socio-cultural context. Therefore in order to communicate the exact equivalent meaning, the form of the translation in the receptor language will sometimes be different from the form of the source message. The “Culture-boundness”6 of words and the differences in the unspoken patterns of conflicting world-views is a nagging challenge for translators. Let us take for instance the example of “woman” in John 2:4. In Greek, this word can mean: woman, wife, and girl. In the Kom area in Cameroon, one must not refer directly to his mother as “woman”. Such direct reference of one’s mother as “woman” will imply in this case that Jesus was impolite or rude to the mother. The associative meaning in Greek would rather suggest that this was a polite way of speaking. This poses the problem of match and mismatch in the use of particular words and phrases in translation. The idioms used in the source culture may be difficult to understand and may be interpreted literally. When interpreted literally, they may achieve an opposite meaning in the receptor worldview. The “culture-boundness” of words and the differences in the unspoken patterns of conflicting worldviews necessitate an elaboration of the translation philosophy to help clarify mitigating factors that informed certain choices in the translation. Every source text is encoded in a source culture i.e. when I read the Bible in English; it is the English idioms that interplay with the message to induce understanding of the meaning of what I have read. For a translation to be relevant and meet the need of communicating accurately and effectively to its recipients, the translation must stay faithful to both the source text and also be natural in the receptor language. This means that I should be able to use Kom idioms or Kom equivalents of Greek or Hebrew idioms to address a Kom audience in order to stay intelligible, accessible and appealing to this audience. But at the same time that I aim at being natural, I should seek to accurately render the meaning of the source text. “It is thus not to be expected that merely trans-coding or merely transposing [words] … into another language will result in a serviceable translatuum7”. Transposing words may turn out to be valuable for a particular translation but this need to be defined from the beginning by the key stakeholders. And the local church should play a major role given that it is the main client of the translation. In other words, any decisions about the type of translation needed in a given region should involve the church determining what will best meet their needs.

6 Lowen Jacob A. in (The Bible Translator Vol. 15 No. 4 (October 1964): 189–194).

7 Vermeer HJ (2012: 192). The term Translatuum as used by the author refers to the end product of the translation activity

i.e. the translation in the format in which it has been translated. This can be the translated text or an audio version of the text etc.

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The church as the key stakeholder of a relevant translation Most translations are undertaken to strengthen the church in given communities. However, it is sometimes not very clear how the expectations of the church will be met and how these needs are determined. Understanding the contextual situation of the church will help determine the ethos of the translation. The relationship between the source text and the target text, for example, needs to be defined in terms of the purpose of the translation as determined by the needs and context of the church. Should the translation be described as literal, fairly literal, meaning-based or very meaning based? The answer to this question will help the translators to determine how much of the implicit information needs to be made explicit. But the answer to the question also depends on the literacy rate of the population and the degree of evangelization of the area. When we take the example of English translations and paraphrases, it would be helpful to know that the Good News translators targeted an audience who spoke English as a second language, so the Good News was written using a limited English vocabulary. The Living Bible targeted a certain age group, children. In other words, there are many mitigating factors that can influence the particular style of a given translation project. These factors need to be discussed with the church of the area, which is the primary recipient of a translation action. In other words, the use of Scriptures is dependent on the church and the degree of use is contingent on the participation of the church in decisions concerning the translation. There needs to be a purpose statement for every given translation project and this needs to be developed with the church/community prior to beginning the translation. This is what has been called skopos theory8 in translation. The skopos is the purpose envisaged for a particular translation action, in a given community, that will influence the translation decisions. Secondly, translating key terms differently from what the church has already adopted without the participation of the church in creating new and more accurate terms creates a conflict of understanding. Key terms like salvation, faith, grace, and redemption are often already in use in the local church and sometimes in need of more accurate renderings. In some areas, the “Lord’s Prayer” is translated differently from what the church already practices but the church is not taught why the new translation is considered better. Involving the church in the process might entail giving opportunity for her theologians to be part of the translation. I would like to cite an example of such a reflection that CABTAL9 shares in her partnership with a seminary in Cameroon, the Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary (CBTS). CABTAL has designed and is running a summer course called Equipping Rural Church Leaders. The purpose of the course is two-fold: to teach local church leaders and pastors who did not have much formal or theological education to be able to use the translation and also to build their capacity for reflection on theological challenges faced by the church in Cameroon. In this vein, the course highlights issues in African Traditional Religion, discipleship, evangelism and participatory Bible studies in mother tongue Scriptures. In the process, seminary teachers are brought on board to co-teach the course with CABTAL staff and also to encourage students within the normal school year to embark on reflections

8 Vermeer Hans J 2012. Skopos and commission in translational action. In The translation studies reader (3

rd ed) London:

Routledge. 9 Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy.

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concerning mother-tongue Scriptures. The church can only minister the gospel effectively through being equipped to reflect theologically. Translation organizations can create platforms for reflection through workshops such as those focusing on key term translation. One way to do this is to engage the church’s theologians in these workshops. Thirdly, Bible translation takes a relatively long time. Sometimes people grow weary in the process. The vision needs to be shared throughout the life cycle of a project. Pastors are often very influential in the communities where they serve. The vision of Bible translation can, when shared from the pulpit, make a greater impact than if it was shared from the pew or from outside the church. Sharing the vision from the pulpit assures the translators that the Scriptures will be used. This creates the need to work closely with the pastors and church leaders in an area. In CABTAL, we have designed “Bible Translation Sundays” in partnership with some local churches wherein we visit the church at least once a year, share about what we do and communicate our prayer requests to the church thus motivating the church to give in support of the ministry of Bible translation. We also have designed a yearly training program for our Inter-Church Committees (ICCs). The ICCs oversee the translation project and own the projects. The capacity of the ICC needs to be built prior to and during the translation project by the translation organization, preparing the church to fully own and use the translated Scriptures. The Translation Commission10 and translation procedures It is necessary for a translation project to have a “translation commission”. A “translation commission” outlines the purpose statement of a translation project and the context in which the translation will be carried out. The context of a translation project fine-tunes the procedures that will be adopted in the project in order to give the translation its particularity and credibility. Credibility is bi-directional, i.e. people’s expectation of the nature of the translation should be respected (in terms of accuracy) and, at the same time, the translation needs to be perceived to be natural in the language in which it has been done. It would be difficult to measure credibility of a translation if the project did not elaborate a purpose statement. Judging a translation to be too literal for example is at the same time identifying that the translation does not articulate naturally in the receptor language. Conversely, judging a translation to be too free also raises concerns about the degree of accuracy of the translation to the original. But different people from different standpoints can make any such judgment unless they are given some criteria, which clearly set the standards in which the translation should be judged. These criteria need to be spelt out by the translation commission. The translation commission needs to address issues about: 1. The skopos (purpose statement) articulating its desired outcomes 2. Who is going to be involved in a given project i.e. who are the key stakeholders? 3. Who is going to use the translation? Is the translation an inter-confessional project or it

is done for a particular church? What are the bases for this inter-confessional cooperation?

