Bible translation gaining speed with local involvement

What used to take a missionary 20-30 years is now taking less than a decade

By Steven Sukkau | May 22, 2015

This story originally appeared in the print edition of ChristianWeek. View it here.

New technology and indigenous translators are allowing organizations like OneBook to get Scriptures into the hands of language groups at unprecedented speeds. OneBook president Wayne Johnson says what used to take a missionary 20-30 years is now taking less than a decade, by empowering the indigenous speakers for the work.

Johnson says it’s all part of an incredible change happening in the world of missions. Last year 90 per cent of new Christians came from the Global South and East where the church is experiencing rapid growth according to the U.S Centre for World Missions. In Cameroon the average age of members is 26.

“What you have is a young, growing church that has doubled in 10 years,” Johnson says. Places like Cameroon have more Bible colleges and universities than all of Canada, and students can’t graduate without first learning the art of Bible translation.

“Here’s the reason, there are 286 languages in one country,” Johnson explains of Cameroon. “The problem is the church [leaders] do all of their preaching in English and French. But in the communities, the difficulty is communicating in their mother tongue.”

When a sermon comes through a translator, many fine points become lost. Johnson explains the NIV English Bible contains 11,000 words, but some local dialects can contain only 2,000.

“What happens when you go to church and get a muddied message?” he asks. For example, he points out, passages like “The Word became flesh,” in John 1:14 can be translated to “The Word became grilled meat.”

However, that’s where OneBook has seen an incredible movement among the Global South. Indigenous communities are passionate about doing Bible translation for themselves, rather than wait decades for a missionary to complete it.

With the help of computers and enthusiastic translators who know their language intimately, OneBook is able to shorten the process from training translators to seeing a Bible in print to six to eight years.

“But it’s still not fast enough,” Johnson says.

Currently OneBook has translations for 70 languages in the works. Groups come to them and request a Bible in their mother tongue, and OneBook requests their best 20 translators to be sent for training. The result is an improved quality of the translation as well as speed.

Zebedee Chia, a language program facilitator for OneBook Cameroon, says the work of translating Scripture is a job one must approach with fear and trembling. He says translators are very aware of their high calling and the incredible responsibility they carry in bringing the Bible to groups in their own languages.

The challenge is creating a translation that is natural, accurate, relevant to culture and clear.

“What do you do in a culture where the seat of honour is on the left hand, but Jesus is seated on the right hand of God?” he asks.

Yet despite the challenges, Chia says seeing the fruit of their labour keeps them going.

For people groups who have been given a written language, “it makes them feel like they matter,” Chia says. “God speaks our language,” many say after receiving a Bible in their mother tongue.

“God is now their God,” Chia says. “He is no longer a foreign god to them.”

Along with the work of translating, funding is another area where local communities are taking ownership. Johnson says OneBook no longer funds 100 per cent of any project; instead locals raise support to get the project off the ground. And the results are startling.

“Greater community transformation comes when the community takes ownership,” Johnson says. “They do it, we facilitate, and the impact changes significantly.”

Through it all he says the hand of God is evident.

“God is doing a major work; mission methodology is changing,” he says. OneBook has seen 15 New Testament translations and one Old Testament translation finished in the last 10 years. They expect to see 35 more completed in the next five.

About the author

Steven Sukkau

New movie highlights coffee injustice

By ChristianWeek | May 22, 2015

A new movie from Hugh Jackman and World Vision, Dukale’s Dream, is highlighting the injustices in the coffee industry. Jackman, a World Vision ambassador for Australia, travels to Ethiopia and learns the trade of coffee farmers and the shocking challenges they are faced with to bring the rest of the world their morning coffee, and how changes like fair trade need to take place if these farmers and their families are to have a future.

Ethiopia remains one of the best climates for coffee bean growing, though without fair trade practices many farmers are forced to sell their crop well below market value. Through fair trade programs like World Vision’s, coffee growers can bring in enough income to send their children to school, put food on the table and give families hope for the future.

No Bible verse is an island

A little bit of effort can help you avoid common Bible quoting pitfalls

By Russell Doerksen | May 22, 2015

This story originally appeared in the print edition of ChristianWeek. .

