Compilation post about this beautiful survey trip – helicopter, tropical island, wonderful people, win-win! – with daughter Anya, teammate Kristy, and translators Denis, Simon, and Christabel. From Sep 2022.
Tag Archives: about-survey
3/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts – actually, 34 – the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
2/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts, the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
1/3 Muratayak Survey (Apr’22)
We enjoy telling stories on FB, but when one trip get spread across 33 posts, the narrative gets a bit chopped up. We’ll combine original posts in three compilations here. Enjoy!
People and Opportunities
Language research is about people. It’s easy to talk about the adventure – the heat, the bugs, the mountains, the mud. Or about the work – facilitating group discussions on language vitality, collecting wordlists. But ultimately it’s about getting to know the people and discover opportunities to serve them.
A 2012 survey was particularly memorable, being more adventurous than most trips. Here are a few of the people we met along the way:
- The people of the first village, so remote in their river valley that we reached them by helicopter. Only women, children, and a few old men present. Most of the working men were two days’ walk away at a mine. Those remaining in the village were timid, uncertain about how to handle their foreign visitors.
- Children – We’re conscious of our ‘bling’ factor on survey. We have to carry papers and pens for research, water and food for sustenance, something to sleep in, medical supplies. Very quickly this begins to look like a great deal of wealth to rural PNGans, and, relatively speaking, it is. I pulled out the GPS to mark our location, the kids watched me curiously. In 2012, smartphones were very rare in the rural parts of PNG, and the GPS must have looked doubly strange.
- Guide – Lazarus, the man who volunteered to guide us on a path so seldom used that – many times that day – I could be standing on the trail and not be sure where it went from there. We later learned that Lazarus didn’t know the path either, but his jungle literacy was far better than ours. As he scouted far ahead to discern the path’s direction, he would leave sticks pointing the way. In a jungle full of sticks, our ability to read the sign he’d left was at kindergarten reading level, at best. Lazarus had to come back to show us the way.
- Armed local – Two of the surveyors were battered by falling throughout the day on the tricky trail, one a bit delirious. We descended a precipice after dark and were met be men with a rifle. They were afraid of retaliation from a nearby tribe with whom they were in conflict.
- Dead daughter – An old man asked for conversation with a female surveyor. We were mystified, as this is culturally inappropriate. It turned out that he thought she resembled a dead daughter of his. He wondered whether our colleague was his daughter, returned from the grave with white skin.
- Boatsman – We floated downstream in a forever-long dugout canoe, all four surveyors crowded together on a small bench in the middle. Bumping sideways over hidden logs, trying to remember if everything damageable had been sealed tight. The man with the pole at the far end of the canoe looked on with amusement.
- Translation enthusiast – A man accompanied me around a village, assisting with information about the language use habits of residents. At one point he asked, “There were three ladies that came in 1990. We thought they were going to begin translation. Why has no work begun?”
These people remain without vernacular Scripture. They are family, or could be. Some need a clear invitation. Probably best to give that invitation in their language!
For groups like this one, our research’s conclusion is clear: they’d benefit enormously from the Bible in their language! Pray that people would answer God’s call to serve this group and many others like them.
72 days until our return to PNG!
Dream Pig
Fire-side story time! I wrote this story in 2015 imagining one PNGan’s life and his perspective on Bible translation. How different PNGans see and experience Bible translation varies widely across PNG.
Imagining life from another’s perspective can aid in relationship-building, especially across cultures. Of course, such imagining is inevitably imperfect; assumptions and conclusions should be checked and rechecked.
Dream Pig is also flawed, and there are things I’d change about it now, 6 years after I wrote it. If there weren’t things I’d change, I’d be concerned, as that would indicate I’ve stopped learning.
Call to Action
[Mail recipients, please go to the webpage to see the video.]
In our first post, we invited you to tell us what you want to see here! That invitation stands.
Also in our first post, we said, “[Surveyors] write reports, but we aren’t fully satisfied when readers are just informed. Our research is intended to be applied, acted upon – in the survey context, this means language communities being served as a result of our research into their needs. Likewise, we’d love for you to act on what you see here by praying, becoming part of our team, or getting involved in a more direct way yourself! Jesus’ call to “Go!” is for all believers.
