Cover Story by Shawn McAniff "Mukahe hicheye ts'io umunhendao mut'u akale na uzima, ela niatuwe ta chila neno ra Mulungu."

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Cover Stories | Send mail to The Voice Wycliffe team translates Scriptures into Duruma John Newman, Raphael Mkala Ndurya and Stephen Mwatela consult resources while translating the Duruma New Testatment. A slow, exhilarating process "People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God," Wycliffe translator John Newman said, reading the Matthew 4:4 Greek-English text out loud. Co-translators Raphael Mkala Ndurya and Steven Mwatela Mewendwa leaned forward, listening to Newman's English rendering. The three chewed over the Greek words' precise meaning and the Duruma vocabulary that would convey both the feeling and meaning of Mark 8:1 in the Duruma language. "We don't want it to feel wooden to the people," Mr. Newman said. Transferring the meaning from the Greek to the new language is like transferring water from a measuring cup to a cola bottle, he said. The water is the meaning, and the vessels are the different translations. "In translation," Mr. Newman said, "you are shifting the meaning into a new glass, but you want to keep the liquid the same." When they were satisfied with the Duruma equivalent, Mr. Newman wrote the Duruma translation in a Mead notebook: "Mukahe hicheye ts'io umuhendao mut'u akale na uzima, ela niatuwe ta chila neno ra Mulungu." Under the Duruma text, he wrote the English interpretation, but using Duruma grammar. Another verse translated, they tackeled Matthew 4:5 for the Duruma people. "Your adrenaline gets pumping because you're dealing with God's word," Mr. Newman said. "You realize from Revelation to change or add to it, you're in deep trouble." A staggering need. The 6 billion world population speaks a total of 6,809 languages, one Wycliffe Bible Translators' representative, said. Of those languages, 2,233 of them have some or all of the Bible. Another 1,576 languages need to be surveyed to determine if they can share translations with other languages. That leaves 3,000 languages or 250 million people without Bibles. There are 3,000 [languages] that don't have a work started," he said. On average, Wycliffe finishes another New Testament every 18 days. At that rate, the Bible will be translated into every language by the year 2150. The 280,000 Duruma people of southern Kenya, however, didn't have to wait 150 years to hold the Scriptures in their own language. During the '80s, the Duruma church leaders, representing the 3,000 Duruma Christians, petitioned Wycliffe for help. In 1986, Wycliffe sent veteran translators John and Bonnie Newman and their three children to Kenya. From 1971 to 1977, the Newmans had co-translated the Bible for the Longuda people of Northeast Nigeria. They went to Kenya, Mr. Newman said, because they had the skills needed to help the Duruma Church. From March '86 to August '89, the Newmans, with two Duruma team members, spearheaded an international, multi-pronged task: create a written language for the Duruma people, teach them how to read it and create the Duruma New Testament.< Shortly after the Newmans arrived in the town of Kinango, Mr. Raphael Mkala Ndurya, 22, joined the team and helped the Newmans learn how to read and writed in Duruma. In 1988, Mr. Stephen Mwatela Mewendwa, 22, joined the team to assist in producing literacy materials and translating the Bible.For the next 13 years, Wycliffe staff gave Mr. Ndurya and Mr. Mewendwa in-depth language analysis and Bible translation training. When Wycliffe Bible translators enter a people group with an unwritten language, they first study the language. This can take two years. Because of Duruma's similarity with Swahili, the area trade language, the translators finished the analysis and created a written, Duruma language in six months. Over the next two-and-a half-years of Bible translations, the four created Duruma reading primers and began teaching the people literacy. In August '89, the Newmans returned to the United States so their oldest son could graduate from an American high school. By then, the four translators had completed a first draft of the New Testament. "Over the next 10 years, Raphael, Stephen and Duruma community leaders completed checking of the translation," Newman said. "God really chose Raphael and Stephen," he said, "because over the years they've stuck with it when they had to carry it on their own." On August 12, 2000, Wycliffe officially dedicated the Duruma New Testament to the people. "The first 5,000 New Testaments," Mr. Newman said, "will be used by the Duruma people who have been trained to minister with them in their churches." Another team is translating the Old Testament, Mr. Newman said, but the team does not know when the Old Testament will be finished. "After 35 years," Mr. Newman said, "there's no greater joy than feeling that you had a part in helping a whole ethnic nation have access to the Bible in their own language. To be able to give a whole community this is a tremendous way to invest one's life." Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Cover Stories | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2000 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.