Keeping it Fun

I needed to meet with the Kwaya language committee to ask one question; whether or not they approve of the Kwaya orthography. Since that would be simple enough, I decided to add in some fun games and discussions that would use written Kwaya.

The committee members read a couple of passages from Acts. They then discussed those passages using some prompts such as "summarize what you just read outloud", "what was interesting to you in this passage?" and others.


The local languages here have so many traditional proverbs, so we also played a Pictionary type game with these. In teams of 2 they pulled a proverb out of a hat then they drew it.






The rest of the group then guessed which proverb they had drawn.





It was such fun seeing all the committee members enjoying their written language so much. AND, they gave me their approval for the orthography!

Zinza Language Committee

HUGE step forward for the Zinza writing system (orthography)!!!

Last week I met with the Zinza language committee, presented the Zinza orthography to them, debated a couple of choices that have been made, and in the end, received their approval for the orthography that we've developed over the past 25 years!

Why is this such a huge step?

Because it is the final piece (of many) needed to submit the application for "Approved Orthography Status". This status gives us a lot more freedom in printing Zinza materials, and an orthography has to have this status for at least two years before the New Testament can be printed. This status also means that this way of writing Zinza is becoming accepted by the community and is being used more.

Praise the Lord for preparing the way to reach this important step.

Pray that the application will be accepted and that we are granted "Approved Orthography Status".

Here is a picture of the language committee that gave us their approval:

Out in Kwaya-land

Last week I had the chance to go out to a local village in the Kwaya language region to test some reading/writing rules. I've been involved in a number of testing workshops like this before, but this was the first time that I planned and led such a workshop. It was exciting and challenging. Oh, and I think it was also successful.

By some good chance the head of communications for our branch was in town and came out with me on the first day of the workshop. So, I have tons of pictures and video from that day! There were even enough that I could make this almost time-lapse type video of where the workshop was held!

He also took this video of the building where our meeting was held.

It was definitely nice having a media guy on the trip with us!

Oh, and it was also really good to work through some of the orthography issues.

February 2013 Newsletter