Questions as gift on Christmas day

Yesterday, we watched the movie, "How the Grinch stole the Christmas?" One of the theme/morale of the story is the key of focus of the Christmas gift. Anyway I got gift from my family.

Today I got the gift from the questions of a young girl. I think those are great questions. I tried to paraphrase them:

1. If three of your wishes would be able to be fulfilled, what are your wishes?

2. If you can change yourself, what would you like to change?

3. What is you ideal vacation? Where? and with whom? what context?

4. Who are your best friends? Why?

I have a rough ideas about mine. How about yours? One of the great gifts of Christmas is the holiday that we can spend time with our families or someone that we love and care. Relationship with God and others are certainly great gifts that we should not take if for granted.

I wish you all Merry Christmas and a very blessed new year.

A tribue to Ellis Diebler -- our first consultant in Merei Translation Project

Almost twenty years ago I met Ellis, when I was serving as a translation advisor in Vanuatu for Merei Translation and Literacy projects. He came to serve as our first consultant. We were working on the book of Mark. I am very thankful for that. He was the master of implicit information in the Bible. He was well known for his practice and theory of "Index of Implicit Information" in the New Testament(1993, 1999) especially among the communities of Bible Translation practitioners.

I still remembered the conversation that I asked why didn't he write more for Bible translation. At that time SIL had a lot of research in  linguistics and anthropology, but not much about Bible translation. He replied, "It's because I spend my time to people like you and expect you will do that."

As a good Asian protege taking his mentor's words seriously, I did. I finished my DMin in Bible Translation in 2014. Yes, Ellis, I did.



Ellis is more senior in me in decades but demonstrated the quality of confidence with humility as a Consultant since than has been one of my role models. I still have a long way to gom but as my Bible Translation teacher Merge Croft told the class, I am confident to say and to serve, "I am good, but I am humble." Thank you for all of my clients and colleagues trust me serving them as a consultant in these years. If I can contribute to you as a consultant, it is because of the modeling of Ellis along with many of the consultants and mentors in my life.

Ellis sent out his retirement announcement recently. I don't know what does it mean, in the field of Bible translations and/or ministry, retirement may mean something different. No matter what does it mean about Ellis retirement. His contributions to the field of Bible translation will continue through his books, writing, the Translator's Translation, and the consultants that he trained ....


You may learn more about Ellis and His Work:


https://www.sil.org/biography/ellis-w-deibler


Ellis,  May the Lord bless you whatever your retirement means and is.

---
Ellis  has been with the Lord since March 20, 2020.

https://tahlequah.hartfuneralhome.net/obituary/Ellis-Deibler

Open Source, Sharing Resources and what are really yours?

Today I read a blog post from my American friend, title "Are they really yours?" about their children, when they were living in China.

Are they really yours? It think it depends on what does ‘yours’ or possession mean. I think children are our properties in one sense. In different cultures the linkage and relationship change differently overtime. From a Christian point view, we own the responsibility to take care the children and the resources entrusted to us to fulfill His mission. All resources and what we 'owned' are really entrusted to us by God, as He is the creator and owner of all creations.


On the other hand, we will inherit all these in one day, as we will rule with the King of Kings in new heaven and earth.
In this world, we would like to protect our right, copy right, property right, human right. The example of Jesus is about giving His right in order to give us the right to back to the Father's house.

Ironically open source movement reflecting some practices of sharing resources in the early church, but not necessary the churches today. Resources is entrusted to us to bring Glory to him and enjoy our life and labor in a Christian manner.

What are the bottle neck(s) of 'consultant development' or "Scriptural translation/engagement"?

I try to think out of the boxes about "consultant and bottle neck" in the context of God's mission with the following concern and questions:

#Bottle neck of what?