10 The term is used in Skopos Theory to refer to the guiding factors agreed on as objectives of a translation project. The term is used in a synonymous way to the expression “translation brief”.

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4. What will be the format of the translation and in which dialectical variant will the text be published and why?

5. What is the envisaged timeframe? 6. The translation process or procedures that will lead to the outcomes: what will be the

style? 7. The translation results i.e. the function of the translation: reading in church, aural

proclamation, evangelistic, literacy etc.

Proposed basic steps in translation

A) Before the translation begins 1. Mobilization and vision sharing: Bringing the different confessions of the church in a given area and influencing them to consider the church as a prime stakeholder in Bible translation. Through this, an Inter-Church Committee (ICC) is formed to oversee the work of the translation. 2. Consultation and elaboration of the translation commission: Translation organizations should work with churches and other key stakeholders to create committees that will define quality and quality control mechanisms in their specific context through a purpose statement for the translation that spells out amongst other things the desired style of the translation, the expected outcomes of the translation and the envisaged use of the Scriptures. 3. Selection and/or proposal of staff: Translation organizations should work with the church in selecting project staff. The ICCs need to be allowed some supervision over the staff in order to ensure staff is also accountable to the church. 4. Key term consultations with the church intelligentsia: Although key term translation should be an on-going activity in the cycle of the translation, there is need to have a workshop on key terms before the translation begins. This workshop should necessarily include church theologians, church leaders and the intelligentsia of the church in the area. A preliminary list of key terms should be translated as a beginning for eventual verification and modifications. B) Translation procedures after the inception of the project 1. Preliminary study for meaning of the source text (exegesis): At least one member of a translation team should be a fairly skilled exegete. The study of meaning is always on going. The church’s theologians should be consulted in making exegetical choices that appear difficult and controversial. 2. Do the first draft: At least two mother-tongue speakers of the receptor language work on making a first draft of the translation. 3. Keyboard the draft: If not already directly keyboarded by the translator, the draft translation should be typed onto a computer using Paratext.6 4. Team check/exegetical check: Other translators or the whole team comes together to review the first draft with input of the exegete and/or project advisor. In areas where members of the ICC are available, they should be encouraged to participate in some of the sessions of exegetical checks particularly during the checking of some key Biblical passages. 5. Review of key biblical terms with the church’s participation: Careful review of key terms is an on-going task in the project and these terms should be tested in churches. It is very

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important for the review committee to include church leaders and other key stakeholders of the translation. 6. Testing the draft in churches and other social settings: The draft is read to some representative speakers of the receptor language, with questions of clarity and naturalness asked. The same passage should be tested in at least two settings, at least one of which must be a church setting like Sunday school. 7. Review the draft: Representatives from the churches and from the community are trained in basic principles of translation and are convened at appropriate occasions to review the drafts together with the translation team. 8. Back translation: Someone who has not participated in translating the passage/book should do this. The back-translation should be literal enough to permit the consultant to judge whether the translation is communicating effectively and accurately as he interacts with the translators. 9. Consultant check: A translation consultant works with the team to check the translation for faithfulness to the original Hebrew or Greek text and to the translation ethos adopted in the translation commission. Some church leaders can sit in during some of the sessions. 10. Preliminary publication for use and review in the churches: The translation needs to be tested widely and one way to do this is to do some preliminary publications when the translation is still on going. This will enable people to react to the translation as to whether it demonstrates an adequate resemblance to their expectations of the source text and at the same time whether it is in a natural language style and exhibits the right kind of register or tone. 11. Final read-through and consistency check: The translation team and key reviewers should use computer-based tools to check the consistency of the translation. 12. Key term harmonization and endorsement by the ICC (church leaders and theologians): There is need for the church to cross-examine the translators on their choices of key terms at the end of every translation project before it is sent for typesetting. Representatives from churches (particularly the clergy and church theologians where available) should come together in one or several sessions at the end of the translation to make sure that key terms have been adequately honed. This can be done using the Paratext program on key terms checks and parallel passage checks. The key foci of such sessions should be on the rendering of filial terms and other terms such as Christ, redemption, grace, salvation, faith, baptism etc. The translators should be ready to educate these leaders on the mitigating factors that informed their choices and should solicit the input of the church. After this check, the ICC should endorse the terms before the translation is sent for typesetting. 13. Typesetting: The translation is prepared for publication, in print (and audio) formats. 14. The Church organizes a formal reception or dedication/celebration of the Scriptures: The church/es in the area should plan the dedication ceremony/celebration and launch the distribution of the translation in a venue predetermined in the translation commission. Within this launch, plans should be made concerning Scripture use.

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Community Mobilization for Participation and Ownership: The Experience of CABTAL in Cameroon

Michel Kenmogne

Introduction In 2001, after fifteen years of existence, the Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) embarked on a process to review its mode of operating language projects. Until then, CABTAL’s practice was to shape projects from the beginning-- identifying and determining the need, hiring staff to carry out the project and taking responsibility for the outcomes of the effort. This system allowed CABTAL to hold the project staff accountable and to achieve efficiency in terms of planning and monitoring progress towards the goals. The philosophy undergirding this endeavour was based on the perception of language development and Bible translation as a task to be done, resulting in some products. But the transformational impact and sustainability, though clearly in view, were not always plausible following CABTAL’s intervention. Hence, CABTAL understood with Clinton Robinson (1998:6) that “adopting sustainability as a goal in our work means that the aim from the start is to embed the vision in the social fabric.” CABTAL thus started a process of re-envisioning its approach to language programs. This paper reviews CABTAL’s rationale for changing its language programs’ strategy, describes the attempts at adopting a new strategy and shares some of the results of the effort. 1. Rationale for a new approach Though it was growing and active in language communities, CABTAL was faced with a number of issues and difficulties that hindered its effectiveness. As an external organization serving language communities, CABTAL at times made inappropriate decisions relative to the selection of project staff from within the community. In such situations, there was a risk of misuse of project funds, inefficiency and slow progress towards the goals. CABTAL, in such circumstances, had to bear the entire responsibility for solving the problem, which most of the time, could prove to be quite costly. Moreover, the selection process of a project leader and the expectations set on his role meant that his first line of accountability was to CABTAL. In this regard, the project leader perceived himself as a CABTAL officer assigned to a community to carry out CABTAL-defined goals. The recipient community-most of the time- shared the project leader’s perception about the ownership and responsibility over the language development and Bible translation project. Therefore, the involvement of the language community in the decision-making process of the project was fairly limited. A team of translators, literacy, Scripture use and project administration staff served under the supervision of the project leader. The main input of the Church in the language community was made through the review committee (a selection of catechists, elders or clergy). The testing process allowed some members of the wider community to check the naturalness of the language used in the translation drafts. On another note, though the project could deliver a number of good products, CABTAL had a real difficulty in achieving its overarching goal of the spiritual transformation of the community. Most of the time, the literature sat in the project office and the community was seldom aware of its existence or motivated to use it. The likelihood of distributing the

