rMag

Surrounded The Logan Family: Taking the Word to All Nations

Andrew Branch

“Keyewi Kote Solo Pukawa Napu Ikila Akeyala?”

Deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, the Kasua people go about their daily lives. Mango trees dot the landscape around an assorted group of buildings, the most prominent of which are longhouses, village buildings that house several families. Today, there is a church in the village and an airstrip nearby. It has not always been this way.

You may be wondering what the question above means. For the Kasua people, the answer to this question (pronounced phonetically) would, sadly, be “no.” In a good English translation, the sentence would read, “Have you read your Bible today?”

Sometimes we forget that we have had the Bible in our language for seven hundred years. In 2007, there were 6,912 known languages in the world. Only 1,168 of those had the New Testament while less than 500 had the entire Bible. The Kasua people used to be one of the 193,000,000 people in over 2,200 language groups who don’t have any of the Bible.¹  Eighteen years ago, however, God showed that He had bigger plans for the Kasua when Tommy and Konni Logan arrived in the jungle.

The Logans, you see, are translators with Wycliffe Bible Translators, the organization behind many of the almost two thousand translation projects currently underway in the world – especially in places like Paupa New Guinea.¹ The lives and futures of the Kasua people and those like them around the world will never be the same because of Wycliffe and similar organizations that are committed to taking the Bible to even the most remote places. What is the reason for this commitment? Tommy Logan states it well when he says, “We believe with all our heart that every man, woman, and child on the face of this earth deserves the right to hear and to read God’s word in a language that speaks to their heart.”

A Commitment Like No Other

The average New Testament translation takes fifteen to twenty years. The Logans, along with their two daughters, Rachel (17) and Laura (14),  have been working with the Kasua for eighteen years. As of now, the translation of the New Testament is at the seventy percent mark – only eight more books to go. What does translating the Bible entail? What is the process that they have to go through? The hardships on the field for the Logans and their fellow missionaries are many – but they would all tell you that it is worth it.

The first step in translating is obviously learning the language. This is extremely important in earning the trust of the people and even more in learning the culture so that one can be able to communicate the Gospel correctly.² There isn’t a Rosetta Stone curriculum for learning the languages of remote jungle villages. Therefore, they must learn just as they learned their first language. The Logans and their fellow missionaries learn the language of the village phonetically, by listening, asking questions, and writing down what they hear. The process takes years and can be embarrassing, as one missionary discovered when he acted out the word “jump” and unknowingly got “What’s wrong with you?” in return.³

As the Logans and their fellow missionaries around the world learn their respective languages, they are actively analyzing what they are learning in order to create an alphabet. It may sound fairly easy, but one can’t just put a bunch of symbols together and call it an alphabet. As Konni says, “There are rules that govern how a language works, laying a framework for it, much like railroad tracks in order for the train to run on it.” This makes listening to and writing down sounds and syllables of utmost importance. As most of you should know by now, English contains inconsistencies. Other languages are no different. The Logans and others must write down the thousands of things that they hear, and then gain knowledge of how the language works so that they can interpret its nuances and difficulties.⁴ Konni says, “The result of this process is an alphabet that truly reflects the sounds that are there and an alphabet that the people accept as their own.”

After this comes the actual translation work – years upon years of toil. The translation itself involves analyzing the source text in many areas  - from grammatical structure, to the context in the culture of the time to determine its meaning – then doing the process somewhat in reverse to put the discovered meaning in the new language with the new alphabet.⁵ While translation continues, there is constant reviewing, revising, consulting, and proofreading. The Logans and their counterparts must run their work by many people -  from the tribal community to experts in linguistics and the original Hebrew and Greek. The translators go through all this and more to ensure the accuracy of the inspired word of God.⁶

As parts of the New Testament are finished, they are published and made available to the people. This brings up a variety of different tasks. The translators must teach the people how to read and write, as well as find ways of getting the Bible to those who are too elderly to be able to learn to read. Not only this, but the Gospel has to be presented in a way that the people understand.  As the Logans have continued the work, they have seen many come to Christ. Wycliffe missionaries in their fields around the world would agree with Tommy Logan when he says, “It’s amazing to see how they respond to these things that they are hearing for the very first time.” Praise the LORD!

God has done and continues to do wonderful things among the Kasua people. As the Logans would say, their primary mission, above and beyond the translation, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. As people come to Christ, the Logans and their counterparts have to train them in the Lord, as well as train some to be national translators so that when they are not there, the Lord’s work will still thrive. Tommy appropriately quotes the saying, “You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, then you feed him for a lifetime.”

Looking to the Future

Today, at seventy percent completion of the New Testament, the Logans are still anticipating the final chapter of the process. When all is said and done and the scrutinizing and revising is complete, the Kasua New Testament will be dedicated. A dedication is a huge celebration with singing, dancing, and more. The elaborate occasion often includes dramas put on by the local people that depict what it was like before and after the Gospel came into their lives. It is truly a moving act of praise and thankfulness to God for His faithfulness.

Not only are the Logans looking forward to that special day in the future, but Wycliffe as a whole has a vision as well. In 1999, Wycliffe created Vision 2025 in an effort to challenge the Christian community to get translation projects started in all of the remaining unreached language groups by the year 2025. Due to God’s grace and power, Wycliffe and like organizations that have put their heads together have seen an unimaginable increase in the pace. The projected endpoint went from 2150 before Vision 2025 to around 2040.⁷ Praise God!

“Your labor in the Lord is not in vain!”⁸

The Bible is something we take for granted – John Wycliffe brought us the first English Bible around seven hundred years ago. The Logans and their fellow missionaries desperately need our prayers as they continue to do the Lord’s work. It is always a great joy for them to hear words of encouragement from home. Wycliffe as a whole and the organizations that they partner with need prayer as well, for much work essential to the missionaries on the field goes on behind the scenes, from children’s education to governmental relations.⁹ They are a part of something truly great.

Neil Anderson, who with his wife Carol, had their New Testament dedication last year after thirty years of work, had this to say:   

I think people need to realize that they are part of the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe. And that is that the Gospel is being given to the nations. Now that is – that is what we are a part of. We are a part of something really tremendous – something eternal. Something that makes more difference than Wall Street times a thousand. . . . Nothing can ever touch it. . . . Your labor in the Lord is not in vain!⁸

Praise and thanks be to God as He continues to work through His servants in mighty ways.

The Logans are currently in South Carolina on furlough in order to get their oldest daughter through high school and settled, when they’ll go back as a family. In the meantime, Tommy is making periodic trips back to New Guinea to continue translating God’s Word into the Kasua language.