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Transcript of Pryor David Sharran 1984 PNG
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m
OCT ' ^ 98
V Z 3
Pryors Prayers
Prais
PIONEER BIBLE TRANSLATOR
F I E L D A D D R E S S :
David
W.
Sharran
O Brien
Pryor
B o x
9 9 7
Madang,
Papua New Guinea
Volume
VIII,
Issue
2
F O R W A R D I N G
A G E N T S :
K e v i n
L.
D o nn a J .
O B r i e n
c / o
P i o n e e r B i b l e T r a n s l a t o r s
P O B o x 2 4 5 9 3
Indianapolis.
IN
46224
March
-
August
1
P R O G R E S S R E P O R T
It has b een a
while
since
we
have g iv en you an update on our
work,
so
we
will do that
in this
newsletter. Many aspects
of our
work
involve
long
tedious processes, and
the
progress is slow. If we
repor ted on
these each
newsletter you might tire
as much of
reading
We ar e still working on , . . as we would
tire
of writing it. By spacing these
reports
a bit
farther
apart it is
more
encouraging to
us, and
hopefully to you,
too.
Church
Growth: Last
year
at
this
time
at tendance fo r
Sunday morning worsh ip was
so
lo w tha t men, women and children could all fit
in the
small
church
building
at the mission
s t at i o n . Now
th e
men , w o m en a nd c hi ld re n w ho
are
ei ther pre-school
o r p as t
sixth grade meet in
the large
recreation building at the s tat ion, and
the schoo l
age
children fill the
church
building
fo r th eir own ser vice. Last year at this
time
Sunday
night
services
were
held in the village
a n d c a n c el le d
if it h a d
r a i n e d
w i t h i n
t h e
h o u r
be fo re the service, Wednesday even ing prayer
meetings
were
off and on
and att ended
mostly
by
children.
Now
Sunday
evening
services
are
held in the recreat ion building
rain
or shine, and
prayer meet ing services are held
every night of
t h e
week.
If it rains, we m e et u nd er s o m e o n e s
h o u s e .
For years it h as bee n
difficult
to get anyone
be sides the village
pastor or myself to
be
interested
in
preaching and teaching
for
an
the services . Now we have seven
other
vi
men b es id es th e p as to r a nd
myself
who
ro
with
us to share t he p reach ing and teac
load.
(Our son John has a lso s tar ted preac
now, and
in my prejudiced
opinion
—
whi
shared
by t he p eopl e ~ he does quite wel
Coopera t ion
by
church members
p r e s i d i n g
over the s e r v i c e s serv
communion, e tc . was done
by
a
few
r el u ct an c e a n d w i t h o u t e n t h u s i a s m .
N o w t
are enough volunteers to take care of e
nightly p raye r mee ting
and
the services
Sundays
fo r
a full
month
and
still
not
have
u
everyone who is
willing
to b e used.
And
a
this
is happening
eight months
aft er the re
started, after things have settled down to a m
even
pace,
and
only the committed remain
The church is
now
in a period of
growth
th
so
essential to
their matur ing
faith.
This
is
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time when th e miraculous is not an everyday
o c c u r r e n c e s o t ha t t he ir
faith c a n
be tested,
internalized
more fully and s tr engthened.
Though things appear outwardly calm,
it is
very
evident
that
th e
Holy
Spirit is at
work
in th e
lives
of
th e
people.
Literacy:
The spiritual
growth
of th e church
has p roduced
a
t remendous interest
in
the lives
of
t he o lder
men
and women
of
the
village in
learning
to
read.
In the
early days
of the
Australian
Church of
Christ
work among o ur
people,
the
older men
by
virtue
of
their
age
alone
assumed
leadership pos it ions . Over the
years,
though,
their children have had
th e
benef it o f
schooling
and l ea rn ing to
read
in
Pidgin
and
have
thus gradually t aken ove r t he
leadership roles. According
to
the ir cul tu re ,
this Is no t
ideal.
And
with
all
that
is going on
now.
they
are even more motivated
to learn to
read and have the scriptures in their language.
F o r
t h e s e r e a s o n s
w e
h a v e
c o m m i t t e d
ourselves to
teaching
the
older
men and women
first to r ea d a n d w r i t e in K ir e.
We
h a v e o u r first
pre-reading book
about half complet ed and
hope
to start
the class about the
last of
September or early October.