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project’s products relied heavily on the initiative and marketing abilities of the project leader and his staff. With this, most projects came short of their ultimate goal of allowing the Church to achieve a greater effectiveness in evangelism and training of believers. The literacy classes were fairly limited and it was hard for the project to achieve even 1% of mother tongue literacy in the overall population within the whole lifespan of a project. Such a situation did not guarantee that there would be a sustainable use of the written language by the community after the completion of the project and phasing out of CABTAL’s involvement. To put it briefly, during these initial fifteen years, the lack of the community’s oversight of projects caused the language projects to be perceived as being solely CABTAL’s endeavour and initiative. This perception in turn hindered the effectiveness of the project in terms of its ability to foster the desired spiritual transformation of the communities. The acknowledgement of this reality caused CABTAL to explore alternative ways of starting and running language projects. 2. New attempts at starting and running language projects: the community mobilization strategy

2.1 Assumptions Based on their experience, the leadership of CABTAL claimed that the involvement of the recipient community as a key participant in the project design and execution processes could yield better prospects. The assumption was that the task of language development and Bible translation should be primarily owned by the community which “owns” the language and holds all its speakers through a shared cultural identity. This assumption is underscored by Gerald Helleiner (2002) in a study on Local Ownership and Donor Performance Monitoring in Tanzania which defines ownership as follows: “The essence of ownership is that the recipients drive the process. They drive the planning, the design, the implementation, the monitoring, and the evaluation.” More recently, SIL has also underscored the non-negotiable place of local ownership in the quest to achieve sustainable Bible translation movements, making the quest for understanding of and emphasis on ownership the first priority in its corporate research agenda. LEAD Asia of SIL, in the words of Doug Fraiser (2012), states the advantages of local ownership: “It’s a moral imperative; it prevents apathy and resistance; it prevents unworkable solutions; it enlists the community in the work; it is required for sustainability; it puts accountability where it belongs; it prevents doing harm. In order to secure the active participation of communities in a context where they had previously and largely acted as passive beneficiaries of language projects efforts, CABTAL launched a start-up initiative referred to as community mobilization. 2.2 What is Community Mobilization? Community mobilization, as defined by CABTAL, was initially a process of building the vision for language development and Bible translation within language communities with the view of fostering local bodies that would provide local oversight to those projects. In order to reach this goal, CABTAL recruited young start-up facilitators, also called pioneers, and assigned them to language communities where no language development work had been undertaken before. The pioneers were not natives of the language groups where they served. They had a specified assignment duration of two years. The aim of this assignment was to enlist a response from the local community to the vision-building effort.

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From inception, it was CABTAL’s view that the project would not proceed to enter into production if the following indicators were not in place: the existence of an Inter-Church Committee acting as the custodian of Bible translation at the community level; and a language committee committed to the development and promotion of the language. 2.3 The Process and Content of Community Mobilization

2.3.1 Recruitment and orientation of pioneers: The mobilization process started with the recruitment and training of young, committed, mature believers who were university graduates to serve as mobilisers (also called pioneers). They received basic orientation on the vision and importance of Bible translation, the history of Wycliffe and SIL; an introduction to CABTAL, principles of church involvement in Bible translation; Biblical principles of fund raising; Bible translation and spiritual warfare; a discussion on the ownership and appropriation of a Bible translation project by the Church and community; facilitation skills and selected readings on various issues related to their ministry. They also visited an existing language project to observe the translation procedure and the various components of a language project. Then the leadership of CABTAL introduced them to the community and church leaders of the geographical areas of their assignment. 2.3.2 The assignment of pioneers When assigning pioneers, CABTAL expected that they would facilitate: a) Church ownership and operational capacity building: From its inception, the local churches must operate a project. For this to be effective, the pilot project must achieve the following:

Assist start-Up of Inter-Church Committee (ICC) whose main role would be to provide oversight to the planning and execution of the Bible translation project;

Assist start-up and training of a Bible translation committee (TC) if not already in place, or revamping of the existing committee if appropriate;

Educate church leaders on the need for the mother-tongue Scriptures for effective ministry;

Plan the Bible translation production phase with the churches leaders;

Seek the commitment of people and of financial and material resources from each church and community;

Assist local churches in the identification and orientation of ICC-employed language Project Manager. Preference will be given to recruiting pastors as Project Managers/exegetes.

b) Community-involvement building

Help start the language committee or revamp the existing one;

Identify and build the vision in the rulers, resource people, and spokesmen of the community;

Identify and mobilise development groups operating in the community (Development committee of the village, NGOs etc.).

c) Spiritual preparation: enlist local, national, and international prayer support

Seek to know and write up the spiritual history of the community and communicate precise prayer topics;

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Identify the spiritual strongholds and powers of darkness that reign over the community.

Produce a spiritual and social profile of the community for the purpose of prayer support raising and program planning.

e) Transition into the production phase After the two-year “building church ownership and operation” phase, CABTAL would like to enter into the “production phase”. The Start-up Facilitator would give way to the Language Cluster Liaison, a field-based CABTAL technician who would provide the Bible translation committee and the Project Leader on-going access to CABTAL technical resources and facilitate the on-going local partnerships.

The initial experiment described here was carried out during an extensive period of two-and-a-half years, yielding results that led to CABTAL’s modification of their approach to field work.

3. Some Results As a result of applying a new start-up strategy that emphasizes participation and a sharing of ownership of the project by the language community, there has been a significant shift in the way communities have taken a part in the decision-making, funding and overall execution of language development and Bible translation projects in CABTAL.

3.1. Problem-solving efficiency by local communities The Bum language development and Bible translation project is located about 700 km from the CABTAL head office. It requires about two travel days on poor roads to reach the project location. It was set up following a two-year phase of community mobilization. The churches had agreed to form an Inter-Church Committee (ICC), which acted as the local employer and owner of the project. The project leader (Philip) had been selected by the ICC following a scrutiny process that ensured the agreement of all involved. As a result, though CABTAL still provided much of the technical capacity and some of the project funds, Philip felt accountable to the ICC. It sadly occurred that after serving for about two years as project leader, Philip fell seriously ill. His mental condition deteriorated and he was no longer able to carry out his responsibility. In the village context, it took a couple of weeks before his mental illness was apparent. Meanwhile, he continued to attempt to carry out his duties as usual. CABTAL was quite worried when the news reached them about Philip’s condition. A CABTAL officer was sent to the Bum community to assess what was happening. Meeting with the ICC, he inquired about the situation. The ICC reported about the plan that they had devised to resolve the crisis. Firstly, as a fellowship of church leaders, they had committed to pray for Philip and to discern whether his mental illness was due to a spiritual attack. Their assumption was that, being involved in bringing the light-giving Word of God into the language and culture of the Bum people, the sickness could be caused by the forces of darkness. They also took adequate measures to provide care and comfort to Philip’s family during this difficult time. Secondly, the ICC took all the project office keys from Philip’s custody and provided interim leadership to the project staff. By so doing, the project property was safe and the project, though on a slower pace, kept on.

