“You see! Maruk does not know about the snake!” Pastor Julius said with a broad smile on his face. The translation group collectively turned to watch Maruk Mark walking toward us. Only moments before, a small forest cobra was spotted slithering across an open area. The men jumped up. One grabbed a long stick, another a rock. Before the snake finished its crossing, they were upon it. One quick blow to the head and a stone thrown wide brought the end to the snake. It was still writhing in the dirt as Maruk approached it. He noticed it within moments of Pastor Julius’ comment, and we all laughed as he instinctually jumped back. He good naturedly joined in seeing the flattened head and our reactions.
In the Lord’s providence, the Ugandan August school holiday aligned with my own. A few weeks before, we got word that desired edits to the English side of the booklet we were translating had been approved. We had the green light to move forward with integrating them into the existing Karimojong translation. I was excited and marveled at God’s perfect timing. Our sponsored high school students and the ministry team would all be available. Pastor Julius and I set a date to pick the project back up. In two days, we completed the integration, then we moved onto a community test where we invited local people unfamiliar with English to hear the translation read aloud. We then asked them what they heard to check their understanding and if there was a better way to say it. Our stated goal for the work is to clearly communicate the nature of God, people, and salvation to the local Karamojong. A second goal from the mission’s perspective is to train translators for potential future longer more complicated works and improve the quality of translation during worship. After lunch we dismissed the locals and discussed with the team the issues that had arisen in the morning. Questions arose about how to translate guilt and penalty, church membership versus church members, wrathful versus malicious. I loved it! I loved throwing out a question and watching the group good naturedly discuss. I loved challenging them to define concepts in their own language with a Biblical viewpoint that aren’t directly translatable. My enthusiasm for sticky questions triggered exclamations of revelation or laughter as a replacement to an answer they were still searching for – and I loved that too! Who knows which of these men will catch the translation bug?! It was hot, brainy work. This is where the snake made its dramatic entrance. It got our blood moving again in the sleepy hot afternoon and Maruk even used his reaction as an example for a tricky to translate word.
After the completion of the community test, I sent out the manuscript to outside translators for review. I tried to go outside our circle of influence and even outside our district – one was from Kotido, a district in northern Karamoja. I delivered three manuscripts but only got back one with any helpful comments in the desired timeframe. No matter, another part of the learning process. We sat again to review the suggested edits. A question arose regarding a word we had used frequently. The reviewer claimed it was from another Nilotic language and not Karimojong at all! After some debate, the group decided that although it was an Iteso word it had a completely different meaning in that language and could be used clearly as originally translated. In a country with over forty languages, and a language with numerous loanwords to fill in its vocabulary, this issue is no surprise although it did remind me that no matter how many times you go through a translated work you will always find something else to change or debate.
I entered those weeks focused on translation with excitement and trepidation. Would we complete all the steps I wanted? How long would it take? Would everyone show up and at the right hour? Would enough people from the community come for the test? Would they have any helpful comments or just rubber stamp our work? Would I have the mental stamina to track with what was being said and to direct the project well? I really didn’t know what each day would hold. I began by underestimating how long it would take and then erred on the other side. Thankfully the Lord provided extra care for my kids but I found it difficult to communicate to them exactly what I needed covered and when. The Lord reminded me of my weaknesses in body and mind, thereby increasing my appreciation for the gifts of others. It is a needling frustration that after so many years of studying the language I can’t sit down and do this project myself, but even this is from the Lord. If I could have, I probably would have but I would have missed out on the pleasure of comradery and opportunity for training. The project would have been limited and isolated instead of uplifting and uniting for the church. Even our weaknesses are intentional tools in the hand of our almighty God. In not knowing, I was free to proclaim, “We will see what the Lord will do!” He did not fail to act and graciously provided what we needed to reach the desired benchmarks.
Here we are, a few steps closer to publication still not knowing what even today will hold. We pray that the project will be completed, that it will be used for the building up of the church near and far. Although we diligently plant and water, it is the Lord who brings the fruit.