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by Gwendolyn Davies Bible translators help translate COVID-19 infographics. Many language communities in the Philippines have not had access to crucial COVID-19 information in the languages they best understand. In order to serve these language communities during the coronavirus pandemic, a group of students and advocates affiliated with the linguistics department of the University of the Philippines (UP) started a grassroots initiative that sought volunteers to help translate coronavirus health information into Philippine languages. Translators from three Bible translation organisations in the Philippines responded with assistance. Joining a countrywide effort It was a post on social media asking for volunteers to help translate a World Health Organisation COVID-19 infographic that caught the eye of Manny Tamayao, library and archives manager of SIL Philippines , and a member of SIL’s leadership team. Manny, who has a passion for languages, shared the need with translators in SIL Philippines, as well as with Wycliffe Global Alliance organisations Translators Association of the Philippines (TAP) and Wycliffe Philippines . Bible translators from the three translation organisations joined a countrywide group of community volunteers who translated the text of the WHO COVID-19 infographic into a total of 55 languages. (SIL, TAP and Wycliffe Philippines staff translated 11 of those.) “I am happy that some … organisations recognized the need of translating these sources into other languages, not just the main lingua franca, or English only, or Filipino only,“ Manny said. “We [in SIL, TAP and Wycliffe Philippines] were happy to partner with [the University of the Philippines] in this initiative, and we’re also happy to see volunteers work all throughout the country.” Having an impact Project participants encountered their share of “bumps in the road”. Orthography differences surfaced in one language and had to be resolved. Distribution on social media was a challenge for one language in the mountainous south because of limited internet connectivity, so print versions were distributed instead. However, the materials are reaching the intended audiences: Manny noted that an online posting in one language in the Central Philippines has been shared and re-shared many times. SIL and TAP staff members have found another way to contribute their expertise. They are developing some basic guidelines for how to produce a translation that is not only accurate, but also flows naturally in the target language. The goal is to help novice translators to be better equipped to produce a translated text that communicates the original meaning clearly, yet in a form that sounds natural to native speakers — which can sometimes be a delicate balance. The volunteer-based initiative has allowed for the sharing of crucial COVID-19 health information in a number of local languages throughout the country. And God used Manny’s connections with linguistic colleagues and friends at UP to open the door for members of the Bible translation movement to help make these life-saving materials accessible to the communities they serve. To access the COVID-19 infographics in Philippine languages, click here . Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Global Alliance

by Melissa Paredes When John and Bonnie Nystrom first started translating in 1990 for the Arop language of Papua New Guinea, they used a simple laptop to type up translation drafts. The majority of the work — including checking the accuracy and consistency of key terms and phrases — was done by hand. Today, software programs such as Paratext help by reducing effort of the translation team while increasing the output of their work. AN EASY WAY TO SEARCH “Computers are better and faster than people at finding stuff and counting things,” John shared. “But great translation tools use the computer’s finding and counting skills to set up what a translator wants to spend his time doing: deciding if what’s there is correct or if it can be improved.” When John and the team were translating the books of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, they had difficulty translating the phrase “clean conscience.” As they continued working, they were able to choose the most accurate and natural-sounding translation of the concept. Rather than having to search the translation by hand for all of the instances of “clean conscience,” they were able to use Paratext to identify them immediately. Several years ago this would have taken significant effort, and the team would not be sure they had caught all the recurrences. But now, Paratext identifies the locations of key biblical words and phrases, and shows how they have been translated. ADAPTING TRANSLATIONS John and Bonnie, along with several other Wycliffe members, work in a cluster project that focuses on 10 different languages in their region of Papua New Guinea. Local pastors work alongside them to help with the translation for their language. It’s incredibly helpful for the team to be able to use a translation of a nearby language as a source text. Native speakers of one language can use specialized software to adapt a translation in a related language to fit the words and speech patterns of their own language. This ultimately allows the pastors to create translations in their language much faster. John also shared, “It can help the translator spend more of his time doing what only a real human native speaker can do: deal with all the unpredictable and unique differences that occur between languages.” Software development has helped not only increase the speed and accuracy of the translation process, but also made it easier for local speakers to participate in the work. “Some of the local pastors I work with would really struggle to work on a translation all by themselves,” John shared. “But because they work in a big group, and because the technology can help them take advantage of each other’s work, they are able to produce higher-quality translation much sooner than they otherwise would.” He also went on to share, “Many of my pastor friends had no previous experience with computer and very little formal education. As the translation tools improve, and especially as we design them to be more accessible to people like my pastor friends, we open the door wider and wider for more and more people to participate in the Bible translation process. I love seeing that happen.” THE UNSUNG HEROES John recalls what it was like for their team to work together before software developments made life — and translation — easier. When the cluster translation project began in 2001, the team spent significant time and effort saving, updating and storing files. Because software tools at the time were designed for one person to use one computer while working on one language in one location, they weren’t able to collaborate effectively. But with Paratext, they’re able to collaborate easily — even across two continents! John now lives in the U.S., but he’s still able to actively participate in the work remotely. “These are … reasons software developers [in missions] are some of my heroes,” John shared. “They could be making a lot more money working somewhere else, but many of them are giving their lives to produce great software for Bible translators. When they make one small improvement, it may seem small to them. But that small thing might be something that translators all over the world do multiple times a day in the 2,000 languages in which translation is currently being done. “I don't know of another place a person could work in Bible translation where they can have that big and that broad of an impact.” Interested in learning more about how technology impacts missions work? Watch a video and discover how IT plays an integral role in Bible translation. Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe US.

