Beginning August 5th in Oostburg, WI and ending January 5th in Libertyville, IL, we had the privilege of sharing the translation ministry update close to twenty times. We praise God that our travels allowed us to cross paths with many of you, our partners in this work. However, we knew going into it, that we could never reach everyone and we know that many people wished to have attended our presentation, but simply couldn't. And so, using the beauty of the internet, we wanted to post the script from our presentation on this blog site. It is our prayer that it will inform you how to better pray for this specific aspect of our work, and also encourage you in knowing that your love, prayer and support make you significant partners in what is happening. Our goal in this presentation was not to give an overview of ALL that we are involved with and the boring bullet points that can go along with that. Instead, we wanted to invite you into our world through story, allowing you to spend an exciting Sunday morning with us up on Gesas mountain. So carve out a 20-minute slot (depending on your reading speed), sit back and allow your mind to enter with us into the Gesas church one special morning last April.
TRAVIS: I know, high expectations are dangerous. But I didn't care on this particular Sunday morning as I entered the Gmz church, armed with my fully-charged digital camera and multiple recording devices. I couldn't wait to witness the Gmz translators' debut the first of their Scripture-based worship songs. Coming in a bit late, I immediately observed something very important– the place had already overflowed its seating capacity! God was at work…no doubt it would be a morning to remember!
ANDREA: The scene hadn't always been that way. The Gesas Gmz church began back in 2003 when some church-planters forged a road and set up camp on Gesas mountain. The message of the gospel was received by many of the younger men in the area and several believers were baptized. Surely the church saw some growth and decline over the years, but when we came in the summer of 2010, the average service consisted of fifteen to twenty men, two or three women and a handful of children. However, in early 2011, the church underwent some major transformations. First, Travis and three Gmz guys had begun drafting in Luke's gospel and it was decided to put those drafted texts into immediate use in the church. For the first time, the Gmz believers were hearing the Word of God in their own language, hot off the translation desk. But this wasn't the only change starting in Spring of 2011, there was a very significant leadership change and for the first time, Scripture was being read and preached not by foreigners, but by the local Gmz men. It was then that we began to see an interesting pattern unfold. As the Gmz church leaders took the reins, equipped by God's Word in their own mother tongue, leading the church entirely in the Gmz language…space on the church's benches soon became tight. The circle we sat in was expanded, more benches brought in as week after week, Gmz men, women and children were showing up in surprising numbers, tripling and quadrupling what we observed just one year earlier.
The biggest, most noticeable change has been among the women, growing from 2 or 3 to 15-20 consistent attenders. Why have the Gmz women been flocking to church? Well, we may be biased in our assessment, but we begin by remembering that these rural Gmz women are monolingual…meaning that they speak only the Gmz language. In addition Gmz women are not privileged to attend school. Thus, the formal school-like church setting, with its readings from foreign books in foreign languages, only emphasizing their feeling of inferiority. But now, Scripture in the Gmz language has removed the linguistic dividing wall and the all-Gmz leaders have welcomed ALL Gmz with open arms. The church is not only for the educated young men, but for all.
TRAVIS: After the final introductory song, Habtamu, one of the translation team members, got up and called the children outside for their lesson. As I saw the throng of children squeeze through the double door, I thought to myself, "It's a good week to have Habtamu leading the kids' time, such a herd needs a strong teacher!"
ANDREA: I remember the first time we met Habtamu, early on our first morning in Gesas. Hearing that he might be a good language helper, word was sent to his village saying, "Some new foreigners are coming to live here and they want to learn the Gmz language. Could you stop by their house sometime in the coming week?" The very next morning, we were barely out of bed when a knock came at the door. We knew at that time, that Habtamu was eager and ready to work! Over the next two years, we found him to be gentle, full of faith, and quick to serve others. Habtamu isn't the top reader or writer or the sharpest translator on the team, but when it comes to faith, leadership and love for God, he shines throughout the community! We love knowing that each day in the translation office, Habtamu is studying and internalizing God's word as he translates. Exciting things happen when a heart surrendered to God becomes infused with His living Word.
I followed a few paces behind, as our little white Micah toddled out the doorway with Habtamu and the other kids. A big group today…Habtamu would have his hands full…Lord give him strength!
TRAVIS: My eye then caught Work'u approaching the podium and again I lifted up a silent praise to God. Work'u, after working for one year on the Gesas translation team, was recommended and chosen to join the official New Testament translation team led by the Bible Society of Ethioipa. This 3-man team is made up of Work'u, from the protestant church, Thomas from the Orthodox Church, Janey from the Catholic church and myself as the translation advisor. My favorite memory of Work'u is from the day we were translating Luke 9:62. which reads, "Dagakwaak'w a-Yesus daka, 'B'aga etamad'aak'w-jabiyaha gayid'ogw gabooŋguma, akaalaaŋgo mada da nat'isa na-alaMisa.'" Literally translated, "Jesus answered, 'The person who grabs the handle of the plow and yet looks behind him cannot do work in the Kingdom of God.'"