I think we need to clarify what are the bottles of the bottle neck about. Are we thinking the bigger pictures of making God's word in every languages .... or Missio Dei, the Great Commission.  What are the theology and biblical based supporting the God's word need to be in every languages or what languages?

a. What are all the tongues in Revelation or other part the bible referring to? All the existing tongues(7000+ languages) plus those languages already dead?

b. What can be other necks of the bottle? Can there be more bottles? Consultants can be one, consultant training can be one tube of one of the neck, but there can be other necks, other ways, such as collaborating, computer aided, paraconsultant,  diaspora engagement and other suggestion by innovators. 

c.Beside bible translation what are other alternatives of making God's words available to all people? I believe that Bible translation is only a small step to make God's word accessible by other other in some context and not all context.

d. Besides the BT communities here, what can be other perspectives from other disciplines within the body of Christ and the people that we served plus the cutting edge technologists and researchers?

e. How can we improve the churches partnership/engagement/trust and BT practitioners morale?

f. What can we do with the decreased volume of the traditional consultant and missionaries from those supplying countries in post-church context?

g. What could be the implementation and proper ways of operation in ideological Bible unfriendly context in access restricted regions?

h. What would be the implementation and role of BT communities in the contexts of fast growing church in spite of difficult situation(even without vernacular scriptures)? If they can survive and grow healthily(as they thought) without vernacular BT, what evidence of BT for transformation as recent testimony can convince the churches and ourselves? 

i. As the technology and education level of some host countries improving significantly, how possible are the national and local churches to grow healthily with or without vernacular scripture especially in urbanization setting?

j. How can we match the right wine with the right bottle in global and local context? One of my concerns is how can we have general principles and  allow flexibility of ethno-lingual customization. 

k. Beside the fastest concern, how can we implement self-sustainable long term Bible translation movement/development in the countries? bi-vocational development of the consultants and BT practitioners? Engaging volunteers? Diaspora and remote HR? 

gosp4el_hk2017hack Oct 20-22, 2017

GOSP4EL_HK2017_hack
Now is 9.37 a.m. on the plane from BJ to HK.
Yes Hackathon start from here. I supposed to land around 12 noon at HK airport.
I think I would like to start a todo list in next 48 hours. Put this document into either blog or gosp4el wiki.
-------
I just arrived WOHK office, the venue of the event gosp4el_hk2017. Quite likely this will be a solo here but with virtual connecting many in next couple days.
I copied the above to the blog just now. 15.02 pm UTC.

I think the focus would be ABCD -- audio bible of Chinese diaspora and dialects.

What good questions are you asking today?

I just finished a coaching training yesterday. During the first day, one of the questions is "What do you want to achieve in this coaching training?" My answer, "I want to coach myself so that I can be a better follower of Christ and better disciple maker for Christ." I think one of the key questions about coaching and the element of discipling/coaching is about "What, Why and How" questions and put the question and get the outcomes in time frame and context.
Asking the right question matters! I have been teaching about the importance of good questions in different occasions.

Around the dinning table, what would you ask your children after the school?

PAUSE. Think about this, and answer the question before you keep reading.

I forgot where did I learned about asking question in different cultures. I have heard and thought some of the following?

1. How did you get along with your classmates?
2. What have you learned in the school?
3. How are you doing in the school?
4. Are there anyone bullying you?
5. ...
6.What did you do?
7. How were you doing in your test/exam?
8. What questions do you ask?
9. What questions have you been asking?

What are yours?
What can we learn about asking questions and ourselves through question?

Missional prayer Tour and prayerful awareness

I have been traveling quite a bit for consultation, training and meeting. I have shared ideas about the ideas of tour with mission concern and prayer for the places and the people that visited. Short term mission became a trend in last 20 years. One of my concern is that we are having a tourist mentality for short term mission. I am promoting a mission mentality while Christians are travelling. While we are travelling, God may speak to us because our invention of STM. However, as I am intentional to think about prayer and would like to spend 30 minutes per day of prayer and/or scriptural reading from the prayer for a 30 days hustle project. I found that it is not that easy to be aware of the presence of God as I am travelling. I am still thinking it is worth to do it.

I am very thankful for the opportunity visiting school, friends and tour a bit in California recently. I did pray for the country, the state, the people and the cities. May the Lord's grace and mercy be with them. I am also very thankful and was blessed by the hospitality of friends and colleagues last week and this week. I will try to be alert what and whom the Lord will bring to me and live prayerfully day by day. 