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Regrettably, Philip passed away after a few months of sickness. This was a big blow to a project that was already in full gear. After Philip’s funeral, CABTAL met again with the ICC to discuss plans for the future of the project. The ICC stated that it was their responsibility to handle the project succession by setting up a process to identify the next project leader. After a period of about two months, to the complete surprise of CABTAL, the ICC identified a young man who was living and working in a city and convinced him to return home in order to serve and provide leadership to the project. This young man has been faithfully serving under the ICC and providing good leadership to the Bum project which has already drafted the whole New Testament and is currently doing some final consultant checks. The effectiveness of the local ICC in resolving this problem was humbling and full of lessons for the CABTAL administration. 3.2 Mmen story with Swedish linguist Following a community mobilization phase, the Mmen project was launched with the assignment of a Swedish linguist (by CABTAL) to serve for a period of two years. The community had formed a language committee, which acted as the overall representative of the speakers of Mmen. The main goals of the language committee were to see to the development and standardization of the language, to promote its use within the community and foster literacy classrooms across the community. But the first step had to do with developing a phonological analysis, which would then lead to an orthography statement and an alphabet. It was in this context that the community expectantly welcomed the arrival of Lena to help them. The Mmen speakers, through their language committee, decided to provide housing to Lena. During her sojourn and service, Lena enjoyed the use of a comfortable and rent-free apartment. The village chief encouraged everyone to give Lena all the needed support in order for her to carry out her assignment in a timely manner. From time to time, the committee asked her to provide updates on her work. They rejoiced at any progress, no matter how small, and the Mmen ICC mobilized prayer in the churches for Lena’s work on developing the Mmen language. The local oversight by the host community, the constant encouragement and prayer support challenged Lena to go out of her way to help quench the thirst of this community. Over a period of two years, Lena worked hard to produce a sketch of the phonology of Mmen, an orthography statement, a provisional lexicon and an alphabet. These outcomes were received with joy and celebrations—and the translation project could then begin. 3.3 The impact of local processes on Scripture engagement After the mobilization phase, the Tunen community faced a difficulty concerning the choice of a project leader. Given the profile of the person agreed upon with CABTAL, the ICC felt that it would be appropriate for a pastor to fill the position. However, they were reluctant to release one of their most qualified and suitable pastors for the role. The first two candidates they proposed had been discussed with CABTAL and it was deemed that they didn’t meet the required profile. In the end, the ICC thought of Pastor Balehen. This man was so instrumental in the Baptist Church that the Church was not ready to release him. But in the end, the ICC was able to convince the Baptist Church to second Pastor Balehen to the project.

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In the ensuing discussion on the project leader’s salary, the ICC and the churches felt that they would not be able to provide the monthly contribution needed from them in order to compensate Pastor Balehen. They committed to raise funds among their churches and within their diaspora in the cities. But the churches that had been approached preferred to channel those funds for the literacy promotion. Therefore, the Baptist Church came up with the proposal to have Pastor Balehen serve the project on a part-time basis and still hold a position in the Church. On this basis, the Baptist Church would be able to make a contribution through the provision of an apartment in the Bible school compound for his lodging. Pastor Balehen, the ICC, the Baptist Church and CABTAL mutually agreed upon this arrangement. Pastor Balehen took on leadership in the project and kept some responsibilities within the Baptist Church.

Three years after the start of the project, among his responsibilities in the church, he was assigned to pastor a small assembly located 20 km away from the small town where the project office was located. This assembly was started in the late 1940s. The small church building made out of moulded blocks was almost falling apart. The church had fewer than fifteen members and all were elderly. When Pastor Balehen took on the church leadership role, he decided to test the impact of Scripture use in the Tunen language in the church. By this time, the gospel of Luke was already published. He opened a literacy class in the church and ran all church services in the mother tongue. When I visited this assembly in September 2012, after one year of ministry in the mother tongue, I was amazed. The church now has a membership of more than a seventy people. Most of the people in the church were surrounding inhabitants who had left the church because of the use of French. Others came from the nearby city simply because they enjoyed the service in the Tunen language. The current developments in the Tunen project, the outcomes of partnerships and relationships at various levels allow the project to achieve far more than what could happen if the project were single-handedly led by CABTAL without the involvement of the community.

Conclusion The adoption of a new mode of operation, which transfers significant project ownership to the local communities, has yielded a number of benefits. Firstly, the communities have demonstrated a greater participation in the project design, decision-making, problem solving and execution. Secondly, the projects have been more effective, even in the mid-term to achieve some important transformational impacts. Through Bible translation and the formation of Inter-Church Committees, the Church, which was divided among denominational lines, has witnessed the unity of the body of Christ. This in turn has brought credibility to the gospel message and favoured its reception within the communities. Thirdly, the transfer of ownership to the local communities has repositioned CABTAL and the latter as “guests” and “hosts” respectively. CABTAL has understood that its intervention and role in the communities is not sustainable. Therefore its best contribution has been to invest in building the capacity of the host institutions, systems and people. On their part, the local communities have gradually embraced their role as hosts. They have assumed their responsibility and oversight on projects and developed the capacity to use the outside help provided by CABTAL and other stakeholders. Though there is still more to learn and improve in this new ministry approach, CABTAL and SIL in Cameroon have found it more effective. That is why they have made community mobilization a prerequisite to starting any new

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project. Moreover, they have jointly agreed to turn all new project starts to CABTAL so that they would be operated within this paradigm. It is worth pointing out, however, that this endeavour didn’t go without difficulties. It took CABTAL having the courage to assess its language programs operations and the willingness to explore new approaches. It took young and motivated believers to step out in the first place, without much equipment to break the ground and learn as they went. It also took the efforts of the CABTAL leadership to advocate change in the funding system and educate the donors on the relevance of the new strategy for starting projects. To date, all resourcing partners of CABTAL agree to the strategy and naturally include community mobilization in their funding priorities. Moreover, The Seed Company has gone on to encourage CABTAL to modify its original vision of community mobilization to also include some oral storying strategies that will contribute to preparing the Church for mother tongue Scriptures.

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Some Best Practices for Kingdom Partnerships in Bible Translation Programs

Sebastian Floor The following document provides an account of the experiences of several partners, in a specific region of Africa, working together towards the common goal of sustainable Bible translation programs. Like similar approaches elsewhere (we are not claiming something altogether new or unique), our approach to forming partnerships has been somewhat based on principles derived from the mission of God (missio Dei) as we understood them at the time. Today we seek to demonstrate the principles as they are now reflected in the Wycliffe Global Alliance’s Philosophy for Bible translation programs. The goal of this document is to share some practical ways of building vision for Scripture translation and Scripture engagement among a variety of partners by discovering together with them a common vision for holistic transformation in a given context where they are each involved. At the end of the document, a few case studies illustrate some of the points that have been made. In sharing what we have learnt (and are still learning), we hope that others might benefit from what seem to be emerging as useful practices in the pursuit of Kingdom partnerships in Bible translation programs. It is probably too early to say if all of these practices are really “best practices” It will take further exploration and time to test them. But here is our story. 1. Some useful practices of identifying potential partners and building vision for

participation in the mission of God

1.1 Identifying potential partners, and the first consultations In our experience, the ideal situation is when a Bible agency receives a significant invitation from a potential partner to work in a specific country, cluster or language community. In such cases, we have followed up with that potential partner and together interacted with other key players in the region.

