They Came for Husbands...

During our ministry time at JAARS in North Carolina we met many interesting people, including Jo Shetler, a Bible translator who worked in the Philippines.

Jo and her translation partner Ann first went to the Balangao people of the Philippines in 1962 to live with them, learn their language, and translate the Scriptures. The Balangao live among the ancient rice terraces in the mountains of central Luzon. In those days, Jo described the location as “about four centuries north of Manila.”

When she and her partner first arrived there, the people would constantly ask, “Why have you come?” It was inconceivable to them that these single women would leave their families and come so far to live in their village.

Jo and Ann would answer, “We’ve come to put God’s Word in a book for you.”

“Right, but why have you come?” they would say.

“To give you God’s Word in a book so you can read it and understand what God wants to tell you.”

“Sure, but why have you come?”

After a while the people stopped asking. The ladies learned much later the Balangaos had come to their own conclusion on why they had come… to find husbands!

It took 20 years to translate the New Testament. And in those 20 years, deep relationships were formed and the most amazing miracles happened, not least of which was the radical conversion of hundreds and thousands of Balangao and surrounding tribes.

A Thr-r-rilling Story...

True confession: I can’t remember a time when I could trill my r’s, even as a child. And I'm pretty sure I never trilled them to imitate motor sounds, either. I became painfully aware of this inability during junior high Spanish class. Hard as I tried, my unruly tongue would not behave and my rr's came out more ‘thrilled’ than trilled. My teacher had me practice them by repeatedly saying the word for railroad, ferrocarril. It had 2 of those suckers! I have not been fond of railroads since.

I began to think the of the rr sound as my Spanish ‘shibboleth’ (see Judges 12:6). Sadly, had I been an Ephraimite and required to say the word ferrocarril, that would have been the end. I would not have made it over the Jordan.

Español dr-r-read...
I can confirm that yes, God has a sense of humor—why else would He send us to missionary service in Guatemala, where they habla Español? The Wycliffe folks there of course wanted us to come up to speed with Spanish before starting our service because they didn't want us to be handicapped by an inability to function in the national language. Drat and dread. I thought about replying with, "That's okay. I'll just keep speaking English, you know—my mother tongue!" Wisdom prevailed, however, and off we went to language school. We lived with a Guatemalan family, and their kids seemed bemused by my 'rr' attempts. It just didn't seem fair that Jeanette and the kids could trill so well. Our youngest child became very fond of making those [irritating] trilling motor sounds. My language instructor had me practice by saying the word ferrocarril over and over and over. By now I really disliked railroads.

Of Dogs and Fruit
In spite of LOTS of advice from well-meaning friends (including Bible translators and linguists), I hit the rr 'wall'. I even tried tongue-flapping exercises  (NOTE TO SELF: Do not practice these in public!). But no matter what I tried, I just could not stop from turning dogs into fruit.

Mayans to the r-r-rescue...
I discovered something while living in Guatemala: Mayans live there and many wear cowboy hats. I'm not sure where that came from, but when they speak Spanish it's common for them to substitute a ‘shr’ kind of sound (as in the word ‘shrewd’) for the trill. (It has something to do with pronunciation in their native Mayan languages.) I found I could do that sound pretty well [though I note it sounds more like a car wash than an imitation motor sound]. So I learned to get by speaking rr words with a Mayan 'shr' accent. Shrewd, eh? For some reason no one ever confused me with a real Mayan.

Epilogue
In spite of my inability to correctly pronounce the RR sound, we were able to lead normal and productive lives throughout our nearly 8 years of service in Guatemala. I spoke Spanish every day, and managed a computer department with Guatemalan employees. God used our skills to put His Word into the mother tongue for several Mayan languages and helped the translators with processing primers, dictionaries, New Testaments, and even the first complete Bible for a Mayan language! The best part: there will be people in heaven because of the work that was done there. I'm pretty sure some of them won't be able to trill their r's, either.

Final thought: I wonder how the say 'railroad' in heaven?