Engagement of Scripture of Biblical Greek and Hebrew

SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators have been working in translation for decades and we realized the translated Words of God are not well used by the expected users. I am very thankful for the leadership and colleagues put a lot of effort in the area of Scripture use or engagement. We also realized that it is not only the issue of the minority languages. Then, how about languages in the region or what we called LWC - language widely communication? Then how about the national languages and the major languages? Then how about the mother tongues of ourselves? English and Chinese. Then, I found that many of the Chinese dialects may not have their own translation? Are the existing Chinese translation is good enough to all Chinese dialects? How many Chinese Christians read the scripture of their own mother tongues? The Christians in the west started concern the significance of God's Words in their society and even among the Christians. They may even started questioning the value of God's world in this post-church world.

As Chinese we need to learned from the west and try to promote the scriptural engagement within ourselves and also beyond ourselves. How can we do that without understanding the biblical language text? Can mother tongue translator translate the Bible into their mother tongues with understanding of the original languages text and translation principle. Thus, I just wonder how can we promote biblical language scriptural engagement. How do you think? Who is going to do this? I hope we can first do a bit of survey about what English Greek/Hebrew resources available. How can we make this resources available in other languages, like Chinese. I fear that I may not have energy to go beyond Chinese or even to make them available into Chinese. However, I would like to see other to get this vision and passion and pas it on. In the 500th anniversary of religious reformation and the reflection of global mission and concern, I think the only global hope is back to the Bible.

新的事奉──推動科技宣教

新的事奉──推動科技宣教

「原載於《譯經使者》2017年夏季號P.6-P.7，版權屬香港威克理夫聖經翻譯會所有，蒙允許使用，請勿翻印」
http://www.wycliffe.org.hk/journal.php?pkey=32#book/7

凱丰先生

創新的翻譯原理

現時，我在聖經翻譯輔助會1（The Bible Translator’s Assistant）擔任顧問一職，一半時間在華人教會、學術團體、會議中推動分享電腦輔助聖經翻譯和科技宣教的異象。四分一時間繼續參與聖經翻譯和語言科技的顧問工作，另外四分一時間學習和研究有關的技術和理念，並實踐建議。

聖經翻譯輔助會由兩位有志開發人工智能、電腦翻譯程序並對聖經翻譯有負擔的人士成立，目的是運用他們的專長，讓宣教士和語言學家可以縮短完成翻譯聖經的時間。

機構的翻譯原理為半機器翻譯，先由富聖經翻譯經驗的成員（多爲威克理夫聖經翻譯會現任或前會員）把聖經編譯為電腦軟件可以處理的語義表式（semantic representation），即將人類的書寫系統（文字）轉換成電腦軟件能夠明白和處理的語言，這個由聖經翻譯輔助會研發的軟件名為TBTA。

之後，工作人員會把目標語言的詞彙、世界觀資料、基本語法和句法翻譯規律輸入TBTA軟件程序，並啟動程序，得出一個電腦譯本的初稿。接着，電腦語言學家與目標語言的使用者反覆校對譯稿，輸入新的句法規律，電腦也會愈學愈聰明，最後輸出一個令人滿意的版本。現時，聖經翻譯輔助會已完成五卷舊約書卷、路加福音和七卷新約書信的電腦編譯工作。

caption:譯經員要把聖經編譯為電腦軟件可以處理的語義表式

我們透過電腦技術的輔助，已翻譯完成部分韓語、菲律賓他加祿語（Tagalog），非洲朱拉語（Jula）和巴布亞新畿內亞克瓦語（Kewa）聖經2，並以漫畫版形式發行他加祿語路得記和以斯帖記。

現階段，我們要投放大量時間將聖經編譯成TBTA軟件的語義表式，而現時利用TBTA軟件翻譯聖經的速度並不比傳統翻譯方法快，但我們的理念是將整部聖經編譯成TBTA軟件可處理的語義表式後，便可將不同的語言輸入TBTA軟件，從而得出這些語言的聖經譯本初稿，從宏觀角度看，我們可以減省翻譯或修訂聖經所需的時間。當我們輸入愈多語言資料，電腦獲得愈多數據和經驗後，再加上新的科研和技術的發展，電腦翻譯聖經的質量和速度可能會以超乎我們想像的高速增長。