The question that immediately comes up is, “Is it necessary to have an invitation before there can be any contact?” What if there is no invitation forthcoming, especially from smaller language communities who feel less empowered or who are cut off from mainline society and ecclesiastical circles? We are not saying that there could be no relationship at all before an invitation. In many cases this preliminary relationship is critical to building trust and understanding. This relationship may then lead to an invitation to work in that country and/or community. But what we are saying is that a formal invitation by leading individuals and some significant representative body (like a church) should precede any joint venturing. To the question, “Can the Bible agency representatives ever act as interventionists?” we answer yes, for small groups that are disadvantaged, struggling, low on the hierarchy of needs, and likely to stay there unless there is outside intervention. In these cases, once there is some understanding of the context and culture, it may be appropriate to be more obvious in casting vision and to provide leadership in the initial process. For larger groups, for instance with a specific language group in Angola with a million speakers and many churches, more evaluation

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and caution is required: why have they not pursued a Bible translation already? What are the challenges in this context? In such circumstances, less leadership and more listening seems to be the wiser approach. In every situation, however, a desire and willingness to learn is essential.

Before getting to any invitation and joint venturing, and even relationship building, we have found background research to be an important first step. Resources covering a region or country, like the Joshua Project, may have some good preliminary information about some potential partners. Gathering available data about potential partners has proven to be good preparation before interacting with key players in any given context. Spending time with national alliances of churches and/or agencies to find out who is who, and who is where, has enabled us to verify data and gain the local perspective of the context. When some potential partners have been identified, making contact with leaders and meeting with them is a logical next step. The focus initially is to build relationships, get to know one another, have the opportunity for each leader to share the vision, and finding ways to grow the relationship into something pleasant and desirable for all. Travelling together, attending each other’s organized events, visiting in one another’s homes (if appropriate at this stage), enjoying fellowship in the Lord, all contribute to an atmosphere of exploring possibilities of collaboration, without the pressure of any deadlines for reaching any sort of partnership agreement. This process can take as long as one to two years, but sufficient time has allowed for many unscheduled opportunities for mutual understanding, for building vision of what a Bible translation program entails, and for exploring together concerning possibilities for desirable outcomes. Often significant time is needed for new ideas to start percolating and circulating.

Once all parties are ready to pursue something more in terms of a partnership in Bible translation and related activities, and once enough information about the local context has been gathered by all involved, we then meet for a longer time to discuss the potential project from a variety of angles. At the end of that time it may be possible to have a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding in place. A second meeting, or even a third, may be needed to come to some detailed agreement on the way forward. The MOU-forming stage may take several months or even longer, given the complex issues under discussion. We have found it best not to rush the process, but rather wait for the host agencies to set the pace. What is crucial at this stage is to make clear and to discuss the proper host-guest dynamic. The host community and hosting partner(s) need to be clear that a translation project cannot just be handed over to a Bible agency to take responsibility for everything. The community is still the host and therefore has the privileges and responsibilities of hosting as well. So it is essential to have a good understanding of what this means within the culture and context of that particular community. A word of advice is necessary here when we talk about time: The length of time in relationship building is not the primary measure of quality in a translation program. Sometimes a group has been well prepared beforehand and we are inheriting good

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relationships and trust, and sometimes the Lord has already prepared a group; they are just waiting for the necessary spark and encouragement to move forward.

The missional principle behind this approach is that neither the local expressions of the Church as host nor the Bible agencies as guests work in isolation from each other, but rather works in community. This community of practice is characterized by the concept of kingdom partnerships. Kingdom partnerships are partnerships not based on working together on some common goals or sharing resources alone, as in a joint venture, but on sharing the gospel and our life in God together, and only then finding ways to express that koinonia through appropriate and relevant joint ventures. In Bible translation, such partnerships are best when host-driven. The host is defined as some church/ekklesia-based local expression into which a translation program is embedded. This expression could be one of a whole range of configurations. In our experience of identifying partners and possible partnership configurations, here is a short list of possibilities (by no means comprehensive):

1. The host for the translation program can be a single church denomination

(particularly when it is the only denomination in a given area, or the overwhelmingly majority denomination in a language community). See the Makonde and the K people case stories below as an example of this type of configuration.

2. The host could be an ad-hoc alliance of multiple denominations committed to one or several projects, brought together in one translation committee.

3. The host may be an already-existing network of denominations and Christian organizations (e.g. the Evangelical Alliance or the national Council of Churches).

4. The host could take the form of a hybrid alliance of denominations and other Christian organizations like church-planting agencies and Christian Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). See the JOCUM-Wycliffe case study below as an example of this type of configuration.

5. Some registered association of church leaders or individuals (especially in Francophone and Lusophone contexts) could serve as a host. See the Sena Prodelise Association case study below as an example of this type of configuration.

6. The host could comprise a joint venture with the national Bible Society and the churches to which it is connected. See the OluMwila case below as an example of this type of configuration.

7. A Bible translation or a Scripture-promoting institute that is part of a theological seminary or some other Christian training institution could host a project. We have not yet seen a concrete example of this type developing in the region, but it has been mentioned by some of our partners as something to pursue.

There certainly are many more alternatives and configurations, and a combination of any of the above is possible. There is no one model that fits all.

1.2 Vision building and building project foundations Speaking from the experience of the partnerships that have being coming together in southern Africa, there is a range of activities than can be pursued to build vision and prepare foundations for an eventual kingdom partnership:

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1. Spending time with potential individual “champions”. What we have learned is that

one does not, in the first place, deal with institutions but with real people. Providing a key individual with reading materials on Bible translation and Scripture engagement is something that has been beneficial. In the end it will be the support of strong individuals that will bring the partnership breakthroughs, not institutional support per se. (However, we have seen in two countries that when the whole project is dependent on only one strong sponsor, it does not adequately establish the work in the heart of the churches. As significant as such persons may be, more than only individual sponsors are needed.)

2. Bible translation and Scripture engagement happen within a specific context; they don’t exist in a vacuum. When meeting within the church context, we have found it best not to talk about Bible translation per se, but about a movement for greater access to truth. Normally, everybody agrees that discipleship programs and leadership development will all be enriched by more access to the Scriptures.

3. Sharing about the vision of deeper access to the Scriptures at church or church-network conferences. We have seen a noticeable level of interest when presenting the Scripture translation movement within the context of a Scripture impact movement - or in other words, the Bible translation movement within a Bible movement. (But we have also seen in Mozambique that if there are not follow-up and additional activities of vision sharing, vision and activity falters. Public vision building is too “light” or fleeting to have sustainable impact; additional activities are required.)

4. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, we have found it worthwhile to write about Bible translation and Scripture impact in appropriate and relevant national publications. (In Angola we have been asked to write about the partnership with YWAM on oral Bible storying and translation in a special publication.