This week, instead of adding to the word count, I want to invite you to action, or to conversation. So, today, I’ll share highlights from posts to date. They’re organized by our call to action: Pray! Give! Go!
Watch the video or read the text below, they are nearly identical.
Pray! – there are many in PNG without Scripture in a language that communicates best
We answered “What is Language Survey?” with “We do applied research, desiring that those we study would benefit from language development.”
We recounted a 2011 survey and defined language survey as: research the sociolinguistic situation to identify needs and desires and suggest strategies for meeting them.
When a Language Dies – the story of a grandma who was the last speaker of her language – explained, “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.”
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).
After telling the second half of the 2011 survey, we noted, “Though there is translation work going on nearby, Mur Pano people haven’t been able to partake in a significant way. If you were one of the residents of the village, how would you think about the possibility of Scripture in your language? Would you judge it worth the effort? Will speakers of Mala and Mur Pano be among the “persons from every tribe and language” singing “You are worthy!” to God? (Rev 5:9).”
Pray for the 70 language groups we’ve researched in the past decade! Consider playing a part in researching and advocating for other speakers of minority languages by partnering with us!
Give! – your partnership enables research, which enables strategic Bible translation
As in the canoe described in Furlough & Partnership – Canoeing Sideways, 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.)
In Is It Dangerous? we asked, “Why do we do it?” Here’s one way to look at it:
- Problem: people without any Scripture in the languages that communicate best
- Solution: experts translate the Bible, guided by research (that’s our job)
- Outcome: people engage with Scripture in their languages, better able to know and follow God
Would you go to an event if your invitation was written in a language you don’t know well? “If this is really for me, why isn’t it in my language? I’m not entirely sure what this is about.” God invites people from every nation and tongue to his table. Translating the invitation – the Bible – makes it clear and cogent.
By last count, there were close to 2000 language groups in Oceania, Asia, and Africa about which not enough is known to categorize translation need with confidence.
Solution: RESEARCH! Understanding what type of translation is beneficial and where is the first step towards meeting the needs of these people who are, in some ways, “the least of these” (Mt 25:40, 45).
Research guides translation experts to where they are needed, and often provides strategic information about how to work with a particular people group. Those translation experts do the heavy lifting, often investing 10-30 years working alongside local people to complete a New Testament.
The outcome is wonderful: another people group with God’s Word clear and attractive. “God speaks my language!”
I’m a strong proponent of long-term relational engagement across cultures, walking with God and pursuing him together, using all the languages we speak. Your part in this is pretty special, and critical. Without you, most cross-cultural Bible translation work – and the research that guides translation – just doesn’t happen. You provide the financial, prayer, and relational support needed for translation and research experts to do their jobs in those thousands of languages which remain Scripture-less.
Go! – many skillsets contribute to Bible translation
In What Just Happened? – multicultural teamwork, we stated that our organization in PNG includes staff from 15+ nations and tens of language/culture groups from around PNG. One of my goals as Chief Communications Officer role is to facilitate communication that builds relationships and team and enables collaboration within our organization and with partners. Pray for our staff as they navigate the complexities of multicultural teamwork and build relationships.
Languages and Mountains spoke of how we’ve served in a variety of roles as we see needs we can meet. What skills could you contribute? In PNG, a wide range of professions are needed!
We’re all ordinary (if anything created in God’s image is). All followers of Jesus have received the same call. Read how Tikvah responds in Obedience-Based Faith. How are you responding?
In Multi-part Harmony, we described how “[The Wheel of Vitality’s] primary purpose is to assess intergenerational language transmission, [enabling us to] make estimations about [the language’s] 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!”
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.
A Walk on the Survey Trail: And then I arise [from the river], feet finding purchase among the stones, lungs breathing deep, life’s ebb and flow renewing. It’s time for another village with a different language, time to connect with a new set of beings made in God’s image. The Living Word seeks to be incarnate through Scripture in their language. He is already present in Spirit, but his message is not yet clearly and fully expressed in their tongue.
