The Penner Place: Translation

Hyperbole?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:09:55 GMT

Quick report from the Philippines:

From day one, my Skype reports from the Philippines to Mary Esther have been almost hyperbolic. Pastor Minamida is doing a phenomenal job connecting with the FSL (Filipino Sign Langage) translation team and training them. They have said several times “oh, now we understand what Mark was trying to tell us in March.” As a Deaf translator with years of experience,combined with a sensitivity to timing and needs, Pastor Minamida has built a strong platform as both a change agent and a trainer.

At first, I was hesitant to try to do too much in just a week, not wanting to leave behind a demoralized team that tried to take the next step and couldn’t pull it off. But everything we have tried so far has worked. We went ahead and tackled the big issues, and have already seen the team with a new enthusiasm about the possibilities for making much faster and progress with a much better translation. Praise God, who does more than we can ask or think!!

(PS from an IM with Mary Esther: ” I should tell you about Sunday. Everyone at the Deaf church was so excited that Minamida is there and praying for him and you. They kept mentioning it. The whole church was behind it and excited about it. They were so proud of you—that was definitely the theme last Sunday.”)

Philippines

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:32:34 GMT

Mark and Pastor Minamida are leaving tomorrow for a week in Manila working with the Philippine Sign Language Bible translation team. It will be a wonderful chance for Pastor Minamida to share his expertise with the team there, get a wider vision for the world, and also to enhance his skill by learning how other translators approach their work. Pray for safety in travel and good connections with the team there.

Jonah

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:46:36 GMT

Sign Language Bible

Thanks for praying! The Jonah translation is finished. It was recorded in the morning, checked during the lunch break, and we only had to re-do one short segment to correct a slight “pronunciation” mistake. Also, Mark’s time with the Japanese Sign Language (JSL) researcher was a good re-connection, and opened the door for further contact in the future. We’re hoping that the research center he works at will collaborate with us on making some software available to linguists in Japan, and also help with work we need to do on JSL to improve our translation.

Opportunity

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:02:11 GMT

Keep praying! Mark has an appointment tomorrow with a top Japanese Sign Language researcher to discuss some research software development, and is hoping that this will lead to further opportunities for interaction as well. The research community has been very helpful and supportive of the Bible translation, and given a lot of good input, so we want to keep building on these relationships.

We’re in the very last stages of preparation for Jonah, and hope to record the final product on Friday. Pray particularly for protection for Pastor Minamida as he gets ready to record.

Genesis 36-42 Finished

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:08:38 GMT

Thanks for praying. It was a crazy week and we needed you praying—just didn’t manage to squeeze in time to write and tell you about it. I was at ViBi working against deadlines, first on a comprehension check of Jonah, and then on the final check of the Genesis 36-42 DVD. The new DVD structure makes it easier than ever to use, but because of the changes, there were a fair number of flaws that had to be fixed, and we finished just in time on Friday to get it to the people who will give us 100 copies for free.

Then it was time to start work on my sermon. Since I had the DVD I had just checked, I was able to preach on the amazing Gen. 38 story—one that I’ve never seen in Bible story books, but that gives us an amazing picture of God’s work in history and in the nitty gritty of life. It was heartening to see how well people understood. I just had to fill in a little background information on the culture, and congregation could grasp the implications immediately. I showed the whole passage once, and then we went back and worked through it piece by piece, filling in the background and pointing out the implications (or asking questions that led them to the implications).

Praise God for one more small piece of Scripture finished, and pray for the day when we have the funding to produce this much every month. Most people I talk to say $3M is impossible, and they’re right. We know nothing about finding that kind of money, but miracles are just fine with me, if that’s what God chooses to do. So keep asking, seeking, and knocking on the Father’s door, and we’ll see what happens.

Today, we’re off to Deaf camp. August 13-15, 70 Deaf people gather from churches all over Japan. I have no official responsibilities, but am looking forward to lots of interaction with people who are interested in translation work and leadership training.

To the Northeast and Back

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:07:31 GMT

Thanks for praying. Last weekend, Pastor Hori did a great job checking a translation for the first time. Pastor Matsumoto joined us Friday afternoon and spent the night too, so we had the evening and some of the next day to go over plans to adapt training material for Deaf people, and translate Ephesians. Sunday seemed like two days, it was so full, but what a blessing to join the worship service in Fukushima and see Pastor Hori in action.

Back in Tokyo, Pastor Minamida recorded a new draft of Jonah on Tuesday, and Thursday, we had our comprehension check. We expected to finish it in one day, but it took quite a bit longer than we expected just to finish chapter one. We have a lot of changes to make. We’ll work on them Tuesday, then hope to finish comprehension checks for the rest of Jonah Wednesday and Thursday. It will be a busy week, and Pastor Minamida is swamped with work preparing for summer camp in Mid-August. Pray for him. Pray for Mark to, as he will be doing pulpit supply on next Sunday to take some pressure off of Pastor Minamida.

