Choosing a Standard

On a weekend visit to a province north of where we live, we stopped in a drugstore to pick up a few things we'd forgotten. We understood the local teenage-clerk behind the counter perfectly well--when she spoke to us. We didn't understand anything she said when she turned to chat with a friend in the store. What was the difference? She spoke standard Dutch to us and the local dialect with her friend. But who decided, way back when, which of the many local Dutch dialects would become the standard? Why the people in the nation's capital, over there on the west coast. (Even our image of typical Dutch costumes comes from the west--photo from 1993 OC Tulip Time.)

Typically those in power in a nation choose the standard. But what if your language isn't centered in one particular nation-state? What if, for instance, you are Romany? After all, it can be really handy to have a standard from speaking to spelling. I don't try to write down things the way my mother pronounced them (upper Midwest accent) and Keith doesn't try to write things down the way his mother pronounced them (TEXAN). No, we have a standard. It's imperfect (right?), but it's standard.*

The International Romani Union realized this. In 1990, they approved an international Romani alphabet to help unite Romani** around the world. 

The Romani Bible Translation Committee also decided to go for a translation into Standard Romani. You can read more about it or read more in that Standard on their website.

You can hear AND read that language in the recently completed Gospel of John. 

And you can pray for the translators, voices, technicians who are making this Standard Romani version of the Gospel available. (Feel free to pray in any version of any language you choose!)

*Our daughter spent a couple of months in second grade at a school in North Carolina. On a spelling test, she wrote down exactly what she heard her teacher say:  "fav." The word was "5". 

**Romani can refer to the language or to the group of people.

Because a Little Girl Refused to Lie

Courtesy of this news article 

This Bible was translated into the language that Sinti Romany speak and published by Romanes Arbeit Marburg because a little girl refused to lie. 

A German deaconess* named Sister Luise started to meet regularly with Sinti children who lived near her. This came to an abrupt end when one of these children was asked to lie for a relative. The little girl refused. She had learned from Sister Luise that lying does not please God.

The relative was not happy. He looked for a way to stop Sister Luise's influence, and he found one. Among the Sinti, contact with blood makes one ritually unclean. Unclean people are banned from Sinti society. Hospital workers, including doctors and nurses,  are per definition unclean.  Sister Luise did not work in a hospital. But she had substituted at the reception desk for a fellow deaconess who did. This was enough to have her declared unclean. She could no longer visit the children or have direct social contact with them.

Sister Luise prayed and thought. She decided to start sending cards with Bible verses in them to the people she couldn't visit. She discovered that someone had started translating bits of Scripture into Sinti. She started pasting those bits into her colorful cards. 

One thing led to another. Sister Luise became a founding member of Romanes Arbeit Marburg (Romany Work Marburg or RAM for short). First RAM published finished books of the Bible--Mark, John, Genesis. Then they published the entire New Testament. And last summer, they published the whole Bible. 

Sister Luise is no longer with us. But the Bible she helped bring into being will be blessing to many Sinti children now and in generations to come. 

*This sort of deaconess is kind of like a Protestant nun, traditionally serving in health care, social work, and/or mission.

Home for Christmas

This past Sunday Keith flew to Serbia from Dortmund, Germany. The Dortmund Airport is about an hour
and a half from us, depending on the traffic. On Thursday, I drove back to this airport to pick Keith up and take him home. 

He could have taken public transit home, but I opted to drive the hour and a half-to-two hours to the airport to pick him up. I didn't want him to risk additional exposure on the trains and busses, nor did I want to risk his spreading contagion, even though he had tested negative. 

Now we're both home, and very grateful for everyone who prayed for safe travel. We pray that you will all find a home this Christmas, too. 

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.   John 1:14 (New Living Translation)

(Photo:  Keith and daughter Ellen, in front of our tree, last Christmas. And yes, they actually did both want sox.)

"Bob," "Joe," and Keith

This past month Keith worked on a recording project with "Bob" and "Joe." We can't tell you their real names. We can't tell you the language they were recording. And we can't show you any more of "Bob" (or is that "Joe"?) than you see here.

Yes, people are still being persecuted for their faith. And yes, it can compromise people's safety if it were known that they worked on a Christian recording.