We’ve met many people in Papua New Guinea who would benefit from having the Bible in their language, enabling them to better know and follow God. There are many other groups whose need is unclear. Answer God’s call to make disciples! Pray! Give! Go!
Multi-part Harmony
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?
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.
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!
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):
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!
What Just Happened? – multicultural teamwork
What just happened? With my motorcycle helmet on and earplugs in, the young African American man’s enthusiastic gestures, given dramatic flair by his dreads, were hard to interpret. The movement of his lips were, to me, soundless. I nodded and grinned – he couldn’t see my grin, helmet obscuring – and he moved on.
Cross-cultural interactions can look like this, even without a helmet blocking audiovisual. Signals can be sent and received but not understood. Perhaps, like the helmet, something is obscuring comprehension: language or accent; ‘worldview’ – ways of thinking about the world; or differences in what is meant by expressions. Next time you have a misunderstanding, it may help to identify what’s contributing.
In PNG, briefly-raised eyebrows mean ‘yes.’ Eyebrows are more efficient than nodding (much of the world) or wagging (India) the head, but easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for! Wikipedia calls the India version a ‘head bobble’ and says, “The motion usually consists of a side-to-side tilting of the head in arcs along the coronal plane. … it may mean yes, good, maybe, ok, or I understand, depending on the context. Head bobbles can also be used in an intentionally vague manner. An unenthusiastic head bobble can be a polite way of declining something without saying no directly.” Thanks Wikipedia for confirming the possibility of misunderstanding across cultures! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_bobble
Among the most disorienting of conversations are those where people appear to be in agreement along the way – both parties are tracking – only for the other person to draw a completely different conclusion at the end! “How unreasonable of them!” (They’re thinking exactly the same about you, probably.)
Lost in the jungle
One survey in 2012 we were deep in the bush, following a barely-visible trail as dark approached. “Barely visible” – at times, I could be standing on the trail and not see where it went. Our guide, we later learned, had never been on this trail either, and he was hurrying to get to the next village before nightfall, when enemy spirits might roam. It had been a very long day, and we were frustrated that he kept disappearing ahead. At one point he came back and asked, “Didn’t you see the signs I left?” He then pointed at a branch on the ground he’d turned to show the direction he’d taken. To him, accustomed to the trackless bush, this was like a neon sign. To us, accustomed to neon signs, it looked like a branch in a jungle full of them…
We didn’t make it by nightfall, and were met by a man with a rifle as we descended a precipice by headlamp. He’d thought we were invading enemies. Our guide proved his worth by clearing that up. Misunderstandings have consequences.
High and low context cultures
Sometimes signals are sent and simply NOT received. This is especially true when a culture is a ‘high context’ culture and the cross-cultural worker is from a ‘low context’ culture. Much goes unsaid in a high context culture, because it’s assumed that one already ‘gets it’ from the context; literally “it goes without saying.” Isn’t it funny that in the west people often say, “It goes without saying,” and then say it anyway? Hint: low context culture! In low context cultures, the expectation is that everything needs to be elucidated verbally.
In 2020 the survey team consisted of 1 third-culture kid, 1 US midwest, 1 US west urban, 1 US northwest, 3 PNG highlanders (2 urban-ish, 1 more rural-ish), 1 PNG coastal. Plenty of opportunities for miscommunication! Our organization in PNG includes staff from 15+ nations and tens of language/culture groups from around PNG. One of my goals as Chief Communications Officer role is to facilitate communication that builds relationships and team and enables collaboration within our organization and with partners. Pray for our staff as they navigate the complexities of multicultural teamwork and build relationships. (See Languages and Mountains – Chief Communications Officer for more on the this role.)
It can be tempting to glom with similar people; sometimes doing so provides energizing rest for cross-cultural workers. But, despite the challenges, multicultural teamwork can bring a level of creativity and flexibility not attainable otherwise. Working in such contexts can be humbling, as people discover that their way of seeing things is one way, not the only way. Becoming a strong multicultural team takes time and talent, and though ‘what just happened’ moments will always be with us, the result better reflects the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12, Ro 12:4-5).
Is It Dangerous?