Back to Northeast Japan

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:29:09 GMT

Tomorrow we head to the Northeast again, this time to work with Pastor Hori, training him to check Pastor Minamida’s first draft of Genesis. Pastor Matsumoto may also join us for a bit and talk about translating Ephesians and training materials. I’m also hoping to contact a Deaf friend from our Sendai days. Pray that it will all work out. We’ll be at the Fukushima Deaf church on Sunday, where Hori pastors. We're looking forward to meeting the people there--our first time at the church though I've met people from there before.

I was just on the internet webcam this morning talking with Pastor Matsumoto (Deaf) of the Yamagata Deaf Church where we began our work in Japan. He was excited about a man who came to church with some real problems some time back, but through studying the Word in the JSL version, has made great progress in his relationships with people. Pastor Matsumoto is also thrilled at how the leaders he is training in the church are able to dive into tough passages in the some of the epistles we’ve translated and learn the deeper truths of Scripture on their own, and then share them with him and others. God is building His church!

Sometimes it just pours

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:46:05 GMT

When it rains, it pours! Of course, it IS rainy season here in Japan.

I meant to ask for prayer for this week’s trip to the Northeast, but ran out of time trying to do all the preparation. But I’m sure many were praying anyway, because . . .

The main reason for going was for me to interpret for Pastors Hori and Matsumoto at the Church-Based Theological Education seminar in Sendai. The main reason I said yes to interpreting, something I rarely do, was that Hori was the one who asked. I wanted to get face time with him so we could get started on translation checking (see 6/23/08 update), and just connect.

Well, not only did we connect and set a date to start work on translation checking of Genesis, the seminar itself turned out to be a huge boost. Both pastors are interested in testing the leadership training concept in their Deaf churches, and are working together on developing the materials. But it doesn’t end there. Because the materials focus heavily on the epistles and Ephesians in particular, they were wanting to get started on a translation of Ephesians. (ViBi already has Galatians, Philippians, and Thessalonians available.) Pray for them both as they seek ways to get their churches involved in the translation. I am especially excited that Pastor Hori is so eager to get involved. The only Deaf person I know of in Japan who knows both Greek and Hebrew can now be a part of the translation process via the internet without uprooting his whole family. Praise God for the new possibilities.

Taiwan and Japan

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:35:50 GMT

Give praise for God’s amazing work in Taiwan! “Nothing happens this fast in Taiwan” was the comment of a long-time expat present at Saturday’s main exploratory meeting. Six of the eight groups known to have Deaf ministries in Taiwan were there, and even though there was a lot of “history” between the various groups, God’s Spirit brought unity around their common need for a Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) Bible. Not only did they decide on the date for the next meeting (September 27), they also formed a working committee to proceed with the project until they meet again. During the final prayer, the interpreter (from TSL into Mandarin) was so moved by God’s work there she could hardly speak through her tears—shared by many others in the room as well.

Pray for the leaders in Taiwan as they meet to proceed with the translation project.

Meanwhile, back in Japan . . . we finished recording Genesis 36-42! Since Pastor Minamida, the translator and signer, has still not fully recovered from his neck, shoulder, and arm condition, we are only allowing him to sign 2 hours a day. At two days a week, it took a full month just to get the recording done. But looking at it, it is clearly his best work yet. Pray for Mr. Ogata as he edits and prepares the DVD, for Ms. Kuwahara and Mark as they do the final checks on versification and computer graphics, and for Pastor Minamida as we begin tomorrow translating the last portion of Genesis—chapters 43-50.

We’re also excited that Pastor Hori, a Deaf man who knows Greek and Hebrew, has agreed to help with original language checks. Though he lives too far to commute, he can get the translation work via the internet, check it, and send the results via internet. Pray that the training will go well, and we’ll be able to work out a good system for “distance checking.”

PS Pastor Minamida is happy to be able to get is hair cut now that the recording is done.

More Details on Taiwan:

There were LOTS of meetings. Visits with the Taiwan Bible Society and some of their major donors proved productive. Mark was even a guest lecturer for all of 20 minutes at a freshman Deaf Culture class at Tainan University. He also spent hours with various Deaf groups and individuals. Though TSL began from Japanese Sign Language (JSL) during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, it has diverged significantly in the past 60 years, so Mark had to strain to follow what was going on, and missed a lot. Fortunately, his first contact was with Pastor Wu, who knew a fair amount of Japanese Sign Language (JSL), and the bits and pieces of TSL learned from Pastor Wu helped during the intensive meetings on Saturday and Sunday. Pastor Wu interpreted for Mark on Saturday when he presented the JSL translation work, but the rest of the day, he was pretty much on his own. Interestingly, when the signing was “Deaf”, he could get by, barely, but if it followed Mandarin sentence patterns or included fingerspelling, he was totally lost. He came home exhausted, but very, very happy.

Thoughts on Shavuot, Pentecost, and Taiwan

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:05:54 GMT

Mark’s been in Taiwan—arriving June 8, the eve of Shavuot (in Greek its called Pentecost). Shavuot is an agricultural celebration of first fruits and commemorates God giving the Law on Mt. Sinai.

