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Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada • Fall 2005
Despite the complexities of history, religion
and language, the Word of God is bringing
spiritual light to the Maya of Guatemala.
Wycliffe Couple Slain in Guyana
JESUS Film in Blackfoot
The Letters Are Walking
Fall 2005 • Volume 23, Number 3
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Long Night’s
Journey into Day
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Articles by Marilyn Henne • Photographs by Ken Fast
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Despite the complexities of history, religion and
language, the Word of God is bringing spiritual
light to the Maya of Guatemala.
In Guatemala, only a small minority of indigenous Mayan language
speakers can read and write in their own languages. This teenage
girl represents those who can and do. From a small and poor rural
community, María (above) has joined 10 others from her church who
will study a course that gives a panoramic view of the Bible, all in her
language, K’iche’.
10
The
Smile
14
Doing What
Comes Naturally
In a highland Guatemala town, Jorge Morales
and his extended family live out the psalmist’s
declaration, One generation will commend your
works to another. . . .
In their oral society, the Maya enjoy
soaking up the Word by watching a
video, listening to the radio or playing a
cassette on their boom boxes.
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Word Watch
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Wycliffe Couple Slain in Guyana; and more.
Eureka! The Letters Are Walking
“In the whole world, it is the Book; all
other books are merely leaves, fragments.”
—Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832),
Scottish novelist and poet, on the Bible
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
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Focus The Two Faces of Marilyn
Quoteworthy
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Word Alive, which takes its name from Hebrews 4:12a, is the official publication of Wycliffe Bible
Translators of Canada. Its mission is to inform, inspire and involve the Christian public as partners in
the worldwide Bible translation movement.
Editors: Dwayne Janke, Dave Crough
Designer: Laird Salkeld
Staff Writers: Janet Seever, Doug Lockhart, Deborah Crough
Staff Photographers: Dave Crough, Alan Hood
Web Version Designer: Kenji Kondo
COVER
His back bent under a heavy load of wood,
this K’iche’ labourer has picked his way up an
uneven cobblestone alley in Chichicastenango,
Guatemala. He emerges from the shadows of the
adobe buildings and the darkness of his narrow
path into the light of a new day.
BY
DWAYNE
JANKE
Photograph by Ken Fast
The Two Faces
of Marilyn
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A few years ago, Marilyn Henne (see photo below, left)
was the director of Wycliffe Canada’s communications
department. She had the challenge of steering us creative types to produce media with the right message.
20
‘A Little Piece
of a Person’
Estéfana Chun, a K’iche’ shepherd girl,
finds the Good Shepherd.
Author Marilyn Henne and her long-time K’iche’ friend,
Estéfana Chun, have known each other 40 years. As a house
helper for Marilyn, Estéfana taught the Wycliffe worker to
speak K’iche’. She soon learned from Marilyn to study and
instruct others from the K’iche’ Scriptures. Together the two
women taught Bible stories and Scripture texts to women
and children in the churches of Chichicastenango, Guatemala.
In later years, Marilyn sometimes did the housework, so that
Estéfana could go out teaching.
Word Alive is published four times annually by Wycliffe Bible
Translators of Canada, 4316 10 St NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6K3.
Copyright 2005 by Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada. Permission
to reprint articles and other magazine contents may be obtained
by written request to the editors. A donation of $10 annually
is suggested to cover the cost of printing and mailing the
magazine. (Donate online or use the reply form in this
issue.) Printed in Canada by McCallum Printing Group, Edmonton.
Member: The Canadian Church Press, Evangelical Press Association
For additional copies: media_resources@wycliffe.ca
To contact Word Alive editors: [email protected]
For address updates: circulation@wycliffe.ca
Note to readers: References to “SIL” are occasionally made in
Word Alive. SIL is Wycliffe’s main partner organization, dedicated
to training, language research, translation and literacy.
Under Marilyn’s leadership, our weekly staff meetings were
known for her insightful devotional times, sensitive prayers for
one another, and often raucous exchanges. As an out-loud thinker, she fueled lively discussions, in groups or one-on-one.
Having worked at the Wycliffe International headquarters in
Dallas, Tex., Marilyn came with a tremendous handle on the
global scope of the Bible translation task. When we made sweeping generalizations, Marilyn held up her hand like a cop trying
to stop traffic. “Just hold on,” she often blurted, before setting the
record straight in all its true complexity.
But there was another side to Marilyn. She and her husband David had lived among the K’iche’ (key-CHAY) people
in Guatemala for more than two decades. The Hennes helped
to translate the whole Bible, as well as train scores of bilingual
schoolteachers and Maya writers. Marilyn knows well the complex translation and linguistic reality on the field in a way that we
Wycliffe communications personnel never will.
Co-editor Dave Crough and I asked Marilyn to return to
Guatemala and write stories for this Word Alive, explaining and
reflecting on where things stood these many years later. What
was the impact of the K’iche’ Scriptures among the people? Were
they speaking their mother tongue? Were they reading it?
During her visit, Marilyn saw a pattern emerge: the people
speak, explain, pray and preach in their local Mayan tongue, but
they sing Christian songs and read the Bible out loud in Spanish.
“You may think that this is a discouraging situation,” says
Marilyn. “After all, we, and many others, have spent years and
years learning the Mayan languages and helping to translate the
Word of God. ‘Where are the readers of the Bible text?’ you ask.”
There is a solid, but small core of readers. But they use their
skills to help record the JESUS film, prepare radio programs
and Bible cassettes. They also teach and preach, using the Maya
Scriptures as a personal help to understand the Spanish Bible.
Some write songs in their language. The gospel message is
spreading orally, explains Marilyn, “finding its moorings in God’s
written Word preserved down through the centuries.”
The bottom line is that the truth and love of God is being
understood. Who can be discouraged about that?
Wycliffe Canada Vision Statement:
A world where translated Scriptures lead to
transformed lives among people of all languages.
Canadian Head Office:
4316 10 St NE, Calgary, AB T2E 6K3.
Phone: (403) 250-5411 or toll free 1-800-463-1143,
8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. mountain time
Fax: (403) 250-2623. E-mail: [email protected]
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
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Despite the complexities of history,
religion and language, the Word of
God is bringing spiritual light to
the Maya of Guatemala.