“Is it dangerous?” We get this question sometimes when we share about conducting language research in remote villages in PNG. Yes, there is some danger and a high degree of uncertainty.
Why do we do it? Here’s one way to look at it:
- Problem: people without any Scripture in the languages that communicate best
- Solution: experts translate the Bible, guided by research (that’s our job)
- Outcome: people engage with Scripture in their languages, better able to know and follow God
Would you go to an event if your invitation was written in a language you don’t know well? “If this is really for me, why isn’t it in my language? I’m not entirely sure what this is about.” God invites people from every nation and tongue to his table. Translating the invitation – the Bible – makes it clear and cogent.
God created humankind and seeks to live in everlasting fellowship with it. Sin – rebellion against God and his design for us – separates us from God. Some facts enable us to understand God’s invitation: that we are sinners and condemned, that Jesus as the sacrificial lamb opened a Way to God, that we have but to believe in the Savior and follow our Lord. Those facts must be communicated; complex communication happens best with words. Hence the Scriptures.
Let’s examine that problem further: “people without any Scripture in the languages that communicate best.”
- We’re about people, possessed of eternal souls, just as God is. Sometimes we get to talking a lot about languages and translations, but it’s about people like you and me.
- Once you’ve learned to read, it’s pretty difficult to know what it’s like to be illiterate. Similarly, for those with Scriptures in their language, it’s hard to imagine themselves without Scriptures. Try for a second. The Word is a treasure.
- There is no substitute for Scripture, no alternative. God purposed it and imbued it with great power.
- Languages are the primary way people connect with other beings, including spiritual beings. Multilingual people have several languages to choose from, but usually a particular language is used for their most significant interactions. They will benefit greatly if they are able to connect to God in that language.
Today, “Bibleless peoples” are on a continuum, which includes:
- those with no Scripture in their language
- those with Scriptures in one of the languages they regularly use, but not in the language that would ‘communicate best.’
For those with zero access to Scripture (1), the need for translation is clear. For those with some access (2), what is needed or desired can be less clear, but translation can often be beneficial.
Here’s a curveball for you: in Oceania, Asia, and Africa, there are hundreds of people groups whose level of Scripture access is insufficiently understood. In PNG, our team’s research in 70 language groups since 2010 has:
- described previously undocumented languages
- found multiple dying languages not in need of Scripture (these people now speak other languages), and
- has confirmed that the speakers of a significant portion of these 70 languages would benefit from Scripture.
By last count, there were close to 2000 language groups in Oceania, Asia, and Africa about which not enough is known to categorize translation need with confidence.
Solution: RESEARCH! Understanding what type of translation is beneficial and where is the first step towards meeting the needs of these people who are, in some ways, “the least of these” (Mt 25:40, 45).
Research guides translation experts to where they are needed, and often provides strategic information about how to work with a particular people group. Those translation experts do the heavy lifting, often investing 10-30 years working alongside local people to complete a New Testament.
The outcome is wonderful: another people group with God’s Word clear and attractive; “God speaks my language.”
It would be nice to end this post there. The reality, as shown by our Scripture Use Research and Ministry project (2014-17), is that many communities who have Scripture in their language do not use it as much as we hope. Why? Well… that’s another post. What it means: that communities benefit when someone – whether people from our organization or someone else – comes alongside them beyond the completion of vernacular Scriptures. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a strong proponent of long-term relational engagement across cultures, walking with God and pursuing him together, using all the languages we speak.
Your part in this is pretty special, and critical. Without you, most cross-cultural Bible translation work – and the research that guides translation – just doesn’t happen. With such an involved task, a tent-making approach generally isn’t viable. You provide the financial, prayer, and relational support needed for translation and research experts to do their jobs in those thousands of languages which remain Scripture-less.
Well, that’s one way to look at the ‘why.’ Additional pieces would include personal indebtedness to God’s redemptive work and the power of his Word in our lives. It’s a big endeavor, complex in its motivations. It’s part of God’s Kingdom work.
“Is it dangerous?” A counterquestion: “What’s worth risking in service to our Lord?” And a testimony: our experiences in remote PNG villages has generally been very positive. Hospitality is widely practiced.
