The Deaf Bible Translation team has achieved 2 passages! You can check it out at https://deafbible.com/PRBBB/MRK.1.1 The struggle has been real – and I have to constantly remember “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood” though in some of our meeting times, it sure feels like wrestling! Our enemy would love to see us pack our equipment and send it to the home office in Texas and call it quits. Our team is down to 5 workers but we are producing solid Biblically accurate translations. Now that we have the process learned, it is getting easier.
The exegesis team meets on Thursday mornings to study the focus Scripture chunk. They work out the signs and how they think is best to sign each concept. Fridays, we meet and do a draft recording, then we review and see how it is looking. Each passage gets as many repetitions as needed until we see no glaring issues. Then, the video is prepared for Community Check. If the Deaf community passes the draft as acceptable, we can then publish. Well, almost, we also have to have our local pastors review the videos and have their seal of approval. THEN we can upload for publishing. Then the Deaf Bible Headquarters Team will review and if they see any quality issues, they can send us back to do another editing or drafting.
In sign languages, every little head tilt or shoulder adjustment can change the meaning of a word so our on-screen video-signers have to not blink at the wrong time!
The work among the Deaf is still plentiful and we are, as always, praying for teachers who sign or signers who can teach. We have contact with 4 Deaf children under the age of 5 all who live DISTANCES from Luquillo. They could only be in daily classes if there were dorm counselors and parents willing to have their tiny children living in the dorms. We do not foresee the latter happening. At this time, we carry out home visits and parent sign language classes at the schedule of the parents. This means lots of nighttime Zoom meetings. Pray with us for the next generation of teachers and missionaries to the Deaf.