ARTICLES BY MARILYN HENNE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN FAST
Dawn. The view from atop the volcano, Santa María,
near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second-largest
city. Visitors who climb it begin the five-hour
hike at midnight so they can be greeted by a
spectacular sunrise.
Before Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans and travelled to
Canaan, the ancient Maya had appeared on the American
continent. By the time of Christ, they had settled mainly
in Guatemala and southern Mexico. Rising to prominence
around 250 A.D., the Maya built temples and cities that were
architectural marvels, developed a complex hieroglyphic writing system and discovered the concept of zero.
The Maya were animists. They believed that everything,
animate and inanimate, possessed a spirit. And they had to
appease the spirits, if life was to be good. Maya religious rites
to satisfy these spirits, as well as the ancestors, often seemed
dark and foreboding for the average person. Who could
understand the mysteries of the spirit world?
After 1,000 A.D., the Maya civilization fell apart, but its
animistic rites still persisted. When the Spanish conquistadors
and Roman Catholic friars arrived in the 17th century, they
Christianized the population, or so they thought. Shrewdly
judging the new religion to be yet another avenue of favour
with the supernatural, the Maya adopted the outward trappings of Catholic ritual while retaining their ow n animistic
core. In many rural communities, the daykeepers (guardians
of the Maya calendar’s favourable days for life’s important
events) and other shamans continued their ritual prayers and
sacrifices at remote sites high in the mountains. Later, in the
whitewashed church whose long shadow dominated each town
plaza, they implored favours from the conquerors’ painted
wooden saints.
But uncertainty dogged the steps of the daykeepers.
Entreating the capricious spirits and the ancestors, the shaman
sought to penetrate the world beyond time. Even with all the
prescribed sacrifices of chickens, incense, flower petals and
liquor, who could know that the spirits would be content? The
journey to the imposing town church held no assurance either.
Protestant missionaries entered Guatemala more than 100
years ago. They found this most populous of the Central
American countries to be a mountainous and rugged land. It
was also home to 22 indigenous Maya groups, the descendants
of the famous, ancient civilization. Each group spoke a separate language and together far out-numbered the ruling Latino
class, a mixture of Spanish and Maya blood.
So, after beginning a few churches, schools and hospitals in the
capital, Guatemala City, many of the early Protestant pioneers
spread the gospel to the rural Maya communities—in Spanish,
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
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Yes, those with more formal schooling could, like teachers and some leaders. But any authentic discipleship that
stressed radical life change through the truth and love of Jesus
Christ, demanded communication in the Mayan languages
themselves. Thus the long, arduous task began, learning the
new sounds and expressions of daily life, then translating
the eternal words into the
Maya framework. Early
For information on the early work in
Presbyterian, Primitive
Guatemala by William Cameron Townsend,
Methodist, Nazarene and
visit <www.wycliffe.ca/wordalive/>.
Central America Mission
missionaries eventually broke through the language barriers
and produced some of the first Bible translations. Among the
missionary pioneers was Wycliffe founder, William Cameron
Townsend.
The Word of God slowly began to penetrate the world of the
highland Maya. But even with the proclamation of the gospel in
the Mayan tongues through dedicated missionaries, their converts and the early Bible translations, were the Maya just adding
another religious layer to their syncretism? Or had the light
penetrated the darkness? Had the night’s journey led to day?
of course. No one they knew had yet unlocked the intricacies of
Maya grammar and syntax, or understood its many guttural and
popping sounds, so unlike English or Spanish.
As the Protestant missionaries encountered the Maya, they
found a people ready to embrace this new form of Christianity
as yet another experience of the supernatural. They did so
more readily than the Enlightenment-influenced Westerners
had expected. But the weaving of Maya deities and Catholic
saints proved difficult to disentangle, whether by reformed
priests or enthusiastic evangelists.
For the Maya it was like a long
Moving Toward the Day
night’s journey, always moving toward the day, the sunrise, and
the light. The depressing theme of the famous North American
playwright, Eugene O’Neil, had been A Long Day’s Journey into
Night—difficult, dark, downhill. The dream for the Maya was
different. In fact, it was the opposite—a long night’s journey
into day.
Beyond the religious issues on the journey, another factor
complicated the sunrise: all those Mayan languages! They
were so different from Spanish. What choice was there but to
introduce the gospel first in a foreign language? With their
emphasis on the written Word of God and the priesthood of
the believer, the Protestants, of course, had brought Spanish
Bibles. Surely the Maya could learn to read and write in this
language, even if it was the conquerors’ tongue!
Spanish was the prestige
language, and if you wanted
to get ahead, you had to
speak it, or at least try to.
Guatemala At A Glance
Name: Republic of Guatemala
Area: 109,000 sq. km (about the size of the island of
Newfoundland); a land of mountains and volcanoes, and
a major exporter of coffee and bananas
Location: Mexico’s southern neighbour
Population: 14.3 million (43% under 15)
Capital: Guatemala City (pop. 3.2 million)
People*: 44% - 65% Maya (Amerindian); 33% - 54%
Spanish-speaking Latinos; 2% Afro-Caribbean
Sources: Encarta 2004; Prensa Libre (Jan. 23, 2005);
2004 World Fact Book.
Forests and Thickets It was indeed a journey—first through the dense forest of cadences and clauses in
the Spanish preaching and Bible, then through the thicket of
translation into the tongues of the Maya.
On the journey’s rising trail came the challenge of deciphering a new alphabet of familiar symbols mixed with the ones
to represent the Maya sounds. This trail never seemed to stop
curving upward. Reading and writing were like huge boulders
on the road.
The Maya were also carrying a heavy load of shame on their
backs. Shame that they didn’t speak Spanish well. Shame that
Latino schoolteachers had compared their language to the
sound of pigs grunting. Shame that there were so few books,
magazines or newspapers written in any Mayan language.
Shame that God Himself had seemed to speak Spanish before
any Mayan language.
