Ten years of waiting are over!

The South West Tanna Translation Team

The 10 year project of translating the New Testament into the South West Tanna language of Nivhaar is now complete and there was great celebration at the launching of the new books recently in Yanemilen village. Yasur volcano rumbled in the background as a large group of women made the ground rumble with their energetic and colourful kastom dancing. Not only was the New Testament published as a book but an audio recording was also made, and solar powered audio players were a popular item when the sales began.

Ken and Mendy Nehrbass, linguist-translators with SIL International, were invited to Yanemilen village by the Presbyterian church towards the end of 2002. For the next many years, they trained a team of Nivhaar speakers to translate, check and edit every one of the almost 8,000 verses of the life changing Book. The village honored the Nehrbass family for all their help to the community, and they in turn congratulated the team of Nivhaar translators and editors, presenting certificates to each of the 17 men and women.

Celebration with Traditional Dancing

The Pacific Area Director of SIL, Mark Taber officially ‘opened’ the Books and Pastor Aman Fred prayed for God’s blessing on them and the SW Tanna communities. The celebrations weren’t over yet! On Sunday 10th June at the Apostolic church, Eratap, there was another opportunity to give thanks to God for His Word in the language of the SW Tanna people and for further distribution of the books and audio recordings of the Scripture for those in Port Vila.

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