Our neighbor was surprised to learn about that. We're not. We've known of Open Doors since Brother Andrew smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. We've had CBF team members who couldn't have their photos publicized, either. We've worked with Bible translators and consultants who took the photo at group meetings because they could not be in the photo.

We respect "Bob" and "Joe" for the work they do and the calculated risks they take. Join us in praying for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for the sake of the Gospel.

Sometimes It Takes a Global Village . . .

This is Julia*, a believer in Moldova. Julia has a lovely voice. She creates and sings songs in her own Romani language. Her eyesight has never been good. Now she cannot read at all.

This is Rosalie, a believer from Australia. She spent last summer worshiping in Julia's village. She noticed that Julia couldn't read her Bible anymore and asked me if there were some way Julia could listen to it.



This is Keith. He is recording the New Testament in a Romani language for Faith Comes By Hearing. Unfortunately, it is not a Romani language Julia can understand. But there are recordings in Russian and Romanian, the two national languages of Moldova.

This is a Proclaimer+ from Faith Comes By Hearing. When Keith visited their offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last autumn, they gave him one with Russian AND Romanian on it. Mary gave it to Romany from Julia's village who were working in the Netherlands. They brought it back to Moldova. And now Julia listens to the Word of God every day. She loves it!

*name changed to protect privacy.
+available free of charge for ministry purposes.

Luggage, Logistics, and Languages

In November, I was asked to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to pick up some new recording equipment for Faith Comes By Hearing projects and to get updated on their new software. Since it wasn’t going to be a long trip, and I wouldn’t need to to take much luggage, I asked the leader of the Iranian group at our church if he needed some more Farsi-language Bibles. He said yes, there were a number of people who needed a Bible. And he asked if I could bring copies of the complete Bible, not just the New Testament. In the past, I have been able to get them at the case price of $8 each in America, while in Europe they cost 20 euros, or $23 each. 

I went online to see if I could order the Bibles and have them sent to the Faith Comes By Hearing offices. I found the website of the publisher, Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society), but discovered that in the 7 or 8 years since I had bought Farsi Bibles, the price had gone up a little bit. I wrote to my colleagues in Albuquerque to see if they could get them without paying the state sales tax. However, on Black Friday Biblica’s webstore, ChurchSource.com, had a sale, so I went ahead and ordered 10 copies, thinking this was all I could fit in my luggage.

When I arrived at the Faith Comes By Hearing offices, I found I had 25 Farsi Bibles instead of 10. My colleagues had contacted friends at Biblica about the Bibles. Their friends had wondered why a ministry that has produced audio Bibles in over 1200 languages wanted printed Farsi Bibles. My colleagues explained that their recording team in Europe (me) had a very active Iranian group in their church in Holland, and would like to take Farsi Bibles back. The good folks at Biblica responded by sending another 15 Bibles to Albuquerque for free.

In order to bring the Bibles back to Holland, I had to fill my wheeled carry-on with the Bibles, put the equipment and my clothes in the larger bag, and check both bags. The airline charged for the extra checked bag, but even so, the total cost for the Bibles was only $8.40 each. And last Sunday the members of the Farsi group at the Baptist Church of Arnhem-Center were thrilled to have 25 new Farsi Bibles.

And the Word Became . . .

What is your favorite version of the Word? There are a lot of different English translations of John 1. One of our daughters' favorites is the back-translation of the Kalderash Romani New Testament. Before it was corrected, John 1:1 read, "Before there was anything, there was a sofa . . . ."

Now the corrected version is available through Amazon.fr (France) as well as the French Bible Society.  Romani-language Scripture is becoming more and more accessible.

Some people prefer to hear the Word. For instance, the Eastern Slovak Romani version of the New Testament can be heard through the Bible.is website. Keith recorded this several years ago. Because some people prefer to hear AND read the Word, he has done the sample you see above. This is not the only YouTube option Faith Comes By Hearing uses. They are also dubbing this video version.

The Lutheran pastor in Iceland that Keith has been meeting with this past week was enthusiastic about this last option. He thought it would really help to get the young people in his catechism classes into the Word.

Amazon, YouTube, there are a lot of different ways to connect with the Word. My personal favorite is the very first one:  "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!"