It was this burden of shame that my husband David and I
discovered when we first began to learn K’iche’ (key-CHAY)
in 1964. A large group of Maya, the K’iche’ numbered 500,000
speakers then and grew to two million. They lived in 50 town
Religion: Roman Catholic, Maya-Catholic (animistic),
25% evangelical
Language: Spanish (official language, but not used
by 40%-50% of population as their primary language);
Garifuna (Afro-Caribbean); 22 Mayan languages
Languages with Scriptures: 8 have Bibles, 21 have
New Testaments
Literacy**: Spanish, 71%, the lowest in Central America.
*Exact population figures vary greatly, because the difference
between Latino and Maya is cultural, not racial, and therefore
difficult to determine.
**Literacy has not been measured in the Mayan languages.
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centres with hundreds of outlying rural townships and many
dialectal variations of their language.
We remember well how people enjoyed our enthusiasm for
learning their language, but they were of two minds. On the
one hand, our neighbour don (a Spanish title of respect) Mateo
encouraged us with words like, “You are surely right, my
friends. We need to understand the Bible in our own language.
How good of you to come and help us translate.”
The opposite view erupted from a 14-year old boy, impatient
with his family’s polite tolerance of our earnestness for Bible
translation. I can still hear José’s words as he brashly suggested,
“We aren’t really interested in having more Scripture in our
own language, because after all, we already have Spanish
Bibles. We’re bilingual.”
Not only that, but José and others told us that the K’iche’
wanted to progress and not be held back, bound to their
mother tongue. They rightly saw that Spanish was essential for
business, education and government.
“K’iche’ is for the women and kids, and old people—like my
mother,” argued José. His words still ring in my head.
Subtle Pressures, Old Practices In those early
days, we didn’t understand the subtle pressures of society,
economics and the old animistic religious practices. We naively
imagined it was an obvious choice to speak K’iche’ or Spanish,
to preach in one language or another, to value your culture, to
teach your children to retain their mother tongue even when
the school overwhelmed them with Spanish.
The K’iche’ are famous for their weaving and tie-dyed garments. This is a hand method of producing patterns in textiles
by tying portions of the thread together so that they will not
absorb the dye. Weavers pass down the patterns from generation to generation. But each generation also develops changes
according to the style of the times and the artistic ability of the
weaver. You can see the changes and mixing of patterns in the
textiles for sale in the market place.
Traditionally the Maya are animists. Sacrificing a chicken at a remote
burning place high in the mountains (top, left), a shaman seeks to
appease the spirits of the cornfield or plead for good fortune for clients.
Later, he will swing an incense censer on the steps of the Catholic Church
in a town plaza, like this one in Chichicastenango (above), and even
enter it to burn candles and implore the saints for favour. This syncretism
of religious rites and beliefs still thrives today, even though Maya
evangelicals have made enormous gains in both rural and urban areas.
People also develop patterns in the way they use language.
The patterns sometimes change or get mixed, according to
the speakers and their environment. Speech patterns are not
always clear. In the 1960s and ’70s, it seemed to us that everyone talked K’iche’ at home. Well, yes and no. It depended
on who was there and what they were talking about. What
if Grandma and Mom were discussing the need to keep vulnerable youth away from the cantinas (bars)? They spoke in
K’iche’, of course. Or if the pastor from town was talking about
a denominational meeting with Dad, and quoting a Bible text
regarding those vulnerable youth? It would be Spanish for
them, definitely. Just a small change of people, topic or
location often signalled a change in language.
Shame was a big factor. Two women wouldn’t be ashamed to
speak K’iche’ to each other, but a man would expect to speak
Spanish to his pastor who came from the town. Spanish was
the prestige language, and if you wanted to get ahead, you had
to speak it, or at least try to.
At Peace with the Tension This tension
of language choice in various situations weighed down our
conversations like the freshly washed clothes on the line outside our house. Eventually we made our peace with this tension and persevered in spite of it. Why? We saw that many
rural K’iche’ did not really understand enough Spanish to
grow as disciples of Christ. We thought that once people had
Scriptures that flowed in a natural style, and with some accurate explaining and interpreting of the biblical text, they would
embrace the translated Word. Wrong again.
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
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We remember well how people
enjoyed our enthusiasm for
learning their language, but
they were of two minds.
People expressed gratitude for the Word in their mother
tongue, but most had little patience to learn the new alphabetic symbols and actually spend time reading. (See “The Smile,”
pg. 10). Besides, most books were written in Spanish. Over
the years we began to understand that the long night’s journey
into day might not come via the written word. To sensitively
exploit the oral communication of the translated Scriptures—
this would help the day to dawn for thousands of people who
might never learn to read or write. (See “Doing What Comes
Naturally,” pg. 14).
Reflecting on the Maya religious tradition, we also came to
understand that personally reading a sacred book of God was
not required of the average person. For the Maya, there was no
such book. The closest thing to it is the Popol Vuh, the sacred
book of the K’iche’. This recorded the old beliefs about how the
world was made and the frightening but thrilling adventures
of the first people, created out of maize. No daykeeper, however, read this book in order to choose the favourable days for
Amidst heavy pressures toward the exclusive use of Spanish in the
Guatemalan school system and religious bodies, efforts persist to train
Maya Christians in reading and writing their own languages. Private
classes for young people (below) are offered by lay teachers, who are
equipped by rural church trainer, Dr. Isaiah Colop-Xec (left, standing in
light-coloured shirt). Churches commission pastors and leaders to offer
specialized courses. The classes begin with a Bible overview, then move
on to the core content of each book. Lastly, each student learns to analyze a biblical passage and prepare message notes in K’iche’.
Amidst heavy pressures toward the exclusive use of Spanish in the
Guatemalan school system and religious bodies, efforts persist to train
Maya Christians in reading and writing their own languages. Private
classes for young people (below) are offered by lay teachers, and rural
churches commission pastors and leaders (right) to offer specialized
courses. The classes begin with a Bible overview, then move on to the
core content of each book. Lastly, each student learns to analyze a
Biblical passage and prepare message notes in K’iche’.
planting or marrying. Rather, he learned the prayers and rituals orally from the previous generation of shamans.
So many delays in the nighttime journey. So many still hoping
for the dawn.
Recently I returned to Guatemala and talked with many
Maya Christians. They assured me that the new day is rising.