Chapter 9 had been a long push, and so, after putting the final period on verse 62, I slouched deep into the backrest of my plastic chair. The translators started their own conversation and after a few moments, I straightened up and motioned for us to begin chapter 10. When their side conversation continued, I became a bit perturbed and asked, "Hey, what's going on?" to which Work'u responded, "Makwaak'oma dagah" meaning, "That was a good answer." Seeing the blank look on my face, Work'u's smile straightened in seriousness, "Jesus' answer…it was really good. You can't plow a field if you are looking backward." Wow, I had long crossed that verse off my to-do list and mentally transitioned to the work that awaited us in chapter ten. My co-translators, on the other hand, had gotten stuck on the profoundness, wisdom and truth in Jesus' response. Coming from a culture that actually plows with oxen, they know very well that someone distracted by something behind him cannot keep a straight line in the soil. So also the distracted minster of the gospel cannot serve the kingdom well. I am thankful for Work'u, as a member of the official New Testament translation team, he needs to maintain this same focus on the important task ahead!
As one of the strongest readers in the church, Work'u read through Genesis 1 with confidence, setting the stage for the sermon on this creation text and the song written from it. Upon finishing, he handed the floor over to today's preacher, Dewan. I had forgotten who had volunteered for each of these roles at last week's planning meeting, but as it unfolded before me now, I could only shake my head in amazement at the all-star line-up for this service.
Dewan isn't big by stature, nor by age, but his intelligence and critical thinking skills are unmatched in the translation office. Not only that, Dewan is also probably the most-knowledgeable and the most-gifted communicator in the church's preaching rotation. "Once again," I thought, "God is clearly at work behind the scenes, orchestrating a masterpiece."
As I was still basking in amazement of God at work, Dewan launched into his explanation of the first verse and I was soon reminded that our enemy is not indifferent to what was happening. Surely, he could see it just as well as I could. Surely, he wouldn't let this all-star service continue without some "excitement." And so it began.
We praise God for the many women who have begun coming to church in these past few months. However, probably 80% of Gmz women of childbearing years are accompanied twenty-four-seven by their youngest child. Most weeks, these half a dozen little guys and gals pose no problems. However, when the church is packed to the brim with adults (as it was today), it is consequently full of infants as well, and their scooting around on the floor magnifies the possibility of disruption. In a large room that reverberates sound like a gymnasium, Dewan didn't stand a chance. He tried firm rebukes of the kids, he tried waiting patiently for the excitement to pass, other elders tried intervening, but in the end, it simply had come down to patience. What other options were there? If you expel the disruptive infants, their mothers who have come to hear God's word, must also be booted. And what would that communicate about who is and who is not welcome in God's house? The Gmz elders made a good decision and simply did their best, especially Dewan. And in the end, God's word went out.
With the implosion of what I saw as a fail-proof sermon out of Dewan, my confidence and optimism were shaken. I prayed silently as Habtamu and the horde of children re-entered the sanctuary and two men carried in the big Gmz drum from where it had been warming up in the late morning sun. Here we go, time for the grand finale.
With everyone on their feet encircling the big drum, Gwiaanz was cued to start the beat and all eyes turned to Habtamu who started the traditional Gmz dance step (a close cousin to the hokey pokey's "put your right foot in, put your right foot out"). I started my recording device and switched on my camera, ready to capture the entire event from beginning to end.
Now, I expected a slow and bumpy start, but I didn't expect what was about to take place. With the drum beat pounding in our chests and the uniform step/dance raising our collective anticipation, Habtamu belted out the opening line. "Dayidats aMisa magahama, dazazats b'aga na-nneya mazhizhogwa." Immediately, the room burst into chatter, the drumbeat stopped and once again confusion had capitalized. Habtamu had begun singing the wrong song. You see, we had translated Genesis 1 with the goal of writing a song summarizing the main themes in that creation text. The Gmz guys, however, had struggled to fit the whole message in one song and so they wrote two: the first focusing on the first three days of creation, and the second on days 4-6. These two songs would then be introduced on back to back Sundays. Today's service, with Work'u's reading and Dewan's sermon, had set up the first creation song, but Habtamu began singing the second. An honest mistake, but Habtamu's humble heart allowed him to shake it off without a problem, yet confusion was winning the day.
After an awkward half a minute, with the side chatter still in progress, Habtamu cued the drum and began singing again - this time the right song. "Nagatisok'wa, nagatisok'wa, Misa dazaz nneya galaguza." The congregation joined in at this point, but sadly, they didn't get very far. Somehow, the drum player had gotten off the rhythm and there is no possible way to keep a Gmz song afloat in the presence of an off-kilter drumbeat. So as the song instantly fell apart, insults were hurled at Gwiaanz and WoHis was chosen to take his place. Habtamu did his best to call attention back to the song as he tried to start it for now the third time.
