Village checking for Bible translation

One of the last steps in Bible translation before the book is ready for printing is to do what is called "village checking."  This is a check with outside people who were not originally involved in the rest of the translation process.  They are able to give feedback on how the translation sounds as far as fluidity and accuracy in the local language.  They are also asked questions to test that the meaning is coming across clearly and accurately with what the original Bible text said (in Greek, for the New Testament).

 We have a few more places to do village testing, but our first test was done in Olal in a Catholic community that has used a French Bible for the last hundred years or so.  It was great to be able to read through the entire book of Mark with these village leaders and get their feedback and see their interest and excitement to hear/see the Word of God in their own language for the first time!

Teacher's literacy workshop

I held two more workshops for elementary/primary teachers this year.  Below are pics from the 2-3 teacher workshop up in the village of Olal, where our teammates, the Ellis' live.

  During the workshop with Kindy teachers in November, several books were written by teachers, so we read through these together and I distributed them.  

 Demonstrating actions for action poems told to me by Kindy teachers in November.

 Reading stories together.

 Writing new books for use in the schools.  Val attended the workshop and wrote and illustrated a great book herself.

Two weeks later, I held the same workshop, but for K-1 teachers from throughout the language group.

 Action books.

 Reading together.

Helping teachers with their book writing.

As a result of writing workshops and books I've written and checked with my language helpers, there will be 64 easy readers in the language of Rral.  We also reviewed how to teach through the primer, a literacy curriculum I developed a few years ago for teachers to teach kids how to read in Rral.  Hopefully teachers feel equipped now to be able to get kids reading in the early grades and have materials for kids to practice with.  All of this is new for them though, so I imagine I'll continue to check in over the coming years.  Please pray for good readers in Ambrym so the future generation will be able to read and understand God's Word as we translate and distribute it!

A big thanks too to Gretch and the kids who helped with some of the prep for the workshops!  Here they are cutting strings for a literacy matching activity.

The kids also helped me cut cardboard for literacy activities for our local Kindy.  The Kindy teacher, Jenita, has a nice local building that Kindy meets in, but all her old materials got wet in one of our cyclones this year, and they were seeing some age anyway (cardboard only lasts so long in the jungle!) so we made all new cardboard domino sets, matching number sets, matching alphabet sets, colors, etc.