They are full of hope, because God has changed their lives. The
translated Scriptures are penetrating the darkness. Some Maya
are learning through the written word, others through the spoken word on the radio; some through listening to cassettes and
watching videos, others through the joy of music.
I thought of the five-hour hike up the Santa María volcano
outside Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second-largest city. It
starts at night. Why? So that at the end of the climb, you can
watch the spectacular sunrise.
The Maya’s long journey has taken many centuries; but
look—the dawn!
Pastor Julian Tzunun has preached from the K’iche’ Scriptures since he
was 18. Filling a variety of roles, he has led churches, taught Bible institute classes, broadcast sermons on the radio, served as a hospital chaplain and tramped the mountains to evangelize and disciple rural K’iche.’
Today, 40 years later, he and his family run a small Christian bookstore
in Chichicastenango. Pastor Tzunun’s bookstand in the local market
includes the K’iche’ New Testament and a Spanish-K’iche’ dictionary.
Christian Maya are full of hope,
because God has changed their lives.
Marilyn and David Henne lived among the K’iche’ people in Guatemala for over two
decades, helping to translate the whole Bible, as well as training scores of bilingual
school teachers and Maya writers.
Photographer Ken Fast, a former Wycliffe Canada worker, spent many years in Central
and South America—both in childhood and in later years. He is currently director of
Northern Rain Studio <www.northernrain.tv>.
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
9
THE
I opened the folder. It was my first day of interviews and 57
questions stared me in the face—all designed to assess the
impact of the K’iche’ (key-CHAY) Scriptures in the town of
Chichicastenango, population 100,000-plus.
Jorge (HOAR-hey) Morales, a 30-year-old K’iche’ man, was
my first interviewee. We sat in a drafty church, our bodies
wrapped against the Guatemalan mountain cold. Jorge’s smile
took me off guard. It seemed familiar, like I’d seen it before.
Slowly, I warmed up my K’iche’ and Spanish words. It had
been five years since I’d been back here.
“Our mission wants to know,” I began, “how things are now
since the K’iche’ Bible has been translated and distributed.”
He smiled. There it was again, so broad that his teeth
showed. Little crinkles appeared at the sides of his eyes. “We
are fortunate; we now have God’s Word.”
“But you know Spanish, don’t you, Jorge? You can read
the Bible in Spanish,” I ventured. It was distracting, I knew,
because this wasn’t the first question I was supposed to ask.
His hand motioned towards his Spanish Bible lying there on
the wooden table. It looked used, well read. Remembering the
correct Maya gesture, I stuck out my lower lip to where a pile
of three Bibles lay. They were examples of K’iche’ Scriptures.
“Have you seen these too?” I asked.
Lifting the oldest, a navy-bound book, he said he remembered this one. “My grandparents had one, and my aunt reads
hers.” The big black volume was next. “We use this one in our
Bible study, the one the pastor gives.”
I brightened. A Bible study in K’iche’? “Uh, what study is
that?” I asked.
The smile again. Infectious. I smiled too.
“Pastor Serapio teaches us every Saturday in my house. It’s
called the ‘Panorama of the Bible.’ We use this Bible.”
From One Generation to Another
Here I was scampering off on a rabbit trail, but I couldn’t help
it. This young man was actually studying the Bible in K’iche’!
The third book was a new translation from another K’iche’
region. He read some verses aloud haltingly.
“Oh, this is like the old book, very clear. Sorry I’m so slow in
reading out loud. It’s not something I do very often. We usually
read in Spanish, if we read at all.”
“Someone told us that they broadcast from this book on the
10
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
In a highland Guatemala town, Jorge
Morales and his extended family live
out the psalmist’s declaration, One
generation will commend your works
to another. . . .
radio every day from noon until 2 p.m,” I offered.
The smile lit his face. “Yes, the station is near here. I’ve
heard this. It’s good; it enters my head.”
By now I knew I had to ask the real first question from my survey, no matter how interesting everything else was that he told me.
“First question, Jorge,” I began resolutely. “How did you
become a Christian?”
“My grandparents,” he grinned. “They told me about Jesus
Christ. They gave up their old sacred stones and altar in their
home. My grandfather heard that with Jesus you don’t have
to go to the shaman and spend money on incense and liquor
and those things. He went to church and my grandmother too.
Jesus is the great healer, they learned. He changes your life
from being a drunk and beating your wife.
“Do I know your grandparents?” I asked, trying furiously to
remember who they might be.
“Of course, you do,” he smiled, and it all came back to me.
“My grandfather heard that with
Jesus you don’t have to go to
the shaman and spend money
on incense and liquor and
those things.”
—Jorge Morales
His grandparents were some of our old friends. Grandma
Petronila. She was the lady who couldn’t read or write but
memorized dozens of K’iche’ hymns and choruses and
Scripture texts. Why, I’d taught her some of those verses
myself! And Grandpa Juan, with the big smile. Such a hardworking man with an eagerness to learn God’s Word and tell
others. Now here was their grandson attributing to them his
first motivation to believe God.
“Your Aunt Juana too? Hasn’t she inspired you? You know,
with her K’iche’ reading,” I wondered out loud.
“Yes, she reads her K’iche’ New Testament a lot. She can read
better in K’iche’ than anyone I know. Now that my grandpa is
dead, my aunt and my grandma always encourage me. They
tell me to take my family to church, to study God’s Word, to
live right and not to fight with other people in the neighbourhood. They love my children and tell them about Jesus too.”
Passing along the light of the gospel, the Morales family matriarch,
Petronila (back left) has made sure
that her daughter Juana (front left)
and grandson Jorge (back right)
bear witness to the truth and love
of Christ. The great grandchildren
enjoy a rich heritage that includes
reading and writing in K’iche’. The
family’s attitude reflects the joy of
breaking out of the bankruptcy of
animism and finding simple treasure in helping needy neighbours,
working hard, telling the truth,
serving faithfully in the church and
sharing a smile.
Like Timothy
Mother and daughter serve faithfully in the life of the Belén
(Bethlehem) Primitive Methodist Church in Chulumal, a rural community of Chichicastenango. Mother Petronila (above) kneels to offer
the first fruits of her land at one of the regular women’s meetings. Her
maize will be sold and the money used for women’s activities. Daughter
Juana (below) is the brightest and best of K’iche’ readers in the church.