At Babel, God confounded the languages; at Pentecost, God gave the gift of tongues to the disciples who stayed obedient and had gathered together in Jerusalem. Jews from every nation under heaven were gathered in Jerusalem and heard the mighty deeds of God in their own tongues. The harvest of first fruits that day was 3,000 souls. How fitting for Mark to be in Taiwan during the festival, studying, and working with others so those who do not yet have God’s Word in a language they can understand, will someday. Pray for fruitful results.

Please keep praying for the necessary staff for the Japanese Sign Language Bible project and for adequate funding to salary them.

Taiwan Sign Language Bible Translation Trip

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:06:48 GMT

Today, Mark leaves for Taiwan, where he'll be for a week. Unbeknownst to him, a meeting was scheduled for this afternoon. He’s hoping to catch an earlier flight. Pray that he will make it. Pray also that God will grant him favor with the Deaf leaders, Bible Society leaders, and SIL leaders as we seek to find a way to get a Sign Language Bible translation project going in Taiwan. This is a first for him, and he really needs your prayer support.

(PS. This will also be the third and final mentored training experience for the translation consultant training he is engaged in.)

First "mini recording session" today

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:04:10 GMT

We're trying something new today. Instead of taking a full day to record the final draft of 30-45 minutes of scripture translation, Pastor Minamida is coming for three hours--one to get prepped and ready for recording, and two hours for recording. We're not planning on finishing the whole portion--Genesis 36-42. We will record as much as we can in the time allotted, and leave the rest for the following two-hour sessions. Pastor Minamida will continue every Tuesday and Friday until we finish. Then he'll move on to start translating the final seven chapters of Genesis.

Please pray. Pray that his arms and shoulders will stay loose so they can continue healing. Pray that we will be careful not to go beyond the limits of his health in our eagerness to finish the job. Pray for mental clarity. Pray for team synergy.

Pastor Minamida will be watching a cueing draft while he signs. The cueing draft is a patchwork of previous work--the first draft plus all the corrections we made along the way that have been edited in (This is version number ten). In the final check for accuracy, I found a spot or two in here and there that needs checking. Some problems appear to be editing errors that can easily be fixed. Some are changes in the translation that might contain errors (I say "might" because I always have to be sure I'm understanding the nuances of the signs correctly). Pray that the errors will be easily fixed, and the marginal spots clearly signed in the final draft.

Pray above all that we will be able to enjoy the process. Working together to do something greater than any of us individually could ever do alone. Reveling in God's power at work in us rather than trying too hard to please God. And pray that God's word will continue to transform the Deaf of Japan, both those in churches who are eagerly awaiting the next installment of Scripture in their language, and those outside who still don't know the Good News.

New Person

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:47:01 GMT

Mark preached last Sunday at Tokyo Deaf Baptist Church. His passage was Gen. 24, finding a bride for Isaac, and his “sermon” style this time was highly interactive, with the focus on the passage as translated by Pastor Minamida on the ViBi DVD. Mark would play a paragraph or two of the translation, ask some questions, listen, make some observations, and move on to the next portion. After the service, a new person introduced himself. He was a Catholic Deaf man, and so impressed with the clarity of the translation that he bought the whole set of available DVDs. “I’ve never understood the Bible so clearly,” he said. Pray that we will get the funding and the personnel to complete the translation so that someday, he’ll be able to buy the whole Bible in his language. *

Talking with him over lunch, we found that he had a strong interest and a good understanding of his faith. His father had been of the “hidden Christian” line, so he wasn’t even aware of his father’s faith until the funeral. It was to honor his father and preserve the family faith that he began his quest into Christianity, but it appears that he has moved beyond that now. Pray for him, and for our future interactions, that God will use him to bring the Word to many of his friends, people in circles that go far beyond those we normally encounter.

*$3,000,000 in hand, or $300,000 pledged for the duration of the project could hire the team we need to finish the OT and NT in 10-13 years. Some have all but laughed out loud when we talk about this as if it could actually happen. So pray. Not that we can, or should even want to, twist God’s arm. We serve God, not God us. I wanted to have this in hand by the end of April so we could plan our next year accordingly (board meeting May 15), but what God is planning remains to be seen. I certainly don’t need to be right, and by God’s grace will wait as long as needed, but it does hurt to see the needs and the possibilities so clearly and yet be so far from realizing our vision.

Scripture in use

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:14:51 GMT

After the morning worship time at Deaf church, we always have “announcements,” a time when people share not just what’s happening in the church, but also in their lives. Today Mr. Tanada (an elder at the church) told of his first week of work at the Deaf school where he will be teaching when the new school year starts next week. He is the only Deaf teacher at the Deaf school, and his first week was not easy. But at some point, he saw a teacher with a cross in his lapel, asked about it, and learned that this man was also Christian. Better yet, he learned that the school had a portion of the ViBi’s Sign Language Bible Translation brought by this teacher! Mr. Tanada is the ViBi project director and so was quite excited about this. We are too! Who knows how many students at the third largest Deaf school in Japan have encountered the Bible in the time that it has been there?

