Psalms taught and appreciated…
This past Old Testament workshop Mark gave the devotionals each morning on one of the Psalms that they would be working on that day. Several people mentioned how much they enjoyed the devotionals and how the Psalms are such a rich book. A couple years ago when Mark suggested printing up the Psalms in Quechua, before actually working on them, he received a tepid response from his co-translators. They shared the common attitude that the Psalms are uninteresting. Now, however, their opinion has definitely changed. Everybody likes them now.
…and Psalms passed on.
Felipe preached Psalm 51 at his church the first Sunday after the workshop. At the local denominational bible institute, Wilmer taught some of the Psalms based on the notes from the devotionals. The students were impressed at the richness of the Psalms. He says that no one ever teaches or preaches the Psalms: not in Spanish churches, not in Quechua churches. They are just seen as isolated bits of prayers and worship.
Not done yet, but already in use.
This workshop Mark began teaching the course in Quechua he wrote entitled Introduction to the Bible. Each day, after listening to Mark teach a section, the teams would spend about 45 minutes adapting the lesson to their own Quechua. Saturnino asked for an advance copy of the section which deals with the history of the Bible in Spanish. He wants to use it for a bible institute course he is teaching on church history. Sumer is looking forward to finishing the section on types of translation so he can teach it in his local high school.
Applying skills learned to other projects
In the evenings during the Old Testament work, Santos, Pedro and Timoteo worked on their own project: adapting a big bible study book for women for each of their varieties of Quechua. We were pleased to see how they worked together at night in the same way we work together during the day on translation. All three sat at their computers, sharing their screens and looking at each others’ files, going through paragraph by paragraph sharing their ideas and revisions. This lets us know that the cooperative way we work will likely continue in the future with other materials. There is the encouragement of working with others instead of all by one’s self. Plus, the product benefits from more input than just one’s own.
Wonderful response
The end of September Mark ended up being the main (but not the only) speaker at the annual retreat organized by women. Many people responded to God’s word. One man who had been exposed to the gospel for a long time finally came to the Lord. His comment: “Well, this makes so much sense when I hear it in my own language.” Last weekend up in Margos this man’s conversion was still the buzz. Pastors and people in general are all marveling about the difference it makes when all the teaching is done in Quechua. One young pastor who has rarely spoken to us in Quechua visited with Patti completely in his own language this time.
Praise & Prayers
• Mark had a very attentive audience October 3rd & 4th when teaching pastors in the Margos area about the resurrection. Unfortunately, his “day” for teaching was shrunk to an hour and a half. He was prepared with so much more.
• What about teaching kids? November 9–13th four men and women from the Margos area will be in town to learn about teaching the Bible to children. The training is also being offered to representatives of several other Quechua varieties. The four from Margos will then teach a larger group of teachers back up in Margos on November 21st and again on the 28th. This will be a first for our area. Patti’s been working to get the materials into our Quechua.
• Instead of staying at home for the next Old Testament workshop, we will be in the city of Huaraz, about 12 hours away. The workshop starts November 15th and runs three weeks. We haven’t been there in years. Pray for all sorts of logistics: safely transporting all the equipment we use, quiet space to work, safe food, access to Internet, ability to do laundry, how to handle banking, etc. Plus, pray for everyone’s health. It is much colder in Huaraz than in Huanuco, and sitting still at a computer all day makes it seem even colder.
Thank you for your encouragement and prayers!
Address for personal mail: Mark and Patti Bean Apartado 345 Huánuco, PERU
Phone: (062) 51-5733 From the US it would be 011-51-62-51-5733
Email: mark_bean@sil.org or patti_bean@sil.org