by Felicia Natural-sounding Singlish is peppered with particles such as lah, hor, meh and many others. No-one teaches a child how to use these; he absorbs this informally from the environment that he grows up in. These language rules and boundaries are not explicitly articulated, but are used every day in speaking the language. This tacit knowledge, not formal rules, determines what is correct and communicates effectively to speakers of Singlish. Singlish particles When I was doing my linguistics training in Singapore, one of our American teachers, wanting to be friendly, would end his questions with, “…, okay lah?” Lah is the best-known of the many particles used in Singlish. But this backfired, because he was completely wrong in how he used it. Every time he used it, I got annoyed with him! I finally told him that lah is not ever used as a question marker! Instead, lah and other Singlish particles are often used to indicate a mood. Here’s a table borrowed from Gwee Li Sui, a local poet and writer[1]: The Singlish Bible Did you know that there is an online Singlish Bible translation2? It is actually a paraphrase with translations contributed by various people. Only a few passages have been completed so far. As I read the Singlish Bible, I discovered that there were a lot of terms I didn’t understand! Most of these were in Hokkien, and my Hokkien is weak. I myself think that there’s no standard Singlish, but rather there are many overlapping Singlish varieties. The Singlish each person speaks is influenced by the languages they know, and the company they keep. So, my particular Singlish has less Hokkien in it, but more Malay and Cantonese. Nevertheless, as I read the Singlish Bible verses out loud, my tacit knowledge kicked in. I did feel that the translators had not always got it quite right; some verses just felt wrong to me. For example: (1) Genesis 1:6–8 6 Den God say, “All the water in between must have dua lobang, so then the dua lobang can separate some water and other water.” 7 So God made the dua lobang, then divide the downstair water from the upstair water; like that lor. 8 Den God say the dua lobang is Heaven. Got evening, got morning, so second day. Lor in v. 7 seems wrong; it has an air of “it can’t be helped”. Definitely not to be used for God creating a good universe before the Fall. A better way might be “… so then like that, lah.” Lah in this context means something like “obviously” or “of course”. (2) Matthew 26:14–15 14 Den one of the Twelve, that bugger call Judas Iscariot – he go to the tua kee priests 15 and ask dem “If I gib you Jesus hor, you gib me what meh? Best offer hor.” So they quote him thirty piece of silver. Meh is definitely out of place here. Meh has an air of “Really? Convince me!” that is totally wrong. I would say, "If I gib you Jesus hor, you gib me what, ah?" Ah is more appropriate because it has a tone of appeal, as in, “Give me a fair deal here.” Why It Matters As these Singlish examples demonstrate, tacit knowledge of a language is hard to pin down and describe, but it can access storehouses of meaning and emotion in a language. A natural and interesting Bible translation must surely make use of this type of tacit knowledge to produce an accurate and flavourful translation that will engage its audience. And getting it wrong risks transmitting the wrong meaning, and will certainly be off-putting! [1] Gwee Li Sui, 2015. What's the difference between 'lah' and 'lor': Poet Gwee Li Sui's take on nuances of Singlish goes viral. [2] Singlish Bible. 2020.