Frequently she reads the Word out loud during the women’s services,
adding her own exhortation to help her illiterate sisters in the Lord.
“Did you know that you are something like Timothy in the Bible?”
He recognized the name Timoteo but looked at me for more
explanation.
“Timothy was one of Saint Paul’s disciples and helped
spread the gospel. Like yours, his father wasn’t a believer. It
was Timothy’s grandmother and mother who taught him
about Jesus Christ. So it was your grandmother and your aunt,
who kept you on track. And your smile is just like your Aunt
Juana’s. I guess she got it from your grandfather. Ever since I
sat down here with you, I have been trying to remember why
your smile is so familiar to me. And that’s why—your aunt and
your grandfather.”
Big smile.
“Yes,” said Jorge. “I’m so grateful for them all. They prayed
for me and helped me stay away from the temptations that
K’iche’ young men have. You know, liquor and carousing and
not taking care of your wife and kids.”
“Someone told me that now you’re an elder in the church,” I
continued. “Aren’t you pretty young for that?”
“I guess so. But God is so important to me. I’m learning how
to understand the Bible in K’iche’ and prepare to preach about
what it says.”
“What about your aunt and grandmother? Do you share
anything with them that you’re learning from the Panorama
of the Bible course? I know your aunt can give messages for
the women’s group. Would your studies help her, just like she
helped you with her faith?”
“Most every book I know is in
Spanish. I can read in K’iche’.
Yes I can. But it’s hard work. It
doesn’t come naturally.”
—Jorge Morales
“Yes, I try to tell everybody at home about what I’m learning. Grandma Petronila hangs around when we’re having our
study. It doesn’t matter that she can’t read, because she listens
to everything and seems to remember more than I do.”
Somehow we waded through all 57 questions. Did they pray in
K’iche’? Did the pastor preach in K’iche’? Yes to those questions.
How about reading out loud in K’iche’? Or singing? No, no they
didn’t. Singing and public Bible reading were usually in Spanish.
“Why is that? Why don’t you read out loud in your language?
You have the Scriptures.”
Not What We’re Used To
Looking uncomfortable, Jorge pled with me, “But it’s not what
we’re used to. School is in Spanish. That’s where we learn to
read. Most every book I know is in Spanish. I can read in
K’iche’. Yes I can. But it’s hard work. It doesn’t come naturally.”
“What about the women? They don’t understand the
Spanish Bible.”
12
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
“No, they don’t. But the pastor explains everything in K’iche’.
Sometimes my aunt reads the Scripture out loud in K’iche’.
And my grandma leads everybody in singing the old K’iche’
hymns and choruses.”
We agreed that their rural neighbourhood was changing
for the better. Improved roads, more water, stable electricity.
Almost all children now attend school and learn Spanish.
“These changes are good, but our language is losing its way.
I don’t know what will happen,” Jorge lamented. “Maybe my
grandchildren will never speak K’iche’. ”
“Maybe so,” I agreed, “but God will still speak to them—in
the language they know best.”
As I completed the interview and closed my notebook, I
thanked God for Jorge, his grandparents and his aunt. The
psalmist declared, “One generation will commend your works
to another. . . .” (Psalm 145:4 NIV). The Morales family is living
out these words. Through their own changed lives. Through
their encouragement of each other. Through the words of God
in K’iche’. And through the legacy of a family smile.
The Morales family is commending God’s works to one another—
through their changed lives, through mutual encouragement, the
words of God in K’iche’, and the legacy of a family smile.
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
13
Radio station aerials, TV antennas,
cell phone towers, satellite dishes
and ordinary electric wires—you
can find them all in Sololá, the
capital of Guatemala’s western
Kaqchikel region. The Maya know
how to communicate better
through electronic means than
with pen and ink. Preaching in the
Mayan languages is popular in
church and on the air, but reading
out loud is usually in Spanish.
In their oral society, the Maya enjoy soaking up the Word by watching
a video, listening to the radio or playing a cassette on their boom boxes.
“This is basically an oral culture.”
Rick McArthur (right) makes the statement clearly, with no
apology, gesturing enthusiastically as he talks.
“Sure, a majority of Maya young people can read and write
in Spanish, and more and more kids are going to school. But at
its core, this is an oral culture,” he explains. “People are more
comfortable talking and listening, not reading and writing.”
Rick knows this first hand. He is a second-generation
Wycliffe Canada missionary in Guatemala; in fact, he grew
up there. The oldest of Harry and Lucille McArthur’s four
children, Rick watched his parents incarnate the gospel in the
small highland town of Aguacatán. They were among the first
four Wycliffe Bible translators to enter Guatemala in 1952.
(Harry and Lucille have now retired in Cambridge, Ontario.)
Today, Christians have the Awakateko New Testament
and several Old Testament books. Radio Ebenezer, under
local ownership and direction, broadcasts the Word to the
Aguacatec region.
It’s this kind of oral presentation of the Scriptures that
excites Rick.
“The challenge of helping the Maya get the training and
resources to record and videotape Scriptures fits me to a tee.”
Rick and his wife Carol are very clear, even passionate, about
the Maya’s need for an oral strategy to get the Word out, to
plant the seed in good soil. Through their previous involvement in translation and literacy, the McArthurs came to realize
that people weren’t nearly as interested or able to read, as they
were to watch a video, or listen to the radio, or a cassette or
CD on their boom boxes.
“The JESUS film and short videos,” Carol observes, “have
made a huge impact.”
“People are always asking for more,” Rick chimes in.
Twenty-five years ago, then
Canadian Wycliffe member, Judy
Garland Butler and her husband
Jim, had settled in San Pedro, a Maya Tzutujil (soo-too-HEEL)
town. They experimented with recording Scriptures on cassettes. One of their Tzutujil friends took the cassettes around
Many non-western populations
must first hear in order to
understand. Producing a
written text is not enough.
