Training Bible Translators

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By Larry Doyle

The Translator Training Course is going well. The Solos translation program sent nine people, with several others not being able to come due to illness and other factors. We even had one surprise team member show up. We welcomed him to the team, since he has the enthusiasm to come to a 6-week course without any urging from us or the other team members. Three existing language teams sent one to three people each. Larry is busy every day mentoring one Solos group of three, while at the same time keeping tabs on the other two Solos groups. Thankfully, two experienced Bougainvillean translators from related languages volunteered to mentor them. Larry is also the co-teacher for the Study Skills section of the course, teaching such things as how to use dictionaries and concordances as well as introducing the participants to a wide range of Bible resources, background material, and research methods. In the course the team is going step by step through a very practical translation method, practicing on Joshua chapter 2. They are also frequently studying their own language for ideas on how to better translate. Early in the course they also looked closely at the background of geography and culture at the time of Moses and Joshua. As we approach the end of the course, we're working toward checking and printing the chapter we have worked on. It has been thrilling to watch the team's rapid progress these first three weeks.