T h e n
f r o m
m i d - N o v e m b e r
u n t i l m i d -
December
we
will
be
back in the highlands for a
primer construction workshop. During
that
time
we
hope
to
complete
the greater
portion
of
th e first Kire primer.
And,
if all goes well, our
first literacy classes with the primerwill begin in
th e spring
of
next
year.
It is encouraging
and
exciting to see the
interest of
the
older
people
in learning
to
read. I
c an t r e m e m b e r if I h a v e
s h a r e d
t h i s in a
previous
newsletter,
or not, but three of th e
older
men in
our
village have made trips to
Madang to
get glasses so
they will
be
able to
see
to read. That
really
touches us .
We
are a lso deeply moved
by
prayers we
have
heard at prayer meeting
that
go
something
like
t h i s :
Great Father,
we
are
really
happy about
what is happening in
our
church. So many
have
given themselves to You and we
are
al l wanting to
know
more
about
You We
have the Pidgin New Tes tament , but we
want
the
Bible in our
language.
We do n
understand what is taking David an
Sharran and
their
helpers so
long.
B
whatever
it is that
they
do not know or u
derstand
yet,
hel p th em
to
learn it quick
s o
w e
c a n
h a v e
o u r
o w n
B i b l e
a n d
all
o f o
people
will know how to read it and yo
church can grow in
al l
of
our
villages.
We
do appreciate
your prayers
in this reg
too. In fact,
we
do have
some real
progres
r epor t a long these
lines.
Translat ion: Before our three langu
helpers
went to th e se cond
year
course
national translators last April through J
they
h ad c omple te d the
translation of R
Jonah,
Esther
and
sixteen
chapters
of
A
S in ce th ey
have
come back from
th e co
they
have
completed the back
t ranslat io
these
portions,
and
as of yesterday, August
we have
completed
our preliminary
checkin
R u t h .
T h i s
m e a n s
t h a t
it h as b ee n
c h e c k e d
accuracy, fidelity to
th e
original,
spelling
err
proper
transliterations, proper disco
features as much as possible at this
stage)
n a t u r a l n e s s .
T h i s
is a real m i l e s t o n e f o r u
Next comes th e
checking
with
the vil
committee.
This.
too.
is
an impor tan t t es t.
translation will be read to
them
por ti ons
time,
and
they
will
see
if it
sounds
like
good
or is
to o unnatural and
awkward. Thei r
inpu
how it could
be
expressed
b ette r a nd
m
naturally
will be
received.
We will a ls o
them on the impor tant points of each port io
ensure that
th e
mess ag e h as
been
accura
translated for
their
understanding. Then
du
the
la st week of August a consultant from
Papua New Guinea Translation Association
meet with us fo r the final
checking.
You
might be ask ing
why
we
are
transla
these books for our first
pro ject s. Here
are
re sons
Since
we
first
began our p rogr am we
h
wanted
to train our national helpers as
full
possible
and s tre tch them
to
their
full poten
knowing
that
this would yield a be
t ranslat ion and
hasten
it s completion. We h
not
only
sponsored
them in
the first
and
sec
y e a r
c o u r s e s fo r
n a t i o n a l
t r a n s l a t
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(conducted
by the
Papua
New
Guinea
Bible
Translat ion
Association,
th e S ummer
Institute
of Linguistics and
Pioneer
Bible Translators),
but I have also worked
at
fu rthe ring the ir
training
in t rans la ti on p rinc ip le s dur ing our
time
in
th e
village.
One of th e
first steps
is
le ar ning how
to
translate
a
simple narrative
(simple is perhaps
an
overstatement) . These
books
mentioned
are
narra t ives
wi th
little
d idac t i c mater ia l in t h em.
Clearly
establishing
the d is cour se
story
form
and
translating
it will
help
immensely
when
they
begin
translating t he gospe l
accounts.
Too,
simple
stories
are
th e
easiest
fo r new
readers to re ad with unders tanding . So
having
t h e s e nar ra t ives
t ra ns la te d s er ve s
a
dua l
purpose fo r our translation and literacy
p r og r ams .
