IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE…

Posted by

…A BIBLE!

Maybe you thought this would say, “like Christmas.” Well, it IS “Christmas” in the Philippines as soon at September 1 comes around. But we’re talking about the Palawano New Testament formatting, here.

We’re in the city of Davao on the island of Mindanao, working with the typesetters. And it’s been thrilling to see the Palawano New Testament slowly begin to look like… well, a Bible! Two columns. Subtitles and footnotes. Pictures and maps. The works.

It’s funny how it’s still called “typesetting,” but everything is being done on computers with sophisticated publishing software.

Here’s some of what we’ve been doing…

  • Checking for consistent formatting in the text.
  • Adding and formatting footnotes (to provide extra help on meaning, pointing readers to the glossary, etc.)
  • Formatting cross references (which point to O.T. passages cited, parallel passages in the Gospels, etc.)
  • Proofreading (yes, still doing this; not finding many more errors, but some still remain.)
  • Translating the text for maps (This has been fun! Jerusalem, the temple, Paul’s journeys, etc.)
  • Finishing up the glossary (which explains words like “lion, bear, donkey” and clarifies meanings; did you know that there are FOUR men named “Herod” in the New Testament?)
  • Writing book introductions.

ANOTHER FUN MISTAKE
This one might just take the cake.

For the want of a single letter ‘a’, Matthew 27:40 no longer read, “If you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross.” With that letter ‘a’ left out, the text read: “If you are the Son of God, your body is a cat!” (How did that happen? Well, puasa in Palawano means “save,” and pusa is “cat” in Tagalog.)

Yikes. We’re glad to find all these crazy goofs now.

FULL OF THANKSGIVING!
We are very thankful for Dennis and Meriam, the two people with SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) who are working with us full-time for this whole month to get our typesetting done. They are very skilled at this. Meriam has been doing it for over 30 years!

PLEASE PRAY WITH US NOW AND LOOKING AHEAD:

  1. All the details related to completing this typesetting
  2. Health and energy in these final weeks
  3. Finding all mistakes and getting them fixed
  4. Everything involved in packing up here and setting up in the USA
  5. A car for our Home Assignment (beginning Nov 5)

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna


JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

Proofreading the Palawano New Testament

Posted by

PROOOFREADING (sic)
What goes on in the final days of a translation project? Proofreading and editing.

This week 4 Palawanos are up to do final proofreading. We’re thanking for the diligence of these men, reading 7,954 verses, one word at a time, to find typos, spelling errors, incorrect pronouns, etc.

Team A reads a book and Bill enters the changes on the computer. Then Team B reads the same book and finds just a few more. Donna reads the book and finds a couple more.

The Paratext software helps so much. If the men find a spelling error, Bill can search for that same error throughout the entire New Testament and fix all the instances in a few seconds, even the ones the guys might have missed. The software also lets him find duplicate words, inconsistent punctuation, you name it. Amazing.

SOME FUN MISTAKES
You can imagine how easy it might be to mistype words like mengungumana. Or how we might not catch a misspelling if we weren’t careful. It’s been a crazy week.

But some mistakes made us laugh:

“God will hold each one accountable for their own deeds.”
“Own deeds” should be kendiring keradya, but we have KENDIROng keradya. Well, kendiro means “rice pot” so is this  saying that God will be criticizing people’s cooking?

“Not right”
Should be diki sugat, but we had diki SUGAR. Okay, so it’s not sweet. Is that a problem?

“Testimony”
Should be pekubanar but once we had pekuBABAR. Yes, we’re looking forward to reading stories to our grandchildren in a couple of months, but… there is no Babar in the New Testament.

“The Little Sea of Galilea”
Should be dagat-dagat (literally sea-sea, or “little sea”), but we had dagat-DATAG which sort of means, “a floor which is an ocean.” And you surfers know what a drag it is when the ocean is flat.

“The Apostle Paul”
Should be Pablo, but we had PABO, which as you Spanish-speakers know, means “turkey”!

We even had a few random vehicles like KIA and SEGWAY (maybe because we’re thinking about our upcoming furlough and needing a vehicle?)

WHAT’S NEXT?
We need to finish all this proofreading by the end of next week. Grammar, typos, spelling, capitalization,  punctuation, subtitles, footnotes, cross-references… all need to be checked and rechecked.

Then we will head to the city of Davao on the island of Mindanao for the whole month of September. There some missionaries with SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) will help us do the digital typesetting of the New Testament.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US NOW AND LOOKING AHEAD:

  1. Health and energy in these last weeks
  2. Finding all mistakes and getting them fixed
  3. Everything involved in packing up here and setting up in the USA
  4. A car for our Home Assignment (beginning Nov 5)

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

Last Translation Check DONE!

Posted by

THE CHECK: Final Update
Thanks to everyone for praying with us.

The consultant check of Matthew and 2 Corinthians is DONE! This was our last consultant check and so quite an exciting milestone to reach.

SUCCESS
We covered an ambitious amount of material (1,400 verses) with time to spare at the end. Thanks to consultant JJ for his help this time around.

Everything checked out very well – it was all clearly understood and we found no major issues or problems to fix.  We did think of a few small improvements to make here and there.

MIRACLES
Seriously. No electrical power outages for a week and a half (yes, that’s a miracle here).

None of us doing the check got sick. Lini’s son Elmer quickly recovered once he got on antibiotics. Thanks for all who prayed for little Elmer.

Bill felt a cold coming on the day AFTER the check.

WHAT’S NEXT?
Now we have some post-check follow-up to do, plus ongoing revision of older material, formatting, adding of footnotes and cross-references, proofreading, etc.

Then we will be doing typesetting in the city of Davao on the island of Mindanao for the whole month of September.

