On July 12th, the Nukna people dedicated 10 books of the New Testament translated into their language for the first time! The books of Galatians through Philemon are now available in both written and audio formats. Our family was unable to attend the dedication because of COVID-related travel restrictions, but the Nukna people were still keen to go ahead with the celebration. People came from villages all over the language area, a huge feast was prepared, special song and dance groups performed, a grandstand was erected, speeches were made, and a pastor led the people in a service of thanksgiving.
When we dedicated Luke and Acts three years ago, sales were low, so we weren’t sure what to expect this time. But we’ve received word that all of the audio players (and most of the books) have already sold out, and people are putting their names on a waiting list! We hope to send more audio players out as soon as possible.
In the midst of the difficult times we now live in, what an encouragement to see that our mighty God is still active and moving, all over the world, in the hearts and lives of people like the Nukna! And while we were very disappointed to not be able to celebrate with them, we realize that us being “out of the way” enabled the Nukna people to take ownership and hold their own Scripture dedication without any outside help. That’s really quite exciting! Isn’t it just like our great God to bring good out of the trials and difficulties we are going through? Please be praying with us that the Lord would use these newly-translated New Testament books to impact the hearts and lives of the Nukna people in a mighty way.
The Nukna dedication, originally scheduled for April, had to be postponed when COVID hit. But out of this delay came an opportunity to also record the Nukna translation of the book of Matthew. Our translation team had just completed the final quality checks of Matthew in March, and there wasn’t time to get it recorded in time for the dedication. But now there was a silver lining – we had more time! With all the travel restrictions, we couldn’t bring Nukna speakers to the translation center at Ukarumpa, so I (Matt) did the reading for the recordings myself. I’m sure my accent doesn’t sound like a native speaker, but I do manage to read pretty smoothly, so hopefully that will make up for it. As a result, at the dedication held last month, the Nukna people received an extra book unexpectedly (and of course Matthew is longer than the 10 epistles put together). It can be hard to stay positive these days, but it really helps to remind ourselves of all the good – like the recording of Matthew – that God is still bringing about, despite the difficult circumstances we’re facing.
Thanks always for the bulletin I post them on our churches bulletin board