Tag Archives: video

Multi-part Harmony

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The nose of our fiberglass dinghy dove sickeningly towards the face of the next wave. I was sure it would spear into the wave and we’d be submerged. I’d heard of boats doing this. On another trip, our boat pilot had once been late to meet us because he’d rescued people lost at sea in this manner.

Somehow the bow rose up the wave, pointing skyward. Then again we plunged down, and I was sure we’d spear into the wave and be submerged. Did someone leave this song of doom on repeat?

A calmer portion of our ride.

Our posts, newsletters, and presentations often speak of unmet need for two reasons: 1) we desire your partnership in meeting the need, and 2) we’ve met those in need, and unmet need rankles. But it’s important to celebrate too, to recognize God’s activity. So here’s a positive tale.

In 2015 we had an intern join the survey team for a few months. He and I went to Milne Bay Province where a translation team had asked for research into the dialect situation in the language group they worked with. This project had significant local support:

  • the community had started translation work on their own initiative
  • they had invited our organization to provide guidance and expertise
  • locals were assigned to literacy training, distribution, and translation activities

The question the survey team was asked to answer: “Will this translated material serve the dialect to the west?” The survey team decided that, rather than just doing the research and giving the new translation team an answer, we would train them to answer such questions on their own.

Hence the dinghy ride of doom. As such experiences often do, it felt like an eternity of plunging to the ocean’s depths – particularly when someone’s seat broke from the repeated pounding – but we rounded the point and the rest of the scene reasserted itself: the tropical sun, ocean breeze, and white-sand beaches. Even the water suddenly looked warmer as the waves relaxed.

Where the people are, there you do research.

In the following days we used our Wheel of Vitality and Dialect Mapping tools repeatedly. At first we facilitated them with the translation team observing, then gradually they took over. By the end of the trip, we were confident they could continue to investigate these questions on their own.

Before departing overland – an even bumpier experience than the dinghy ride, though sweeter by virtue of the watermelons being transported – our intern had his highlight experience: sharing a message at a local church. He subsequently became a youth pastor far from the ocean. Ha!

Sullivan sharing an encouraging word. – – – What mark will you leave?

A bit more about the Wheel of Vitality, which we’ve alluded to in Survey Trail and Languages and Mountains (or see the technical write-up from soon after we invented the tool):

Is this language strong today? What’s its future? What factors will affect it?

It’s primary purpose is to assess intergenerational language transmission in multilingual communities. By learning about how the languages available to the community are currently used and what factors are influencing language choice, we can identity the EGIDS level of the language and make estimations about its future. Since Bible translation is often a multi-decade endeavor, it makes sense to have some confidence that the language will be spoken when the translation is completed!

What factors do you think influence language vitality in this community? Write and let us know!

While we were there, it felt like we, the translation team, and the local folks were singing a multipart harmony joyfully and beautifully. “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Ps 133:1) But our tale in Milne Bay has a twist ending: the translation team moved to a different role a few years after this trip, so translation has slowed since. Pray that all the “singers” needed for effective harmony can be recruited, and that “the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore” (Ps 133:3).

Anyone bothered by the redundancy of ‘multi-part harmony?’ To have harmony, more than one singer is needed. The temptation can be to try to go it alone, but God made us for teamwork!

Some of the locals were more shy than others. – – – Short cruise to the next village in the rain.

Obedience-Based Faith

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[Prayer requests at bottom (and a hilarious video).]

This young lady is one of my favorite people. She’s an ordinary girl, neither graced with superpowers nor recipient of extra-Biblical callings. Though sometimes grumpy about trying new things, she is obedient, just as we are seeking to be to our Father.

Adventures taste best when grinning.

This 2014 trip began with a footbridge crossing – the vehicle bridge had collapsed – and included cramming vehicle-accident victims into our van for transport to the hospital. Sweaty nights on a tropical coast, ocean breeze blocked by trees. Being with local kids she didn’t share a language with. Patiently waiting through long meetings as the team discussed their research. Baths in a bucket.

“Helping” with a literacy game which measured vernacular literacy. Travel sized for your convenience.

What did she do in response to these challenges and discomfort? She danced in the rain.

Contrasts heighten enjoyment. Cool rain feels wonderful when you’ve been hot all day.

We’re all ordinary (if anything created in God’s image is). All followers of Jesus have received the same call.

How are you responding?

Pray, Give, Go.

Not everyone can go* – at least not to ‘the ends of the earth’ – but believers can enable disciple-making there by praying and giving. How are you saying “Yes, Lord” today? If not today, when?

*Or can they?

God gave us marvelous bodies to adventure in. Enjoy them!

Prayer

Thank you for praying for the survey team’s trip to Gulf Province last month. They reported success despite significant challenges:

  • Theft revealed conflict over the land of the airstrip they landed on.
  • Sickness of a partner they were training – praise for access to a hospital in the area.
  • Retaliation related to sorcery led to the team leaving a village during the night.

These certainly highlight the challenges of multicultural teamwork and the dangers of language research!

Please continue to pray for:

  • Healing for an ongoing health issue limiting a surveyor’s ability to go on trips.
  • Wisdom to know where to focus research in a nation with 840 language groups!
  • Further opportunities for effective partnership.
  • Hanna and the translation team as they take the next step with these communities towards language development and translation.

