Translation Consultants and Prayer For Visa Approval

"The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16)

Dear Friends, we stand at the cusp of sign language Bible translation. The technology to record, edit, and distribute these video translations has only really come into widespread and available use in the last ten years. What used to require stacks and stacks of VHS tapes can now be held on a small thumb drive and distributed via a mobile phone app.

Numbering over 72 million, Deaf people are one of the largest people groups who have not had access to Scripture in their heart language. As more countries become aware and passionate about seeing God's Word available to the Deaf in their sign language, translation projects spring up, projects in need of experts to teach them about the translation process, guide their translation work, and ultimately give final approval of their finished product. These experts are called translation consultants.

But because sign language Bible translation is so relatively new, there are only a handful of translation consultants in the world who have fluency in at least one sign language. And only two of them are Deaf! This fluency allows them to accurately check and assess sign language translations. With 400+ sign languages around the world, we need more such consultants!

If you're a hearing person, it's not hard to find a masters level program in Bible translation, linguistics, or theological studies. But if you are Deaf and struggle with spoken language, there is no formal program in the world that teaches (in sign language) the exegetical and linguistic principles a translation consultant must know well. How can we train Deaf men and women to serve their language communities as translation consultants?

DOOR's Intensive Deaf CIT Program

DOOR has developed a program for our Deaf consultants-in-training (CITs) which provides this background. Based on a curriculum from Serampore College developed for mother-tongue translators, DOOR's program has adapted this curriculum to a sign language format geared toward Deaf culture and information processing. This program begins mid-October of this year (2014) with a 6-month intensive training on DOOR's Kenya campus.

But we need your prayers! Of the participants slated to come, two of them are having visa issues in their home countries. These delays may take up to a month or more to resolve, and the program begins in just a few days. Please pray for these two men to receive their visas in the next few days, and for them to be able to complete the training with the other CITs.

Please also pray for all of the Deaf CITs involved in this training. This is an important step in getting them to a level in which they can give final approval on sign language translations. They are very excited to begin, but there is a lot of work ahead. Pray for encouragement, perseverance, wisdom, and funding.

We are confident we will soon see Deaf translation consultants leading the way in sign language Bible translation. As many of us like to say, "Deaf can do anything hearing people can do, except hear!"