by Evangeline According to countless sources, the single best-selling book of all time is the Bible. Billions of copies have been sold and distributed the world over, far more than popular classics or recent hits like Harry Potter. In most cases, authors of best-selling books have struck gold with the royalties received from the sales of their book(s). Take Harper Lee, for example. In 1960, she published her first and only (until 2015) book, To Kill a Mockingbird. After that, she never had to work another day in her life. Just how much did she receive? In the first 6 months of 2009 alone, she made over US$9,000 a day in royalties! Her book sold, and still sells, around 1 million copies a year, the royalties from which she lived off till the end of her life. Compare that to the Bible, of which around 100 million copies are printed and sold each year. Imagine the amount in royalties that would have gone to the author! But, here comes the question: who exactly is the author? Who wrote the Bible? Writing a book is undoubtedly a long process. Some authors take years just to complete writing one book. The Bible, too, was written over a very long period. However, the reason it took so long was certainly not due to the usual writer’s block. It was written over 1,500 years – a vast chronicle of history over those years – more than several lifetimes of the average human being! Hence, it was obviously written by a number of different authors. The Bible consists of 66 books in total; but surely, there were more than just 66 books originally. Where there was more than one witness to the events recorded in the Bible, there was bound to be other accounts floating around. However, these 66 gradually came to be accepted by the churches, and in 367 AD, the church father Athanasius of Alexandria first provided this complete list of the books belonging to the Bible. (After the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church added 7 books from the Apocrypha in 1546, which explains why their Bible has 73 rather than 66 books today.) While some of these books can be clearly and historically attributed to certain authors, it cannot be said for sure who some of the others are. It is fairly clear who wrote the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the letters of Paul and Peter, Song of Solomon, prophecies of Isaiah, Nehemiah, and Ezekiel, and so on, but the authorship of some parts of the Bible are less clear. Here is a list of what we do know. Of course, who the authors are of all the other books continues to be a subject of contention amongst historians. A quick trawl through various internet sources turned up differing and somewhat confusing accounts and evidences of all sorts. In all these claims, several factors have been used to attribute the individual books to different authors, such as the historical timeline, language used, and more. So, back to the question of who wrote the Bible… Never mind the factual-or-not evidences. If we think about and reflect on this as Christians rather than historians, the answer is simple: there was and is actually only one author of the Bible all along. That author, of course, is God – ALL scripture is GOD-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). And, on a final note, since God is the author of the all-time best-selling book, we should also think about how we can give to God those ‘royalties’, shouldn’t we? ;) Men's ideas differ about the extent that human skill can go; but the reason we believe the Bible is the basis of our assurance and hope is because it is inspired. The reason we believe the Bible is inspired is so simple that the humblest child of God can comprehend it. If the proof of its divine origin lay in its wisdom alone, a simple and uneducated man might not be able to believe it. We believe it is inspired because there is nothing in it that could not have come from God. God is wise, and God is good. There is nothing in the Bible that is not wise, and there is nothing that is not good. If the Bible had anything in it that is opposed to reason or to our sense of right, then perhaps we might think that it was like all the books in the world that are written by mere men. Books that are just human books, like human lives, have in them a great deal that is foolish and wrong. Like the other wonderful things of God, this book bears the sure stamp of its author. It is like Him. Though man plants the seeds, God makes the flowers, and they are perfect and beautiful like He is. Men wrote what's in the Bible, but the work is God's. D.L. Moody

The Covid-19 pandemic this year has changed the way the world functions in just a matter of months. But even after (if there is ever an ‘after’!) the situation settles down and the world gradually emerges from lockdown, will we ever return to life as we knew it before Covid-19? Multiple news reports have discussed and predicted how the way we will carry on with our lives beyond this crisis is bound to change. If anything, being forced to work remotely in lockdown has revealed the massive potential of technology that many of us have failed to recognise until now. And while there have been struggles and mad scrambles to cope with the changes and challenges of moving much of our lives and work online, it has also uncovered various weak links that must now be dealt with as we prepare to deal with a new norm. With a large proportion of Wycliffe’s work centred on people groups living in remote areas, what does working remotely mean, especially for our missionaries in the field? We spoke to Pearle, who serves as a multilingual education specialist in South Asia, who is now back in Singapore and coping with exactly this situation: Before you left the area where you worked in, what was the situation there like? The January to March period has always been a busy period doing material production, meeting with project teams and conducting training workshops for the literacy and education programmes in the field. By God’s grace and protection, up till late March, the number of COVID-19 cases found in the country I am serving was still very low. That gave us time to continue our work normally before restrictions started to be put in place. As the worldwide situation worsened around us in March, John 9:4 (“As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”) has regularly been in my mind. It was perhaps a subconscious sense of urgency to try to get as much work done as possible, and to meet with our