Something That Has Never Existed Before
I never thought we could do it this quickly.
Just a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in the history of the world, a Kamea New Testament app became a reality. When I say “first time in the history of the world,” I mean exactly that. There has never been a digital Kamea New Testament. In fact, so far there have only been a handful of printed ones! And yet here it is, ready to put into the hands and pockets of our Kamea people almost immediately, without waiting for the printing process.
The app already includes audio recordings of John chapters 1 through 9, so that those who cannot read Kamea yet can hear Pastor Ben’s recording of the Word of God in their own language. Our people can share it by Bluetooth with one another, passing the New Testament from phone to phone the way they’ve always shared the things that matter most. Doing it face to face, village to village. Lord willing, it will soon be available on the Google Play Store.
It’s an amazing thing that our bush people who have none of the modern conveniences of town always seem to have access to a cheap smart phone. And that makes me think about those who will see the text of the Kamea New Testament for the first time in those phones, and those old men and women in the mountains who will hear the voice of Pastor Ben reading the words of Jesus in their heart language.
How We Got Here
People sometimes ask me how Bible translation works. It does not happen quickly, and it does not happen easily. Let me walk you through what these past years have looked like.
It begins by learning the language while you are living inside it. You learn the sounds and grammar and idioms of a people while you are eating their food and living in their village. From that foundation, you begin to identify national believers who have both the gift of language and the capacity to wrestle with biblical concepts. You find those who can feel the weight of a theological term and ask, “How do we say this in a way that is clear?”
Together you work through the books of the New Testament. You draft a section, then you test it by taking it back to the people who speak the language as their mother tongue, and you ask how it sounds to them. Does this say what we meant? Does it sound like Kamea, or does it sound like a foreigner? You revise. You test again.
Eleven years later, you have a complete document. But you are not finished. You read it again as a whole, looking for the mistakes you missed and listening for the places where the language could flow more naturally, like how a Kamea grandmother would understand the story. You keep revising. You work toward the day it can be printed.
That is where we are. And now, by God’s grace, while we press toward printing, the Kamea people do not have to wait any longer to hold it in their hands. They can have it in their phone.
Help Us in Prayer
Pray for the Kamea app — that it will reach into the mountains where most of our people live, and that the Word of God in their language will find its way into hearts that have never heard it clearly before.
Pray for our upcoming graduation — for the graduates, their families, and the churches that sent them.
And as always, pray for us.
Thank you for holding your end of the rope.
Praising God for His Grace and Goodness,
John & Lena Allen
Psalm 71:18