Bible Translation

I guess we all want to have heroes, but actually for the most part we don’t ever get to meet or know “real” heroes. Last night I had that very rare opportunity. Missionaries Guenther and Wanda Krieger spoke at our church. They have been missionaries with the Xerente Indians for 50 years now. They are both brilliant people and have poured out their lives in sharing the gospel with the people to whom God has called them. If that doesn’t make them heroes, what does?  And faithful they have been, as they have seen a tribe nearly decimated (around 400 people), be restored to strength (now over 2000) and be transformed by the Good News. They have totally invested in translating the Bible into the language of their people, which first meant writing the language! They have used these fifty years to learn the language and culture and be able to totally translate the “Word Given By the Supreme Creator” (as the Bible is called in Xerente). The New Testament has now been published.

They brought with them a copy of the Word of God that you see on the right. I felt I had the most precious thing I had ever seen in my life. Fifty years of love for God and his people.  I love the story he told about translating the flight of Mary, Joseph and Jesus, in that he translated the verb, “fled”,  in the plural. His consultant (one of his converts), told him it was conjugated wrong, since their language uses one conjugation for plurals and another for when there is one person and yet another when there are but two. The consultant told him that only Mary and Joseph fled, for Jesus was a baby and he was “taken” on the journey, but was not actively involved in the process. Fabulous! Years and years of tedious work to make sure it was accurate according to the Greek and Aramaic, and also to show it communicated accurately in Xerente. Wanda, his wife, (in the pink dress in the photo to the right) explained that the women have no rights at all and when she began to teach them read, the men told them they would never learn. They did, of course, since women usually have strong language/verbal skills and now the women read the Bible, out loud, in the worship services. I could have listened to their stories for hours as I sat enthralled. I drew a quick and dirty sketch of Guenther, which João says probably resembles someone somewhere, just not Pastor Guenther. Ha!

I am grateful to have met this wonderful couple. I am inspired by their lives. I am in awe of how God has used them. They are my heroes. Real heroes of faith. THEY deserve the Nobel prize, for they have sought to bring peace on earth where they live.