This final blog post in the “Prodigal Joy” series is not so much a story, but rather, one final cherry on top of what I’ve already described as overflowing joy!
On Wednesday night of that first week of translation, I realized that only three verses remained to be translated in Luke 15 and that already Thursday morning we would be ready for another passage. “Hmm…” I thought, “Should we continue into Luke 16? Back up to chapter 1? Or pick another self-contained passage elsewhere in the Gospel?” I didn’t think long before I had convinced myself of the best possible plan. After all, THE most important Christian holiday was just a week and a half down the road, and how special would it be for the Gmz church to celebrate Easter Sunday with the recording of the newly translated Easter story in the Gmz language!
Considering that Luke 15 (32 verses) took us 3.5 days to translate, our initial goal with the Easter story seemed a bit lofty: Jesus’ walk to Golgotha (23:26-32), his crucifixion (23:33-38), the comments of the thieves (23:39-43), his death (23:44-49), burial (23:50-56), resurrection (24:1-12), and appearance to the disciples (24:36-49) – a total of 56 verses with only 5 working days before Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, we set out, full speed ahead and we were encouraged to see our count of verses translated each day steadily rising!
As the week was winding down and we were coming to the end of our translation goal, I asked the guys if they would be willing to work the morning of Good Friday in order to tack on the preceding context of Pilate’s judgment (23:13-25) as well as the conclusion to the Gospel in Jesus’ ascension (24:50-53). Praise God for these servants, all five of the guys said, “Let’s finished it!” And so we did. The morning of Good Friday ended up being a long recording session for all 74 verses we had translated in the previous 5.5 days. Saturday involved me spending several hours on the computer editing the 2.5 hours of recorded material into one 11 minute story. But, mind you, this was not just any story. As I listened to the text many, many times, I remembered that this was the climax of the most important story that will EVER be told in the Gmz language. It was the story that I had the privilege of presenting to the Gmz believers on the very day in which Christians all around the world celebrate its significance.
Those of you who have seen popular missionary videos might expect me to share how these believers all exploded into emotion as they heard the Easter story in Gmz for the first time. But, in reality, this was not the case. No visible tears were shed as they listened to the crucifixion scene and no shouts of joy accompanied his resurrection and ascension, not even a hum of excitement afterward. But, as I think about it, most Gmz are not very flamboyantly emotional people, so maybe the fact that the room was dead silent for the whole 11 minutes was enough reaction to confirm its importance. With further thinking I began to wonder if it would be correct of us to expect dramatic reactions to a first hearing of Scripture. More and more I am realizing that the text of Scripture is loaded with meaning and significance that, apart from the Holy Spirit’s miraculous work in a person’s mind, could never be grasped at a first hearing. As the recording flew through certain passages that Easter morning, my mind travelled back to the translation office, where ample time had allowed me to unpack the meaning and significance of these loaded texts. Without these snippets of important background information, without tying in context from elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel or Old Testament themes, I knew that this introductory presentation of Gmz Scripture was only scratching the surface of their minds and hearts. But, on the other hand, I fully believe that it will not stop there. As Gmz believers gain access to Scripture, it will continue to scratch and carve and bore its way deeper and deeper into their understanding, their values, their worldview, their character, and their lives, which will be increasingly lived out to the glory of God. What joy it brings to know that we are a part of that!
Travis - this is such incredible work that you are doing. I am blown away that God is using your hours and hours of unseen labor to speak His work in THEIR language - to transpose this message in a way their hearts can hear and take in. Whatever their reaction to the reading was, I have no doubt that it thrilled the heart of God to hear His Son's story in the language of these people He died for! Amazing! Well done!
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