BACKGROUND: Translation of the Hebrew/Aramaic Old Testament and the Greek New Testament into the common languages of people has for many centuries been the foundation and model for making disciples and equipping sustainable churches. For example, the New Testament largely quotes from a translation of the Old Testament, not the original Hebrew scriptures. It quotes from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament done before the time of Christ. Similarly, in the early Cristian era, the Latin Vulgate done by Jerome was begun in 382 AD to bring order out of a proliferation of Latin translations in circulation. Likewise translations of the Bible into English and other European languages, like that of John Wycliffe, were begun in the 1300s. So for ministry among the Asheninka people we followed this model and completed an Asheninka New Testament translation in several regional variants in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We have continued working on Old Testament translation and revising the New Testament to be consistent with the Old Testament translation patterns.

CURRENT STATUS AND RECENT ACTIVITY: The full Asheninka Bible in the KaKo (Upriver Pichis) variant is in complete draft, has had a limited release on an app in cellphones and tablets. It continues to undergo consistency checking and revision. In 2022 and 2023 we conducted read-thru sessions on a panorama of passages from a range of Bible books that consist of around 5% of the Bible and did some revision with the group. We also did some adaptation and revision with Miguel for the Cohengua (Koe) variant and with Heladio for the Apurucayali (Kima) variant. This had to be put on hold (see next section on Backtranslation for more information).

PRAISE & PRAYER: We pray that during 2024 we will be able to engage again with Miguel and Heladio and possibly others in other regional variants.

BACKGROUND: For releasing a Bible translation on an app, on the web, or in printed form, the standard among Bible Translation organizations is to have an outside consultant review or check the translation. This requires getting a fairly literal "backtranslation" of the Asheninka translation into a language the consultant understands, in this case Spanish. A backtranslation is best done by a mother-tongue speaker who had not been involved in the translation work on the passage.

CURRENT STATUS AND RECENT ACTIVITY: In 2020 we lost the man who had worked with us for several years as Asheninka backtranslator. That was Edinson, who died of complications from epilepsy. In 2021, during the Covid pandemic, we worked toward finding and training a new backtranslator. We made progress with another man, Albertino, through portions of Genesis, Job and Exodus. However, Albertino's speech turned out not to be "standard" for the KaKo speech variant that would be needed to revise verses. Beginning in 2022 we spent time with another man, Fernandez, training him in backtranslation. His speech is perfect for standard Kako. He periodically traveled to a small town with good internet in the KaKo territory and stayed for a week connecting with us via internet. This was put on hold in 2023 when David was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis (gMG), and had to have high dosages of Prednisone which left him with side effects, physical issues with glucose levels, steroid-related physical and mental agitation, heart arrythmia, lightheadedness, and mental processing difficulties, This made it impossible to continue working with Fernandez. Recently infusions of Ultomiris for the gMG have resulted in gradually lowering the dosage of Prednisone, and are slowly diminishing its bad side effects. This offers hope of re-engaging the work with Fernandez soon and others a bit later, like Miguel and Heladio. Since we are no longer able to travel to Peru due to the gMG, working with Fernandez is only possible with the help of a missionary colleague Isaiah who can help with periodic weeklong sessions with Fernandez. It is necessary for someone like Isaiah to help with the technical aspects of internet connectivity and some hardware and software issues, as well as managing some aspects of the interaction with Fernandez when for short periods when David is unable to interact with him.

PRAISE & PRAYER: We thank God for leading us to Fernandez as backtranslator. We'd appreciate prayer for good understanding and good working relationship with colleague Isaiah in Peru. Also we’d appreciate prayer for good interaction with Fernandez.

BACKGROUND The Peruvian government recognizes Asheninka by law as a single language. It is, however, best viewed as a "language continuum". (The law does appear to allow for writing variants.) Variants of Asheninka are considerably more different from one another than dialects of English, like British, Scottish, American and Australian English. The differences are more akin to that between Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. As we have worked to implement Scripture engagement in different Asheninka variants we see from six to ten variants needing separate editions of the Asheninka Bible translation for people to be able to read their language well and to avoid crucial misunderstandings or misinterpretations. For many years we have first translated Scripture into the KaKo (Upriver Pichis) variant of Asheninka, and then adapted it to other variants.

CURRENT STATUS AND RECENT ACTIVITY: Our team completed New Testament translations and 12% of the Old Testament in five Asheninka variants in the first decade of the 2000s. Our training sessions in 2018-2019 was implementing the Panorama passages from Genesis and Job in all ten variants before being interrupted by the Covid pandemic. As we re-engaged after the worst of the pandemic we sensed from God that we should put our efforts into the places where He is moving. For now that seems to be with the variants abbreviated Kima (for Kimariki or Apurucayali) and Koe (for Koewaani or Cohengua) variants. We managed a 10-day read-thru in July 2022 of most of the panorama passages in the Kima variant and a 8-day read-thru in September 2022 of part of the panorama in the Koe variant. We made some further progress in the Koe and Kima variants during late 2022 and 2023. But the technical challenges are formidable, and David’s Miasthenia Gravis and Prednisone side effects have also impeded continuing.

PRAISE & PRAYER: We are thankful to God for keeping some progress going in 2023 in the Koe and Kima variants. We ask God that particularly in 2024 we will be able to resume activity in these two and other regional variants.

BACKGROUND: Nearly all Bible translation projects in minority languages that we are aware of have compiled and published a dictionary, usually a bilingual dictionary between the indigenous language and the national language. Throughout the life of our involvement in an Asheninka language program we've stashed the words and word-parts (prefixes and suffixes), along with examples of their use, into a dictionary file on our computer, but in a somewhat haphazard manner. We’ve also benefitted from the linguistics and dictionary work of colleagues working in some of the regional variants of Asheninka. We've also published several limited-purpose dictionaries. Dictionaries can be a crucial item for literacy in Asheninka schools, and for equipping readers of the Bible. A dictionary also provides a guide for consistent spelling in a way that leads to good reading fluency and good understanding of Scripture. A dictionary that provides information on regional variants of the language is useful to readers of the Bible in understanding what a word means in the standard variant (KaKo) when their variant has a different sense. Finally, production of a dictionary is a responsible way to give status and recognition to a language community that many members of the national majority-language culture have tended to disparage.

CURRENT STATUS AND RECENT ACTIVITY: During the worst of the pandemic God provided the a context for getting back into work on the dictionary by providing contact with a young Christian man in Colombia, Sebastian, and later, several others to work with us remotely in getting the huge amount of detail in this 7000+ word (and growing) dictionary into dictionary software (FLEx), and into a consistent and publishable state. Part of our involvement with these Colombians has led to the project providing partial scholarships for some of them to pursue higher level studies e.g. in law school, aviation training and industrial engineering. This has become a way of compensating for their significant involvement. God also led us to an online venue (Webonary.org) for release of the dictionary, so it will be accessible on cell phones, tablets and computers, and available for on-demand paper printing. Considerable progress was made on the dictionary in 2023 with five collaborators involved full time and one half time under, all David’s supervision, which has continued despite the Miasthenia Gravis and the worst of the Prednisone (steroid) side effects.

PRAISE & PRAYER: We ask God to use our interaction with the collaborators to bless them and lead them to an ever-growing relationship with Him.