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
15
Even oral cultures must have more permanent records of faith, such as
the Bible. Some leaders and lay people need to learn from the written
Scriptures, like this K’iche’ group (above), gathered to begin a serious
study of the Word in three formal written courses in the K’iche’ tongue,
developed by Dr. Isaiah Colop-Xec (extreme right). Other pastors and
teachers carry on the study even in remote rural communities. Many
pastors also cooperate with the Guatemala Bible Society’s Faith Comes
By Hearing® program. Pastor Domingo Vicente (left) is part of this effort.
He plays K’iche’ New Testament cassettes for his congregation.
the neighbourhood and offered to play the Scripture portions
in homes. Many opened their hearts to the gospel through
this ministry that didn’t depend on reading and writing, just
listening. The program became so popular that it spread to the
Tzutujil communities on Guatemala’s Pacific coast.
The Maya needed such experiments, because among many
indigenous towns across Guatemala, the seed of the written
word has often fallen on hard, dry ground. The habit of processing information through the written page has never taken root.
Since public education is offered almost exclusively in Spanish,
the national language, reading in the Mayan tongues hasn’t
gained a critical mass. It is often a struggle to read, so many
prefer listening to the Scriptures on the radio, or a cassette.
Thousands of K’iche’ (key-CHAY), for instance, who call
themselves believers can’t read the Scriptures available to
them. But they listen to the radio and ponder the Scriptures
and programs beamed over the airwaves.
Noting the popularity of radio, Rick urges Christians in
all the Maya groups to broadcast their Scriptures. “Radios
are playing in almost every home,” he notes. TV antennas
also abound and repair shops for electronic media, including
VCRs, are common.
More than 50 years ago, the Central America Mission began
Radio Cultural TGN (FM) and TGNA (AM), a combination
approach of cultural and Christian programming. It has grown
to be the largest evangelical radio station in the country with
relay towers in several important towns.
CDs, cassettes and even DVDs occupy
entire sales stands in the market place.
During special music numbers at rural
church services, Maya line up their boom
boxes on the platform to record. Believers
may carry hymnbooks and sing heartily , but it’s often from memory, especially for the women. One
believer who is famous for knowing dozens of hymns and
choruses in K’iche’ is Petronila. Although she is 70 years old
and cannot read or write, Petronila frequently leads the whole
congregation in a cadena de coros (a chain of choruses where
one follows another without an interlude or pause). (See “The
Smile,” pg. 10.)
In one Kaqchikel (kahk-chee-KEL) region, radio programs
are part of a pre-publication marketing plan for the printed
New Testament. It’s like softening up the hard ground. Across
the country, among the Achi (ah-CHEE), the translation team
The Maya love music and have a natural gift for creating it. Without formal training
they produce melodies and lyrics. With all the recording of music and Christian songs,
often in the Mayan tongues, many repair shops have sprung up for cassette players,
boom boxes and radios (above). In the Maya Ixil town of Nebaj, a group of folk
musicians (below) sometimes adopt the instruments and melodies of their southern
continent neighbours, the Quechua of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. These musicians
have even acquired Quechua-style woven ponchos.
has produced 36 Bible stories on tape and CD, the JESUS film
and other contextualized Scripture videos. The team is nearing
completion of the New Testament in written form.
Rural Guatemalan towns sprout aerials today. Just look up:
radio antennas, TV antennas, even satellite dishes are all there.
On the streets, in the market, on the bus—everywhere people of
all ages are talking on cell phones. If families have relatives working in North America, they call them on their cell phones.
Letter writing is much more rare.
These trends are true not only for Guatemala and Latin
America, but in many of the world’s regions. In Asia, many
ethnic minority groups still wait for the Scriptures in their
own tongues, but the oral means of electronically and digitally communicating God’s truth are readily available. Africa
and the Pacific Islands demonstrate many alternate means of
sharing God’s Word such as chanting, storytelling and drama.
Many non-western populations must first hear in order to
understand. Producing a written text is not enough. These
situations present great challenges for those involved in the
Bible translation task.
A clear sign of oral dominance is the work
of Viña (BEAN-ya), a Guatemalan ministry
creating audio-video productions in Mayan
languages. Conceived and birthed through
the efforts of many Wycliffe members in the
country, Viña began in the early 1990s in the McArthurs’ house.
It was centrally located in Sololá, a Kaqchikel regional capital.
From the beginning, Viña has operated with a distinct purpose—to offer the opportunity for Maya to train in media production for Mayan languages. The vision was for trained Maya to
record dramatized New Testaments and shoot contextualized biblical stories for video production, all in various Mayan languages.
The word viña in Spanish means “vine.” The desire to produce lasting fruit for the Lord in an oral culture fueled Rick and
Carol’s original decision to settle in Sololá with their four children. As it has turned out, the vine seems to be talking. It’s talking in Kaqchikel, K’iche’, Achi, Mam, Kanjobal and most other
Mayan languages and their dialects—23 to date.
Viña consists of an interdenominational and professional staff
of 10 and a governing board. Maya predominate, because the
work revolves around Mayan languages. But Latinos and North
Americans also cooperate in the effort.
The enthusiastic staff of Viña represents three different language
groups. They pour in time, talent and patience as they train
numerous other Maya readers, actors and singers.
18
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
“Hearing David and Goliath
talk in Kaqchikel produces
laughter with ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs.’ I
see parents and children’s eyes
light up with understanding.”
—Pedro Bocel,
Viña’s program director
Thousands of Maya believers can’t read, but they listen to the radio
and ponder the Scriptures and programs beamed over the airwaves.
A significant partnership exists with Hosanna®, an international non-profit publishing house that funds the recording of
the various Maya New Testaments. Hosanna®, in turn, partners
with the Guatemala Bible Society in its Faith Comes By Hearing®
campaign. Colporteurs distribute Mayan language New
Testament cassettes without charge to churches that promise to
listen 30 minutes a week to the Scriptures.
When Maya of any of the various languages decide to record
a New Testament, Viña staff trains them how to speak with
expression. New readers must practically become the equivalent
of radio announcers, because the tapes are all dramatized with
appropriate music, sound effects and 27 voices. Listeners are
drawn into the reality of the New Testament events.
Pedro Bocel, Viña’s program director and principal trainer of new
readers, says the recent finger
puppet video of David and Goliath is effective for all ages.
