Helong of Timor

The Helong are predominately Christian farmers who desire to worship God in their language. They live in isolated villages on the island of Timor and on the smaller island of Semau in the Timor region of Indonesia. In many ways they still follow their traditional practices and have retained their language. God has called a well-educated Helong speaking pastor to be the primary translator, along with other pastors who have been released by their churches to help translate on a part-time basis. They plan to translate the New Testament and Genesis.

  • After completing the keyboarding of the Gospel of John, the translators met with their project adviser and finished the exegetical check of John along with 1 and 2 Peter. The next step will be conducting village comprehension testing of this material as well as 1 Corinthians. Pray that the team will receive good feedback from the community to clarify any areas of the translation that might lead to misunderstanding.

  • The translators and advisor decided to meet on the island of Bali for the exegetical check but one Sunday after church two members of the team were robbed at knifepoint of their cash, wedding rings and cell phone. The financial loss was considerable. The team completed the check, but the two men felt the Kupang translation office had a responsibility to compensate them for their losses. There was disagreement about what the office was liable for. This situation has the potential to derail the project and needs serious prayer.

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