partners to provide support on tasks that they could subsequently take on and do on their own. I am very thankful that we did manage to do that, because the situation did evolve very quickly. It was only 12 hours from the time I started considering coming back to and the local government’s official announcement of the airport closure the same night, and three days before the country came to a national lockdown and everything came to a standstill. What are some adjustments that have had to be made? Besides my involvement in the field, some of my other roles involve working with colleagues from different parts of the world. So I am quite used to working from home and connecting virtually with people. However, doing that here takes more adjustment since I am staying with my parents. It requires a mindset change for them that I need a quiet space and time to focus on my work. I also learn to be ready to be disrupted from time to time to respond to my family’s needs, and adjust my daily routine to maximise my attention to work whenever I can find pockets of quieter hours at home. This is especially since my online meetings and classes are scattered over the day to fit my colleagues based in other time zones. I appreciate how God used the Stay Home Notice period to help me create a physical working space, and it helped all of us get on a good start. I am also thankful that God has brought me back and I can support my family in practical ways during this time. What do you find are some challenges of working remotely? Part of my involvement in the field is to support local project teams in conducting teacher training, meeting field staff for progress updates and visiting the rural village schools to provide support and feedback to teachers. That portion of our work has come to a standstill for now since the country is in a lockdown, and nothing can be done remotely. Also, the country’s IT infrastructure is limited and people’s digital literacy proficiency and possession of IT devices are relatively lower, especially in the rural areas. So I cannot communicate with those field staff or project staff without internet access especially now that I am out of the country. What do you think post-Covid19 will be like for your project? COVID-19 has caused a global economic crisis that will take a long time to recover. For many in the country, especially those relying on family members working in cities or overseas as migrant workers, meeting their basic livelihood needs are their main concern and fear before they have room to consider their children’s education, or joining literacy classes. The limited IT infrastructure in the rural areas, as well as community’s low digital literacy proficiency and possession of smartphone or laptop device is also a constraint that limits local schools from being able to continue classes or interaction with students like the developed countries. It is therefore important for us to recognise the challenges local communities are going through, understand their priorities and needs and discern how to adjust our programmes practically based on the new normal within the constraints we face. Let us continue to pray for Pearle and the project she serves in, as well as all the other missionaries, projects, and people groups affected by COVID-19.

Brenton Briggs, a network systems administrator at Wycliffe, knows that the work of Bible translation invites everyone to join — and that includes those with skills in information technology (IT). As technology continues to grow and develop, IT specialists at Wycliffe are able to apply what they know to help translation work in the field. For Briggs, the future of IT in missions is brighter than ever, thanks to the emergence of open-source projects. Opportunities for involvement in the field of IT — which include volunteering in those open-source projects — make him excited about the impact that IT will continue to have in the work of Bible translation. Watch the video here. Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe US.

by Sharon Tan Page from a Gutenberg bible Did you know that some of the key terms in the English Bible have come to us from Greek, through Latin, to English? Some of these words are so closely associated with our faith that we probably cannot imagine using any other word. For example, the English words apostle, baptism and prophet derive from the Latin apostolus, baptismus and propheta, which in turn derive from the Greek apostolos, vaptismos and profitis. How did this happen? The Old Testament scriptures had been translated into Greek even before the birth of Christ, and the New Testament books were written in Greek. With the rise of the Roman empire, Latin became the dominant language across Europe and the Mediterranean, so believers who were not able to understand Greek needed the scriptures translated into Latin. However, some Greek words which had religious meanings or were in common use were simply borrowed in the Latin translation. In 382 AD, Pope Damascus commissioned a scholar, Jerome, to produce a good version of the gospels from existing Latin translations which were of varying qualities. Jerome went on to translate the Psalms (based on the Greek Septuagint) and the rest of the Old Testament (from the Hebrew texts) into Latin. It is not known who translated the rest of the New Testament into Latin. Together, these formed the “common version” of the Latin Bible, known as the Vulgate, which was completed about 405 AD. For the next thousand years, the Vulgate was the most commonly used Bible and the most influential text in Western Europe. Before the advent of the printing press, and when few were literate, the one book which most people heard read aloud regularly was the Bible, and the phraseology and wording of the Vulgate permeated all areas of culture such as worship, art and drama. One of the first books printed on Gutenberg’s movable type press (c. 1450) was an edition of the Latin Vulgate. Some early vernacular translations of the Bible, such as Wycliffe’s English translation (1382), used the Vulgate as the base text, in some cases borrowing key terms from Latin. Other translations, even if they were based on texts in the original languages, were still influenced by the language and style of the Vulgate. Although few of us will ever try to read the Vulgate, whether in Latin or in translation, Jerome’s legacy is still one of the major influences on Christian vocabulary and practice today.