Training:
Speaking
of training, we
have
trained Namput in
using
our Radio Shack TRS-
80
portable computer (made
possible by a
special gift from Mr.and Mrs. Jon Stevens). He
types the first draft on to
the computer
and
transfers
it from
th e computer
to a
cassette
for
storage. Then, after we have made the
necessary corrections on a chapter, he puts
each
chapter
file
back
on
the
computer, types in
the correct ions and puts the corrected file
back
on the cassette tape. When the checking and
corrections
ar e
completed,
the
work
that
he
has
done
-- in addition to putting in all the appro
priate field markers to tell
the computer
what to
do
--
makes the book re ady to r th e computer
print-out that makes the book picture ready for
printing and publication. Ifhis ancestors could
only see
him
now
Darampu is the next to be trained on the
computer. That will mean four of us (counting
Sharran and
myself)
who can
use th e
computer
to
enter and
manipulate all of our data for
analysis and scripture portions. But having
Namput
and
Darampu able to take
care
of a lot
of
the
busy work frees us for the
areas
of our
program which they cannot handle and
speeds the total
program
along. Besides
that, it gives them a greater feeling of ful
fillment being more a part of the work, and a
feeling of
achievement fo r
mastering
something so
technical.
Ethnic
research:
Sharran
has t ak en ove r
monumental task
of
assembling
all
the
observat ion and
research
notes that
have gathered over
the years
relating to
culture of the Kire people. As
she
gathers th
and
writes
them
up in
the
form of a
resea
paper, she is
able
to find all of the gaps in
knowledge of
the
people's
customs
and beli
This o f course will
l ea d t o f ur th er research a
additions to our data. The
end
of
this
pro
will
culminate
in finishing
th e
paper
publication and/or s torage in the PBT/P
b ranch
arch ives .
It
will a lso m ean one m
requirement
out
of the way putting us
one
s
closer to
total
t ime being
spent
in translat
and literacy. The target date for the
complet
of t he paper is May of next year.
Linguistic Analysis: We
are nearing the
of
this stage
of
the
analysis of
the
Kire
so
system. We have nearly 75 of all
the
so
alternations
(such
as s becoming
a z
so
when the plural suffix -i is added as in
word for bushkni fe : kos
+ i becomes
k
accounted
for, having discovered
the
envir
ments
and
processes
governing
these
chang
We are working now on some of the m
difficult ones that we think
are
governed rat
than c lassed
with
irregulars.
John
Clifton,
the
SIL consultant who
helped
so
much
in
the
analysis,
is
going
spend
part of his vacation with us here at Ga
to try to wrap up as much as possible at
stage.
We
have resigned ourselves
to
th e
that
some of th e mysteries of th e
sound sys
will no t
be
resolved until
we
get
further
literacy and get
some
feedback
from
people.
But
we are,
at
least,
far enough along to be
ou r
literacy
work. By th e time our liter
classes
begin next spring we
will
h
a c coun t e d
fo r
90 95 of th e s o u
alternations, written a paper
describing
all, and will
have
achieved approved ort
graphy status. This will allow us to be
publishing up a certain
percentage
of
sc
t u r e .
Thanks so
much fo r all of your pray
I
think
I
can
see
the
light at
the end
of
t unne l .
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YOU ARE COMING
BACK
WHEN
We recently
made
a decision
to
extend
this
term from four to
five years
which
means
we
will
no t
be c om in g ba ck to the States until the
Spring
of 1987.
There
are
two main
reasons
for
thi s which we would
like
to share
with
you.
The
furlough timing as relates to John s and
Amy s schooling
is one factor. John is still
holding to
the desire
to
stay with
us
in
PNG
for a
year after he f inishes high schoo l and
help
us
translate.
He
is
taking
a
New Testament Greek
course now.
I ll be teaching
him some
translation
principles, and he will
work
with one
of
our language helpe rs to j us t
give
it a
try
and
gain some experience.
Not
only
wou ld this help our program, bu t it
would also
make it
possiblefor
Amy
to stay with
us
till
her last year of high school which she
would
th en ta ke in Amer i ca while we a re
on
furlough.
We
wou ld
enro l l
J o h n in J o h n so n
Bib le
Col lege dur ing August
of
1987
and stay
to
see
Amy s high school gradua tion in May, 1988
following which she
will
also enroll
in
Johnson
Bible
College.
Our
third
term
would
then
be
just
a
three year
term which would
get
us back
fo r
John s graduation, and then before returning to
PNG
we would
be
able
to
attend
Amy s
graduation
from
JBC,
too.
The
other
reason fo r extending this term
relates
directly
to
our
t ranslation program.