Whether it be in church or on your Facebook feed, it seems there is a short and pithy Bible verse to solve every problem.

Do you feel overwhelmed? The kids especially irritable or the boss nagging a little too much? Just quote that one little section of 1 Corinthians 10:13 (God…will not let you be tested beyond your strength), and you will be fine.

While it may be comforting to use Scripture in this spell-like way, it can actually lead to a lessened understanding of what the Bible really says.

Below are three of the most misused verses in the Bible, and some simple things you can do to put a dent in the problem.

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains” (1 Timothy 6:10, NRSV).

I have a soft spot in my heart for this verse. I fondly remember an old friend quoting it at me while I was in business school.

If the wording of the first line sounds odd, you likely learned it with the translation that many consider to be “the holy one.” For the love of money is the root of all evil… (KJV).

Notice the large difference between these translations. In the KJV, love of money is the only root of evil, while in the NRSV it is not. Oddly, both readings are correct.

Because all languages work differently, translating word-for-word will rarely end in something intelligent. As such translators need to work to smooth out the language, hence the difference.

As such, when you read check out some other translations. Seeing the verse and its surrounding context in another translation may help you better understand the passage.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, NIV).

Many use this verse to shame parents of loud children, but to do so they are misquoting it. That’s because to understand the verse, one must understand the genre of Proverbs.

Genre is what guides how we understand what we read. When we read a textbook, we expect to read explanations. When we read a romance novel, we expect a sappy love story.

Proverbs are tidbits of wisdom. Wisdom literature generally applies to only a particular circumstance or describes a specific likelihood. Under no circumstances should Proverbs be read as promises.

It is most likely that if parents raise their child right, their child will behave. However, it is also possible for a child to become terrible on his or her own, even with great parents. Proverbs aren’t promises.

It is important to be mindful of genre when you read. How Proverbs should be read is different than how we are to read the gospels. If you read the entire Bible as a single genre, you’re going to get some of it wrong.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13, NRSV).

Every year without fail there is one celebrity who recites this passage, usually at an awards show. This is unfortunate, because there is no better example of a verse being misused due to context.

In the passage where this verse is found, the Apostle Paul says it is best to be content in all things. As most understand it, being content in all things is different than thanking God for winning you an Oscar.

No verse is in a vacuum, and it is important to always read a passage as part of the larger story. Take the time to learn about the historical context as well; the Bible was written over a span of thousands of years, in many different settings featuring many different people and people groups.

It is easy to take what we read out of context, and when it comes to a book as important as the Bible, that can be a big problem. Taking the time to understand what you read pays off, and if you do so the Bible will become alive in some wonderful new ways.

Russell Doerksen is the Managerial Editor of Providence Theological Seminary’s academic journal, Didaskalia. He enjoys

About the author

Russell Doerksen

Ordinarytime: Loving the daily divine

By Steve Bell | May 22, 2015

Finally, we come to the last and longest season of the Christian Calendar year called Ordinarytime, which spans from the end of Eastertide to the beginning of Advent.

Ordinarytime is the season to attend to the holiness of our daily lives. We passed through Advent, where we considered the mystery of the human person whose dignity it is to accept the invitation to become the maternal spouse of God, profoundly co-operating to bring Christ’s life to the world. We then celebrated Christmas, where we apprehended the humble incarnation of the cosmos’ Creator and reflected on the astonishing humanity of Jesus.

In the season of Epiphany we meditated on the miracles and events that revealed Jesus’ divinity, and we came to understand the two natures (human and divine) of Christ to whom our souls are wed. During Lent, we pondered the devastation wrought by our infidelities and the myriad inordinate attachments and desires which draw our affections away from our Lord.

Then, during Holy Week, we walked alongside Jesus to the cross where He assumed and redeemed those devastations, so that we may once again truly and freely love and know we are beloved by God. Eastertide was a sustained reflection on the miracle of resurrection and the eternally evergreen life on offer through Christ’s victory over death.

And now we come to Ordinarytime.

The very sound of “Ordinarytime” seems a bit of a let down after the drama that has preceded it. The word “ordinary” suggests commonplace, uninteresting and featureless, and describes a person with no special merit or distinction. But if we simply replace what we usually mean by ordinary with “daily,” a new appreciation becomes possible.

