I began to get sick on Sunday evening. The next morning I woke up with a mild headache and stomach cramps. As the day progressed, my headache grew. By evening I wasn’t very hungry, but still ate a normal supper. Big mistake. In the small hours of the morning, gut wrenching cramps, a frantic search for my flashlight, and a race to the outhouse, all repeated several times. And so on throughout most of my week on Tanna.
I thought that I had come prepared. I had the ridiculously expensive malaria preventative, the mosquito repellant, and a sleeping net. I had medicine for headaches. I had not anticipated this however, at least not emotionally. How can you? Malaise, a common symptom of giardia, was fueling my depressive thoughts. I had come so far, spent so much money and time in preparation for this. Why this?
Why not this? After all, was it not my intention in coming to participate in this translation program? You don’t have to hang around a group of missionaries very long before the conversation turns to stories of illness on the field, often related to the bowels. My ‘light and momentary affliction’ has been a common experience amongst those involved in this work. I was getting the full experience in just one short week. I don’t mean to paint an overly-rosy picture. I wish I would have been well. Just the culture shock of living in a new, very different place would have been enough, thanks. But, apparently not, and by His grace I am not as prone to second-guessing what’s best for me as I used to be. These islands are dotted with monuments to missionaries, both white and black-skinned, who died bringing Hope to these islands. Pastor Peter, Greg and Beth Ann have been doing this most of their adult lives. This week was nothing compared to what these and others have experienced.
We've returned to Vanuatu for 10 days to learn about the Bible translation efforts here. My husband, Morris, is also involved in doing a translation consultant check for Mark, Colossians and Philippians for the SE Ambrym language.
Well, at least for Morris. We knew when they started that they wouldn't be able to finish all of it because Pastor Peter leaves today to attend the Vanuatu Bible Translators' conference. They usually plan on 10 days, 100 verses each day, to complete Luke but Morris had only 8 days. It went well and there's only 179 verses left to check! Even though this is an adaptation from a closely related language, there were still important changes that needed to be made. The men did say that they really enjoyed discussing the text and that they learned new truths in the process. Pastor Peter said that he's learned some important things about translation that will be helpful to him as he continues on in translation. Since this is the first book that Pastor Peter has translated, it most likely will be changed some after he has translated all the New Testament and has learned things along the way. Once the New Testament is finished, it's all read over again to catch anything that might need changing and often the first translated books need adjustments. This has been a good first step for the Whitesands translation and it's been a privilege to be a part of it.
