Mourning Turned into Dancing

It's easy to read about mourning turning into dancing. Yet, seeing it happen before your eyes is another thing entirely. That happened in our recent Togo workshop.

Twenty-four musicians were introduced to three psalms with our Psalms: Layer by Layer materials and composed songs for the church so Israel's songs could become their own.

The outcome of a recent Togo workshop far exceeded expectations and prompted a promising idea to address some of the classic challenges in BT projects.

Watch this video from our partner, SIL, and you'll see the native lament form expressing David's anguish and despair, and then, when God intervenes, their tear-stained faces light up, and the dancing radiates joy.

The learnings from this workshop have been invaluable. The initial goal was to engage in the local arts and produce songs based on the Psalms. However, the outcome surpassed our expectations.

The musicians, who had no prior experience in Bible translation, used our materials to understand the Psalms and produced songs of such high quality that one even passed a consultant check as a legitimate, accurate translation. This success is a testament to the potential of our materials to bring Bible translation to new heights.

You may recall the report from our first workshop, in which a team's first draft of Psalm 1 passed consultant checks with no changes. Since then, consultants have continued to report minimal changes needed for drafts developed with our materials.

More recently, as we've also had materials for translation consultants, we have heard from them that when they check with the aid of our materials, it is much faster and easier than before.

We've come to see a constellation of phenomena when our materials are used:

• Community engagement
• Motivated translators
• High-quality first drafts
• Faster, easier checking

An Intriguing Idea

When we think of some classic challenges in BT projects (perhaps in any human endeavor!), we note discouragement, disunity, and even burnout. Then there's the consultant bottleneck, resulting from poor-quality first drafts and (for the book of Psalms) few Psalms resources targeted at the consultant level.

Could the solution to many obstacles in the BT world be God's Word itself? Engaging with the Psalms through the very process of translating them all the way into song?!? Our experience and that of those who have done far more (such as Psalms that Sing) is promising.

Until now, the Psalms have been too difficult for many to translate. Last month in Togo, musicians with no BT experience used our materials with stunning success. Imagine if Psalms translation were seamlessly integrated into the Bible translation workflow.

What if, every quarter, the team took a break from their routine to translate a few Psalms, injecting spiritual refreshment and renewal into the process? This could potentially turn some of the inevitable mourning in the translation process into dancing. The possibilities are exciting and promising.

With blessings on all!