The Embera final revision committee
Here are some brief sketches of the members of the Final Revision Committee for the Northern Embera Schripture translation project, along with their pictures.
Cornelio is 42 years old. He has an education degree and is the best editor we have on the committee. He has been a serious Christian for about four years. He is married with one son, though his wife, Eloida, has older children also from a previous relationship. They live in the village where the committee works and they feed Doug and me all our meals. Cornelio’s brother, Bienvenido, was president of the Embera church association for 10 years and helped draft several Old and New Testament books.
Elvira is 49 years old. Her husband Rogeio married her about 35 years ago because she was one of the only Christian girls available. They have 3 sons, one of whom was recently married, and a daughter, Feliznita, who does some of the back-translations into Spanish for our consultant. Elvira lives with Cornelio’s family when working with the committee (they are related by marriage) and goes home on weekends to her family on the outskirts of Panama City.
Plinio is about 35 years old. He and his wife have 7 children, including a newborn. They are from an area close to the Colombian border. The church in their village selected Plinio to receive in-depth Bible training and then to serve on the final revision committee. Theirs is the only functioning congregation on their river system.
Felipe is about 30 years old. He and his wife have 5 younger children. He lives in the same village that Elvira is originally from. The church there is key to widespread use of the translation.
Abundio is about 50 years old. He and his wife have 5 children and several grandchildren. When my partner Doug went to live in an Embera village, he stayed with Abundio’s family at first. Abundio also worked with Doug on the original drafts of many Old and New Testament books. The church in his village is well-trained but has had division over leadership issues.
Each of these committee members brings a different perspective to the table and together they help the translation become accessible to as many Emberas as possible.