Check this out!

Go check out "Nyungwe Bible Translation"! As you can guess...it's a blog completely devoted to the translation of the Bible into the Nyungwe language in Tete, Mozambique. Nyungwe is

a language spoken by more than 250,000 people living in the region of the Zambezi River.

It's a concise little blog that shows anybody who's interested, from financial and/or prayer supporters to any old person like me who has an interest in the subject, a little bit about what goes on in the world of translation. It's not necessarily all that academic, because it's not here to instruct us about how to translate or anything, but it is very professionally written. I believe an American missionary working on the project writes this blog. Based on his post in the May of 2008, linking us to his other blogs, he is David Ker,

a media access specialist and member of Wycliffe Bible Translators based in Mozambique, Africa.

Wycliffe Bible Translators, by the way, is probably the biggest organization out there devoted to translating the Bible into all the languages spoken by all the people on Earth. (But more info on them later!)

One post I like is one from April 2006, where more light is shed into the process of Bible translation. In my mind when I was younger, I imagined Bible translation to be a dangerous, adventurous journey where a family would go alone into an unknown area and live with the "natives", as the natives do, slowly learning their language and developing a script for it. But now that areas of the world are more developed, I suppose it's more common for things to be done more efficiently as a group effort. With training, nationals are actually doing more of the actual translating now, not foreign missionaries. Computers are available, too.

This post in November 2007 reveals to you the dedication these people have for translation. It's boiling hot in Mozambique, even in November, so the most comfortable place to work is in the shade outdoors!--on little wooden chairs? With our worldviews and living standards, I'm sure I'd be thinking about how my butt's so sore and my feet are all dusty, but really--this is home for others! And reading the previous post, this Pastor Semo (the joyful, smiling man in the picture, I presume)--his wife had passed away about two months prior. That he still has this passion, drive, and joy is completely inspirational to me; it really is a testament to how God heals.

This blog averages about 4 posts a year: this is probably due to busy schedules and perhaps limited internet access. Posts are kept short, probably due once more to limited internet access. As for popularity, I suppose it is not that popular--the post with the highest number of comments contain 2 comments. Most posts are commentless and a technorati search yields no results.

Besides all that technical stuff, I'll be coming back to this site as a reference about ways in which Bible translation occurs. There's not a whole lot, but it's just so cool to be reading about something that's happening right now. In real time. Otherwise, the only contact I'll have with a particular translation process is probably just the finished product. w00t!

--kowai-kawaii