18 languages translating Scripture together

In November we had a Bible translation workshop where 50 speakers of Aboriginal languages came together and translated Bible verses into 18 languages! (As a comparison, last year we had 14 participants.)

On the first two days we taught everyone the translation process and they all worked on Proverbs 3:5 in their language group. After that, each group could choose from 3 sets of verses which we had prepared workbooks for, and translate verses at their own pace. 

As usual, I had underestimated how slow Bible translation can be, especially when people are learning the process for the first time. But everyone seemed to really enjoy the workshop and be grateful for the opportunity. We were especially thankful for the many people who came to help, including some teachers from Nungalinya College and volunteers from ‘down south’. I had invited several people who'd shown an interest in Bible translation, as a way for them to find out more and to help us out. I was originally worried that we wouldn’t have enough participants for all the helpers, but in the end we had to seek out more help to cover the 18 languages. Praise God!

Hear from some of the workshop participants about why they came, in this 5 minute video: 

Give thanks for all of the participants and helpers who came to the workshop, and pray that the translated verses will be a great encouragement to each language community.