After that, we pack up and head to San Diego to spend time with family and friends while waiting for the Palawano New Testaments to be printed!

Thank the Lord with us, and please pray for:

  1. Health and energy in these last weeks
  2. Good progress on final revisions

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna


JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

MIDWAY Through Last Consultant Check – July 2012

Posted by

THE CHECK: SO FAR, SO GOOD
The consultant check of Matthew and 2 Corinthians has been going very well. We are moving along at a good pace, and the material is checking out as being easily understood.

We’re even a bit ahead of schedule.

This means we were able to take Saturday off and let our brains rest before diving back into the check on Monday.

CHALLENGES
No electrical power outages so far. We’re thankful for that.

The only problem that has come up is that one of our Palawano translation helpers’ children got sick. Lini brought her one-year-old to Puerto with her. Her sister-in-law is watching him which Lini works with us in the office. You might recall that Lini was Elisa’s best friend in the village; we’ve known her since she was 3 years old, and she’s like a niece to us. Her little guy Elmer is the youngest of her four children. He’s 15 month’s old.

On Thursday Elmer’s temperature went up to 103.1 (39.5C) and he had all the symptoms of strep throat. We quickly got him treated and he already seems to be responding to the antibiotics.

So please pray for Elmer, and continue to pray for all other aspects of the check this coming week.

Ask the Lord for:

  1. Elmer to get well quickly
  2. Lini not to be distracted by Elmer’s illness
  3. good health for rest of us
  4. clear thinking and stamina
  5. NO power outages
  6. no unexpected interruptions
  7. the translation to communicate clearly
  8. anything that should be fixed to be discovered

    Nearing the end… so much to be done!

    Reaching Palawanos together with you,

    -Bill and Donna

    JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
    Bill and Donna on Facebook

    The LAST Consultant Check – July 2012

    Posted by

    THIS IS THE BIG ONE
    Tomorrow we begin our last consultant check. Over the past nearly 30 years, we have had 14 such checks and this will be #15.

    Together with the consultant and a couple of Palawanos, we will check the translated drafts of Matthew and 2 Corinthians one more time, to make sure that they communicate clearly and accurately. Sometime next week, Lord willing, those books will be cleared for printing.

    UNDER ATTACK
    This is an exciting time for us. But many disruptions and problems can wreck havoc on these checks: electric power outages mean no computers, a/c or fans. Sickness can shut us down. Not to mention that checking translation is mentally exhausting for everyone involved.

    Also, there seem to be an escalating number of other unexpected problems lately. We see them both as attacks by the enemy, and at the same time, as opportunities to draw even closer to the Lord in faith.

    Here’s what we’ve had to deal with in this past week alone:

    1. Termites tried to move into our house again;
    2. Our front gate was broken by our noisy warehouse neighbor’s truck backing into it;
    3. The septic tank overflowed;
    4. One faucet stopped flowing and another would NOT stop;
    5. A living room light fixture needed replacement;
    6. Our truck’s battery went dead; and
    7. Donna’s been feeling like she’s coming down with a flu or something. 

    And all of these things suspiciously occurred in the last few days before this important check. None of them are a big deal in themselves, but they are distractions, and take time that should be focused on translation.

    Please pray with us about this last check. Ask the Lord for:

    1. good health for Bill, Donna, JJ and the Palawanos
    2. clear thinking and stamina
    3. NO power outages
    4. no unexpected interruptions
    5. the translation to communicate clearly
    6. anything that should be fixed to be discovered

      We are that much closer to putting the Word of God in the Palawanos’ hands.

      Reaching Palawanos together with you,

      -Bill and Donna

      JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
      Bill and Donna on Facebook

      Extreme Consultant Checking

      Posted by

      WE CAUGHT OUR BREATH…

      The consultant check of Mark went well. We’re thankful for that. Since then we’ve been busy. We took a deep breath, and then starting preparing for…



      THE MOTHER OF ALL CONSULTANT CHECKS…
      Next week we will start a two-week marathon consultant check of 8 books: 
      • 1 Corinthians
      • Philemon
      • Hebrews
      • 2 Peter
      • 2 John
      • 3 John
      • Jude
      • Revelation

      Some of those books are small. Some are fairly long. Some are simple (Philemon), while others have very complex truths to communicate (e.g. Hebrews).

      Many people think that Revelation would be the most difficult book. Surprisingly, it’s not! Since most of the book is narrative and symbolic, it’s much easier to translate than a complicated doctrinal book such as 2 Corinthians which contains sarcasm, etc. Or, don’t forget Hebrews, which was a challenge because the original recipients had such a deep understanding of the Mosaic Covenant, which the Palawanos lack.

      Many of these books have been “in the pipe” for a few years. This is the final, permission-to-print check. So it’s a major milestone, and very important. We’re praying that everything goes well and the books check out as being comprehended very well. At the same time, we’re praying that anything that needs to be changed to make them more clearly understood will be discovered so we can change it!


      5… 4… 3… 2…

      We’re also excited because this is our next to last check! One more check like this in July, and that’s it. Rejoice with us about this!


      As we’re said before, these checks are important, and can be mentally tiring for all involved. And there are logistical needs.

      See our specific requests below.
      PLEASE PRAY WITH US
      • Clear thinking and STAMINA for the check (for us, and for the Palawanos helping)
      • NO ELECTRIC POWER OUTAGES during the two weeks of checking
      • That all the books would check out well
      • That any needed revisions will be discovered

      And continue to pray for God’s protection from…

      • Break-ins, theft or failure of our computers, etc.
      • Distracting family or financial problems for our TAs
      God’s Word is getting closer to being in Palawano hands. Thanks again for your part in this ministry!
      Reaching Palawanos together with you,

      -Bill and Donna

      JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
      Bill and Donna on Facebook