Devotion to translation

PAUL BUTLER, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 29th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Paul Butler.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: reading God’s word for the first time.

WORLD Reporter Travis Kircher comes now with a story of how one woman invested more than 20 years of her life to make that happen for others.

AUDIO: [Drums and chanting]

TRAVIS KIRCHER: In the village of Kotiak, on the south coast of the Indonesian island of Papua, a celebration is taking place. It’s May and the villagers have come together to mark an important event. Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot Jack Gandy captured this audio.

JACK GANDY: The first day, there was, I mean, just dancing. Drums, people in traditional dress.

The villagers are celebrating the dedication of the Central Auyu Bible – the first Bible translated into their native language.

GANDY: We’d flown in the Bibles, I think, the week before. It was basically three or four flights, full of Bibles.

The woman responsible for the translation isn’t from Papua. She was born more than 4,000 miles away in South Korea.

SOHN: I was born in non-Christian family.

Myo-Sook Sohn was born in the city of Miryang in 1964 to a family of Bhuddists. When she was a little girl, she visited a local church at Christmas to get a present. There, she learned about Christ.

SOHN: So, one Sunday service, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. At the age of 10.

Her family wasn’t pleased with her decision.

SOHN: When I became a Christian, my parents did not allow me to go to the church service. But I pray to God by myself.

She later moved to an apartment in the town of Daegu. Her landlord was a Christian and took her to a local church. After hearing a missionary speak at a special service, she felt called to the mission field.

SOHN: At that time, it looks like very good to do the missionary job. Because Jesus loves us. And also Jesus wanted us to deliver his message.

She soon became involved with a South Korea-based ministry: Global Bible Translators. She says God directed her to translate the Bible into the Central Auyu language, a language spoken by only about 15,000 people.

But first, she had to learn the language. She moved to Papua to live with the people and engaged them in simple daily conversations.

SOHN: My goal was to practice languages with 10 people every day.

As time passed she saw how desperately they needed a Bible in their own language. The Central Auyu people had pastors, but they didn’t always get things right. She said a pastor using an Indonesian Bible to preach from Acts 5 inadvertently mangled the story of Ananius and Sapphira. Instead of teaching that the couple died because they lied to Peter and the Holy Spirit, he told his congregation they perished because they sold their land to outsiders.

SOHN: So don’t sell land to outsiders! That was the sermon! [LAUGHS]

Even worse, some of the tribal Christians were still clinging to their animistic spiritual beliefs. When one indigenous translator working with Sohn died of illness, some of the villagers blamed her. Gandy says that’s a common response.

GANDY: Whenever someone becomes unexpectedly ill, it must be witchcraft. And so they go find someone who is a witch or something like that – usually a woman, right? – and they kill her.

Sohn says that nearly happened.

SOHN: One person came to my house to kill me, but villagers stopped him. So he didn’t come down to my house.

At the time, Sohn and her staff had been working on a translation of Ephesians chapter six, the chapter about waging spiritual warfare against powers and principalities. At times, she says she had to fight her own spiritual battle, often against discouragement.

SOHN: And God always answered me and guided me, encouraged me. I think my relationship with God made me overcome all those difficulties and the struggles and other things.

AUDIO: [Tribal singing]

It all paid off in May when the MAF planes filled with Bibles began arriving in the village. Admittedly it was not the whole Bible. Sohn and her team managed to translate the entire New Testament and two books of the Old Testament. But it was all in the Central Auyu language. Sohn was there for the celebration.

SOHN: [LAUGHS] People were so much excited! I never imagine they were excited like that!

Four pigs were slaughtered for the occasion.

SOHN: That means a big feast! A big party and a big feast! [LAUGHS]

Gandy says the villagers surrounded Sohn and sang a tribal song about how the Lord had called a woman all the way from Korea to bring the Bible to a tribe most people don’t even know exists.

GANDY: But the Lord does. The Lord knows and the Lord cares for each one of these people. And I think it’s a testament to His care for all these people that he doesn’t want that one should perish.

For now, Sohn says she still has a lot of work to do training ministers to devour the feast of God’s Word.

SOHN: Pray that they will read the translated Bible every day and practice the Word of God in their daily life.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Travis Kircher.

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