We are nearing the end of the NT. It's hard to believe, really. We decided to work on the Amphletts back in 1984. Thirty years have gone by very fast. I still remember the first time I was left on Nubogeta Island by myself. In late 1984, I along with two other men, Doyle Talman and David Lithgow, took the boat MV Kwadima out to Nubogeta. The plan was to get a house started for us. Doyle and David left after a couple of weeks. As the boat began pulling away, I had this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach as I realized that I did not really know anyone in this village and that I was stuck on this little tiny island (1/2 square mile in area) out in the middle of nowhere. My next thought was that I must be totally and completely crazy to be doing this. After I had quelled the fear in me, I set to work on trying to learn the language and get our house built. Not long after that, Roxanne joined me and we began in earnest to understand Gumawana. And now, 30 years later, there are just two books left to translate back into English for a later consultant check.
The present status of the Gumawana NT is as follows:
Consultant checked and published: Mark, Acts, Titus, Philemon, 1-3 John, Jude and Revelation.
Consultant checked: Matthew, Luke, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, 2 Thessalonians, and 2 Timothy.
Translated but not checked: John, Romans, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter.
Because I was unable to make a trip to the village earlier this year, I will not be able to consultant check the three books I had planned on doing. So I have had to revise our plans a bit.
Plans for the completion of the Gumawana NT:
2014: Village check John, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews.
2015: Consultant check John, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews.
Village check Romans, 1 Thessalonians, 1, 2 Peter
2016: Consultant checkedRomans, 1 Thessalonians, and 1, 2 Peter.
Village check 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians
2017: Consultant check 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians.
Edit Genesis, Exodus, Ruth and Jonah
2018-2019: Editing the NT and typesetting and publish.
2020: Dedication of the NT
Village checking is where I take the translated material and test it out with people who did not work on the translation. This tells me if people are able to understand it or not. Verses that are not easily understood or where they seem to give the wrong meaning are edited to make them clearer. When this process is over, I give a translation consultant what we call a "back-translation." This is where I translate the Gumawana back into fairly literal English. The consultant will use this for the basis of his checking by comparing it to the Greek or Hebrew. Based on the consultant check we will again make revisions. As you can see we depend on speakers of the language to tell us how well the translation communicates clearly.
Continue to pray for us as we go through all this editing that God will give us the eyes to catch places that are not right.
