A Burden for His People

There are certain highlights in a Bible translator’s career that you just don’t forget. Like the day Terry Reed was going through portions in the Gospels with Martimiano, a Guarijio man, and the light came on.

“It sounds like you’re saying that when Jesus died on the cross, if I believe that, then it’s like Jesus’ blood comes inside of me and throws out all the bad,” Martimiano told Terry. “That’s a very pretty talk. That’s the talk that I’m going to believe.”

A Training for the Task

But that wasn’t the only highlight. Terry shares how Martimiano’s grandson, Vicente, as a 14-year-old showed a natural aptitude for the comprehension checking process so vital to the translation process.

With a burden for helping his people and the infant church, Vicente made the decision to attend the New Tribes national training centre, known as the Instituto Misionero Transcultural (IMT), in his home country of Mexico, even though that meant leaving the comfort of his native tongue and culture.

At the IMT, two years of Bible is followed by two years of classes that specifically prepare students to establish a thriving church in a cross-cultural environment. Technical classes cover phonetics, phonemics, linguistics, translation and the list goes on.

Terry remembers Vicente sharing with him about wanting to serve the Lord as a missionary and Bible translator. He remembers Vicente telling him, “I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life. There is nothing else I can do in life that will last forever.”

And soon he’ll be doing just that!

But he won’t be doing it alone.

A Partner for the Journey

“During his two years at the Bible school, Vicente met Erendida, a young woman from the Cora people group,” wrote Dorr and Nancy Granger who work at the training centre. “They were married in December of 2014 and now have a 6-month-old son. They graduated May 20 and plan to … work on the translation and also be a part of discipling the young group of