For Ordinarytime is the season in which we come to realize the astonishing holiness of our daily lives as a consequence of all we have previously considered. Here, we begin to understand with joy that the daily is impregnated with the divine.

The very first Sunday of Ordinarytime is Trinity Sunday. Although it doesn’t get much “press” compared to days like Christmas or Easter, I contend that Trinity Sunday is the highest and most magnificent peak of illumination on the landscape of the Church calendar year.

Everything that has preceded is pointing toward, and is a mere foothill relative to this great revelation. Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection all conspire to bring us to this moment when we see the community (Father, Son, Spirit) that is God’s eternal love and life, for which we have been redeemed, and into which we have been whole-heartily invited. And it is from this dizzying summit that we look down on the plains of dailyness and see it both bathed and infused with the light of God’s intrinsic mutuality, goodness and love.

The whole point of attending to the Christian Calendar year is to come to this moment where we awaken to the mystery of a dailyness which, far from ordinary, radiates back to God’s own being and, ironically, to know in our bones that nothing conceived and sustained under God’s gaze is by any means ordinary.

Winnipeg based singer/songwriter Steve Bell is the author of the multi-media e-book series Pilgrim Year: Scripture, story, song, poetry, and art to explore the Christian calendar. Available online at: www.stevebell.com/pilgrim-year.

About the author

Steve Bell

Winnipeg based singer/songwriter Steve Bell is the author of the multi-media e-book series Pilgrim Year: Scripture, story, song, poetry, and art to explore the Christian calendar. Available online at: www.stevebell.com/pilgrim-year

Vancouver church goes where the people are

A B.C church gets a second chance in down-town Vancouver

By Frank Stirk Senior Correspondent | May 21, 2015

VANCOUVER, BC—On Easter Sunday, Coastal Church—already one of Vancouver’s largest evangelical churches—formally launched its fourth campus just steps away from the always-busy Commercial-Broadway Skytrain Station.

“That’s what attracted us to that location in the first place,” says campus pastor Brad Bergman. “It’s right at the biggest public transit hub in Vancouver. Thousands of people pour through there on a daily basis.”

The building had been home to the Estonian United Baptist Church since its construction in 1956. At the time, Vancouver’s small Estonian community used to live in that area intersected by Commercial Drive and West Broadway alongside Italians and Portuguese.

Its founding members had fled their Baltic homeland near the end of the Second World War to escape Russian occupation. At its peak, about 110 people attended its Estonian-language services. But those numbers dwindled as their children rapidly integrated into Canadian society, and as the older generation began to pass away.

Last year, those few remaining decided to sell the building. “We were at the stage where we could afford to fix the church or pay a pastor,” says EUBC chair Peter Lepik. “We had been running a deficit for quite a while.”

Lepik says the congregation made the sale conditional on the purchaser agreeing to keep the building as a church, and that they be allowed to rent it back as their ongoing place of worship.

Coastal senior pastor David Koop says when they were first approached about buying the building, there was little enthusiasm for the idea.

“We had just started our third site, so it wasn’t really on the radar. But we prayed about it as a board,” he says. “They were an older congregation, couldn’t really afford anymore the upkeep and all the rest. So we said, ‘They’ve come to us for help, so let’s help them.’”

In the end, they were able to conclude what Koop calls “a fair deal” with the Estonian believers for the building. About 20 of them still worship there on Sunday afternoons.

A critical factor in going ahead with the purchase is the fact that Coastal’s main downtown campus is becoming maxed out with no room to expand. About 1,800 people on average attend one of its four weekend services. “So it became an overflow for us,” says Koop.

“We also have a lot of life groups in that area already,” Bergman says. “It’s not as if we’re new kids on the block.”

Then there’s the fact that this new campus is in sight of the lone station in the Skytrain network where the Expo and Millennium lines intersect. It’s also a terminus of Metro Vancouver’s busiest bus route. The result is a combined total of about 150,000 trips per day passing through the Commercial-Broadway transit hub.

With the area also poised for redevelopment, the campus’s prospects for growth look positive. And yet with 120 people or so already entering its small sanctuary on Sunday, multiple services may soon be their only option.