caption: 馬尼拉的學生閱讀聖經翻譯輔助會翻譯的他加祿語漫畫版路得記。

困難與機遇

我在工作裏碰到不少困難，其中一個就是自己對華人教會的無知。近年從自己狹窄的譯經圈子出去看看，發現華人教會對聖經翻譯和宣教的了解跟自己的不一樣，不知在華人教會推廣電腦譯經、科技宣教從何入手。華人教會中不知道威克理夫聖經翻譯會的大有人在，也有很多人認為「威克理夫」與他們沒甚麼關係，而對聖經翻譯輔助會的工作就更加陌生。我覺得在華人教會推廣威克理夫聖經翻譯會，提到馬禮遜翻譯聖經，比起提到威克理夫翻譯聖經更容易抓着人的注意力。在華人教會推廣聖經翻譯固然困難，要推廣以電腦科技協助翻譯就更困難。然而，我認為困難的另一面也是機遇。

與此同時，在技術上，科技與科技文化急速變化，以科技宣教或電腦譯經也有其風險。如何應用最好又最新的技術與現存的系統接軌也有一定的困難，牽涉複雜的技術，很難找到這方面的專才，讓新的團隊成員參與。我們擁抱理念，研究電腦、語言、釋經和翻譯的技術，同時在各方面也會遇到難題。我認為最大的難題是人要明白神的心意，盡心順服，在基督裏合一，做好科技和百般恩賜的好管家，謙卑服侍。

因此，我邀請弟兄姊妹禱告，也歡迎各位聯繫聖經翻譯輔助會所翻譯的聖經的使用群體，協助分發和推廣聖經。如果弟兄姊妹對電腦翻譯技術有興趣和耐心的話，可以從聖經翻譯輔助會的網頁開始了解我們的工作。有把握以後，可以開始使用TBTA軟件來翻譯。TBTA是個開源軟件，供人免費下載使用和自由開發。我鼓勵有這方面的興趣、能力和編程技術的肢體，可以在Github3下載我們公開的原始碼（source code），並歡迎提出改良TBTA軟件的編程的建議，創造榮神益人的工具。在華人方面，也可以協助把我們將網頁和代禱資料翻譯成中文。我從事奉和近年的經歷中也發展一些其他工作：

1. 開設華人開源福音平台──GOSP4EL（Glocal Open Source Projects for Evangelical Laities）：讓信徒反思如何透過網絡數碼世界推動或參與全球華人宣教、佈道事工、譯經的應用和實踐福音資源共享。

2. 發展華人方言有聲聖經──ABCD（Audio Bible of Chinese Dialects/Diaspora）：

華人教會主要使用和合本聖經，但和合本的語言非所有華人心底的語言和家中日常語言。不會讀、不方便讀和不喜歡讀和合本或其他中文聖經的華人可能還是被拒諸聖經與福音的門外。我們可以透過發展各種華人方言的語音聖經、福音視頻和詩歌，跨越華人中不同文化和語言的藩籬，並透過互聯網、手機應用程式等方式分發聖經。我也鼓勵弟兄姊妹透過各種社交平台組織不同方言的讀經群組，協助傳送各種語言的語言檔案，甚至編輯成為有聲聖經和佈道工具。

3. 參與發展方言獨立群體與少數族裔的語言、文化的網站、數碼平台與傳播工作。

禱告中同行

誠邀更多弟兄姊妹代禱：（一）求主賜下正確的策略和合作的伙伴給聖經翻譯輔助會，讓他們能善用日新月異的技術和從上而來的智慧解決困難，完成使命；（二）求主使用ABCD，讓華人各方言群體能得聞福音，蒙恩得救和靈命長進；（三）請為華人教會禱告，願更多教會領受神託付華人教會的大使命和心意，盡心順服，在基督裏合一，做好科技和百般恩賜的好管家，謙卑服侍；（四）求神幫助我在衆教會、機構、學院的教牧、領袖和兄姊眼前蒙恩，完成推廣科技宣教、聖經翻譯和ABCD的使命。

──────────────────────────────────────

1. 聖經翻譯輔助會的董事會於2017年5月通過將會把機構名稱 “The Bible Translator’s Assistant”改為 “All the Word”。
2. 聖經翻譯輔助會已將這些聖經上載於其網頁：http://www.thebibletranslatorsassistant.org/TBTAsTexts.aspx
3. 網址：https://github.com/JChungYS/TBTA，Github是個面向開源及私有軟件項目的托管平台。