5. At theological institutions, there has sometimes been an open door for conducting missiological consultations on the need for Bible translation and the place of mother tongue Scriptures in the church and mission. (We learned, however, that initial excitement over such an event sometimes fades once the stakeholders face the realities of organizing such an event. There are sometimes political issues involved among church leaders, or there is not enough communication and clarity on what such a meeting would entail. We had to cancel one in Angola for these reasons. More preparatory meetings would have prevented this.)

6. Together with partners we’ve had some opportunities to conduct introductory Bible translation courses. Where no manuals or curricula exist in the appropriate language of wider communication, we have made use of materials from elsewhere, but ideally we would like to see national scholars producing training resources (e.g. the Francophone Initiative in Africa).

7. There is a demand for teaching Scripture Engagement programs, like Trauma Healing and HIV/Aids programs. In addition to being valuable services to communities and opportunities for training, these programs often serve as bridge -builders to helping communities see the value of having the Scriptures in their own language.

8. Providing training in orality and oral Bible storying/storytelling for churches can sometimes be appropriate. Often, when churches see the relevance of such orality

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programs within their own congregations, they may be more inclined to support similar programs in languages where no Scripture is available.

9. Pursuing, with partners, pilot projects like exploratory ethno-communication11 workshops, to find out which communication and media strategies - and which oral verbal art forms - should best be used in a given context.

2. Some practical ways of forming partnerships that are not task-based but kingdom-oriented

2.1 Relational activities A key principle we have learned is to spend sufficient time together. Kingdom partnerships, when real, do not usually form quickly. On the contrary, we have found that if a partnership comes together too quickly, there may be some hidden problems and concerns. But then again, as mentioned above, sometimes the host partners are quite ready already. When the partnership is coming together nicely in a shorter time, there is no reason for delaying progress unnecessarily.

The principle of spending time together finds expression in various ways, building on enjoyable experiences such as eating together, travelling together, learning about one another’s personal lives and organizations (in culturally appropriate ways), laughing and crying together and entering into the spirit of anything (big or small) that seems important. Thus the relationship increasingly becomes a pleasant experience for all involved, with future contact and fellowship eagerly anticipated. In cases where we have been blessed in the formation of a kingdom partnership, we find we have a different language, or way of relating, than in a task-based partnership. We and our partners talk about how we can know each other better, our dreams, our limitations, our joys and concerns. In seeking to discover the felt needs of our partners, we find that soon we are also sharing ours. The language is one of community and fellowship. Obviously it is necessary to explain oneself and one’s organization, but neither party is promoting its own agenda, with each party looking for a willing partner to support their ministry vision. Instead it is clear that our primary motivation is to enter into a kingdom relationship as individuals as well as organizations. Talking about partnership vocabulary, the terms “ownership”, “stakeholders”, and “stewardship” are often used. Whatever term is used, it is important that the “guest-host” relationship remains clear, healthy and contextually and culturally appropriate. It is easy for a Bible agency as resource and expertise provider, in the spirit of good stewardship or stakeholder responsibility, to become too dominant and disturb the guest-host dynamic. The so-called “equal partners dynamic” is then lost. We therefore

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An ethno-communication workshop is an informal consultation with the host partner(s) and prominent language community leaders about how communication functions in the host language. For instance, is there a preference for oral versus written verbal communication and learning styles, what verbal art forms are used to communicate important information (dialogue, monologue, poetry, proverbs, parables, oral or written, secret or open, etc.), what is the function of narrative and storytelling in the culture and who are the experts of that, how does verbal communication interplay with other social art forms like acting and dancing, etc., etc.? It is providing the first steps towards a greater understanding of communication in context and may lead to an ethnography of communication that can be helpful for ongoing relationships and the community’s growth and development.

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prefer the host-guest metaphor and the fact that the host is indeed the “owner” and does need to take seriously his hosting responsibilities (with whatever help they may need to exercise that properly). As one of the Wycliffe South Africa board members so aptly described, the Bible agency as guest needs to reposition and posture itself with an attitude of servant leadership. This is obviously easier said than done and is perhaps more an art than just a best practice.

Kingdom partnerships must always be rooted in Christ and include partners becoming friends in Christ. Here there is mutual pleasure in sharing on a personal level about our faith, and about spirituality and the gospel. Nothing grows a spiritual Kingdom relationship as much as personal sharing about Christ. Naturally, this calls for cultural sensitivity, but the principle remains that when the Kingdom is central to the partnership we find ourselves talking about Bible translation as more than just a task. It is something we do with reference to our communion in Christ and as part of our participation with God in His mission. An experience we share with many others is that money can be a stumbling block in these initial stages. But we have also found financial involvement to be a good indicator of vision and attitudes. As Bible agencies we are easily viewed as sources for funding, so we have had to be cautious about talking about and spending money in the early stages of a partnership. No partnership should have money as the primary reason for talking to each other. In recognition of our hosts, our posture has been to respect them as they generously host the Bible translation program according to what is the expected norm in their culture. This makes it possible for the hosts to make a significant financial contribution to the process, given local realities, of course. However, if they are not showing any willingness to take the contextually and culturally appropriate responsibilities of a host for the relationship and for the future Bible translation partnership, they are probably not the right partners at this point in time. Again, timing is important. We have had to be patient and willing to wait for the right time before moving forward. Many potentially good partnerships have been wrecked early on or have not lasted long because of moving forward too fast before a solid relational foundation has been established. It has helped us to see that time is needed for a partner to process the various facets of the potential partnership and to count the cost of making the long-term commitment called for in a Bible translation program. Even when we have been tempted to despair when long times pass with seemingly nothing happening, we have found that sometimes more is happening than we can envision; God is at work. In our experience, a good and sustainable Kingdom partnership in Bible translation may take anywhere between one to three years to develop, depending on a range of factors. If the potential partners do not come forward and show significant desire and initiative without being prompted to do so every time, we found it best not to move ahead. A partnership can only succeed when it is a joint initiative, with all parties adding real energy to the process. If nothing happens unless the Bible agency prods, it may be

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necessary to stop and wait. A few gentle reminders may be in order, but only to a point. There may be some cultural reasons (like complex patterns of respect) that may prevent a partner from freely taking any initiative, but if there is a good Kingdom relationship in place and growing, there should be mechanisms in place to prevent such restraints. So, if nothing is forthcoming from the side of a potential host partner after some initial promising signs, the relationship is probably not going to grow at this time. When this happens, we try to keep the door open for the relationship to pick up and grow at some later stage. Meanwhile, we start looking for other partners, and wait on the Lord to reveal the next steps.