Moving right along

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:34:30 GMT

Pastor Minamida has come twice now, just two hours each time, and we’ve been able to go over the final draft of Genesis 36-38. We thank God for progress, and pray for his continued healing.

Progress

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:56:31 GMT

Pastor Minamida is getting better—bit by bit. He will come to ViBi twice a week for two hours each, signing in front of the camera for only ten minutes a day. So we are really still just limping along in Genesis, but this is better than nothing. You will remember, way back in September, that Genesis 36-42 was almost ready for final recording. He will start April 3 on the final revisions, and when he finishes, we will begin the final recording. It may take a while at 10 camera minutes a day, two days a week, but we are still determined to get God’s word to the Deaf of Japan.

Please keep praying for his full recovery. Please pray for us as we search for translators. And pray for funding to allow us to hire them. (Just by way of comparison, the Colombian Sign Language Bible translation team has 12 people on staff.)

Back in the land of good rice and ofuro (hot bath)

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:46:50 GMT

Mary Esther and I are both home safe in Japan. She came to the Philippines from Bangkok, so had to go back that way too, while I got a straight flight home (and a trip to the airport early the next morning to pick her up.) We are settling back into the routines and playing catchup in a lot of areas.

Thank you for praying us through a strategic two weeks of Sign Language Bible translation consulting practicum. For Mary Esther, it was her first exposure, but working together, we were able to find ways that our gifts and abilities complemented each other.

Mary Esther writes:

It was the very first time for the Deaf Filipino team do any translation work, and it was tough going over their very first draft, wanting to encourage them and yet needing to be thorough. It is exciting that new translation teams are forming and working on a Bible in their own language. We so easily take our own Bibles for granted, and watching them discuss the meaning of what the Scripture says renewed in me a love and appreciation for my English Bible. I spent my time watching the work, and learning how to use some of the software that Wycliffe has designed to help with Sign Language Bible translation. Talk about a steep learning curve! When the program worked the way I thought it should, I was so happy but when I lost an hour of Mark’s work, I wasn’t quite as thrilled. It is amazing the technology we now have that allows us to record on video and analyze the signed sentences to help in translation.

Philippine Bible Society

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:57:32 GMT

Today, we had another unexpected. Through a marvelous series of “coincidences”, Mary Esther and I were able to meet with people at the Philippine Bible Society, sharing our Japanese Sign Language Bible translation experience, and talking also about the Filipino Sign Language (FSL) Bible translation project that we are working on for the practicum portion of our training here. The Bible Society was very interested in the project. Pray that this meeting will continue to bear fruit.

Moved and Moving

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:02:18 GMT

Mark’s office moved yesterday. The location is better, price cheaper and office space easier to use. We continue to search and pray for a full time signer and a grant for their support.

Tomorrow Mark leaves for a month in the Philippines to learn/practice more Sign Language Bible translation with Wycliffe. Please pray for his health. He’s still fighting what’s left of a slight cold. The temperatures here range from 30-50, with 16% humidity. In Manila they will be at 75-85 with 65 % humidity.

We're in!

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:08:34 GMT

Thanks for praying about the new office. One of our board members, the one in charge of finances, has agreed to serve as guarantor. Not only does it speak to his graciousness, but also to his level of comfort with our fiscal policy. We are very thankful.

We'll be busy the next few weeks with the move.

Oh, and keep praying for pastor Minamida. He's improved quite a bit, and is allowed to preach once a month now. The new office is a much shorter commute for him, but his shoulders and arms still need to recover enough to be signing regularly under stressful conditions again.

Real Estate problems

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:11:52 GMT

ViBi has been trying to move their office and studio. Ms. Kuwahara and Mr. Ogata have done a lot of searching over the past months, and finally found the perfect place, good price, high ceiling, unfinished, first floor. The real estate company gladly received our application, but we’ve now run into a snag on the guarantor. Please pray. And while you’re at it, pray for Pastor Minamida, that he will be restored to health and able to sign Gen 36-42 (all checked and ready to go) and then finish the rest of Genesis. And don’t forget to pray for the $3 million that will enable us to move this from a 40 year project to a 10-13 year project.

Winds of change

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:58:23 GMT

Thanks for praying. Our meeting yesterday proved to be incredibly fruitful. We made connections that will open up many kinds of resources for years to come. Thank you for praying.

Turning Point

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:57:16 GMT

Just a quick note. We get on the plane tomorrow (if there are open seats) for the U.S. where we'll be until January 19, so those of you who are on our direct e-mail list (non-yahoogroups) will need to watch our blog if you want to keep up on what is happening. Technical difficulties (dead laptop) aside, we do surely want all of you standing with us. Winds of change have been blowing that could drastically change what we do and how we do it. It could be a huge step forward, or backward, for the JSL Bible translation project. We have a meeting related to that January 8 that we particularly need you praying for. We particularly need the wisdom from above which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy (get the whole scoop at James 3:13-18--an amazing passage that is available to Japanese Deaf people in their own language!)