“We promote this video as something for the children, but,
of course, all the adults crowd around to watch too. Hearing
David and Goliath talk in Kaqchikel produces laughter with
‘ahs’ and ‘ohs.’ I see parent’s and children’s eyes light up with
understanding.”
Pedro himself is the voice of Goliath, and ends the video
with an exhortation to the audience, dressed in his elaborately
decorated Sololá clothes. Pedro may lend his voice again for
other characters, since Viña would like to do 14 more finger
puppet Bible stories.
The vine is indeed talking and the Maya are listening. They’re
watching and listening, much more than reading and writing.
Of course, a standard written document like the Word of
God must be translated first by a team of Maya and skilled
partners who help with biblical interpretation and linguistic
complexities. A core of competent readers usually results from
this translation process, but then the real task begins. It isn’t
enough to have the Book. Spreading its content needs to happen in the appropriate media so that all can access the message.
The written Word of God is important, but in the dominantly oral culture of the Maya, initial faith normally comes by
hearing. It’s only natural.
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
19
Estéfana Chun, a K’iche’
shepherd girl, finds the
Good Shepherd.
The following is the story of Estéfana (eh-STAY-fah-nah) Chun, as told to the author,
Marilyn Henne. It is written in the cadence of the K’iche’ story-teller. Estéfana taught the
author to speak K’iche.’ After learning to read and write in her mother tongue, Estéfana
discovered her God-given gift for teaching the Bible and became the adult shepherdess of
scores of rural K’iche’ women and children. Today, many can still recite the K’iche’ Bible
texts and sing hymns and choruses as they follow their true and Good Shepherd.
I will tell you my story now. I will tell you what happened to
me long ago, how I followed the Lord. It is just my story.
I was a shepherd girl. Only 11 I was. My father sent me out
into the high mountains. He sent me to care for our sheep.
When it was cold and rainy, I shivered. I huddled in my shawl;
rough and warm in the cold it was. I liked to draw one of the
lambs close to me; in my arms it snuggled. It was rough and
soft all at once. It was warm in the cold.
I watched the days of the white sun. It lit the blue sky like
the shining of the stars in the day. It painted the sky like the
tumbling water. Sparkling it was. Sparkling and blue. Sparkling
and clear.
I sat on a rock. I ran after the straying sheep. I gazed up high
into the heart of heaven. Was there a God there? Who made
the earth that grew our corn? Who made the clouds?
I loved my sheep. To each one I gave a name. Though far
off in the meadow, they heard my voice. They answered me. A
bleating. They knew their names.
I felt very small when I looked at the mountains, when I
looked at the sky. Who was I? I was only a ‘little piece of a
person’ (in K’iche’, ch’qab winaq). I wasn’t much. I was only a
shepherd girl.
I heard my father tell of a new story. He heard it in the town
on market day. A young man spoke our language. He said
there was only one true God. One great God who made the
heavens. One true God who made the earth. He wasn’t like all
the frightening gods and images. He didn’t eat candles or rose
petals. He didn’t ask for money. One great God, he said, who
made the mountains. One great God, he said, who loved the
people on this earth.
The one true God loved little people like me; just a little
piece of a person, I was. Like a little lamb, I was. Just a little
lamb. He sent his son to be a shepherd. He sent his son to take
care of people, to take care of people like sheep. The Good
Shepherd, he was called. He ran after the sheep. He called their
names. He fought the mountain lion. He sent away the fox. He
carried the sheep. He covered the lamb with his body. Calling
their names, he came. Softly calling, he arrived.
The one great God? I thought. The Good Shepherd? I wondered. I thought about that new story. I looked up at the sky.
I gazed at the mountains. Would the Good Shepherd call my
name? Would he carry me? Would he cover me? Me, just a
little piece of a person. Me, a little shepherd girl.
The young man who spoke our language, this young man
read out of a book. He read in our language. He read about
the son of the one true God, the son who was sent to be the
Good Shepherd. I heard them again, those words I listened to.
In her younger days, Estéfana (left) and others like Debrá Ruyan, a
Kaqchikel teacher and writer, attended several Wycliffe-sponsored
writer-training courses.
The Good Shepherd called my name. The Good Shepherd ran
after me. In the mountains, in the meadows he ran. Under the
white sun he called. I bleated. I cried. He lifted me up to his
bosom, he snuggled me close to his heart.
I was only a little piece of a person. I was only a shepherd
girl. The Good Shepherd, the son of the one true God called
my name. I heard him long ago; I follow him now. I was a
shepherd girl, now I am a lamb. No longer a little piece of a
person, now a lamb.
Now you have heard my story. That’s it. Just that, my story.
“I will tell you what happened to
me long ago, how I followed the
Lord. It is just my story.”
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
21
Wycliffe
Caribbean Enjoys
Growth Spurt
Wycliffe Workers
Slain in Guyana
Police continue to search for those
responsible for the murders of two Wycliffe
members in Guyana, South America.
Richard Hicks, a dual Canadian/U.S.
citizen, and his wife Charlene (right) were
murdered in late March in an apparent robbery at their home in southwestern Guyana,
near the Brazilian border. Their home was
burned down in the incident.
Richard, 42, and Charlene, 58, had no
children. They had worked in Scripture
translation among the Wapishana language
group since 1994.
Though they will miss Richard and
Charlene’s leadership, Wapishana translators
are determined to finish the New Testament.
While everything in the Hicks home was
burned, the translation was not lost. A copy
of all but the most recent translation that
Richard had worked on was backed up on
another computer.
Canadian High Commission representatives, missionaries from several
organizations, friends and members of the
Wapishana language group attended their
funeral and burial in Guyana. Memorial services honouring the Hickses were also held
in Whitby, Ont., and in Minnesota.
For more details about the couple, visit
<www.wycliffe.ca/news>.
Illustrations Bring
Parables to Life
Jeff Frantz
Louis Soop was one of 11 voices recorded for the JESUS film in Blackfoot.
More than 3,000 Blackfoot speakers on Southern
JESUS Film Alberta
and Montana reserves will soon be able to
the JESUS film in their language.