2.2 Foundational activities Once the relationships and vision building have introduced 1) an atmosphere of mutual expectation, 2) a desire to do something together, 3) a sense of peace that one partner is not imposing its agenda on the other, 4) a sense of joyful community, and 5) sufficient trust, then we feel the time may have arrived to discuss in more detail a Kingdom partnership arrangement in Bible translation. The time might then have come for more substantial “platform forming”. In these more advanced talks, here are some points we have found helpful to cover with the partner(s):

1. Talk about host-guest relationships and whatever expectations there may be. 2. Maybe do one or several of the above-mentioned vision building activities, as

needed. 3. Discuss contextual issues:

a) Where is the community at in terms of the missio Dei? Are there leaders who are Biblically trained, for instance?

b) How is Scripture being used right now? c) Is there already some “first Scripture” available but not used? And why not? d) What Scripture is needed first? e) What media is needed first? What is the status of orality and written

communication in the community? f) What social, economic, or other needs could be well integrated with a Scripture

access strategy? g) How can the community have more access to the whole counsel of God (full

Bibles or transferring later to a Language of Wider Communication)? 4. When the time is ready to make specific agreements, then we explore terms for a

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). We have found that MOU’s can come in stages: first a general “I like you, you like me, and we would like to do something together” type of statement, followed at a later stage with a more detailed agreement covering the expectations and different roles of each partner. A formal signing ceremony and celebration can help keep the emphasis on fellowship as things get to the more formal stage.

5. Develop a Translation Brief. The brief will include statements about the source text to be used, preferred Biblical key terms, translation type and style, testing and review systems, and decision-making and problem-solving procedures.

The order of these activities is not important. What is important is to be sensitive to God and to each other, being aware of timing and appropriateness at any given time.

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The JOCUM-Wycliffe case study below is an example where most of the above-mentioned steps have been taken, learning by trial and error.

3. Some concrete examples of Kingdom partnerships

3.1 Makonde Among the Makonde of northern Mozambique a translation project was initiated in 1993. The New Testament was completed and the Bible agency partner ended its involvement as the primary partner. The translators who had been employees of the Bible agency were let go. After a series of discussions between the Bible agency and the major church among the Makonde (accounting for 80% of the believers), a previously activated but dormant church council was reactivated and renamed the Makonde Church Council. The church itself decided on the name and on the agenda of this council. More than just a Bible translation committee, it was established to be a council of church leaders responsible for the promotion of the Bible and Biblical truth among the Makonde. The council oversees a Bible school for future church leaders, Scripture distribution, and, as of 2013, the translation of the Old Testament in Makonde. The process to set this up took more than a year. The funding partner (The Seed Company, in this case) will have an MOU directly with the church and with the Makonde Church Council. From now on the Bible agency will only provide services to the project on request, like translation consulting and organizational development. The previously resident Bible agency team will be accountable to the Makonde Bible Council, and over and above providing translation consulting, they now do extensive Bible teaching at the Bible school as well, in response to the need of the church. It has become a true Kingdom partnership, comprehensively responding to the need of the church.

3.2 The K people in Mozambique The K is a predominantly Muslim group in Mozambique. In an essentially textbook case of contextualized church planting, an ethnic church was established among the K in 2002 and grew rapidly. However, Bible translation had already begun in 1996, a few years before the church-planting breakthrough. So Scripture portions in the mother tongue were available from the beginning, and these are extensively used to this day. The church leaders not only authenticated its quality but also actively authorized its use, being directly involved in the whole process from the beginning. There are two mother tongue translators and the final reviewers are the three most senior church leaders. These leaders also sit in on every visiting consultant session. From now on, the church will directly employ the translators. The funders, as well as the Bible agency, will directly deal with the church. The highest church leadership directs the translation project and provides direct input into the whole translation process.

3.3 Sena For years a local registered association (Prodelise) existed among the Sena of Mozambique, but its role was only as advisors to the Bible agency, and that only occasionally. In spite of the limited involvement, a real sense of ownership slowly developed over the years, mainly because of the translation testing sessions every Saturday afternoon over a stretch of more than 15 years. At the same time a lot of training and vision building among the rather large translation team took place,

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provided by the Bible agency. The New Testament was completed in 2011. After negotiations over a two-year time period, the partner configuration for the Old Testament project has now been slightly modified. Prodelise and its Board have now taken full decision-making ownership of the project. The translators are now employees of Prodelise and not of the Bible agency. The Bible agency in the country is, only at the request of Prodelise, providing services such as consulting and organizational development assistance. The funders now also deal directly with Prodelise and not via the Bible agency.

3.4 JOCUM-Wycliffe JOCUM (YWAM) in Angola has been working among unreached people groups in the southwest of that country since 1995. Angolan national JOCUM missionaries, supported by Angolan churches, settled among several such groups, learned their languages, developed orthographies, planted churches, and in one case even started Bible translation. Considering the difficulties of such an enterprise, JOCUM sent out calls for help to the national Bible Society and internationally. Wycliffe heard of these requests and in February 2011 made first contact with JOCUM. In May 2011 Wycliffe, Bible Society and JOCUM leaders travelled together for two weeks visiting those remote situations in southwest Angola. The travelling together provided a good time to share needs, to get to know each other, to laugh with each other, to eat together, and to discuss Bible translation. Trust was growing, and after more meetings over 12 months, representatives of JOCUM and Wycliffe (including Wycliffe Associates and OneStory of SIL Americas Area) met in Catumbela in May 2012 for a week of meetings to negotiate a cooperative agreement. Again the relaxed and pleasant time of togetherness and sharing led to the decision to go for an initial oral Bible storying approach using OneStory in 6 languages. Each language project is to be a JOCUM project, not a Wycliffe project. JOCUM set aside 10 of its staff to give 75% of their time to this partnership. JOCUM will make available their facilities and Wycliffe will invest in improving those as necessary. Wycliffe (and particularly WA) agreed to infrastructure improvements that will indirectly benefit the partnership and will significantly strengthen JOCUM in the country. The first workshop was held in November 2012. Part of the agreement was the commitment to regularly meet as partners: twice a year the Internal Council consisting of Wycliffe and JOCUM leaders meets and evaluates progress, and once a year the leaders of both meet with the External Council, where national church leaders have an opportunity to give input to the partnership.

3.5 A five-partner venture For almost 40 years the Mwila people in Angola had been requesting a translation of the Scriptures, but because of the long civil war and previous failed attempts, no enduring translation work was done. In 2011 the Angola Bible Society invited Wycliffe to provide assistance in beginning a project in the OluMwila language. After two years of partner identification, vision building and consultations, a five-partner joint venture was agreed upon. A translation committee was established and recognized as one of the five partners. An agreement was signed between that committee, Wycliffe, the Bible Society, and two funders. The churches will contribute 20% to the budget, and each partner’s role is clearly specified in the agreement.

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3.6 San Bible Partnership Since early 2011 Wycliffe South Africa has been in talks with national Bible societies, churches, and mission agencies among the 50,000 San people of southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Angola). After initial contacts with partners, a SAN Bible Consultation was called for November 2011 in Windhoek, Namibia. San representatives were present and the socio-economic plight of the San people was emphasized. The consultation agreed to launch the San Bible Partnership to bring access to God’s Word among the San. Because of the difficulties of writing and of literacy in the highly complex San languages, the consultation jointly decided on an oral approach to translation as a starting strategy. It also indicated a strong desire to combine it with a holistic approach to meet the desperate socio-economic situation of the San. After more groundwork and three pilot workshops on ethno-communication foundations in Namibia, the partners met again in February 2013 in Gaborone (Botswana) to finalize an MOU and a plan of action. Work has started in June 2013 in nine San languages guided by the six governing partners and four participating venture and resource partners, with a steering committee meeting twice a year. Second and third phases are foreseen to include all the remaining San languages in Botswana and Angola.