Bible Society Award

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 09:00:40 GMT

Thank you for praying! Since we've come back from Bangkok, momentum just keeps building.

Last week ViBi received the Japan Bible Society’s (JBS) 2007 Bible Work Distinguished Service Award. Pastor Matsumoto, our board chair, came from Yamagata to receive it, and our whole staff was there for the ceremony. While there, JBS told us that in November, they received a 1,000,000 yen ($9,000) gift to support the JSL translation. We were also encouraged by JBS’s most recent newsletter. Not only was ViBi featured up front, in the body was a story telling how an Assemblies of God church uses the Sign Language Bible translation in their Deaf group and the difference it makes having the Bible in their language. Knowing that people are using it and growing helps us feel all the more eager to produce top quality translation.

We have a lead for a possible translator, a Deaf of Deaf person with Bible training. Pray for wisdom and good timing as we follow up.

Back From Bangkok

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:18:49 GMT

At the Asia Pacific Sign Language Multi-Agency Meeting, top level leaders from both the Bible Societies and Wycliffe, as well as representatives from several translation projects in different stages of progress came together to make this a groundbreaking meeting.

Having ViBi set the agenda and Mr. Tanada, our project leader, run the meetings was a huge plus. He felt it was a challenge leading a discussion with both Deaf and hearing, and at least four, sometimes up to five different languages at once, but by all accounts, he did a great job. With Deaf leadership of translation projects a recurring theme throughout the meetings, his work was particularly significant.

The meetings were a boost to our team. Realizing that we are not alone, that the struggles which seem so insurmountable at times are common not just to us, not just to sign language translations, but to many spoken language translations as well was encouraging. Knowing that as projects start up throughout Asia, we can be a resource to them gave a new sense of responsibility and ownership. Hearing stories from other projects of the sacrifices Deaf people are willing to make to see people reached with the Word in their own language gave our group a new sense of commitment. Please pray for all of the participants in the next few days and weeks as we process the experience, especially for the commitments and decisions that will be made as a result.

Scripture in Use!!

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:31:25 GMT

Christmas planning has begun at Deaf church, and not just at where we attend, Missionary friends working with Deaf in an entirely different part of Japan wrote of the impact the Japanese Sign Language Bible is making. They gave us permission to quote from their post. Here are some bits and pieces:

One Deaf lady said “. . . I went to a Deaf church when I was a young adult, but I never could understand the sermons. They just talk and talk and then and it's over. Here we get to look at the Bible again and again and ask questions.”

The missionary said before they had the DVD JSL scriptures they relied heavily on flannel-graph and picture cards but now these are secondary tools to the chapter by chapter study of Act they are able to do. We’re getting good feed back as to what people understand readily and what they struggle with. She said Acts 9 was difficult and they needed to watch it 6 times.

"The last two times through I challenged them to find all the different signs for 'person who believes in Jesus': disciple, apostle, believer, brother, woman disciple, holy person. We talked about what a disciple does: learn from his master. What does 'holy' mean. They said, 'clean'. 'Clean where?' They replied, 'In your heart' and a non-Christian piped up, 'that's something only Jesus can do'. Then we explained that a 'holy person' was set apart for God's use. A non-Christian said, 'so when He tells you to do something, you do it quick!' Then we talked about the 'holy disciple woman', Dorcas, and what she did."

"Today, once they understood what 'unclean' meant in Acts 10, they caught the story. 'Olive' said, 'So the important thing is that everyone is a sinner and God made the way for all of us through Jesus Christ to believe regardless of our nationality.' Amen!"

At the other extreme was chapter 7, The story of the Stoning of Stephen. "One time through it and they remembered it almost entirely. I asked them what they wanted to do at Christmas. Did they want to do a play like last year. (We did the Christmas Story.) They said, 'Yes, we want to do a play: The Stoning of Stephen. We can use wadded up newspapers for stones.' They are serious.

Multi-Agency Meeting

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:27:00 GMT

ViBi and Wycliffe are partnering to hold the first Asia Pacific Sign Language Multi-Agency Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand Nov. 20-22. We thank God for the many groups in various countries who have started or are interested in Sign Language Bible translation projects, and trust that you will be praying for us during this potentially pivotal time.

Response to "Back to Zero" and my reply

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:37:11 GMT

Response:

Hi Mark,

Perhaps this is heretical, so if it is, forgive me.

It seems to me that you are at a place where you need to step back and take a hard look at what the Lord has been doing in your life over the past few years, and at the heart of the Japanese deaf and determine whether the Lord has been preparing you and them, for something different. If they are hungry and thirsty for the Word, the Lord will make it available to them, if it is secondary, He will offer it to others who crave it. Where is the craving, do you have a sense for that? Is it in China, Africa? What has the Lord been speaking to your heart about? Don’t just say to yourself: “I’m discouraged, so I am imagining other possibilities”, of course that could be true, but you have been faithful through many discouragements, you are not a person who gives up. Maybe you have been prepared for a transition to something new, where you will be more effective and strategic. Sometimes when a key person leaves, those who have depended on him to carry the load begin to realize that this is their baby and they need to nurture and grow it or it will die. As long as it is your passion, it may not really become theirs.