Coming to watchLauren
and Connie Runia, Wycliffe vernacular
the Blackfoot media specialists for North America, are putting final
editing touches on the widely used film, produced by Campus Crusade for Christ. The
video should be ready for distribution this summer.
Eleven speakers of the language, mostly from Alberta, read the voices and did narration in Blackfoot at a March recording session in Lethbridge. Don Frantz, a retired Wycliffe
member who had previously translated the Gospel of Mark in Blackfoot and now teaches
the language at the University of Lethbridge, translated the film’s script with Olive Davis, a
believer from the Blood Reserve. Between 2001-2004, they spent hundreds of challenging
hours trying to fit long Blackfoot words and phrases into the allotted time frame of the film.
Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM), on behalf of Campus Crusade, initiated
the project for Blackfoot speakers on the Southern Alberta’s Siksika, Piikani and Blood
Reserves, as well as the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana.
22
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
A Wycliffe worker in Eurasia is getting
help from a gifted local artist in the Caucasus
region to make existing printed material more
relevant for language groups there.
Eric Smith’s* goal is to produce a small,
illustrated book of parables from the Gospel
of Luke. But because many pictures now
available depict “pale European figures,” he
wanted to find an artist who could capture
the mannerisms and facial features of the
Caucasus people.
So far, the artist has completed 10 pen
and ink sketches for “The Prodigal Son” (like
the example at right), and work on the “The
Good Samaritan” is well underway. The book’s
layout can be easily adapted to substitute text
in other languages.
All of the sketches could someday be used
to illustrate the published Scriptures.
Wycliffe Caribbean is making good
strides in recruiting and training Christians
for Bible translation and other cross-cultural missions.
The organization held a workshop
earlier this year for 13 candidates, half of
whom are already committed to full-time
missions. In March, its staff met with 18
Christian leaders from eight Caribbean
nations to discuss strategies for informing,
motivating and recruiting for missions.
Then in April, Wycliffe Caribbean dedicated its new building, including offices,
a recording studio, conference room and a
much-needed training area.
Director John Roomes has a vision
for Caribbean churches and individual
Christians to send at least 250 persons into
Bible translation-related, cross-cultural
foreign missions by the year 2012.
“More and more, we in the Caribbean
are moving from being a ‘mission field’ to
becoming a ‘mission force,’” he says.
* pseudonym
struck in late December. For six weeks, Van
Doren flew a Samaritan’s Purse helicopter
with medical supplies, food and temporary
shelter to aid victims in the hard-hit Aceh
province in Sumatra.
A JAARS helicopter pilot says North
Van Doren told a TV station in Charlotte,
Americans need to be kept aware of the huge
N.C., that the main thing he remembers
post-tsunami reconstruction effort in Indonesia. about his visit was how surviving children
“It’s not in the news anymore,” says Alan Van remained so positive, despite the unimagiDoren, “but it’s still important that people here nable destruction around them.
know that the rebuilding effort could possibly
Samaritan’s Purse hopes to help with
take years over there.”
the rebuilding for up to a year. JAARS,
Van Doren travelled to Indonesia with anoth- Wycliffe’s partner for technical support, has
er JAARS pilot shortly after the deadly tsunami
sent additional staff to serve in the effort.
Pilot Foresees
Long Post-Tsunami
Reconstruction
The Letters
Are Walking
BY
MARILYN
HENNE
T
Twenty women gathered in the adobe, tin-roofed church.
me that the ‘t’ comes after the ‘o,’ and the ‘x’ comes before the
‘o.’ But as I slowly tapped the letter ‘t’ on the big lesson chart
and said, “The ‘t’ comes after the ‘o,’ ” the women dutifully
repeated what I said. But—no one got it. They looked puzzled
and pointed to the wrong letter.
I was using the words in K’iche’ for before and after
(Chuwach = ‘before’; Chrij = ‘after.’). But the women seemed
to understand just the opposite of what I was trying to say.
What was I doing wrong?
Later, as I was chatting one day with some of our Wycliffe
colleagues at a regional meeting, I asked if any of them had
run into this problem. Lucille MacArthur, a Canadian and
our senior literacy consultant, smiled.
“That one tripped me up too,” she laughed, before explaining. “I discovered that you have to focus on the root meaning
of the Maya words for before and after. Also, when we teach
the Maya to read from left to right, they seem to see the letters as if they were people walking from left to right across
the page, facing right.”
Immediately I began to think about chuwach (before) and
chrij (after). From the K’iche’ perspective, chuwach literally
means ‘in front of its face.’ Chrij means ‘on its back.’ I started
to apply the true meaning of chuwach and chrij to the letters
as they walked in a line, facing ahead (to the right). The word
xot ended in ‘t’ but that ‘t’ was chuwach, in front of the face of
the ‘o’. The ‘x’ was chrij, on the back of the ‘o.’
Once I realized how the K’iche’ look at the alphabet symbols walking, my dilemma was solved. I started referring to
the letters in this new way. The women’s faces lit up—they
understood at last. Never again did I translate before and after
without thinking of a perspective just the opposite of mine.
They were learning to read and write in their K’iche’ (keyCHAY) language. Long benches served as desks and the
women knelt behind them. Babies slept peacefully nestled in
warm shawls on their mothers’ backs.
Ranging in age from 15–50 years, the women eagerly
repeated in unison practically anything I said. It was the custom in the government schools of Guatemala to chant out
loud the answers to the teachers’ questions or to repeat what
they said, even without understanding. I was used to this
by now but wanted desperately to communicate one major
point—reading is understanding. This was a foreign concept,
because it is easy to learn to pronounce the Spanish alphabetic symbols but not have a clue as to what the words mean.
I tried to identify sounds that appeared before and after
others, so that the women could see how different letters
changed the word and its meaning. I wanted them to understand what they read.
In the word xot (pronounced SHOWT and referring to the
clay griddle that tortillas are baked on), it seemed obvious to
Marilyn and David Henne lived for 25 years among the K’iche’ people in Guatemala,
helping to translate Scripture, and train bilingual school teachers and Maya writers.
See related articles in the rest of this magazine.
Laird Salkeld
| Fall 2005 | www.wycliffe.ca
23
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Help kids discover the
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W
ycliffe USA has partnered with Through the Bible Publishers,
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