“With 100 people in there it feels comfortably full,” Bergman says. “We still have room for growth, but we would absolutely move in that direction.”

Meanwhile, all the proceeds from the sale have gone to support Baptist ministries in

Estonia. “I thought it was a great Kingdom-building way to do it,” says Koop.

About the author

Frank Stirk
Senior Correspondent

Frank Stirk has 35 years-plus experience as a print, radio and Internet journalist and editor.

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Placing hope within reach of every addict

New Adult & Teen Challenge ministry focusing on prison and community support groups

By Adult and Teen Challenge | May 20, 2015

This story originally appeared in the print edition of ChristianWeek. View it here.

Adult & Teen Challenge of Central Canada is well known for its residential Christ-centered discipleship programs. But what about those who are struggling with addiction and are not ready, or unable to make a year-long commitment?

Adult & Teen Challenge aims to answer the question with Teen Challenge Community, an extension of their discipleship ministry via non-residential support groups in churches and prisons throughout the region.

“We have the tools to help people affected by addiction, and we want to help more people,” says executive director Steve Paulson.

Addiction affects a wide spectrum of the population, as showcased in Nigel and Tom, the two newest graduates of the program. Nigel is a young man who abused a variety of drugs including crystal meth and cocaine, together with his father and sisters. Tom is a married 63-year-old who was an alcoholic when he joined the Adult & Teen Challenge program. Thanks to the discipleship they received, today both Nigel and Tom are living free from addiction.

Teen Challenge Community has already launched in several jails with the assistance of trained chaplains. The small group method will be starting in churches throughout Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario later this spring.

Adult & Teen Challenge of Central Canada has been helping those with addictions for 20 years, continuing their goal of putting hope within reach of every addict. And they are excited to celebrate that anniversary by making it easier for everyone to find real freedom in Christ.

“We’re going to multiply the number of men, women and children we reach with Jesus,” says Clayton Arp, a Teen Challenge graduate who developed the Living Free curriculum.

For information on starting a Teen Challenge Community group in your church, and to hear Nigel & Tom’s stories firsthand, visit teenchallenge.tc.

About the author

Adult and Teen Challenge

Persecution and the Canadian Church

“Our task is to live holy in the present moment.”

By Tim Perry ChristianWeek Columnist | May 19, 2015

Some say evangelical communities in Canada are being persecuted. However, this not only mocks the actual persecution of many Christians around the world, but also pushes otherwise sympathetic people away from our concerns, and, frankly, makes us look ridiculous. The gospel is offensive enough on its own; we don’t need to help it along by behaving foolishly ourselves.

But does that mean the discomfort many of us now experience is based on imaginary events? Certainly not.

In his book An Anxious Age, the American public intellectual Joseph Bottum accounts for the current cultural climate in the United States, though with obvious parallels to Canada for readers north of the border. Bottum argues that those who set the cultural agenda are re-shaping institutions according to their moral convictions—as, in fact, they have always done.

What marks them out from previous generations is not their “post-Christian” cultural vision but the evangelical zeal with which they pursue it. Provocatively, Bottum names this group the “elect,” highlighting that in demeanour, if not in religious content, the new culture shapers are very much like their Puritan ancestors.

Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist, has coined the term “Megalothymia,” (the compulsive need to feel morally superior to others) to label the mindset that underlies the activism. The “elect” must not only be right; they must be seen to be right. As a result, those groups or individuals perceived to be out of step are not merely as mistaken, but morally suspect as well: objects first of pity, then scorn, and finally, sanction “soft discrimination,” if you will.

If Bottum and Fukuyama can help the Canadian evangelical community to get a sense of what is going on, how should we respond? I’d like to suggest a two-step approach.

First imagine the worst possible future and trust in God anyway.

Here’s how Francis Cardinal George of Chicago described such a future in 2010: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.” The quote has been making the rounds following George’s death on April 17.

The Cardinal’s point was not that events will unfold this way, but that if they do, the Church will still be present, seasoning society with the gospel. Why? Because it’s Jesus’ Church. Cardinal George makes me wonder how much of our rhetoric reveals fear for the future. How much of that fear reflects a lack of trust in God? Can we not trust, that even if the worst possible future comes to pass, God will care for His own? No matter the future, that future belongs to God.