3.7 M Luke Partnership The M Luke Partnership has been established in response to the discovery of several language groups without any access to God’s Word. In 2008 a mission agency invited one of the Bible agencies to get involved. In 2010, after more needs assessment and several consultations, that mission agency, working under the auspices of one of the major denominations in the country, convened a meeting of church leaders of six different groups. An inter-church translation committee was set up linked to the mission and denomination, but separate in terms of control. This committee makes all decisions. Drafting and checking is being done at workshops and the translators work as volunteers without remuneration in-between workshops.

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How to Develop a Holistic Impact as a Bible Translation-focused Organization: LETRA Paraguay as an emerging national model

Victor A. Gómez During the look!2012 meetings in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a Bible Translation Programs Dinner was organized by the Wycliffe Global Alliance Executive Director. This provided an opportunity for leaders and directors to share their views and thoughts on language programs within the Wycliffe Global Alliance. All of the organizations involved agreed that language programs should have a holistic orientation and that participating organizations should at least have a facilitator or participant positioned in those programs to involve others as well. Holistic mission is mission that is concerned about the whole scope of human need (C. Wright), a fresh discovery of the holistic nature of the biblical gospel and of Christian mission (Lausanne Movement). According to Accord Network’s Guide of Principles of Excellence in Transformational Development, we should enter as guests in the communities we are hoping to work with, then co-labour as partners, and finish as friends. The Bible tells us that the Lord is loving toward all He has made, upholds the cause of the oppressed, loves the foreigner, feeds the hungry, sustains the fatherless and widow. The Bible also shows that God wills to do these things through human beings committed to such action. God holds responsible especially those who are appointed to political or judicial leadership in society, but all God’s people are commanded – by the law and prophets, Psalms and Wisdom, Jesus and Paul, James and John – to reflect the love and justice of God through practical love and justice for the needy (Cape Town Commitment, October 2010). According to the principles stated above, LETRA Paraguay has made an attempt to have a holistic orientation focusing in Bible Translation and helping through social and educational projects. We discuss with the indigenous communities what their needs are, what resources they have to meet the identified needs, and how we can work together as a network to help provide the tools they need but don’t have. As Christians living in this world, as Accord Network wrote, “we recognize the whole system of poverty that rules. We see the whole system of individual, spiritual, structural and relational barriers that keep the communities from achieving their goals and level of contentment. From our organizational competency areas, our efforts at advocacy and empowerment address both immediate needs and the long-term systemic causes of the problems we seek to address.” In Paraguay, for example, we mobilized local churches to help with immediate needs: food and clothes. We also raised dozens of scholarships for High School and College students as a way to provide long-term empowerment. We find that these kinds of activities, however tiring or time-demanding, will give the communities practical tools that will help them meet their needs themselves, not depending on foreign or national “godfathers” that may leave the place when their own plans and projects are fulfilled.

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As Bible-based Christians, we also acknowledge the spiritual forces that oppose God’s work in the world, and we stand ready to battle these forces with all the weapons entrusted to us in Ephesians 6:10-18. Some forces may come from the economic or political structures of the country, for example the expropriation of land and of not-written-laws that have affected and still are affecting some of the indigenous communities in Paraguay. We accompany the groups when they make protests for weeks or months in front of the Government offices. We do not go with them when they are dealing with the officers, but we give them advice and also help the families with food and shelter when they exert their right to make their voice heard. In its “Philosophy of Language development,” SIL describes the actions taken by speakers of a given language, as well as language advocates from outside the language community, to increase the possibility that the language can serve the social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual needs and goals of the community of speakers. Like SIL, Wycliffe also believes that every language has value, that every language community should be respected, and that language communities should have the opportunity to develop the language(s), which serve them well. We believe that facilitating language development in this third sense is a key way to express God’s love and serve the people in those language communities. So, as we can see, several organizations have tried to summarize the principles of how to be Bible Translation- focused organizations and at the same time participate in other aspects of God’s mission. Many people around the world suffer and have unmet needs. In Paraguay we believe that in spite of the small contribution that a Bible Translation organization may offer (due to limited) personnel, resources and time), a little is better than nothing! Critical areas of participation include health, nourishment and education. Many of the young people receiving scholarships are studying nursing, so we believe that they may bring a radical change to health and nourishment in the coming years. Many of them are also studying Educational Sciences so as to have the proper tools to improve the currently precarious teaching system that we see in the indigenous communities we work with. We know also that teaching doesn’t consist only in having good teachers, there is also a need for the minimum facilities necessary to provide good teaching and learning processes. That’s why we look for foundations, organizations and embassies that are willing to help in building classrooms. We have helped four communities repair their existing facilities and also to build new ones. We look for help in universities and seminaries that send their students with some funds for materials and labour. One embassy also helped get the funds for materials. But as we are focused in Bible translation, we look for people within the communities to be in charge of the construction projects, and we only help with the administration of funds and encouraging the volunteer teams that come from time to time. These activities, however time and effort-demanding they may seem, are actions that help us to more closely follow the model of service Jesus exemplified for His followers. But we also need to be very conscious to not forget that our focus is Bible translation. We have found that social issues may have such a strong attraction; one may easily forget that our

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goal is that the Scriptures may achieve deep and sustainable impact and transformation among the people. So when we are supervising a construction project in a community, we are going on with translation, Scripture Use activities, memorizing contests and discipleship.

How can we know if we are doing the right thing? A couple of short testimonies may suffice as examples: I received an indirect but encouraging compliment when one of the indigenous leaders prayed in the middle of one service in the new area of the church we helped to build and furnish with 15 benches: “And please, Lord, give Pastor Victor Gomez more and more money to go on helping our community and our children to grow!” That new area of the church was built by a group of 11 Chilean volunteers who brought funds for the materials, and the benches were bought by the Aché people themselves when their families paid a symbolic amount for eighty 60-pound grocery bags that the Chinese Church gave us as a donation. Another testimony has to do with growing responsibility being taken by the indigenous leaders. Martin A., chief of the Koentuwy community, gave an offering in local currency of about $22 for a sick person in hospital, saying that he was going to use that money the day before to gamble on a soccer game, but “a voice told me to keep the money, and today I understand God wanted me to use my money properly to help my fellow countryman.” They gathered almost $350 locally and decided to give the money to LETRA to administrate it, sending a certain amount every week according to the needs. That, for us, is a great improvement in the understanding of their faith and their responsibility towards others, because gambling in soccer and volleyball is still central to the indigenous way of “having fun.” Usually they have said that medicine and patient care is the responsibility of missionaries and government. So the clue to holistic ministry is to involve as many people as possible. We found that many people in churches are more than willing to serve in short-term projects, and also that short-term social activities are well-supported by indigenous members. So we learned how to put together social activities, done by others, and Bible Translation-related activities, initiated by us. Short-term teams come and go, but we remain, and we are seen as those who help and work towards an overall improvement of the communities with which we work!