Our Dear Partners

Thank you so much for your prayers for us over the past several weeks. We hope that your summer is going well. Here’s a current midsummer 2022 update from us.

Naskapi Scriptures in Use

The “Naskapi 2” class this June in Kawawachikamach

You may recall that a dozen years ago, I (Bill) had the privilege of teaching four units of a Naskapi reading and writing course to Naskapi speakers enrolled in the McGill University Teacher Training program. We wrote about that experience back then and you can read about it by clicking this link: [Naskapi-McGill Class].
This fall, the Naskapi School once again began a new program partnering with McGill University to provide quality, University-level education resources to another cohort of candidates, and I was invited to teach Naskapi grammar, reading and writing and history. The Naskapi 1 course was all “online” in November, but this June I had the opportunity to teach the Naskapi 2 course “in person” in the Naskapi community, and we had thirteen young Naskapi students. Our son Benjamin also traveled to Schefferville for those three weeks and audited the class.

Teaching the Naskapi syllabic characters with the Naskapi-McGill cohort

During our class sessions besides learning about Naskapi verbs and nouns, Naskapi history and culture, the participants also practice Naskapi reading and writing: our textbook? The Naskapi Bible. Class by class they read to each other aloud in Naskapi using the Bible in their own language. They also practice typing in Naskapi, once again using the Naskapi Bible as their model for “good spelling and structure”. I am looking forward to being asked to return in the coming months to continue this course for Naskapi 3 and Naskapi 4.

Naskapi Translation “Consultant-Checking

Working with Silas and Susan at their home in Kawawachikamach in June

Book of Judges:
Silas has completed the back-translation of the book of Judges in preparation for a consultant-check earlier this spring. We have now begun working with translation consultants Meg Billingsley from Wycliffe/SIL and Ben Wukasch with the Canadian Bible Society (remotely via Zoom), to begin making our way through this book of the Bible to ensure that it is accurate, natural and clear. During Bill’s visit to Kawawachikamach in June, we had several sessions together at Silas’s house, and now we are carrying on regularly over the Internet.

Meg, Bill, Ben and Silas working through chapter 5 of the book of Judges in Naskapi

We expect to be working through the book of Judges this way over the next several months.

Book of Exodus:
We are ready to have the Naskapi Book of Exodus published this summer. Bill is currently working on the final stages of preparing the audio version of this book for broadcast on the local Naskapi Radio station, and over the Internet. We hope to have this work completed by the end of the year, Lord willing.

Book of Psalms:
After we published the book of Psalms in 2019, we also completed audio recording of all 150 chapters. Bill is working on the digital audio-editing of these sound files to prepare them for broadcast on the local Naskapi Radio station, and over the Internet. We hope to have this work completed by the early 2023, Lord willing.

New Scriptures for Old Friends

Susan and David Swappie, with their “well-loved” and “well-read” Naskapi scriptures

In previous Translation Briefs over the past several years, you have gotten to know our dear Naskapi friends David and Suzan Swappie. Bill visited with them this past June during his weeks in Kawawachikamach, and they assured us of their ongoing prayers for us, and asked for the latest scriptures that were available. You may remember that it was David who challenged us to begin work on several Old Testament books, including the book of Job. Bill was able to bring him a preliminary version of the first draft of 19 chapters of the book of Job in Naskapi. He was so overjoyed that tears were in his eyes. We were also privileged to bring them new editions of other Naskapi scriptures that they are in the habit of reading every day to the point that their books were coming to pieces.

A change of seasons in life

Foster kids at our house–last year … and this year

For more than thirty years, wherever we have worked–both in the First Nations communities up north and more recently here in southern Ontario–we have served children in need by providing foster care in our home. During the past few months, God has made it clear that we should be stepping back from this ministry in order to more effectively serve Him in other ways. This includes accommodating the needs of our own extended family members, ongoing First Nations Bible Translation, and other things. Please feel free to ask us to share more about this if you are curious.