作者為本會會員，於1995年與太太前往瓦努阿圖參與美尼語（Merei）聖經翻譯項目。其後，他們前往東亞工場事奉，凱丰先生任職譯經顧問，凱丰太太則參與工場的行政支援工作。2015年，凱丰先生加入聖經翻譯輔助協會（The Bible Translator’s Assistant）出任顧問，致力推動以嶄新科技支援聖經翻譯，尤其推動華人信徒參與宣教。

Outcomes of GOSP4EL_HK#5&6 - Devotional improvement and Notes on Ephesian Study as a 30Days Hustle project

This is the outcome of GOSP4EL projects partner with Chung On Baptist Church in Hong Kong

I shared in two Saturday sessions on July 8 and July 22 2017. One of the goals of the session is to make the materials of those sessions available as open source.

The first session focus on training issues and value/principle of training, especially based on sth. developed by Jane Vella's "Learning by listening" or Learning that last principle. The ended up with 8 questions/issues that we can follow and develop?

The second session followed up one of the questions and focus in Personal Mission Statement and How can we make a difference before and after training.

I gave the participants two assignments, 1. draft a personal mission statement. 2. 30 days of Hustle for some positive change of improvement

They can choose one of the above.

Please pray for the participants and myself that we can achieve the assignment and make a difference for God before and after our interactions and the process of hustle.

I suggested two articles:

One is about how to draft a personal mission statement.

Another is about how to achieve one change, e.g. reduce weight, better devotion habit, etc. in "30 days of Hustle" by Jon Acuff.

As the facilitator, I think I better facilitate by examples.

1. PMS - personal mission statement I have shared with the participants my personal life management plan, including my core value and my mission statement. I am going to revised/updated my LMP in next 30 days.
2. 30DayHustle -- I would like to improve my devotional life/prayer/study the book of Ephesians in depth.

Thus, I will have some kind of blog in next 30 days or in September 2017 following the 30 days hustle template. Please pray for me and walk through this journey with me.

Another outcome of GOSP4EL_HK#5&6 is the generous gift from Chung On Baptist gift, which can be use for the support of the coming GOSP4EL_HK Hackathon event Oct 20-22,2017. We are also very thankful for Wycliffe Hong Kong sponsoring the venue in this event.

Update Notes of the 4th Gosp4el Hong Kong meeting

February 18, 2017 at 1 PM - 4 PM

A. Apps/ Projects mentioned:

1. Indigitous
2. CCC I-mobilizer
3. Music App: suggest hymns/songs according to the mood
4. Slack USA: Project management app
5. Data firm – Thailand child
6. Raspberry pie and bible box(This will be a potential project in gosp4el_hk#7, Hong Kong gosp4el hackathon October 20-22, 2017)

7. Joshua Project
8. Bridgebuilder: 宣教position and living cost overview
9. Kingdom builder - a slack group

10. Github

11. Door43
12. Unfolding Words – Open Bible Stories
13. Wiki Translation

B. Challenges to follow up / Issues to tackle:

1. IT / datamining expert group is minority in HK: Their timetable for rest and work is unique. How to engage them in the ministry?

2. Search engine with data of Hong Kong Ethnic Miniority香港少數族裔: Who to be included? Are they pieces of sensitive information to be exposed? Who do the management?

3. Language and sub-language (WALS?): How to follow through with the variation of language family?
4. Simultaneous information: How to synchronize the used word in translation for different apps and projects propelled by people in different cities?
5. Localization of translation language: Local groups has their own specific languages. How to translate the content without disconnecting the people in other cities?
6. Digital group of Youth generation: What are their language and machine usage pattern/ habits? How to detail-make the products for them?
7. Language used in the bible and language used in daily living: How to maximize the usage of daily living language in the bible translation?
8. Machine Translation with AI: How to make good use of the current tools to translate as accurate as possible?
9. 信二代和宣二代的華人文化教育：如何教育他們或保持他們的華人文化？
10. 主日學：如何在教學上善用科技？(See the implementation in gosp4el_hk#6 July 2017, and partnership with local church)
11. Distinctiveness and “Chineseness”: What is their definitions in the decade or century ahead? （See the recent implementation of ABCD - audio bible of Chinese dialects/diaspora. I started two whatsapp group for Hakka and Teochew.
12. 香港信徒在全球/東南亞的福音角式：香港信徒在區內和區外有何獨特的角式？如何興起香港信徒達致此目標？

