Katherine Language Work Place

In my break between semesters at Bible college, I went to the Northern Territory for 2 weeks and spent most of my time in Katherine at the AuSIL Language Work Place. (AuSIL = Australian Society of Indigenous Languages, Wycliffe’s on the field partner in Australia.) The Language Work Place is an office where Aboriginal people can come and work on Bible translations and Scripture resources.

Most of the work going on while I was there was in Kriol - a modern Aboriginal language that came out of Pidgin English. It’s the only Aboriginal language with the whole Bible translated, but the audio recordings are still being done. I saw people working on a youth study Bible for the Book of Mark, editing a Bible story book, preparing for a youth camp, discussing the reprint for the complete Kriol Bible and making small booklets with encouraging scripture verses. I spent most of my time working on an e-book and app for the Kriol Song Buk and making other apps using Bible verses and pictures as a tool of encouragement and teaching.

It was a great experience and I learned a lot. One of the things that really challenged me was the importance of helping the community to do things for themselves, rather than doing them for them, which requires a lot more patience! Please pray that God will keep equipping me for my work with AuSIL in the future and pray that he will continue raising up Indigenous Christian leaders across the country.

UPDATE 9/2/19 - The Katherine Language Work Place had to close due to a lack of available staff. Please pray for more people to support Indigenous Bible translation.