Prayer Requests

McGill-Naskapi 2 class completion day, June 22, 2022

Thanks for your prayers for the Naskapi community, their vulnerability to COVID, and the young people learning to read their own language and reading the Bible.
Continue to pray for Silas, Bill and the consultants as they plug away at Naskapi translation projects and the dictionary revisions over Zoom.
Silas also asks prayer for his wife Susan who is going through treatment for cancer.
Please remember to pray for the vision of the Naskapi community organization as they hope to rebuild their language department. And pray for us regarding the part that we may play in helping to build their capacity in training and mentoring.
Pray that the leadership team for our November 2022 First Nations Workshop will plan well and make wise decisions toward the continuation of capacity-building for First Nations Bible translation across Canada.
And remember us as we step back from serving as foster parents, and our openness to serving in the other ways that God is preparing us for.

Thank you for your generous partnership with us in the ministry God has called us to, and for your prayers and interest in His work in our lives and in the lives of those we connect with.

Serving with you,
Bill & Norma Jean Jancewicz

Our Dear Partners,

In our previous Translation Briefs, we promised to spend some time going deeper into each of the “priorities” identified in the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative.

This time, we are telling about the (Cuthand) Plains Cree translation. Plains Cree is a language spoken across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada, and even in some places in Montana in the US. In Cree, the language is called ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ nēhiyawēwin.

Of all the Cree language varieties, Plains Cree is the most widely spoken, with more than 70 communities identified, population in these communities ranging from a few hundred persons to a few communities with population of two thousand or more. The population of fluent speakers is diminishing, especially in the communities in the southern part of their territory. However, in the north and more remote communities Cree is still the primary language.

The Bible Society, First Nations church leaders, and Wycliffe/SIL have had some involvement in a Plains Cree Bible translation project since the early 1970s. In the 1980s, the Canadian Bible Society hired Rev. Stan Cuthand, an ordained minister of the Anglican Church of Canada, and a fluent Cree speaker from the Little Pine First Nation, to work on a contemporary Plains Cree translation of the Bible. Over the past two decades, Stan completed the first draft of the New Testament and roughly half of the Old Testament.

Stan Cuthand, now in his 90s, is the recipient of many awards of recognition for his contributions to the Plains Cree language and culture. As his health has declined, he has “passed the torch” for work on the Cree Bible to others now.

The first draft of any translation is subject to a thorough checking process before it can be published and distributed. These steps are necessary to ensure the accuracy, clarity, and naturalness of the translation. For various reasons, including a lack of resources and personnel, this process has moved ahead very slowly in recent years. Still, there are some members of the translation team that have persisted and the Bible Society has published several Scripture portions of this translation, including the Gospel of Mark, selected Psalms, the Book of Ruth and the Epistle of James.

These are all published in discript: that is, both in the Cree syllabic script and in roman (alphabetic) characters, and include a CD as an “audio book”.

http://www.biblescanada.com/catalog/1556.htm

But much remains to be done. In November, Bill and Norma Jean were asked to assist in one of the translation review workshops in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Ruth Heeg, the translation consultant from the Bible Society facilitated the checking of the Gospel of John with Cree translators Dolores Sand and Gayle Weenie. During the three-day workshop, the first seven chapters of the Gospel of John were reviewed and revised, bringing this book that much closer to being available to Cree speakers.

Norma Jean and Ruth

Dolores and Gayle

During the workshop, we discussed possibilities of moving this translation forward at a faster pace. Dolores, one of the highly-qualified Cree translators expressed an interest in working on the project more regularly, and we are exploring options for paying a fair wage for her to work as a translator full-time. Please continue in prayer with us as the details are worked out, and as we seek funding sources to meet this need. Plains Cree speakers have waited many years to be able to read the Word of God in their heart language.

This series of messages describing each of the “priorities” identified in the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative began with the story of the Mason Cree Bible. If you missed that one, you can still read about it here: <link>

We encourage you to click there and view the story of the Mason Cree Bible, its part in the Initiative and our vision and involvement in this work.

The (Cuthand) Plains Cree Translation and the Mason Cree Bible are just two of the “priorities” identified by the First Nations Bible Translation Capacity-Building Initiative. Keep watching for other posts right here that feature some of the other “priorities”, including the following components of our vision:

Oji-Cree Translation project
Mother-Tongue Translator (MTT) Workshops
Naskapi Old Testament Translation project
Mushuau Innu language project

Serving with you, Bill and Norma Jean

Bill & Norma Jean Jancewicz

Tentmakers

Tag Archives: Translation Checking

Northern Translation Brief 20Aug2022