by Evangeline How do you tell a Kiwi apart from an Aussie? The clue is in their favourite food. As Aussies tend to have broader vowels and Kiwis, lower vowels, in Australia, you would have feesh and cheeps, while in New Zealand, you would have fush and chups. Evidently, the difference lies in their pronunciation. How do you tell an Aussie apart from a Singaporean (Singlish speaker)? Well, their pronunciation. In the most colloquial form of Singlish, their becomes diar, three becomes tree, with becomes wif ... and so on. A lot of these pronunciations are largely a legacy of the early English teachers in Singapore – such as the Catholic French and Irish nuns, and Indians and Sri Lankans from the British Indian subcontinent – all of whom had an inability to produce certain English phonemes which did not exist in their native tongues. The pronunciation of words (or phrases) is fascinating and at the same time, a powerful linguistic device that can distinguish and identify people. Unless we learned two or more languages when we were young, very often, our tongues would have the muscle memory to produce only the specific sounds peculiar to its mother tongue. Give it an unfamiliar sound, and what comes out of our mouths would simply be the closest sound from our native language. There are ample stories throughout history of the use of pronunciation as a practical tool. One such example is of passwords, used to identify friend or foe. In the Pacific theatre during the Second World War, American soldiers always used passwords such as ‘lollapalooza’ or ‘priest’, which contained the letter ‘L’ or consecutive consonants like ‘pr’ or ‘st’. This was because Japanese speakers tend to confuse ‘L’ and ‘R’, and are in the habit of ending every syllable with a vowel (with the exception of ‘N’). Hence, upon hearing the first syllables returned as ‘rorra’ or ‘puri’, the American soldiers would immediately open fire without seeing their faces or even waiting to hear the rest. Similarly, over in Holland, the Dutch used words like ‘Scheveningen’ (a place in the Netherlands), while in Denmark, the Danes apparently used phrases like ‘Rødgrød med Fløde’ (red currant berry pudding with cream), all of which are almost impossible for non-native speakers of the respective languages to pronounce. These passwords worked, simply because they were a means of identification that distinguished a particular group of people from another. Such passwords have come to be termed as ‘shibboleths’. Interestingly, the origin of this term goes back to Judges 12:5-6 in the Old Testament, in which a similar event to those told above took place: The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time. from The Brick Testament (click arrows in the images to view story) Today, the definition of shibboleths has been extended to include more than just passwords, or specific words and phrases. During the conflict in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the 20th century, one could tell a Protestant apart from a Catholic just by how he or she referred to a particular city in Northern Ireland. Protestants, who were generally supporters of the United Kingdom, would call it Londonderry, while Catholics, who were for a united Ireland, would simply call it Derry. In other accounts of WWII, the Allied powers also used the test of the Star Spangled Banner on suspected Axis spies posing as American soldiers. Asked to recite the song, which is also the American national anthem, spies would belt out the whole four stanzas perfectly, only to be caught immediately. Why? Because most Americans (then and now) would only be familiar with the first stanza, which is the part most commonly sung as the national anthem! While all of the stories here suggest that shibboleths can be of both linguistic and non-linguistic elements, one thing we can conclude is that language can be a strongly-felt part of a person's identity, and can also distinguish one group from another (sometimes leading to division!). This is why at Wycliffe, we believe that helping people retain the use of their language protects their cultural heritage and identity. The only difference is that, in God’s kingdom, a multitude of languages causes no division and has neither friend nor foe. It is simply an expression of God’s wonderful creativity. And the best part of God's kingdom? No password is needed to enter – just His grace.