. . .

RESTING in His wisdom and power,

Person A

My reply:

I’m all for heresy!! (At least this kind.) And I’ve been giving serious thought to your post. The parable of the fig tree came to mind—the one about giving it another three years (it is one year, actually, in Luke 13, but three is what came to mind . . .) and digging around the roots to see what can happen before cutting it down. Of course, I wouldn’t be cutting anything down, but . . .

On the other hand, I’m working on a United Bible Societies task force for SL (sign language) Bible translation, and just finished up my task of summarizing all the SL Bible translations in progress around the world. I see places like Finland and Denmark starting translation work with core Deaf (signing) populations of 4,000, and then I see Japan, where the absolutely smallest figure I’ve ever heard for the signing community is 100,000 (usually you hear between 180,000 and 315,000), and I see the outreach possibilities if the community here were to come to Christ and be mobilized to reach the Deaf of Asia, and I see the quality of the work that we are doing now after 13 years and the resource it could be to other sign language projects throughout the world—especially the kind of signing that Toyoshima was starting to do—and it just seems like a huge blow. The sign language translation world needs to see a model of what can be done if we want people to be willing to fund SLBT projects, and I think we’re as close to that here as anywhere.

The timing is so ironic, because I just made a request to add a $3,000,000 project for ViBi as one of WorldVenture’s strategic initiative fundraising ventures. Our Asia Director asked what it would cost to finish the whole Bible, I said "give me $3M and we can finish in 10 years," and he basically said “ask for it.” (Not that anyone has it sitting somewhere to give, its basically permission to find it.) Ironic, yet on the other hand, if we had the $3M in hand right now, this whole thing would be playing out quite differently. If we could hire an assistant to work with him, I think Toyoshima would take the job.

So, Japan has the Deaf linguistic and cultural resources, and the possibilities, but the churches are entrenched and for the most part not open to new ways of doing things, even if it’s a full, somewhat traditional translation (as opposed to chronological Bible storying). Other places are hungry, and open, and looking for new ways, but the new ways, as I see them playing out, don’t include giving the Deaf community a full Bible in their language, but just enough to do some basic evangelism and discipleship, with no plan to go beyond that. The idea of Deaf theologians being a vital part of the Deaf church, not just learning simple standard theology, but thinking Biblically vis-à-vis the Deaf community is not even on the horizon.

Anyway . . . this is why I think Bible translation is important, and why I want so badly to show that it CAN be done, if people want to badly enough and the funding can be found.

This has become a longish post—I really only set out to say I got your post and appreciated it, and was thinking through the important questions you asked. So I started thinking, and writing, and this is where it led me. So far. Still thinking.

Thank you

Mark

Thanks

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:06:24 GMT

Thanks for the many posts of support, prayer, co-miseration, and encouragement after our last update. A lot has happened since then, but no reportable/definable changes yet. We will keep you posted.

Back to Zero

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:13:20 GMT

Well, today Toyoshima sent a text message saying he wouldn't be coming to work, so I stayed home and spent the day updating a plan for what it would take to finish the whole Bible. Our 15 year plan is quickly becoming a forty year plan, and I wanted to refresh the vision and see what it would take to get back on track. Toyoshima figured prominently in the new plan, but as I finished up and posted it to ViBi's internet work site, I saw another post there from Kuwahara. It said that he had an interview with a large company on Monday, and has accepted their job offer. What that means right now is that we have no one translating. Minamida is still sidelined with his neck and arm condition, and Toyoshima got a better offer. Disappointment, frustration, anger, puzzlement--I'm definitely in the market for a "how long, oh Lord" Psalm about now.

Major Breakthrough (for those who like to know the gory details)

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:41:34 GMT

Thanks for praying for Toyoshima. When I got back to Japan, he was on the hunt for other work, pretty much convinced that there was no way he could do Bible translation. Not only did he have trouble envisioning the Bible stories well enough to sign them, he didn't seem to be able to re-sign his own story from a video cue. But let me back up and explain.

In order to get a baseline for his signing ability in front of a camera, we had recorded Toyoshima telling a story of his own choosing. He showed some creativity and told a good story. Then, to test whether he had the ability to sign from a video cue, we had him retell his own story exactly as before, watching his first version as a cue. Try as he might, it didn’t look natural. The hands were doing exactly the right thing, but the face was dead. I told him to forget the hands and focus on the face, and that helped a bit, but not much—not nearly enough. Then, I remembered someone talking about cropping video, and suggested that we crop in closer so we could see his face more clearly. As I was explaining to Ogata, our video editor, what I wanted, Toyoshima came in. “No,” he said, “crop it closer . . . closer” Ogata looked at us both like we were nuts, but laughed, shrugged and did it anyway. He cropped until all we saw was from the top of the head to an inch or so below the chin. I, asked Toyoshima “are you sure?”, and he insisted that was what he wanted. I figured we could always do another crop when this one failed, so didn’t bother to argue it further. And you know I wouldn’t be telling this story if he hadn’t gotten in front of the camera and done an incredibly natural, accurate copy of his original story, with the hands only in the cueing video a fraction of the time. He was pumped! We all were. It was clear he really wanted to do Bible translation; he just didn't think he had the ability.

