Northern Quechua
translator
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| 79-year-old Abdón Mendoza, who worked on the original Northern Quechua New Testament. He will advise Francisco Quispe and Richard Agles as they revise this translation. La Paz, Bolivia. Photo: UBS CNARSC/Tito Lahaye (BOL04DJ-1.JPG) |
Isolated
A valuable source of advice and support for Mr Quispe and Mr Agles as they undertake this project will be Abdón Mendoza, who worked on the original Northern Quechua New Testament. Mr Mendoza, who is now 79 years old, lives in the small town of Apolo, in Franz Tamayo Province. Isolated from each other because of long distances and poor roads, communities in this area tend to be self-sufficient, producing their own sugar cane, bananas, plantains, yuccas, corn and coffee.
| “I went back to my job. Eight days later, the persecution started. I had nowhere to go. There was no church around, nobody to turn to. I was on my own. I would say to people, ‘If it’s a crime to accept the Lord, and I have, then you can take me to jail. Do what you like, but I’m not turning back.’” |
Mr Mendoza’s story is one of determination, commitment and sacrifice.
“I studied at a Roman Catholic seminary in the mid-1950s. Upon completing my studies, I entered the rural education program. This program was led by a man with a strong Christian faith who would often speak to me about the Bible. I always rejected what he said, and we would argue about almost everything. One day I decided to borrow a Bible to be able to answer him back.
“I went to the seminary and said to the priest, ‘Father, I need a favour. I need to borrow a Bible.’
“‘The Bible is not meant to be read by ordinary people,’ he replied. ‘Only priests can read it, and only passages ordered by the Church.’
“‘That’s OK,’ I replied. ‘But if you don’t lend me a Bible this very minute, you will be guilty. I need to know what to say to my director.’”
“‘Wait,’ he said.
30 days
“After a while he returned with a yellow book in his hands. It was the Nácar-Colunga Bible.
“‘You can have it for 30 days,’ he said.
“I read the Bible for 30 days. I came to a conclusion. I was personally convinced.
“I returned the Bible and sought my director. I asked him about accepting the Lord and about repentance. Right there and then, he embraced me and I could see how happy he was.
“I went back to my job. Eight days later, the persecution started. I had nowhere to go. There was no church around, nobody to turn to. I was on my own. I would say to people, ‘If it’s a crime to accept the Lord, and I have, then you can take me to jail. Do what you like, but I’m not turning back.’
“That’s how I began to preach. With almost no study and not knowing a great deal about God. I’d just tell people about what had happened to me. I kept it up for two years, despite the threats.
Leave everything
“I came to realise that I needed to study the Bible. I was ready to leave everything: my house, my job, everything I had. The roads didn’t make it easy to leave, but in December 1959 I started to walk. I walked for six days over mountain ranges. I could hardly drag my feet and I almost died. Eventually, some people found me and carried me to the top of the mountain. There, a vehicle was waiting for me and I was taken to La Paz.
“I studied for three years. When I graduated, they wanted to send me to different places, but I insisted on going back to my home town. Later, I married and my wife and I were sent to the jungle. She didn’t know anything about life in the country and we found things very difficult. The place was infested with pests and wild animals, it was very muddy and humid and there was hardly any food. We suffered a great deal, but we worked there for 14 years.
Flicker of doubt
“For six years, the persecution was very bad. In one place, 300 people wanted to lynch me, with the connivance of the local authorities. Through all this, I didn’t have a flicker of a doubt. God gave me strength. I gained a great deal of experience which my years in the seminary could not have given me.
“One day a linguist invited me to La Paz. We agreed to translate together. I’d already had plenty of experience as an interpreter, helping missionaries to communicate in Quechua. So this is how we translated the New Testament into Northern Quechua.
“Now when I look at what we did,
I’m not completely happy with it because it has too many Spanish
words. So I’m very grateful to the Bolivian Bible Society for taking
on the revision of the Northern Quechua New Testament. I’m sure
that when it is completed it will bring great joy to our people and
will change many lives.” (WR 386/13 - 6/7.04) 