Thank you for the input from May Chan. I updated some info about the current implementation and progress)

gosp4el_hk#6 Saturday School with Emphasis on personal mission statement

This event is the following up workshop of the previous gosp4el meet up two weeks ago. I'll try to share a bit more about the outcome and process of this. The following are the feedback about what they learned. Thank!

Last meeting, the focus is about knowing the expectation from the participants and how Bible translation ministry relate wot lay people in the church. I also shared a bit about 12 principle of adult education based on Jane Vella's material.  I really appreciate pastor Wong's innovation, creative and critical approach to reinvent the traditional Sunday school approach. I also appreciate the interaction, fellowship with the participants. I have been preaching and teaching one ways during my furlough time in the past. I am glad to hear more feedback and have more interaction. Hopefully, my sharing can bring something new and contribute to Hong Kong and Chinese churches from a new perspective.

Yesterday, the session focus on personal mission statement with the recap from my sermon to the church about five months ago -- Message, transmission of the Mission. I will share some of the following key concept:

1. Sharing materials -- this is an experiment about sharing Sunday/Saturday materials as kind of open source and/or creative commons. I or we are still thinking which creative commons to be used.

2. Church and Christians in Hong Kong relatively are not lack of knowledge but the Bible, but to practice what we understand the Bible and make good use of the Bible. Thus, I bring up the ideas about the reformation of the church should be continued through different time in different context in the process of consecration as the bride of Christ. Both church and individual Christians should keep growing in quality and Biblical value and testimony among the community and society.

3. The emphasis on the importance of personal vision and personal value in order to define our personal mission.

4. I share my personal life management plan. I also suggest two articles. One is about how to draft mission statement. Another is about how to make change in 30 days with a team. Hopefully every participants can come up a draft mission statement, when I visit them next time in months or next year.

I am very thankful for this opportunity and serving with joy, as I see the potential the mission statement and  dreams may orient the participants to a new godly dimension and direction. Thank you again for pastor Wong's trust, encouragement and offering such great opportunity. Thank you for the participants willingness to learn, participation and humbleness.   

Visiting a Hakka Church in Hong Kong

Yesterday I had the privilege visiting a Hakka church in Hong Kong. The service was conducted in Cantonese, but I was able to observe in a Hakka Sunday school class and see the usage of Hakka language in singing the hymns, scriptural reading and teaching. All students and the teacher were elderly and most are sisters.
The teacher/elder told me that some of them learned to recognize the Chinese character though the past years of Hakka Sunday school.

The Hymn were based on other Chinese, likely Mandarin and/or Cantonese. The scripture was Chinese Union Version and was recited in Hakka.

There were Hakka Chinese characters using in the power point of the service. They seemed not realize the availability of Hakka Jesus film and other Hakka scriptural resources．There were partnership with Trans Word Radio and I would like to see what can be available and reuse to develop the Hakka Scriptural and Christian resources.
At the end of the Sunday school, Hakka apostle creed and Lord's prayer being recited.

I am still pondering the ministry of ABCD -- audio bible of Chinese dialects or diaspora. I am glad to see some progress. Please keep praying for this project.