With that hurdle cleared, we tackled Jonah with gusto, working first to build a strong mental picture of what happened in the story. Then he got up in front of the camera and told the story totally from memory, with no thought taken as to whether or not all the information is included—just as if a friend were there and had asked him about it. After quite a few tries and re-tries, we had a draft of the whole story with all the major pieces in place.

Then I showed him how to check for accuracy. We photocopied Jonah from the Japanese Bible and started marking it up, crossing out what was included in our translation, circling what was missing, noting what was added in the margins. He finished out the day checking it on his own, and came up with an idea for day two.

Working alone, he recorded Jonah segment by segment, modifying an approach he had seen working as Pastor Minamida’s assistant. He would sign as far as he could before he forgot something or stumbled. Then he would stop, rewind the video to the last good portion, find the hand and body position, and start recording again from there, as far as he could to until the next mistake. By repeating this over and over, he built a series of short, but fairly well-connected phrases translating the whole book of Jonah. It took him another day to edit out the garbage and make it flow smoothly. When he tried to use the second version as a cue, though, it was hard to sign it naturally. The big chunks weren't connected well.

Seeing this, he was ready for the next step. He took the “natural telling” draft (first version) as the base, edited in all the missing information from the verse-by-verse draft, and has succeeded in making the most accurate and natural first draft ViBi has done yet. Not only that, he was able to use this as a cue to sign a second draft of the whole book of Jonah. It's clear that with some practice, he'll look like he's standing there signing from memory, just telling the story.

The leadership of ViBi has offered him a 4-day-a-week position. Pray that God will open doors for funding so that we can offer both Toyoshima and Ogata (our video editor) full-time positions. Pray also for Pastor Minamida, our part-time translator, that the pain in his arms and shoulders will be healed, and he can finish up Genesis.

For the truly hardy—even more details:

We still haven’t fully unpacked the significance of the hyper-cropped cue phenomenon yet. Somehow, there was enough grammar/morphemes/whatever conveyed in the face while signing that the manuals (information the hands convey) were not necessary for him to remember the content accurately. This is huge. Of course, its common knowledge that non-manuals are a key to how Deaf people make meaning, but this certainly lends some substance to the claim. It also points to where the difference lies between natural and less-than-natural signing. It may lead to a way to test and even to quantify naturalness. (How much signing space can be cropped before meaning starts being lost might be an indicator of how naturally the signing is flowing. For instance, Toyoshima did the hyper-crop on his verse-by-verse draft of Jonah, but wasn’t able to follow it at all—indication that the big-picture flow, transitional non-manuals, and natural timing was not on par with his naturally told story.) It will definitely change the way we do our cueing. And then there are the research projects it suggests. All because Toyoshima misunderstood what I was trying to tell him about the crop (or perhaps because he instinctively knew something better). This is sort of like having your milk and sugar and vanilla get thrown together in the back of the freezing horse drawn cart and when you unload find you’ve discovered ice cream! Sure, it was his own story, and he knew it well from repeated tries at re-signing it, but remembering a story with just the face? There still has to be a lot of information there to cue the signer by.

Major Breakthrough (Short Version)

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:10:09 GMT

Thanks for praying for Toyoshima. When I got back to Japan, he was on the hunt for other work, pretty much convinced that there was no way he could do Bible translation. In these last couple weeks he has turned around completely. Last Thursday, he succeeded in making the most accurate and natural first draft ViBi has done yet. ViBi leadership is excited. Toyoshima is Deaf of Deaf, young, trainable, excited, committed, and ready to work. They have offered him a 4-day-a-week position with full-time benefits. He really wants a full-time job. Pray that God will open doors for funding so that we can offer both Toyoshima and Ogata (our video editor) full-time, fully-paid positions. Pray also for Pastor Minamida, our part-time translator, that the pain in his arms and shoulders will be healed, and he can finish up Genesis.

Why SL translation? A link to help explain

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:24:32 GMT

Here's a great article explaining why people translate the Bible into Sign Language in Germany and Spain:

http://www.wycliffe.net/home/Europe/Articles/tabid/477/Default.aspx?id=eu-0706007

Back in Japan

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:44:16 GMT

Mark made it safely back from Kenya, though it took 36 hours door to door and a re-routed plane added some excitement to the trip. Do keep praying for
the Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Zambia teams as they process what they learned from the 4 weeks of interaction with the consulting team, make
corrections, and also move ahead to finish translating the first series of Bible story portions in the next three months.