What I Saw in Moldova: Romany interested in Scripture Media

Pastor Petru & Olesea Ciochina had driven me an hour north to the town of Calarasi to visit a children's home. The team of German Romany who are going with me to Moldova in September want to connect with an orphanage. We had a nice tour, but concluded this was not the place for them to work.
Then we tried to visit a Romany girl from Vulcanesti who had married someone in Calarasi. She was in Vulcanesti! But another Romany woman turned up in front of her home. And become some of the Romany in Calarasi recognized Petru (white pants; right), they invited us to their house.

 After tea and general conversation, we started talking about faith. Most of the people in Calarasi had originally come from Vulcanesti. Some of their parents had become Christians there. Sometimes someone came by with a guitar to sing songs and read the Bible with them.
Ah, did they know that the New Testament was online in several Romani dialects? No, but they wanted to see and hear it.
The young man quickly got me online through his cell phone. We moved from the Scripture website (Bible.Is) to various Romani versions of the Jesus film on YouTube to the Facebook page of Scripture in a dialect very similar to their own.
This Facebook page also had video versions of each chapter in Galatians. This would not be the most fascinating material to me, but I have read and heard Scripture in my heart language all of my life. These folks had not. The lady on my right listened to one chapter after another.
Then she made sure that the young man copied all of these links for her. She wanted to be sure to find them all again!

Roma and Sinti . . . Recording for Roma and Sinti

 How many languages can you sing in? These kids sing in at least three:  Calderash, Sinti, and German. They live in Germany. Calderash and Sinti are both Romani languages they speak at home.

They recorded songs in their home languages to put on a bilingual CD of Bible stories. Their songs split the Sinti version of the Bible stories from the Calderash version.

The tall girl in the middle is the one who inspired all of this. Her mom started reading her Bible stories at bedtime. In German. When she was about the age of the short girl, she asked her mom for a Bible stories in her own language.

Soon there will be a tuneful bilingual CD to go along with the colorful bilingual Bible story book.  Keith's little assistant will be able to hear herself singing those stories in her own language. Or maybe I should say her own languages?

MEDIA HARVEST

Recording the part of Jesus in London

Last Sunday we had a mini-harvest festival at our Dutch church. Several people told stories of thankfulness and harvest. This is the one Keith shared.


Sometimes we don't immediately see the fruit of our labor. Back in 2002 I went to London to record the JESUS film in a Romani language we call Western Kalderash.* This Romani language is spoken widely in Western Europe and in North America. 





All versions of the JESUS video are available on the Jesus film website. The website includes the four other Romani versions (one I also recorded), and 1500 other languages from around the world. But recently I discovered that 3 1/2 years ago someone also put the Romani versions on YouTube, where more people can find them. On YouTube we can also see exactly how many people watch a video. One Romani version had 1000 views, another 5000, and another 8000. The Western Kalderash version that I made in 2002 has had almost 30,000 views in 3 1/2 years. (It topped 30,000 this week.) That is more than 23 people per day harvesting a seed that I planted 15 years ago.


*I sometimes refer to it as  Russian Kalderash. Their ancestors sojourned through Russia and still have words of Russian origin in their language.

Three Generations Read One Story

This past Friday Keith had a unique recording experience. He has been working with a Romany church in Germany to record a bilingual children's Bible story book. It all began with this girl. When she was just a toddler, her mother read her Bible stories at bedtime . . . in German. She asked, "Mama, aren't there any Bible story books in our language?" Her mother spoke one Romani language; her father another; the child was fluent in both.


Her mother started pasting translations into Romani into German Bible story book. Her grandmother (left) suggested actual translation project. Wycliffe/SIL Bible translators provided technical assistance.  The book has been printed. Now grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter are reading the stories for a CD so that many more children can hear . . . in their own language. 

Naaman Takes a Bath

These are the kids who heard that first "One Story" translation. They are making a Naaman puppet to remind them of it. The puppet takes a dip seven times in the Jordan River. The second photo shows SIL Roma Service Group guys acting out the story while it is being told in Romani (they understand enough Romani to know what to do when). Here the King of Israel is reading the letter Naaman brought from the King of Syria. King Israel is about to rent his (royal trash bag) robe. And behind Naaman (the post-it notes are his skin disease) you'll see the Jordan River that the actor
is going to dip in seven times. 
The children learned that God has the power to wash us clean. Naaman had to wash seven times (2 Kings 5). We only have to ask Jesus once. 

