Thank you for praying for my trip on Saturday. It was a long and tiring 14 hour day, but the Lord was very gracious.
To get to where I meet with the translators, I first drove 2 hours south to first pick up Gergely at a train stop and Anikó at her house in her village. Anikó graciously invited us in for coffee and some homemade sweet bread. Then we drove another hour NW to Lívia’s house in her village, which is where we were to meet for the day. She is always a very warm host, so we sat and ate an early lunch together and had coffee.
Because they do not know Greek, Anikó and Lívia depend a lot on Hungarian translations of the Bible from which to translate. So first we discussed some of the differences in the Hungarian translations as well as the concept of a “front translation” which is what I prepare from Greek for the translation session showing various options in Hungarian of how we might understand a given text which gives them ideas of the meaning of the text from which they can then translate.
Next, we were able to go in great detail through the rough draft of John 1:1-12. Then Anikó and Lívia went through vv. 13-51 themselves, discussing the draft and making changes.
We also checked through a draft of the text of what we will use for a booklet that has 5 passages from the Gospel of Luke. This text is designed to introduce the booklet and explain how Jesus’ power is evident in each of these stories from Luke.
This type of detailed checking is quite tiring. We took coffee and snack breaks and closed with prayer when it was dark. I then drove Anikó home to her village and Gergely back to his city since the last train had already left. Following that was the 2 hour drive home, arriving, tired but thankful, at around 10 pm.
Thank you for praying for safety over these 330+ miles and for unity of mind and good working relationships with Gergely, Anikó and Lívia. It is wonderful to see this progress on the Gospel of John and Luke for their Hungarian Ardelean Bayash dialect.