I looked around the room at what I had hoped to be an amazing worship experience where the Gmz church would rally around the new song in their traditional music style. Instead, I saw confusion, distraction, arguments, and frustration everywhere I looked. This third attempt at the song now limped along with only a handful of people singing, and after five or so painful minutes, I was ready to pull the plug and admit defeat. This was nothing short of a train wreck, but why? Weren't we following God's lead? Anxious to escape the scene before me, I thought back to what had brought us to this point.
Bible translation is more than just putting words on a page. That is why in the past decade or two, Wycliffe Bible Translators has developed a large new focus in their training programs – a department known as Scripture Engagement. If a people group for example, has no literacy, or if there is political opposition, or low spiritual hunger, the translation of Scripture will be of little value.
So, even from the very beginning days of the translation project, there has been a lot of strategizing - how can the Scriptures be used within Gmz culture? They aren't readers and really have no need for reading, in absence of any books. Launching literacy classes and developing a library so as to make the skill of reading worthwhile is a full-time job in itself, and not what we have training for. So back to the drawing board, to bypass the challenge of a massive literacy project, they can use little solar-powered Mp3 players and distribute Scripture in an oral way. That way, anyone with ears can easily access the word of God. This is definitely one route to be pursued, but, unfortunately, the Gmz culture is not ready for this either as they have little interest in an ancient people from ancient times in faraway lands. The idea of learning for knowledge sake is foreign; in fact, there are no words in Gmz for teaching and learning. For teaching they use the word datimbats that literally means "to show" because anything worth teaching is something that is able to be shown – plowing a field, harvesting sorghum, herding livestock, making porridge, etc. Gmz have no need of teaching a theoretical concept if it can't be shown practically. So, to prepare the road for Scripture, they could develop a series of Bible-based stories that could then be shared casually around the evening campfires. Such stories could confront false views of God. This would then raise the spiritual hunger of community so that the Gmz people really want to learn the message of the Bible. But, as I continued to think, I realized that the Gmz culture is not a story-telling culture either. There are no traditional stories that are passed on from ancient days, stories that reveal the Gmz cultural worldview and pass on important historical events, theological beliefs, or societal morals. So, introducing stories would once again be a foreign concept, a new and strange way of communication for the Gmz. So how can Scripture be introduced in a way that is culturally natural? How can its message be shared not only in the Gmz language, but also in a way that is distinctly Gmz, so it is most easily understood?
The idea first hit home while I was huddled in my warm tent on Mt Kilimanjaro, reading a book on oral cultures. The book gave a bunch of exciting examples from around the world where storytelling, song, art, and theater were used to communicate God's truth. Many of the examples gave little insight into how the Gmz might relate the message to each other, that is, until I read of a particular culture which incorporated a ritualistic dance and chant as a means of passing the folklore stories down to subsequent generations. It was here that I stopped and put the book down. The Gmz do not have folklore, nor do they have histories that they pass down, but they do have their own unique style of singing and dancing. They have their own musical instruments and it is clear that music has a very prominent place in their culture. Every wedding, funeral, or celebration of any kind involves the whole community singing far into the wee hours of the morning. It would be impossible to count the number of nights that we fall asleep to the low thud of an andinga drum, and the distant duet of Gmz men and women belting out their harmonies from deep within their hearts. We can imagine them, forming a circle around the big drum and falling into uniform step. What if the message of Scripture could be put into this musical genre that is already woven deep within the fabric of Gmz culture?
Leaving the book on the shelf, we took a few days to study Gmz songs and as we did, we found more and more confirmation that this was in fact, the avenue that was needed.
ANDREA: Right about this time, Travis began working with the official New Testament translation team, and the Lord provided a young lady to watch Micah in the mornings, so I was able to jump in and work with Dewan and Habtamu on a regular basis. Having recorded and transcribed some of the Gmz songs from their clan they quickly discovered that the range of topics sung about is quite large.
Digging a bit deeper, there was a huge discovery. Gmz songs are written by and sung in clans. When people attend a funeral, the clans take turns singing their songs. To sing with one's clan is a declaration of who someone is – "I am dubekaca" or "I am ditsimba." Allegiance to one's clan is very important as clans live and die together, they march into war together and cover each other's backs. If someone from my clan murders someone from your clan, an immediate fear grips us both. Since your clan suffered the loss at the hand of my clan, it is your responsibility to avenge that death by murdering one of my clan, possibly even me. That means that I cannot go anywhere near your house for fear of being murdered and if I see you anywhere near my house, I will assume that you have come to kill me and I will kill you first. One's clan is a very big deal in Gmz culture, and singing one's clan songs is an affirmation of one's allegiance to that clan. So now, imagine with me what it means to put the message of Scripture into this same song genre. Would they not be holding up their flag, proclaiming allegiance to the clan of Christ? Ephesians 2 states that in Christ, racial diversity is unified into a whole new person, neither Jew nor Gentile, they are members of the undivided body of Christ. Could the Gmz not communicate that same idea by simply using the genre of clan songs: "Our bloodlines represent many different clans, but through faith in Christ, we are one, members of the clan of Christ."