First Week in Kenya

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:24:10 GMT

Thank you for praying. I have been doing well. After a 27 hours of travel in two cars and three planes, my first meal was an unavoidable wheat-filled dish which I knew would cause me problems. Prayer before meals was more than a ritual that night! Thank God, I had no sign of problems at all. A small, but happy little miracle.

More exciting (by several orders of magnitude!), there were two times last week when I felt that my being here actually made a difference. The first was my opportunity to share with the Kenya translation team about comprehension checks. DOOR International has teams of Deaf people from Kenya, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Zambia, each working on translating selected Bible portions into their respective sign languages. The teams have been translating and recording drafts for 8 months, working very hard, but without doing community checks to see if people can understand their work. My experience in Japan is that what we think is understandable (to us, it is, since we know the passages already) can be totally misunderstood by non-church people. Essentially, I was supposed to prepare them for the possibility that 8 months of work might go up in smoke.

As the time drew closer, I stopped my exegetical checking work and began writing up some notes. After about a half hour, I saved the file, and then started to add a few more lines before printing it out, when the power went out.

With no way to print it out, I walked down to the room note-free, expecting to give a 15 minute testimonial on why community checks were important to us. An hour and a half later, after lots of interaction back and forth, they understood that tomorrow 's event, however it turned out, was not about Wycliffe outsiders coming in to tell them that their translation had problems, but people from their own community coming to tell them what the translation was actually communicating. They seemed much more relaxed and ready for whatever might come.

The next day, I was first on for practice coordinating a community check. Five community people, several from the translation team, a Deaf staff person, an interpreter, and a handful of observers made for a full room--very different from the one checker and few ViBi staff I was used to in our checks. Nor could I speak the language of the translation. A Kenyan Deaf staff person led the process, and my interpreter would give him my questions.

He did a marvelous job of getting responses without giving away the meaning of the passage, and I had less and less need to feed questions as he was drawing out most of the information on his own. The real turning point came, though, when with a couple of questions left on my list, I asked if the students, the translators themselves, had any questions. They immediately affirmed, and jumped in to ask the most important question on my list. My heart swelled.

It was obvious that they fully understood the passage, understood the process, could see the potential understanding gaps, and were eager to find and correct them. Not only this, they asked the questions in such a non-threatening way that the checking process was enhanced even more. It was obvious that they were sold on the idea of community checks, convinced that their work will be enhanced by it. It made a big difference in our work when we found out about it from Wycliffe people years ago, and it looks like the same will happen here. Their enthusiastic and joy-filled faces will stand in my memory for a long time. Thanks for praying!

Wrapping Up

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:09:31 GMT

In just less than two weeks, we’ll be back on the road. We’ve grown fond of Grand Forks, North Dakota even though (or maybe because) being here means an incredibly intense workload. Again this summer we have seen God work in ways we never expected, met humble servants who amaze us and teach us about giving and love and relationships. The SIL instructors are some of the most fantastic people we know. It has been an invaluable summer. We are thankful you’ve prayed for us and that our health has held. The last two weeks are full of presentations, tests and papers. Please continue to pray.

So what exactly have we done here and how will that impact the Japanese Sign Language Bible translation project?

Mary Esther has worked as a volunteer in the reception office doing things like filling the copier with paper and handling the mail. We’re thankful for this opportunity as it allows a reduced tuition for Mark and Anna. She’s audited a Second Language Acquisition-Mandarin class which Anna is also taking.

Mark is taking 5 graduate level classes and is pushing the brink on sleep deprivation. He’s been able to meet others who are also passionately involved in Sign Language Bible translations and this has been invaluable. Classes this summer have helped with his analysis of a natural text that our translator has produced apart from his translation work. Analyzing this naturally signed (ie, not translated) story will help the translation team recognize more deeply how their language works on the discourse level, and what it is that sometimes makes their translations seem unnatural.

Along with our course load and some translation checking, we've also been involved with SIL to work out details of an Asia Pacific Sign Language Multi-Agency Meeting in Bangkok November 20-22, 2007. The SIL leadership knew that ViBi shared this interest, and hasinvited us to co-host the event with them. We are thankful for the opportunity to contribute to other Sign Language translation projects. They have also given Mark the opportunity to work in Kenya the first two weeks of September as a translation consultant in training. Pray that he will quickly acquire the needed skills and be able to contribute to the Sign Language Bible translation work in Africa. (We are grateful that SIL will be covering those expenses.)

What does the future look like? We don’t expect to need to return for summer school next year. If Mark can finish the distance classwork and write his thesis before next summer, he could make a quick trip to UND for the thesis defense. This would be the easier course logistically. Otherwise, since the SIL profs are scattered throughout the world most of the time, the defense will happen whenever and wherever two or more profs on his thesis committee are in the same place, and Mark can get there too. Right now, his plan for the thesis is to compare the discourse structures of ViBi's translation work with that of natural Deaf (signed) literature.