Download the PDF of the June 2015 Beans'Talk here

Waiting

This past week we met a woman who has seen a Bible in a different Quechua than what she speaks. She couldn’t figure it out. She asked: “When can I buy a whole Bible in my language?”

Beyond the green boxes

In order to complete these five Bibles, there is more to do beyond coloring the boxes dark green on the chart. There are currently 1300+ outstanding issues to address. We’ve actually been working on this list, but at the same time, adding new questions. So, there hasn’t been much forward progress.

• Some of these issues are fairly straightforward and their answers forthcoming. For example, Mark sometimes notes a verse that needs to be improved. Other times, he sees that a team uses one Quechua word for something and other times another word. For consistency within books, he’ll find out which one they prefer.

• Other issues are more complicated. Examples in this category are key terms for biblical concepts. These are terms that don’t exist in Quechua like purity, glory, sacrifice, fellowship offering, and kingdom. A paraphrase can be cumbersome. A made-up term will have no meaning until it is taught. A term borrowed from Spanish can be misunderstood, too, until people learn what it means. Now it is time to nail down our decisions, choose a final form for each key term and be sure that it is used consistently.

• Still other issues are very complicated. An example in this category is the issue of how to spell. This is actually a tangle of issues influenced by politics, emotions, science and history. When the New Testaments were published in 2003, we chose an alphabet that closely resembles the way Spanish is used, so that what kids learn in school would apply to Quechua. Now, there are more rumblings that Quechua needs to look different. There will be critics of whatever solution we end up using.

Beyond the outstanding questions

In addition to resolving outstanding questions, we also need to prepare extra-biblical helps in Quechua like:

• An introduction to the Bible

• Book introductions

• Glossary

• Check/add more cross references

• Check /add footnotes

Plus, we have two sets of two weeks planned to meet with church leaders from the five different Quechua language areas. We have questions for them and will be reading through selected passages together.

Beyond the end of the year

Our goal is to have all this done by the end of the year. Several of you have asked, what’s the plan after that? Lord willing, we will head to the U.S. the end of January to work on preparing the five Bibles for publication. Once we get everything clean and turned over to layout specialists, we will be busy check-ing proofs. When the Bibles finally get printed, we look forward to some big dedication events in Peru! We also want to develop other Quechua materials and help church leaders read and teach from their new Quechua Bibles. Retirement? Not yet!

Praises and Prayer Requests

* Praise: Yes, Mark (just barely) finished Isaiah and made it through Jeremiah chapter 36.

* Prayer: A new translation workshop just began on Monday. It will run through June 5th. On the first morning we learned that one team member won’t be coming. Another man, planning to arrive a day late, lost an extra day due to heavy snowfall on the road. Another is sick with bronchitis. Pray for good health and good progress.

Pressing forward, straining towards the goal,

Mark & Patti