Grace & Peace to You,

As I look out the office window it’s a full jungle backdrop, birds and bugs are busy, kids are playing and yelling as they bathe in the river a few feet from the house, and I can hear the voices of tribal people in the office next door who are working on Bible translation with the missionary Darcy.  We’ve been in the village for almost 3 weeks now.  We drove our jeep in here, an all day trek that included a flat tire, a long wait for the car fairy and then a couple hours of being stuck in the mud on the last leg of the trip.   But we made it ok and were glad for food and a bed after the long day.

Darcy is a translator here whose parents just moved out of the tribe due to health issues, leaving her in here by herself without any other consistent Western teammates.  We had been praying about the possibility of us coming in to help fill in for a few months and the Lord opened the door for us to be here for June and July.  Tim has been able to help with the generator, battery problems, and other fix it jobs, along with getting his prior responsibilities in the office done.  I’ve been able to help with meals and other things around the house in hopes of freeing up Darcy to work on translation.  It’s crazy how much time goes into just living in the tribe.  But we sure enjoy village life and the  opportunities to be with people in a variety of settings.  There have been believers in the this village since 1974 so the church is maturing here and involved in different outreaches along with their normal gatherings.  We can’t speak the language of the people here but some can speak Indonesian. 

This also happens to be the village where Dina’s birth family live so we have had a lot of visiting time with them.  Dina and her almost 5 year old brother Pebri have had fun playing together and chasing each other around.  They each use their own language and seem to be able to figure out what they need to in order to play together.  Her birth parents have loved seeing Dina and Abby but just wish she could speak their language.  Thanks for those of you who have prayed about this for us and we’re thankful it’s been a very positive and relaxed relationship with them.

When you think of Bible translation what comes to mind?  The task of putting God’s Word into a tribal language for the first time can be very complex and daunting.  Full dependence upon God’s strength and ability is the place to start.  Beyond that it requires a team of consultants, tribal believers and coworkers to see a project of this size come together.  Since we’re seeing it happen first hand we wanted to try to make the process more understandable for you.  In the weeks to come we will send out a couple different updates that focus on the translation process. 

Blessings,

Tim & Andrea Ullum