A systems approach… Systems Engineering can help healthcare and maybe Bible translation too?
In a fascinating lecture from my alma mater (Trinity Hall, Cambridge), Professor John Clarkson talks through how he cut his teeth on engineering challenges that gave him a ‘systems approach’ to all kinds of other problems. He applies what he’s learned to a process for improving healthcare. I think there’s something here for Bible Translators …
August 2019 Newsletter
Back ‘Home’ in the UK for 9 months we face many changes while colleagues in Nigeria help the Ashɛ and Wachi and other teams prepare for a crucial training event in September. We’ve spent the last 6 months nearly managing to finish writing a newsletter, and then getting delayed with bits and pieces of work …
Village visit
In late April, four of the Ashɛ translation team were in Gardi — deep inside Ashɛ land — to greet chiefs and others, and to participate in an Ishɛ language service on the Sunday. While Arams often complains about how things aren’t as they used to be, many children and adults swamped Moses’ house to …
Go to the ant
In the mid-19th century, the renowned French/Russian entomologist Jean-Marie Syccof discovered and described the behaviour of an intriguing group of ants native to Algeria. These days everyone knows how fiercely ants will defend their queen, but before Syccof’s time understanding of the social behaviour of ants was less clear. The queen herself hides deep in …
Should Mission focus on Salvation of People or on God’s Glory?
An intriguing tweet Mission ceases to be biblical when it is focused more on what humans get out of it (salvation) than on what God gets out of it (glory)… the former is anthropology the later is theology and if you do not properly order these your missiology will constantly go astray. — Andy Herbek …
A warm spring or a dirty swimming pool?
Just after the new year 3 families from our compound (and several singles) went on a short holiday trip to Yankari Game Reserve, about 4 hours east past Bauchi town. It was delightful! The roads to get there were surprisingly smooth, on the 40 mile drive (!) from the gates to the accommodation we spotted …
Ethnotwinning: the latest geekish craze
You’ve heard of town twinning, maybe even of toilet twinning, but have you ever heard of ‘ethnotwinning’? Did you know that every language in the world has a 3 letter ISO639 code? So, as long as you’ve got 3 initials, you can find your own ethnotwin. My initials are DJR and my ethnotwin is a …
A Host of Problems
In the course of trying to compare the style of natural storytelling in Koro Wachi language with what’s in the Bible, we looked at a seasonally appropriate passage: “That time, angels that accepted strangers in heaven many appeared and they came with the angels.” Luke 2:13, the Koro Wachi translation draft, as explained in …
The Lord is my Goat Hunter
One of my favourite short articles about Bible translation was written 56 years ago by Constance Naish and Gillian Story working among Tlingit people in Alaska. They reflect on how the interpreters for the first missionaries there 100 years ago (mis-)understood the Bible. It’s comic and tragic and repeated in some similar way every day …
Unpicking Biblish: witness
Abstract: ‘witness’ in the Bible tends to mean telling people about something rather than seeing it. This is not normal English. The following definitions hopefully explain the senses given by the Greek word martys and martureo, and the word they’re often translated by in English. μαρτυς noun 1. one who testifies in legal matters, 2. one …