The kids counted outloud in their own language as "Naaman" dipped down:

• 1 – yek
• 2 – duy
• 3 – trin
• 4 – shtar
• 5 – panj
• 6 – shov
• 7 – efta*

*Taken from http://www.languagesandnumbers.com/how-to-count-in-romani/en/rom/. 

One Story - Translation Made Easy?

Do you know a great story teller? This Roma woman is a great story teller. I find her entertaining--and we don't even have any languages in common. And even though she finished 11 grades of school, I suspect she would rather hear a story than read one. This is partly why the Wycliffe/SIL folks who are joining me in Moldova are going to do a trial translation project involving storytelling. They will work with a couple of people, like this lady, to translate several Bible stories into the local language. Then these storytellers will retell the stories in public--a women's Bible study, a mid-week church service, a children's gathering.
This approach has a lot of advantages. First, of course, is that people love to hear stories. Secondly, this particular Romani language has no standardized spelling system. Throw into that mix the fact that this woman would rather read Latin letters (like you are doing now) but prefers to write in Cyrillic letters (which I cannot do--can you?).
I'm looking forward to hearing the results!

The Story of the Bible Story Book

Bedtime stories are important--sometimes far more important than we initially realize. For example, a Sinti Romany* mother was reading Bible stories to her young daughter at bedtime. In German, because they live in Germany. The daughter asked, "Mama, is this in our language, too?" The mother started writing the stories in their language and pasting them into the book. But then the story of the storybook became even more interesting.
This mother is married to a Romany man from a different group who speaks Calderash, an entirely different Romani language. They attend a church with members of both groups. A Calderash mother wanted Bible stories in her own language for her own children. With help from Wycliffe Bible translators and a German Romany organization, this bilingual book was put together in both languages and published.

How do I know all this? Because now these enterprising Romany parents want to record the stories on CD--in both languages--with the church's children's choir singing in between the stories--in both languages. Keith and I visited them last week. This coming week (Friday, 6 October) Keith will be going back to this church in Germany to record one of the moms reading the stories in one of the languages. The rest will follow. Though we are not sure what the ultimate result of that "rest" will be. These parents started with bedtime stories for their own children in their own homes. Their goal is to reach many others in many different places--with CDs, books, songs, YouTube, Facebook, and face-to-face. God knows how far these bedtime stories will go!

If you feel led to pray for this project and want to receive more in depth requests and updates, please contact us.

*There are over 20 different related but distinctly different Romany languages. In this blog, we use "Romany" for the people of these related ethnic groups and "Romani" for the languages.

Student.Go - Met on the Way Part 4

Co-workers sometimes show up in the strangest places. We met the Student.Go intern who will be working with Keith in Spain, for instance, in a Cracker Barrel in Monroe, Louisiana.* We were eating there with some of Keith's cousins and some of the cousin's kids. Scott Knight is one of those kids, though he isn't a kid anymore. He is a young adult with a good background in Spanish language and an interest in so many things that he hasn't yet finished college.

This  last part reminded Keith of himself at that age. Keith felt led to ask if Scott would be interested in helping on his next recording for Faith Comes By Hearing. The next recording project, in Spain, will be of a contemporary translation of the Spanish New Testament called La Palabra.
Recordings of this already exist . . . in Latin American Spanish. There is even a greater difference between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish than there is between British English and North American English.

More Cousins at Cracker Barrel

Keith, Scott, and the rest of the La Palabra team hope to begin recording in Madrid in early October.

Scott has already begun fund-raising for his trip. His goal is to raise his $3,000 travel costs. If you feel led to contribute, donations can be made via Madrid Missions.

If you feel led to be part of his prayer team, leave a comment on the same page or contact us.

Are you are interested in applying for a Student.Go missions internship yourself? CONTACT:  STUDENT.GO@CBF.NET.



*For those of you who are not Americans, Cracker Barrel is a restaurant chain found mainly in the Southern U.S. And this one might have been in West Monroe.

Change that Changes

Going to Malawi, Africa

Can one person change the world? with change?
While we were staying in Beulah, we met two elderly sisters who had traveled clear across Texas to visit the Faith Comes By Hearing offices. One of them, Alice Walker, had set up The Widow's Mite Ministry*.   She collected pocket change to purchase Proclaimers. 