GOSP4EL_HK#5 聖經翻譯2017

小弟蒙荃灣眾安浸信會王志剛牧師

邀請 7 月8日及7月22日 2：30 - 5：00pm 假荃灣眾安浸信會（https://www.google.com.hk/maps/place/%E8%8D%83%E7%81%A3%E7%9C%BE%E5%AE%89%E6%B5%B8%E4%BF%A1%E6%9C%83/@22.369172,114.118118,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x62a886727b050235!8m2!3d22.369172!4d114.118118） 兩堂聚會. 7月8日題目為：

引言/培訓信念/功課

20年聖經翻譯所為何事？聖經翻譯所為何事？

聖經誰屬？聖經翻譯誰屬？

（跨文化）**2 的聖經翻譯 -- 港人在國際聖經翻譯機構的反思？

神話再現與宗教再改革

7月22日題目待定

請代為轉發、禱告。歡迎眾兄姊蒞臨指導、參加。

當天的内容和答問會被整理為GOSP4EL開源資源。

https://github.com/GOSP4EL/Volunteer-Projects/wiki/%E8%81%96%E7%B6%93%E7%BF%BB%E8%AD%AF2017%EF%BC%88GOSP4EL_HK%235)

Reconsidering importance of Open Source for Scriptural translation, mission and ministry

Recently, the most popular and power scriptural translation software need to deal with issues of Win 10 update.

One of my concerns  is that thousand of end users and hundreds of scripture translation projects depend on one company. And the majority resources depends on Logos.  On one hand we should be gracious and thankful for such partnership. At the same time I think we should reconsider the issue that most of the scriptural translation human resources and the related linguistics and language technology resources/development for the ministry are from one country and dependent on one company.

What can be other options?

From CDAB to ABCD -- Audio Bible of Chinese Dialects

When you sing begin with Do,  Re， Mi, when you share Good News or Scripture with Chinese dialects communities or diaspora, you started with ABCD -- Audio Bible of Chinese Dilaects/Diaspora.
Yes, I change the name of Chinese Dialects Audio Bible to ABCD,  I think it is easier for people to remember.

Audio -- technology keep changing, printing technology has adopted to distribute the Scriptural text for a long time. With the technology of media and many of the unreached group are not likely reading the scripture because of the absence of writing system.

Bible -- God's Word and the message for His Redemption plan, His Passion and His Mission. This guide the churches and us to understand Church's purpose and God's plan in our life, our personal mission.

Chinese -- I was born as Chinese and I am still pondering what does it mean to be Chinese and what is God's mission for the Chinese, to the Chinese and through the Chinese.

Dialects -- Chinese writing was unified about 2000 years ago, but Chinese are communicating mainly with spoken dialects of Chinese or regional Chinese in their daily life.  How can we appreciate and make good use of the diversity of Chinese languages and culture for God's Glory and Mission.

If you would like to learn more about ABCD, you can find more info:

GitHub:

https://github.com/JChungYS/ABCD

For a pilot project: Hakka Scriptural Reading and audio Bible group:

Whatsapp group:客家金句朗读

Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ABCD2025/

开发众包（Crowdsourcing)华人方言有声音圣经库

小弟建议建立华人方言有声圣经库。请大家代祷、分享、参与。香港和世界各大成市讲各种方言的人不少，华人教会操个种方言的兄姐和新移民的初信者可以在参与中学习、成长。

https://github.com/JChungYS/CDAB/blob/master/README.md

Chinese Dialect Audio Bible Repository through crowd sourcing

Hi, I am proposing a CDAB repository. Let your labor not in vain on Labor day. Chinese Dialect Audio Bible Repository through crowd sourcing, eg.wechat, whatsapp group, Please share, pray and be part of the project. There are many Chinese dialect users from Chinese churches and new immigrant community in major cities in the world. One Chinese version can be read by different dialects, which are the mother tongues of some illiterate and/or new immigrants. Can we put this scriptural "translation/transmediation" project along with urban mission and engaging Chinese diaspora. Your prayer, sharing, networking and participating are certainly appreciated. How do you think?
https://github.com/JChungYS/CDAB/blob/master/README.md

One minute Ridiculous TBTA

Global Open Source Projects for Evangelical Laities Initiatives 开源福音宗旨

華人教會領受了福音福分兩個多世紀，神的福音--神的話與大使命，白白得來的福音是否也應該白白的施與.。開源福音博客希望聯系華人信徒自愿者以他們的專長、分享資源來協助教會完全神所交付教會的使使。請代禱，請聯系，請分享。

Chinese churches have been receiving the blessings of the gospel more than two centuries, the gospel of God - the Word of God and the Great Commission, Freely receive should be freely give. GOSP4EL Blog is to network Chinese Christians, especially volunteer laity to serve with their expertise, knowledge, skills and other resources to assist the church to carry out the Great Comission.

