ON MISSIONARIES: A PERSONAL VIEW (9)

Good Bible translation depends on the wisdom of vernacular speakers. They know what sounds best in their language and what accurately represents their culture. When we were learning to speak East Kewa and lived intermittently in that area for 5 years, we had numerous Kewa people help us. Muli Yandawae was a gifted young man, who Joice taught to read and write. based on the orthography and books she had constructed. However, because the language had never been analyzed or written, it was several years before we could begin efforts at Bible translation and in those years, we published only a portion of the Gospel of Mark. However, the work we did helped us to have a comprehensive view of Kewa language and culture and prepared us well for our translation work in West Kewa years later.

Joice worked with several young girls and wrote down stories that they told her. They were upset when they learned we were leaving (for an extended furlough) and would not be back for some time. One of the girls, named Pene, told Joice that were going to “cry and cry” when we left.  Joice said they shouldn’t, but Pene insisted, “Yes, and here is how we will cry,” and then proceeded to wail. She soon stopped abruptly and said, “See, that is how we will cry.”

When we moved to the West Kewa area in 1967, the first young man to help me was Kirapeasi Yapua. He eventually wrote many stories in his language and was my major assistant in analyzing the grammar, compiling a dictionary and became a literacy teaching aid. Joice had taught him to read, write, and use the typewriter. He attended a Luteran Bible school for a year and completed elementary school as well. Although he never attended high school, he was brilliant at writing and discussing West Kewa and helped draft most of the New Testament.

We always tried to know and respect the “head men” of the clans and village. In the East Kewa hamlet of Muli, the brothers Kama and Roto were in charge. They supported the work we were doing, although they never learned to read and write Kewa.

In the West Kewa hamlet of Usa, Ropasi was the respected leader of the Nemola clan and several sub-clans. He guided his people through many changes and was always my friend. He contacted hepatitis in 1973 and although we did all we could to help him, he died and, subsequently, the work of the church suffered. 

Ropasi and several other male adults would often listen intently as I read the newly translated Kewa Scriptures. They would offer changes and corrections as needed. On one occasion when I was reading the Kewa translation of Galatians 5.19, Ropasi interrupted and asked, “Didn’t you tell us that the Bible stories are very old and that Paul was old? How did he know what we were like today”? He had understood the passage clearly and the implications of it. The verses that follow in Galatians 5 tell how the Holy Spirit can change anyone from that old kind of living.

On another occasion, a Wycliffe leader brought a visitor to the village to meet us. He had an important business somewhere in Florida. One of his first requests was that he meet the leaders of our village, so I sent out word for Ropasi and a couple of other men, including one named Kenoa. The man (I’ll call him Bill) asked me to interpret for him. “What would you like, if you could have anything in the world?” he asked. Kenoa responded quickly with a long list. Ropasi looked at the man and replied, “I would like to ask him a question.” I didn’t know what was coming. When Ropasi finished talking, I said “Ropasi wants to know what you think of him. Because he has only a bark belt, loin cloth and leaves in the back.” Bill was clearly a bit flustered. “Tell him that I don’t care what he is wearing, I just want to know what kind of a man he is inside.” Ropasi looked intently at Bill and replied to me, “Tell his that is what I want to know about him too. What kind of a man is he on the inside?”

Talk about insight! Ropasi had it. My friend later related that Ropasi’s discussion led to Bill’s becoming a more sincere Christian.

We had daily interactions with our Kewa friends and neighbors and almost every Saturday we would have the young men prepare a “mumu,” which is food cooked in an earth oven. The people would provide the vegetables (mainly sweet potato, which we loved and ate daily and some native greens), and we would provide meat. Anyone could come. The food in the mumu was steam cooked after wrapping it in leaves and layering it among hot rocks, then covering the earthen pit with banana leaves and dirt. After two or three hours, the pit was opened, and the food distributed. The people who knew us best would sit on the inner part of the circle, but food was always passed back to those on the fringe. It was always a wonderful time of fun and fellowship. I wondered if it was a precursor to the feasts we will enjoy in heaven.

Our work in Kewa was fostered by our relationships with the people and our work on earth is fostered by our relationship with God’s people, who represent Jesus.

Karl Franklin