Those who are working on the written translation of the New Testament are still making progress, though I hear little word because of the sensitivity of the project. Since the Jesus Film script is an adaptation of the book of Luke, the translation and film projects are one and the same. They hope to complete the script for the film by the end of this year, and we can pray that will happen.
The other translation project: the 40 Stories project. Maybe some clarification of this project is needed as well, because the situation is not what most people would expect. Another worker and I cooperate with a couple of Dong folks to retell Bible stories into Dong. We, the other worker and I, are there to make sure they understand the important issues of the passage, to help them in the process of telling the story smoothly and naturally, as technicians to record the stories, and to check the quality of the recorded product. As for the actual translation into Dong, the Dong are the only ones that could do that naturally.
The 40 Stories are now about half done in the dialect of Dong into which we have been working. If we worked nine-to-five, full work weeks till it was completed, the project could probably be done in two or three months. Due to schedules and the geographic spread of where the people on the team live, we have to divide up the time involved for the work.
There are other dialects of Dong that will need the same project in their areas, and even now, before the first one is completed, we are looking to find possible opportunities to start similar chronological Bible story recording projects in the other necessary dialect areas.