Loading Scripture onto Proclaimers

Proclaimers are nearly indestructible little digital players. Each one is loaded with an audio version of Scripture (usually the New Testament), is powerful enough to be heard by a group of 300, and can be powered through its own solar panel. Every Proclaimer also come equipped with a battery that works for up to 15 hours and can be recharged by the solar panel, a hand crank, or electrical cord.
Alice had collected enough donations, sometimes one coin at a time, to purchase and send out dozens of Proclaimers. She and her sister were very excited about finally visiting the place where these little machines were loaded with one of hundreds of audio recordings and sent literally around the world. Alice's sister hadn't just come along for the ride. She drove because Alice is legally blind.

Quechua language, heading to South America

*Jesus pointed to a widow who gave two mites, the smallest coins. She had given more than anyone else because she had given all she had to live on. Luke 21:1-4.

Hearing (and seeing) the Word

Prayer:  That many Romani will hear the Good News of Easter in their own language.

Romany village, Moldova

The story of Jesus' death and resurrection is available on Internet in many different Romani languages. Here are a few examples.

Faith Comes By Hearing, audio New Testament, www.bible.is
   4 different Romani languages, including one from Chile* 

Romanian Calderash Animated retelling

Condensed version of Luke, distributed by Campus Crusade for Christ, 5 Romani languages.**
For an example on YouTube: Jesus video

God's Story, animated, Shutkah Romani (Macedonia) God's Story

Good News, illustrated, Ursari/Balkan Romani Good News

Are there more? Let us know.

*Keith Holmes recorded two of these.
**He recorded two of these, too. 

Community Champion--England

Keith Holmes partnered with this organization to create this Bible Stories Series in English and Romanian Calderash, a Romani language.

The organization continues to develop.

Prayer Request:  Senior Roma Community Champion for Luton Roma community, England.

As our work with the Luton Roma community continues to develop, we are pleased to invite applications for the new post of Senior Roma Community Champion. 

The successful applicant will play a leading role in carrying forward the work of Luton Roma Trust to the next phase.  This person will live and work in Luton, be fluent in English - and either Romani or Romanian, or both - and will have a big heart for all the Roma people.   

The closing date for applications will be Monday 15 May.  Interviews will be held in late May or June in Luton.  To receive full details of this new post please email me (mburrell51@googlemail.com)  

Please forward this email to your networks and to anyone who might be interested in applying.  

Best wishes,

Martin  Burrell  (Team Leader and Chaplain)

OUR LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT

Did you grow up speaking a language that important people used on important occasions? That had big books printed in it and people signing up to learn it? 
Radko Kratsov, a Roma Christian leader in Bulgaria, issued a challenge to advocate for the development of Romani*:
“We (Roma, who are 'always under someone's feet', who 'come from a shame-based culture') need someone to lift our hands to show the world that our language is important. Someone to blow the trumpet to raise the status of the Roma language."

SIL Roma team member working with Roma in Moldova

He shared how he had witnessed at a Bible study in Ivaylo, Bulgaria, how people's faces changed from mirroring shame to expressing happiness when they truly understood and participated in the study and were able to express themselves in their own language.

(CBF partners with the SIL Roma Service Group. SIL members in Bulgaria are stimulating the use of Romani in engaging with the Bible in ways that include all people present.)

*Romani is a term often used to refer to Roma languages. 

Getting Better in Basque Country

Note the poster outside this church in northwest Spain. Can you identify the two languages? Yes, one is indeed Spanish. The other is Euskara, known to outsiders as Basque.  It's one of the oldest languages in Europe, unrelated to any other living language. 

Keith was working with Basque believers in this church to record the New Testament in their language. 

Ever had your tummy feel funny when in a very different place? Keith's got so funny that he ended up spending a week in the hospital. Which was not funny.

He's been out of the hospital for a few days now. But he needs to go home, see his regular doctor, and recuperate. So yesterday, he packed up the studio in this church. He hopes to feel better in a few weeks. One way or another, he wants to make sure that this recording project is completed. Because Basque people prefer Euskara. As you can see from the poster, their language is on top. (And no, I don't know what the poster says. Do any of you?)