Newsletter
July-September 2010
 In
the middle of May a round table discussion about the recently
published New Testament in Khakas took place at the National
Library in Abakan, the capital of Khakasia in southern Siberia.
Members of the translation group, members of the Khakas
writers' union and representatives of cultural, religious
and educational life in Abakan were among the participants,
as well as journalists from TV, radio and newspapers. Afterwards
Komsomolskaya Pravda, in Communist times known to be very
hostile towards Christian matters, published the Lord's
prayer in both Russian and Khakas on their website and an
audio-recorded interview with translator Ilya Topoev.
“In 1990 I was asked to translate the Gospel
of Mark into Khakas”, recalled Ilya. “The Bible was an unknown
book to me, but I began to translate on my own. That which
I did not understand I just left out. In 1991 IBT invited
me to a seminar in Siberia. Only then it became clear to
me that the text should not only be translated, it should
also be understood! During the following years I participated
in many seminars organized by IBT. I learnt a lot about
the Bible and got to know many translators with whom I had
fruitful discussions. But the work was difficult. We had
to find words for biblical terms which do not exist in Khakas
like angel, prophet, Holy Spirit, etc. Without the exegetical
advisors who came from abroad and lived in our country the
work would not have been possible.” “The field testers were
also very important”, added translator Galina Litvinenko.
“They took the text to the field and found out if the text
was well understood. For me personally the translation work
meant a lot. I grew inside and understood how rich our language
is, what deep philosophical thoughts our language can express.
And it made me rich inside, something opened up for me which
made my soul rich.”
After 20 years work the New Testament is
now available to the Khakas and many participants at the
round table expressed their gratitude.“This book will give
new life to the Khakas language”, said a representative
of the Ministry of Education, and a well-known folklore
specialist continued: “This is a great achievement for our
culture and for the spiritual life of our people. I would
like to ask the administration of our republic to work for
the propagation of this book. It is time for our people
to rise above their shamanistic world view and turn to the
supreme God.”
 After
the event we had the joy of meeting a house group of Khakas
believers in Askiz, south of Abakan. Also here the New Testament
was received with great joy. When asked if the NT was easy
to read, one woman said: “This is the New Testament in our
language, of course it is easy to read! We understand everything
and can take it to our hearts. When we heard that the NT
was published in Khakas we were overwhelmed with joy”. “God
loves us Khakas so much that he gave us this book”, said
another woman and added “This book will live in us and our
language will live through it”.
Since the Khakas are only about 11% of
the population in Khakasia many people are ashamed to speak
their language. Our hope is that the New Testament will
increase the self esteem of the Khakas and help them to
understand how valuable they are and how much they are loved
by God.
Thank
you for supporting Bible translation in Russia and the CIS
also
in 2010!
for donations from USA
Tax
deductible gifts for IBT Russia/CIS can be made payable
to:
God's Word for the Nations
On behalf of IBT-Russia/CIS
PO Box 1259
Rolla, MO
65402
U.S.A.
You
may state a project preference
using the form below or make a donation for the project with the
greatest need.
|