Furlough & Partnership – Canoeing Sideways

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Furlough is an important part of cross-cultural work, but it can be difficult! Before I get to that, I’d ask you to pray for two things:

  • Surveyors Crystal and Mary are on a survey trip to Gulf Province. Pray they’ll have wisdom, proficiency, and good teamwork. Pray for Hanna, the translator they’re working with, and her team, some of whom are on the trip to build relationships in villages. Pray for two YWAM staff who are accompanying the survey team to grow in their understanding of sociolinguistic research. Pray for Mary’s husband Devin as he looks after their child while Mary is away.
  • We’ve recently connected with several couples – ex-colleagues or on furlough – who are facing significant challenges in their marriages. It’s not uncommon for husbands and wives to have very different experiences overseas, and to then pull in different directions. Pray for healing and unity!

Furlough being difficult: in 2011 we were floating sideways down a muddy river in a dugout canoe that was ridiculously long and narrow. All four surveyors were scrunched on a small bench in the middle, laughing at the awkward scene we were making, but careful to keep our balance. At the far end of the canoe was a PNGan man with a pole… which broke on one of his first punts.

Many survey photos from this and other trips at https://carter-pathways.com/?page_id=7, scroll down. If you want to hear the story behind a particular photo, we’d be happy to share! This survey began in a helicopter.

On furlough we’re scrunched together, going somewhere sideways, not knowing what to expect. MANY of our colleagues have gone for furlough only to never make it back to PNG. We are 1 of only 4 teams remaining in PNG from the 21 teams we started with in 2010.

As in that canoe, we aren’t steering on furlough… YOU are. God uses you, his Body, to care for cross-cultural workers, send them to their place of service, and support them while there.

Without the Church providing transport, overseas workers get dumped in that muddy river.

Furlough is a faith-growing exercise for cross-cultural workers. We do what we can, then wait trustingly – balancing the while – for the Church to say, “Yes, we want to make that happen!” (If you’re ready, get in touch, go to Partner, or ask us for suggestions about work that aligns with your interests.)

The girls were a lot smaller last furlough!

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb 10:24)! There’s room to improve this partnership in both directions.

More inspiration from Hebrews 10: For we are those who “have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way”! “Let us draw near to God” and “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess” (vs 19-20, 23) so that we will “receive what he has promised” (vs 36).

Let us be faithful in following and proclaiming this Way, for “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (vs 31)!

When a Language Dies

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A grandmother’s trembling voice told a story only two other people in the world could understand. A language which had been used to groan the pain of childbirth, remark joyfully at holding that baby, to say ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ for the first time, to teach the child right from wrong, by the child in delighted play in the jungle, for that child to know her own spouse and children, and on the cycle goes… that language was near it end.

Her voice accelerated with excitement, perhaps from happy memories, then became slow and thoughtful. The audio recorder captured her words. It, like we, heard only empty sounds. Recording and transcribing the story was inadequate, but it was something.

What does it mean to lose a language? A language is an artistic system to express all of the meanings deemed valuable enough to articulate verbally. A collaborative effort to explain the world. A tug of war between new words striving to find acceptance and old ones reluctant to be forgotten.

Let’s not forget, either, the knowledge contained within a language. These people are the leading experts in their particular environment. Over generations, they have captured with their labels and descriptions their best understanding of their place and how to succeed there. Rarely does such knowledge get translated to another language; it is lost.

We have many past and present examples of the horrendous uprooting that can occur when a language is lost through a people’s own choices – this is usually gentler – or because of an external force. Such uprooting can leave its people bewildered and disconnected for generations, identity-less and unable to describe and pursue value or purpose.

When grandmother’s story came to a quivering halt, there was only silence.

Steven from a neighboring group, Steve, local man in traditional attire, grandmother and 1 of 3 remaining speakers, Jed – surveyor, Jonathan – language documentation

Pray for those who’ve lost a language they loved, to find identity as God’s children. For those losing one to understand its value and to have wisdom to respond. Pray God’s message would be clear, regardless: “The heavens declare the glory of God… Day after day they pour forth speech… they have no words… Yet their voice goes out into all the earth” (excerpts from Ps 19:1-4).

Revel in the harmoniously discordant idiosyncrasies of your language, and celebrate others’!

Steven explaining an audio Scripture device in a nearby language with a translation

What is Language Survey?

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We’d love to deep-dive into this topic over time, but let’s start simple: language survey = research into how people use languages.

If we were only studying languages, we’d be linguists. If we were only studying people, we’d be sociologists. Since it’s both, we’re sociolinguistic researchers.

There are 7000-ish languages around the world, 840-ish in Papua New Guinea (PNG). “-ish” indicates that there is much we don’t know about languages and the people that speak them globally!

We don’t research just to know more. We do applied research, desiring that those we study would benefit from language development. In PNG, many languages that people grow up speaking – “vernaculars” – are unwritten. Pause and think about that. Many times, an organization like ours is instrumental in developing literature and literacy.

Many PNGans who speak unwritten languages do have access to literature in other languages they speak. Most people in PNG are multilingual. Is this sounding complex yet? Determining what people do with languages, why they do it, and what kinds of development would actually help… our job as surveyors is somewhere in there.