Please pray for these projects.
Please help us to network and connection.
Please use and share your thought, ideas, resources ....

Distinctive of GOSP4EL -- 2016 October Revised version(frm Jeremiah's news letter):

G – Glocal 全球化Globalization 和本地化 Localization 在新興起的南半球，亞洲的宣教力量如何與華人教會和西方合作，特別是在Diaspora 散居者的城市的跨語言和跨文化的事工。在後殖民的理念下，宣教士按聖經真理教導，服侍當地族群，建立本地化的教會，讓本色化的教會可以自處並與普世教會聖徒相通團契。近年繼續顧問工作，參與不同會議，學習使用社交網絡，作聯繫的工作。大中華地區跨越語言、文化的合作、思想在世界、亞洲城市少數族裔的事工並以不同的媒體和不同的策略，把他們母語聖經和福音介紹給他們。

華人宣教士在國際宣教團隊中，語言、處事方法有別於西方；下一代因西方教育和國際教學語言常被西化。海外華人教會、華人宣教士的傳承的過程，有甚麼文化、語言值得保留。開始搜集和研究有連接普世、有華人語言文化背景、聖經為基礎的教育系統-在家教育、補充教材。

O – Open Source, Open Data 教會、差會機構、神學院及其他伙伴跨學科的共同協作、開發、共用資源；並讓資訊更公開和透明，特別是應用高科技、學術成果於普世宣教的伙伴聯繫、媒體、策略、聖經翻譯中。TBTA用人工智能電腦軟件協助聖經翻譯工作。已在去年十一月公開源代碼。開源理念、創意思維對基督教傳統建制可能帶來衝擊，日後要走的可能是又漫長又艱難的路。

S – Sustainable 可持續獨立發展並倍增。宣教工作在創啟地區要考慮創造價值，並足以自我維持、成長、倍增，整全信仰緊貼生活與職場。誠信、有見證的基督企業家，專業人士一直對可持續的宣教運動有很大的影響，在職場事工、城市宣教的新方向，相信將會有更重要的角色。要聯繫並學習了解基督徒社會企業、營商宣教（BAM）、宣教營商(MAB)。此外傳承創造衍生價值，堅持使命的有機體（Organism），需要導師、培養新一代的顧問和宣教領袖，除了在本地生根成長，枝條更要往外伸展。

P – Partnership for Profitable Projects 結伴盈利項目
世界宣教氣候極速變化，恐怕傳統恐龍架構未能適應，後結構的理念以合作、功能、敏捷實踐、發展項目以最小的行政結構和網絡來達成策略性的宣教效果，信徒與教會更多直接參與。盈利Profitable 是指對社會、教會的貢獻和正面的改變。

4 – For 為到（教學相長）
兩方面的為到：第一是為到以福音信仰為基礎的信徒提供參與、貢獻、共享資源以完成大使命，成為別人蒙恩的器皿。第二是為到參與者因參與而生命得以操練、建立成為大使命的成果。

E – Evangelical 福音信仰為基礎
創新的底線不能低於聖經的福音信仰基礎，但我們卻要在宣教、科技、神學及其他領域的互動和應用方面有更多的研究、反省、綜合統效的應用。

L – Laity 信徒皆祭司、全民皆兵。
宣教的參與並非少數宣教士的專利，全球化、科技、交通的發展，讓信徒和教會能更直接參與宣教項目。平信徒的專業、技術正好填補了傳統宣教人力資源的不足，在改善宣教人力的質和量，提高多樣化的人力資源和造就參與者的生命成長方面都不容忽視。






2015 version 特點 Distinctive：
Glocal(Chinese diaspora - Global and Local)
全球本地化（特別是華人）-希望發展非英語、非歐洲語言為主的

Open Source, Open Data
免費開源資源、高透明度、大眾參與

Sustainable
可持續獨立發展

Projects with Technology and Transformation
以項目和技術為重心, 終身渴慕、學習聖經参與神話語的工作、利己利人

Evangelical Engagement
以聖經為標準,以福音為基礎

Laity Volunteer - Priesthood of All believers
發展平信徒自愿者資源-信徒皆祭司。