Category: Oral Bible Storying

In this video Patrice (one of our translators) describes more about the Drafting step of the process.

The first step in Bible translation is Exegesis, which leads to a front translation. The second step is called Drafting. In this stage we work to understand the text as a group, then develop the first draft of the text in Kwakum. Over the next four videos we will be describing the process of drafting. In this video, I talk to Koo (one of our translators) about the first part of the process of drafting: understanding the text. The most important concept here is: “You cannot translate a text that you do not understand.”

Meet the eight people that we have asked to work with us to translate the Bible into Kwakum! Throughout the years, we have worked closely with many Kwakum individuals and watched how they interacted with people, especially when they disagreed with each other. We have watched how teachable they were when criticized. We have also watched to see how capable they were in their knowledge of the Kwakum language. Then, this past month we put out an application to see who would be interested in becoming official translators with us. We received 18 applications, called references, interviewed people, and prayed….

This coming Saturday will be a big day. On the literacy front, we will be administering a 10-page exam in Kwakum to determine who among our students is ready to receive a diploma and an “I can read in Kwakum” T-shirt (one of the many tools that we are using to get people reading…). In addition to students reading various texts and answering comprehension questions, they will be required to teach someone who has not participated in a literacy class the ABCs. We’ve set the bar high in literacy and so far people are rising up to this standard. On…

Saturday marked the end of our second Oral Bible Storying (OBS) weekend! This is a really exciting time because now, for the first time, we have started to translate biblical content into Kwakum. We have spent a total of two weekends working on the Creation narrative from Genesis 1-2, and currently have a very good draft that we will soon be sending to consultants to check. I thought some of you might want to know what that looked like, and how OBS relates to Bible translation. This post is going to go through what we did for these two weekends,…

The curtains are hung, the furniture is in place, the books are in their shelves. It is time to get this ministry party started. This literacy and translation center (“Kwakum House”) is designed to be a hub of Christian and literacy efforts among the Kwakum people. Our dreams for this place is that the Lord would fill it up with education and spiritual truths to bring change among the Kwakum and to bring about worship of Christ. In September, we plan to kick off women’s Bible studies going through Firm Foundations (an evangelistic curriculum that goes from Creation to Christ),…

A Recap on the Oral Bible Storying Workshop This last Wednesday we spent nearly 8 hours in an Oral Bible Storying (OBS) workshop with about 20 Kwakum men and women. Together we wrestled to understand the context and meaning of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. The goal of this meeting was to begin to give our friends an idea of what OBS is going to look like in the future. Particularly we wanted them to understand that it was going to be a lot of work. A goal that was achieved as…

Wednesday of this week will kick off an exciting new chapter in our ministry to the Kwakum people. Two of our friends and colleagues with Wycliffe/SIL will be joining us in our village to help launch an Oral Bible Storying project. We plan to have about 30 Kwakum people assembled to learn how to translate and transmit Bible stories orally. The two stories chosen to demonstrate the process are Elijah and the Prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18) and the story of the Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:10-14). Our rationale in launching translating and transmitting some Bible stories orally…