Upon discovering this exciting potential in the Gmz musical culture, we couldn't wait to get started. Habtamu, Dewan and I drafted Genesis 1, Travis did some exegetical checking and they had their assignment –capture the creation story from Genesis 1 in song. It was exciting enough when they revealed their two creation songs to us in the translation office, and couldn't wait to unveil them to the church as a whole.
TRAVIS: Or so we thought. For now, as I had watched the much anticipated debut suffer distraction after distraction, I questioned whether they had taken the right route. I was ready to throw in the towel and try again next week, but thankfully, I am not the leader of the Gmz church. Praise God that Habtamu, Dewan, Work'u, Damis, Gulbak, Wohis, Wene, and others had the perseverance to continue. Determined not to let Satan's distractions prevail, they repeated their first creation song over and over and over and over and over again. After ten minutes of singing, things started to come together in the main chorus. After fifteen minutes, the women began experimenting with their traditional harmonization. By the twentieth minute, the song had hit its stride. Seven more minutes of steady growth in intensity and Habtamu finally put his hand in the air to signal the final time through the chorus. With three strong beats on the large drum, the stepping stopped as the last word completed its echo off the tin roof above our heads. The air was electric as the Gmz believers applauded their new song, grinning ear to ear on their normally unexpressive faces! God's word in song was reaching down to the depths of Gmz hearts, not only in the Gmz language, but in the Gmz musical style, translated, composed and performed by Gmz believers.
I waited a brief minute for the typical dismissal as I wanted so badly to shake hands and hug my brothers and sisters in Christ. But it didn't come, instead, the excited chitter chatter was pierced with Habtamu's right foot coming down hard. BOOM! And then easing back into the familiar step we had just practiced for the last 27 minutes. WoHis thumped his heavy hands back against the drum head and the message was clear…they weren't done yet. Dayidats aMisa magahama, dazazats b'aga na-nneya mazhizhogwa. It was the second creation song. The first time through was rough, the second was much better, the third and fourth times were sung in full harmony, as were the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth times, filling the sanctuary with an additional 15 minutes of Gmz praise for our Creator!
Normally after a full church service, I'm ready go. But not today. It had been an unusually long service, even without the 45 minutes of closing song. But today, there was honestly no place I wanted to be more. Here I was, here we were, given the privilege of a lifetime to be worshipping God with the Gmz church. The privilege of seeing the body of Christ unified, creating a whole new clan in Gmz culture…the clan of Christ!
The exciting times, it seems are just beginning. The team will continue to translate key passages of Scripture…creation…fall…God's covenant with Abraham…the exodus from Egypt…God's promise to David…the incarnation…the life and ministry of Jesus…his death…his resurrection…his coming kingdom! They will continue to write Gmz songs that not only accurately reflect the Scripture, but that have Gmz melodies that stick in people's minds and hearts. We will record them and put them onto the mobile phones that are springing up in the hands of many of the younger Gmz near us. The songs sung in the Gesas Gmz church are not at all limited to those four mud walls. They will be carried back to the individual villages, and out to the fields. But with the introduction of newer technology, the radius of impact is limited only by the limitations of the language boundary itself. For one morning, earlier in our translation work, I had recorded some translated Scripture and placed it onto Habtamu's cell phone. I then asked Dewan if he wanted that same text on his phone. Dewan smirked, picked up Habtamu's phone, pressed some buttons, pointed the phones at each other and said, "I got it." Dumbstruck I asked what he just did, "Bluetooth" he said. Now, I still don't know what Bluetooth is or how to use it, but I know one thing – Bluetoothing God's Redemptive songs from phone to phone could spark a wildfire far beyond what we will ever know on this side of heaven. And again, we are humbled to be able to have a front row seat on the action!
ANDREA: In all of this please don't misunderstand, we don't want this presentation to be about what we are doing among the Gmz people. It is not that at all. Rather, it is about what God is doing among the Gmz people and the privilege that we have to participate in it. And that participation is not just for Travis, myself, Micah and Grace. But rather, it is the participation of all who make this work possible. Those who support us administratively, financially and spiritually through prayer. The network needed to make this ministry possible is enormous and we want to thank all of you all for your partnership in this eternally significant work!
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