This summer, Kathy and I visited the Museum of the Bible during our sabbatical stop in the Washington, D.C. area. It was well worth the day spent there. We saw all sorts of displays and records of the transmission of God's Word to people. But an unexpected joy was the discovery of a room filled with translations of the Bible. As impressive as it was, there was one translation that stood out for us. It was the Sasak New Testament, produced on the island of Lombok in Indonesia. And we felt incredible joy to see it there.
Why?
Because from 1990 to 2005, we were eyewitnesses to the process that led to this translation's completion and printing in 2007. The Sasak live on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, and number at 3.5 million people. They are, in the latest report only .001% Evangelical--99.99% are Muslim. That translates to less than 400 known believers, even though gospel outreach has gone on most recently since the late 20th century. But that is up from the less than 50 believers in 1991 when I first visited the island.
I was traveling with a missionary worker sent by our church who, along with his wife and two other couples were seeking to begin work there, in partnership with some Indonesian believers. Other than Indonesian literature (Indonesian is a trade language spoken throughout the country, but not the "heart language" of most people living away from the major population centers), there were only portions of scripture that had ever been translated into Sasak and they were not readily available.
Over the years I made five more trips to Lombok (three with Kathy) where we visited our workers and their teams. These teams continued to change as persecution and efforts that failed to take root kept removing some, even as others arrived. Workers would often arrive brimming with hope but leaving discouraged. Some would change fields. Others came home to do something else. Still others, through various attacks (some physical), found themselves having to leave due to government pressure. None of the workers in place when I started visiting were there when we last came to the island.
We remember the first major team working on the translation. They did so in secret and were very fearful of discovery by the Muslim authorities. But they were continuing and showed us their work. Their leader, Anna, was tenacious, but shortly after our visit, she perished when her gas stove exploded and her burns were beyond medical help. Losing Anna was devastating to our friends (it would not be the only death they experienced) and seemed to be something that might end this project.
At that time, persecution had broken out throughout the island. Christians' homes were targeted and were burned. As mobs arrived, they would drag all the family's possessions into the street and burn them, even as they ransacked the house. Sometimes they left the house standing because it was a rental owned by a Muslim. As we drove the streets, we would see places where the asphalt had buckled from the heat of a fire, and this was how we would know that a Christian had lived in a house on that street. The main victims were from other ethnic groups (including our team of workers) who live on the island and are identified as Christians since so few Sasak are believers. The persecution and then Anna's death seemed like it might shut the work down again.
But in 2004, our last visit to Lombok, we were welcomed by the translation team (they had a new leader and had been joined by others). Where a few years ago their demeanors had demonstrated their fear in their faces, now they were smiling, happy, and excited at what God had done in enabling them to complete their drafts.
Most startling of all, one of the U.S. workers there told an amazing story about the checking of the translation. It seems that they needed Sasak speakers to read the draft and then translate it back into Indonesian to see if they had gotten the translation right. But native speakers were Muslims, and there was no certainty how they would respond. This worker had befriended a Muslim Sasak man who was very interested in knowing more about Jesus. After much prayer, the worker approached the Sasak man and asked him if he would be willing to do this work. What happened next was miraculous.
The Sasak man told the worker, "I had a dream and in it, I was told that I would soon learn my life's purpose. And now you have asked this of me. This must be what I have been born to do." And he accepted.
Later, another Sasak man was asked to help in making Sasak corrections, and eventually, these men were able to talk together about the Scriptures.
Most amazing of all, the first man was so moved by what he read (he was reading Romans), that, without the worker's permission (this could be dangerous), he started having his neighbors over to read it to them and talk about it--a Muslim Sasak leading a Bible study in Romans! Through this a number of people became believers and a house church began.
In fact, a number of house churches began. Meanwhile, the translation of the New Testament went to the Indonesian Bible Society for further refinement and preparation for publication, which finally was completed in 2007 (there still is no complete Bible in the language).
Seeing this volume in the ranks of all these translations was such a joy and brought back so many memories of the faithful workers we knew who over those years sought to bring Sasak people the knowledge of the gospel. There are still workers (precious few) who are there continuing that work, but now they have the New Testament as their key tool!
Why tell this story now, in Advent? Well, the Sasak people have been waiting in spiritual darkness for even longer than the people waiting for Jesus' birth. Finally, the light is dawning and the Word made flesh has given them his written word. Let the story of the Sasak, and the reminder that there are still well over a billion people still waiting for that message in their language, give this season of "waiting" even greater significance.
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