Making it Stick
The first thing that strikes you about Pedro is his friendly demeanor. His genuine boyish grin makes you feel as though this is the beginning of a deeply intimate friendship.
"He says he was born in 1960, so you can figure out how old he is for yourself," says the translator. Pedro laughs. With an outstretched hand, he mimics a person climbing a steep hill, cresting the summit, beginning the descent. "He says he's on the downward slope," relates the interpreter. The symbolism is so familiar the interpretation is unnecessary, but you can hardly fault the man for doing his job.
Coming to Salvation
Pedro talks about his past—how he grew up in a family that unofficially followed traditional Mayan religious beliefs; how in his early teens, friends invited him to attend Roman Catholic services; how he later transferred to the Protestant church, and there accepted Christ as his personal savior.
It was his experience in the Protestant church that motivated Pedro to translate the Bible into his mother tongue of Tzutujil. His pastor had been troubled because he'd noticed that many people in the congregation weren't paying attention to his sermons. Some of them were even falling asleep, so the pastor put together a plan. He gave each of the deacons a stick. When he preached the deacons would walk up and down the aisles. If someone fell asleep they'd receive a wake-up call.
Pedro chuckles and continues. "It was horrible! They were teaching about God's love, but hitting us with sticks! What's wrong with this picture?" Pedro smiles, shaking his head in amazement.
Motivation for Translation
Troubled by what he was seeing, Pedro decided to take a survey of the congregation. Going door to door he asked three questions. First, "Did you enjoy this week's sermon?" Everyone said, "Oh, yes! It was wonderful! It really touched me!" Second he asked, "Which part spoke to you in particular?" To this they had no answer. Third, he questioned, "What was the passage that the minister preached on?" Again, no response. "This gave me pain in my heart, so I told myself, 'I've got to do this translation!'"
After struggling to develop a rough draft of the New Testament on his own, Pedro met Jim and Judy Butler at the SIL* center. They were able to help him refine his translation. They told him there were only two small changes necessary. The first one was the alphabet he was using. The second was the meaning of the text, as it had been translated. Pedro grins mischievously. "Little did I know that those two small changes would take a year to complete!"
No more sticks!
When the translation was finally finished, Pedro preached a sermon using the Tzutujil Scriptures. "The people were spellbound," relates the translator. "The deacons put down their sticks; no one fell asleep. The entire congregation was finally able to understand the teaching!"
Today 42 churches in that region use Tzutujil New Testament Scriptures—50 percent of the population professes Evangelical faith!
Over the hill but far from journey's end, Pedro now works in partnership with Wycliffe to promote translation and the use of indigenous Scripture on a national level across denominations.
(Story by Matt Peteresen)
*SIL is a Wycliffe affiliate organization, dedicated to training, language research, translation and literacy.