Second, take note of the present and live faithfully and fully in it.

St. Gianna Molla put it best: “As to the past, let us entrust it to God’s mercy, the future to divine providence. Our task is to live holy in the present moment.” I understand her to say, there is no point pining for past privilege, even as there is no value in worrying for a future that belongs to God. To pine and to fret are distractions from the mission of holy living here and now. They are, in short, sins.

And if in some dystopian future whether near or far, we are called to suffer (as so many of our brothers and sisters outside North America have been and are now) hopefully, we’ll rejoice that we will have been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name (Acts 5:41). Until that day…

Tim Perry is rector at Church of the Epiphany in Sudbury, Ontario. He blogs about theology, religion, politics and sometimes the blues at texasflood.ca.

About the author

Tim Perry
ChristianWeek Columnist

Tim Perry is rector at Church of the Epiphany in Sudbury, Ontario. He blogs about theology, religion, politics and sometimes the blues at texasflood.ca.

Wrestling angels

Waiting to outgrow our fears in light of terrorist attacks

By Thomas Froese ChristianWeek Columnist | May 19, 2015

It was an unremarkable day, birds and the African sunshine, the sound of a distant lawnmower, the dog laying quiet in back, shoes nearby, tea, a half-eaten yogurt, when fear washed over me like a river. Nightmares, yes, can come anytime.

One of my first came after I saw my Opa Froese dead and cold. His funeral casket was half-closed showing Opa from the waist-up only. I knew beyond a young boy’s doubt that someone had cut him in half, and I later dreamed about Sinbad-like characters with their harem pants and curved scimitars coming to cut me for my own burial box.

I eventually grew to realize that this was a foolish fear, but new fears came. Would my team win? Would I find a girlfriend? (Later to be replaced by would I marry?) Would I find, or even know, what I wanted in life, never mind what God might want of me?

I eventually grew to realize that these fears were also foolish, if not real. But when my children came, an entirely new wolf was at the door. Fear could now be experienced for the ones I loved. To be a good father, I could now fear for my family.

Of course paternal fear can be as foolish, if not selfish, as any other fear. This is why the cross is such an offence to human reason. What sort of Father would abandon His child during his moment of greatest need? Who’d want such a father, let alone such a Father?

In either case, on this day in Africa this certain darkness washed over me, a daydream of killers coming to the house to take our lives, the lives of my wife and my children and myself, in a way as bloody and common as the daily news.

It came in an easy rhythm just like the report came, days before, of 147 killed in a terrorist massacre at a university in nearby Kenya. In Uganda, where we work and live at a university, police and embassy warnings came. Security was stepped up. After the nearby Kenya attack, our American friends—with their children—left for home for good. So did others.

I could now tell you that no work, even good work, is worth your family, so we’ve also decided to leave Uganda. Conversely, I could tell you that we, in fact, did not leave Uganda because God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of love, sound mind and reason.

The truth is neither and both. My family is now in the safety (as if any place is safe) of Canada. But this is only for our annual return. And my fears, well, are still my fears.

Yes, we want heaven, but who wants to die to get there? We want to make a difference in a hard world, but who wants the painful preparation for such a mission? We want God’s abiding presence, but who wants to be stripped naked into this dependence?

Faith? Sure. But trust?

I hope that someday I will outgrow these fears, or at least learn to live with them. I hope you’ll outgrow your fears too, just like you already have with so many.

I believe somehow, somewhere, we will.

Even more, I hope that our fears are more than just things to fear, but, in some mysterious way, angels in disguise: angels to wrestle through the long night with, like a God-Man in the desert, then One to finally walk away from with a strange limp if not a strange blessing.

Thomas Froese writes from Africa and Canada on culture and faith. He blogs on fatherhood at www.dailydad.net. Read his other work at www.thomasfroese.com.

About the author

Thomas Froese
ChristianWeek Columnist

Thomas Froese writes on themes of culture and faith. He blogs on fatherhood at dailydad.net. Read his other work at thomasfroese.com

Christian higher education: Uniting the mind and soul

“Professors, alumni and donors really want to see students succeed,”

By Tyndale University College | May 14, 2015

This story originally appeared in the print edition of ChristianWeek. View it here.

