Page 27 - Presbyterian Connection, Spring 2024

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of the 6 to 8 village dialects to use. Eventually, PCT leaders chose the dialect understood by most people. A Pinuyumayan Ro- man Catholic priest (now a retired bishop) translated the four gospels and Acts into his smaller Dz-bun dialect. His actions inspired oth- ers to star t translating too. From 1989 to 2005, several Presby- terian Pinuyumayan translators and reviewers slowly produced the Gospel of Mark. Two highly respected Presbyterian ministers diedofcancer,agreatlosstothe Pinuyumayan churches and these early effor ts at Bible translation. TheRev.Changfeltthelossofhis two dear friends very deeply. God inspired him to star t translating the entire NT on his own. When he finished, and realized he was not getting any younger, again inspired by the Holy Spirit, he pressed on and prepared a draft translation of the entire OT, too! This is an incredible accomplishment. It be- came the Rev. Chang’s gift to the Pinuyumayan Bible Translation Committee, which was officially formed in 2015. That’s when I was assigned by the BST to join the Rev. Chang and the team as their Translation Advisor.
The Rev. Haluwey laughed and cried when she told us how she thought Bible translation would be easy. The three-way covenant (MOU) signed by the Pinuyuma- yan District Churches, the PCT General Assembly’s Mother Lan- guage Bible Translation Commit- tee, and the Bible Society in Taiwan said they would take four years in total to translate both the Old and New Testaments! Even with the Rev. Chang’s draft translation, it took us eight years (2015–2023) just to translate the NT. We hope to complete Psalms and Proverbs in two years. These books will be useful in worship (responsive psalms) and Christian education. I
the Rev. Daniel Cheng who helped star t the NT project and suppor ted it until he retired this past summer.
I can’t thank God enough for his faithful servant, the Rev. Chang A-syin. The Holy Spirit inspired him to do a draft translation of the entire Bible, all 66 books, all 1,189 chapters, and around 31,000 verses. He obeyed God’s call and followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit. His God-given vi- sion of translating the complete Bible into his people’s mother tongue sustained him. During team review sessions, which I attended with him, he was hum- ble, open-hearted and patiently listened to others’ suggestions on how to improve the translation, a little here, a little there. He was willing to adjust words and sen- tences when necessary. But he could also stand his ground and say, “You younger Pinuyumayan speakers need to learn this cor- rect way of saying it.”
Ever since 2015, when I and other BST and United Bible Soci- eties (UBS) staff started training the Rev. Chang and the team, he was eager to learn new things that would help him: how to use Bible translation software; how to create wordlists and his own Pinuyumayan spell checker—an immense help in standardizing the spelling of what had been an oral language without anything in writ- ing; how to analyze Biblical terms in eight different semantic do- mains to check how consistently he and the team translated words for things like animals, plants, rit- uals, human and supernatural be- ings, and the many foreign names of people in the Bible.
After Covid hit and I could no longer meet with him or the team in-person in Taiwan, he learned how to have online meetings with me. We would usually Skype three times a week, for two to fours hours a session. My wife, Mary Beth, would sometimes say to me, “You kept the Rev. Chang online a long time today,” to which I replied, “He got so excited with the checks we were doing,
Some of the translation team the day after we celebrated the publication of the Pinuyumayan New Testament. Back to work on Psalms!
would note
ner that has suppor ted this impor- tant work: my own Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the ways it has supported me as the team’s Translation Advisor. Thanks also to
The New Testament Bible is printed in parallel columns with Pinuyumayan alongside Today’s Chinese Version (2019). Below, I reproduce it in rows. I close this blog with two wonderful gospel passages:
John 3:16
na Viruwa i itras kemazu kana lra- man kana trau i punapunan, arusay za verayanay tu Alrak na misasa,
‘aziya matrepu na pakutatena’ ziya kantaw na trau,
muveliyas kituluz kana munayun na uwavaawan. 上帝那麼愛世人， 甚至賜下他的獨子， 要使所有信他的人不致滅 亡，
反得永恆的生命。
1 John 4:9–10
9 na Viruwa i itras pazuwa i punapunan kanantu Alrak na misasa,
pakalrang ta kantaw kiveray za uwavaawan;
na Viruwa i itras mimanay kanini
na kudayan pakurena’u kanantu lramanan kanta.
10 ini mawna lramanan:
amelri ta na lraman kana Viruwa i itras,
maw na Viruwa i itras na lraman kanta,
pazuwa kanantu Alrak mu- ramawan kanta gisē,
semavung putrima’ kananta pinamelriyan.
9 上帝差他的獨子到世上來， 使我們藉著他得到生命; 上帝用這方法顯示他愛我 們。
10 這就是愛: 不是我們愛上帝， 而是上帝愛我們， 差了他的兒子為我們犧牲， 贖了我們的罪。
Thanks to all who pray and support our mission of Bible translation among the Pinuyuma- yan and other Indigenous people of Taiwan. The team and I press on with our review of the Psalms. To God be the glory!
a four th mission par t-
he didn’t want to stop!”
In August, I heard the happy
news that the New Testament Bibles had arrived in Taiwan, and that the Bible Society had already sent them to the Pinuyu- mayan churches. But I wondered, weren’t we going to have a pub- lication celebration service first? I learned that people were so ea- ger to start reading their new Bi- bles, they couldn’t wait. Plus, the Church District leaders decided they would combine the Bible publication service together with their 65th anniversary of mission service. A good choice.
What happened next in the wor- ship service was even better than I had imagined. All six churches (Puyuma, Likavung, ‘Alripay, Live- livek, Pinaseki and Tamalrakaw) took turns reading aloud their two previously assigned passages from the Pinuyumayan New Tes- tament. Twelve passages in total. Each church had practiced read- ing their passages. What a great way to inspire each church to start using their new Bibles. Children, young people, adults, middle-aged and seniors—all reading the scrip- tures in their ancestral language. Learning how to read simple words (some people for the first time), hearing familiar sounds, feeling God speak to their hear ts.
I found myself praying quietly as they read out loud. May God bless this new Bible and all who read, study and use it. May God use the Pinuyumayan New Testa- ment to help preserve their beau- tiful language. May God help the six churches promote literacy for people of all ages in their Pinuyu- mayan communities, just like we did today at this special worship service. And may God help every Pinuyumayan Christian proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ by sim- ply reading the Bible with a friend who is not yet a Christian.
The Rev. Haluwey Tapang, Chair of the Pinuyumayan Bible Translation Committee.
Likavung Presbyterian Church reading 1 Peter 1:23–25 and Matthew 24:35 in Pinuyumayan.
Read Paul’s mission blog, and all blogs of PCC mission staff, at pccweb.ca/missionblog
To help support Bible translation, visit presbyterian.ca/bible-translate-donate