by Sharon Tan Photo: Marc Ewell, Wycliffe Global Alliance Working remotely has become a way of life for most of us, thanks to COVID-19. For those of us in Singapore, “remotely” generally means a distance of less than 40 km! However, some translators who have returned to Singapore are continuing to work on their projects despite being much further away. Erin is a Wycliffe Singapore member who is a translation facilitator for a team in a Southeast Asian country. This team is one of 7 teams in the Simar cluster project. The goal of the project, which began in 2019, is to translate the gospel of Luke and dub the Jesus film in each of the 7 languages by 2022. Whether the completion date will be affected by the COVID-19 situation remains to be seen, but the teams are still continuing to work as best as they can. The original plan… The teams work on short sections of about 3 chapters at a time. Before the recent upheavals, the process was for each facilitator to help their team with exegesis, explaining the main points of the passages and highlighting key terms and concepts that might pose problems. The team members would then produce drafts which would be checked and corrected within each team. The drafts (in audio and booklet form) would then be checked with other native speakers in the villages, and revised as necessary. The facilitator would also spend about 2 weeks in the village with the team. Every 2 months, all 7 teams would come together for a 3-week workshop with 3 or 4 consultants to check these final drafts. The teams would then move on to the next few chapters. Now… As a result of the COVID-19 situation, the physical workshops have been cancelled until further notice because of movement restrictions. Consultants from overseas are also not able to travel into the country. Due to the escalating situation where she lived, Erin also returned to Singapore. However, technology is enabling Erin to continue to work on the project from a distance. She meets online with the 4 members of her team, helping them with exegesis and key terms, and encouraging them to keep going. She is happy to see that the earlier training has paid off, and that they are independently following the steps she taught them. Her familiarity with the language and culture from living there also helps her give advice and discuss issues with them, even from afar. Even the workshops are continuing, with weekly online sessions spread over 6 weeks, linking the consultants and facilitators in their home countries with the teams in the field. This way of working does pose challenges. Team members have had to adapt to meeting online, never as satisfactory as face to face. Electricity and internet connections can be patchy in the villages, and equipment can fail. However, many team members have learned to cope very quickly, and the work is progressing better than they expected. Later on, the teams will have to produce the audio recordings and printed booklets, and distribute and check the drafts in the villages on their own. Online or in person, the work also has to take into account the regular activities of village life – the farming schedule, family emergencies, etc. The uncertain situation has also increased unrest in parts of the country, with more robberies and threats of terrorism. With all these stresses, pray that the team members will stay safe, and not get distracted or lose focus. Please pray for Erin and the others in this project as they persevere in the work. While they rejoice that the team members are stepping up to work more independently, they would still much prefer to be there to work alongside them. Pray that God will sustain all of them as they work to bring much-needed good news to these people groups in their own language.

by Alfinda Herman Alfinda and her husband Aidan are preparing to head to Eastern Europe with their two young sons to work among the Roma people in North Macedonia. During one of their church visits, Alfinda was chatting with a Chinese student, Dean*. Alfinda explains: Dean had been attending church for a while but when I asked him if he trusted in Jesus, he answered ‘No, I grew up in China. Jesus doesn’t feel real to me. I think he is a Western god’. Dean’s reply gives insight into one of the challenges of cross-cultural gospel ministry, whether in Australia or overseas. When a person encounters Christ in a culture different from their own, and through a second (or third) language, the question of identity is a big deal. New believers may face some sort of identity crisis. They may grapple with questions such as: Does becoming a Christian mean becoming Western (or a culture that is perceived to be ‘Christian’)? Can I be as authentically Christian when I’m in my own culture? In the Roma (Gypsy) context, the topic of identity is close to their hearts, and is deeply intertwined with language. During the Communist era in Eastern Europe, the Roma were forbidden to speak their own language, Romani. Many Roma carry a great deal of shame about their language and heritage. One Roma even said, ‘God would not want to speak our language’. RK*, a Roma Christian leader, said for a long time he did not speak Romani because of the shame impressed on him since childhood. But in recent years, partly because of his encounter with the work of Bible translation into Romani, he has been exploring how reading Scriptures in Romani speaks to him more deeply and helps him see more clearly that Jesus is Lord of the Roma too. The question of identity has roots that run deep, and discipleship across cultures requires taking the time and energy to explore it. Please pray for God’s work among the Roma and the cross-cultural gospel work here in Australia. Pray that Dean will understand that Jesus is also the Lord of the Chinese and will come to trust in him. To support the Hermans in their work among the Roma people, go to https://wycliffe.org.au/member/aidan-alfinda/. *Name changed for privacy reasons Reproduced with permission from Wycliffe Australia.