Memo from the Mortensens

Translating God's Word for the Northern Embera People of Panama and Colombia
March 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to dry season in Panama! The dry winds have finally come and have heated things up considerably. We get little or no rain now, so all the grass is brown and there are ashes on the ground, as many people burn off fields of weeds and dead grass. Here in the tropics you dream of a brown Christmas, not a white one.

Our Christmas

Kirsten joined us for two weeks at Christmas. She enjoyed catching up on sleep and leisure time and we all enjoyed each other's company. She also took a beach trip with friends, ate lots of Christmas goodies, and celebrated her 18th birthday. It was hard to say good-bye again, but she is so happy in her new life there at UM that we cannot wish her back with us. She has adjusted to college life, has many good friends and interests and is doing well in her studies. Her latest venture is joining the Women's Glee Club, where she puts her natural singing talent to good use.

The Embera Calendar

Every year Chaz designs and prints up a calendar in the Embera language to encourage useful reading. This year he added a Bible-reading plan. These calendars have been sent out around Panama and into Colombia. Please pray that people will read them and discover the joy of reading the Scripture each day, as well as seeing their language in print.

The text says, "The month that trees produce nuts and seeds. The month that animal fat comes." This is a good month for hunting, as the animals are eating a lot and getting fat.

In the upper left box of the August 2006 calendar page is an explanation of the symbols for the phases of the moon.

Workshop in Colombia

Chaz and Doug and five other Bible translators working in related languages from Panama City to the Ecuadorian border of Colombia met to discuss translation of key biblical terms and to see how they could of mutual benefit to each other. The first benefit of the week was the renewed fellowship. Each day was begun with breakfast together, simple but profound devotionals and meaningful times of prayer. It was also good to share with each other the struggles and victories we have had.

The trip was also good for Chaz's partner in the Northern Embera work, Doug Schermerhorn. This was Doug's second trip to Colombia but the first in which he actually met with Emberas who live there. Meeting the translators for the related languages and some actual speakers of these languages helped to broaden Doug's vision.

About half of time was spent comparing how we had translated key biblical terms. It was interesting to see how often the different teams used very similar terminology. Sometimes we see ourselves forced by the constraints of the languages involved to use phrases like "habitual remembering day of the Israelites getting out of Egypt" for 'Passover'. We came out of these sessions with better ideas for "Gospel" and "forgive" and confirmation regarding changing our term for "Holy Spirit."

We also met with Colombians beginning mission work among the indigenous peoples. It was good to see how so many in the national church now understand that the word "missionary" is not synonymous with "North American." Pray for these brothers and sisters. As much as they understand that the Indians need to hear the Gospel and read the Bible in their own language, taking the extra steps to learn the language and use it in ministry is very hard for them. After all, they are working in their own country and the Indians do understand some Spanish. (Chaz says, "If I were working in Michigan with the Chippewa Indians, I would have far less motivation to learn Chippewa because I would be on my home turf and could get by in English").

Another accomplishment of our time in Colombia was identifying the Bible translation need for the Lower Baudo Emberas. We knew that these people could understand Northern Embera but did not know how well. There were three young men from the Baudo staying in mission-sponsored housing across the street from where our meetings were held. One evening Chaz read some of the story of Moses to them in Northern Embera. They had never heard the story before. After a couple of sentences he would ask questions to see how well they understood it. For example, after reading Exodus 1:8-10, he asked them why the Head of Egypt Land was afraid of the Israels. If they answered that the Israels were becoming so numerous, Chaz knew that the translation was comprehensible to them. That proved to be the case for question after question. So we translators came to a consensus: the Lower Baudo Emberas can use Northern Embera Scripture if some changes are made which account for regular sound differences. For example, a Z in Northern Embera is a CH in Lower Baudo, and the past tense suffix is -hi instead of -si.

Report on the consulting sessions

From February 8-14, Doug and I along with several Embera Christians we met with our translation consultant, Marion Miller. We looked at remaining problems in the Gospel of Mark, 1&2 Thessalonians and 1&2 Timothy. One of the problems was in 2 Timothy 4:2-3.

It was obvious that he misunderstood some words used in the Spanish version. He thought that "itching ears" (NIV) meant that people wanted to hear God's word, when in fact it means they want to hear whatever makes them feel good. Also, in the Spanish version he uses, the words translated "they will gather around them[selves] a great number of [false] teachers" (NIV) are translated so that it could also mean "a great number of false teachers will gather around them". This is the way the pastor in question understood it.

What added to his misunderstanding was that he had learned from the New Testament that false teachers will come onto the scene. In fact, he has seen this happen in his village: people have come to church to listen to sound teaching but others come in claiming to be powerful preachers and convince the people to follow empty rules.

At any rate, the books of Mark, 1&2 Thessalonians and 1&2 Timothy in Northern Embera are now approved for publication. Thank you for your support and prayer!

Family Life

As many of you know, the movie "End of the Spear" was in theaters for several weeks in January and February. We enjoyed hearing people's reactions to it and look forward to seeing it someday when the producers bring it down here to Panama.

Life here continues busy for all four of us. When Chaz is not working he enjoys basketball and soccer. Helga has started working in the kindergarten class at the kids' school as an aide and is enjoying this new challenge. Together they attend a small group Bible study twice a month.

Laura is progressing in gymnastics and impresses us with her perseverance in that sport. She has recently expressed her interest in being baptized, which will happen within the next month or so.

As we write this newsletter, the Carnaval holiday has ended here in Panama. This is the tropical version of Mardi Gras and is pretty much the same thing, four days of partying and debauchery. We are thankful to have God's Spirit within us, so we can enjoy life without all that. We use these days to enjoy family time and the empty city. Everyone is either at the beach or the party spots, leaving most of the city blessedly free of traffic and crowds. We rejoice in the approach of the Easter season and the chance it gives us to reflect on Jesus' death and resurrection. Without those events, we'd have no reason to be here, working on Bible translation. Thank you again for being our partners in the Northern Embera translation project. Your donations enable us to live here and get the work done. Your prayers and letters encourage us and keep us updated on your lives "back home". Without your help, the work would not be progressing as well as it is. We wish you a joyful Easter!