By
extending
thi s t erm fo r
another
year,
there
is a
good possibility that we
will get the
vast
majority
of all
our
linguistic
requirements out
of
th e way
before
furlough in 19 87 This would
mean t ha t we cou ld concentrate almost entirely
on
translation and literacy
work.
As
you
can
see, this
means that Sharran
and
I
will
return
fo r
our
third
term
by
ourselves.
Sharran
would
no longer
have the
responsi
bility of teaching correspondence to
the
children
and
would therefore give her full time
to translation
and
literacy. Though
the
children
will
be great ly missed and th e nest empty, we
will be
th an kf ul to
hav e h er a ss i s t ance a s we
h av e c omm i tt ed o ur se lv es t o
t rans la te the Old
Testament as well. But hav ing th e bulk of
term
fo r
translation with Sharran, myself,
our three language
helpers
all
work
together, we should be able to complete qui
b it o f t r ans la t ion
The only major drawba ck to extending
term
is that it
e xte nd s th e s ep ar atio n
t
be tween
us and
o u r
fami l ies an d f r i end
America. We continue
to
miss
you
all Inthi
have but one consolation: eternity is
com
soo
We
trust that you also see
the
wisdom
practicality in
this, and
we thank you in
adva
for your u ndersta nd in g and co ntin
expression
of confidence
and
love.
TH IS FURLOUGH
WILL BE
DIFFERENT
Last
fur lough we t rave led
all year long
motor home,
the
children
traveling with us
continuing their
correspondence
school w
we trave led. Thi s
next furlough we
will
nee
locate in
one
p la ce to allow Amy to finish
final year of high
school
in a
more
set
e nv ir onmen t. Too, David will have t o c on t
his graduate work. This will reduce the num
of speaking
engagements
we can have s
engagements will be limited mostly
weekend s
We
would appreciate
your prayers
guidance as to
where
to settle
during
year. It will
need
to be in th e
same t
as ,
or near
a
seminary, have
a
good
school
fo r
a
teenage
girl
who
will
undo
edly be undergoing culture shock,
be conveniently located
near the
graphic center of all our suppor
churches. We
sure
need God s lea
to
meet
all
of these
qual i f ica t io
Three different
a r ea s
are
u nd er c on sid
tion already.
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P le a se J o in
Us In:
P r a i s e
For the
progress
we
have
made t his yea r
For
the
growth of
t he chu rch
For the
people s
Interest in
having
and being
abl e t o r ead
the Bible in
their own
language
Prayer fo r
Namput
as
he works
with us. He
has
by
inher
itance
th e position
of village headman,
but
so far because of h is
belief in God he
feels
t hat h e cannot accept his position. Never
theless
he faces constant
pressure from th e
village to
take
this
role
which
many
of
them
don t realize
entails
performing a magic
r i tual .
Waisi
(Darampu)
as he works with us. He
preaches
quite
frequently
in
the
village
besides working for us and the villagers
demand a very high standard of his
Christian
life.
O ne
small mistake makes
him subject to great
criticism.
Palau
as
h e wor ks with u s. He
se e ms
t o o ft en
be pulled away from
the
work due to his
involvement
in
many
other
things.
He is
trying to build up a reputation as a big
man which is
mainly
done by giving away
food. That requires
having
a
very
large
garden and
much time to work in it. Pray
that God
will help him to se t hi s priorities
a s
G o d
would
lead
him.
David in his roles as
translator,
linguist,
Advisory
Committee member for the
P B T / P N G
b r a n c h
a d m i n i s tr a t i o n
consu l t an t
fo r
o u r th ree
co t r ans l a t o r s .
preacher, husband and father. He
n
God s wisdom
daily
to
fulfill all
these
wel l .
Sharran as
a homemaker , superv iso
John s and Amy s school, anthropol
wife
and
mother.
Many days s eem
consumed in breadmaking, etc., so
needs
God s wisdom to help balance a
ro le s .
John as he completes 10th gra de. B e
schoo l h e p reach es,
sings
and
play
guitar and writes
songs.
He also spea
language best
of all of us.
Amy
as
she
completes
8th
grade.
recently
contracted
a
really
strange
tha t a ffec ts
th e
nervous system. Go
used
this
to
really help
her realize
important he r life in Christ really is to
Pray for her as
she
tries to find
her
ta
and ministry among our people.
Yourselves t ha t God will
continue to
im
upon
you how thankful we are foryou
and
p rayer suppor t, a nd
how vital
really are
to
our ministry.