August, 2007 --- Vol. 23.2
Huaylas Quechua New Testament Dedicated in the Peruvian Andes "Be silent and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.” |
Mike Miller arrived in Huaraz with his family in 1982 to take up the task of translating the New Testament into Huaylas Quechua. Twenty-five years later we got to celebrate the dedication event. During that time there were many changes in Peru and among the 300,000 Huaylas Quechua speakers. Many churches have been started and the gospel is spreading into the tiniest villages in the remotest regions of the Andes. Mike’s main translation team con-sisted of Pushpi, Timoteo and Yepo. They worked diligently crafting the Bible narratives into stories that came alive in Huaylas Quechua. Pushpi and Yepo started developing radio programs and when letters arrived from listeners stating how wonderful it was to hear the gospel in their own language, they knew the translation work they were doing was of great value. |
A thousand Quechuas paraded down the main street of Huaraz on August 4 in order to celebrate the birth of the New Testament. We were jostled among the throngs of people in their brightly colored dresses and distinctive hats. Many local church bands brought their instruments and led us in stirring refrains of praise to God as we marched along. Once inside the pavilion it became obvious that not even half the crowd would find a seat. Most of us stood for the ceremony and words of encouragement from the translation team, the director of the Bible League, the mayor and several others. |
Many Christian Quechua brothers came several miles with sacks of potatoes to contribute to the fiesta. The women spent hours peeling 15,000 potatoes and preparing cuy (guinea pig) and other delicious food in huge cauldrons. I took a turn hauling trays of meat and potatoes serving the crowds of hungry participants. |
The next day as we celebrated together in
the Sunday service Yepo took the microphone. You could see the emotion
in his eyes. He said, “In my village we eat bread—a lot of
bread. I like bread but when I come to the big city of Huaraz the bread
is not the same. My family likes our own bread best. It satisfies and
tastes so much better. In Huaraz they have the Bible in Spanish. But today
we have our own New Testament in our language. That is the lan-guage we
understand and like the best. Now we can read about God and worship him
with our hearts.” |
The next day we went to visit a Quechua village and I mentioned to the pastor that all the posters on the wall were in Spanish. “Yes,” he said, “But now we can make our posters in Quechua.” You could tell by their exuberance how they loved to worship God. And you could tell by the effort God took to give them their own translation that he loves them and enjoys a relationship with them. Thanks for being a part of what God is |
Naturalization |
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Laura is back in Peru |
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Jonathan’s first guitar performance |
New Testaments/Bible translated: | 710 |
Programs in progress: | 1,379 |
New Testaments remaining: | 2,286 |
People without Scripture: | 272,000,000 |
Personnel needed: | 3,060 |
Christian population: |
2,410,000,000 |