Andrew MacDonald, a Tyndale University College Bachelor of Arts Business Administration graduate, is the Director of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives at Opportunity International Canada, a global microfinance not-for-profit organization. At Tyndale, Andrew saw a difference from other universities. Here, students receive a university education and a supportive, well-connected Christian community. One of his business professors helped him secure a job at World Vision Canada before he graduated, a story that is similarly lived out by many Tyndale university graduates.

“Professors, alumni and donors really want to see students succeed,” Andrew explains. “You don’t get that sort of attention at secular universities.”

Andrew came to Tyndale with the desire to learn how he could help charities succeed. “Charities are made up of people with a lot of passion but they need that solid business understanding as well,” he says. “That’s why I came to Tyndale—to get that understanding.” Andrew could have studied business at any university; he chose Tyndale because of its unique perspective as a business program founded on Christian principles.

For decades Tyndale has provided this unique approach to education. Its alumni have demonstrated their ability to make an impact on almost every area of society. Tyndale is now positioned to offer a distinctive university experience in today’s post-Christian culture. The approach is holistic, focusing on integrating knowledge, skills and faith while developing character and ethics.

Tyndale challenges students to think and feel passionately and to reflect deeply on their vocational calling. It provides the tools to work that call out within the framework of a recognized, publically-accountable university. Tyndale university graduates are prepared for professions as diverse as international development workers, psychologists, teachers, business professionals, lawyers, human services workers and more.

With a university degree from Tyndale, graduates like Andrew are equipped to influence our ever-changing culture. The same passion that has been the driving force behind generations of Tyndale graduates still exists today. Students eager to integrate their faith and learning become culture-shapers, equipped with a degree that will get them to where they want to go.

Barry Smith, Senior Vice President Academic and Dean of Tyndale University College, knows that at Tyndale, a flame and a passion ignites in the students. He emphasizes that the world needs passionate Christians who resist placing God and faith in one box and education and career in another. Smith says, “Our graduates are skilled and able to integrate their faith into all of life.”

About the author

Tyndale University College

Sharing the hope of Christ in Zambia

Philemon is a passionate advocate for the Sponsorship Program at EduDeo Ministries because he knows firsthand how effective it is.

By EduDeo Ministries | May 12, 2015

This story originally appeared in the print edition of ChristianWeek. View it here.

The brokenness in this world can be daunting. Heartache and pain, sorrow and suffering, injustice and hopelessness are everywhere.

EduDeo Ministries seeks to bring the hope of Christ to the world through quality, Christ-centred education. It’s focus is on children, the leaders of tomorrow. Research suggests many people make a decision for Christ before their 14^th birthdays.

Philemon is a program officer for the Education Department of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) in Zambia, a core partner of EduDeo Ministries. He is an inspirational example of transformation.

“It was difficult for Dad and Mum to send me to school because Dad was unemployed,” he says. “Mum started her own business, selling items at the market and selling cooked meat from home.

“When I was in Grade 9, my dad died and Mum went to the village. Even though I was selected to advance to Grade 10, I could not afford to continue my education because of the school fees. It was a hard struggle.

“By God’s grace, I received sponsorship support from CCAP to complete secondary school. After graduating, I prayed to God, saying, “Lord, give me something to do to give back!” That is when I met Reverend Peter Chipeta and began to work for CCAP. Now, when somebody says, ‘I don’t have school fees,’ I know how it feels. Please join me in prayer for God’s intervention in the lives of many more children like me.”

Philemon is a beautiful example of a child who was impacted by the prayers and support of others, and in turn became a leader who is impacting others. He is a passionate advocate for the Sponsorship Program at EduDeo Ministries because he knows firsthand how effective it is.

In his words, “I’m looking forward to this program growing so that more vulnerable children can access Christian education!”

EduDeo Ministries:

• works in more than seven countries
• partners with more than 1,000 schools
• impacts more than 5,500 teachers
• touches the lives of more than 200,000 children

To find out more here.

About the author

EduDeo Ministries