Troy Manning

The Haitian Creole OT workshop ended on Tuesday, and we were able to accomplish a good deal.  Thanks for praying.  In total, we finished Ruth, Song of Solomon, Genesis 1-5, and Psalms 1-2.  Here are a few issues we wrestled with: 

• “An evening went by, and a morning came.”  This sentence is repeated 6 times in Genesis 1, and this is directly from the rough draft of the Haitian Creole OT.  The Hebrew says: “There was an evening and there was a morning.” The Creole translation gives the impression that evening began the day, maybe even the darkness that preceded the appearance of light.  But this is not the case.  The day began with the appearance of light.  The evening came and then the morning came.  As soon as the morning came, the first day was complete.  The appearance of the morning also signaled a new day and was actually part of that new day.  I proposed: ’there was evening and morning—the first day’ or just ‘So the evening and the morning were the first day.’  Kidner suggests ‘evening came and morning came’ to avoid the impression that reckoning starts with the evening.  In the end, the translator decided that he would find a way to leave the sentence somewhat ambiguous while also avoiding giving the impression that the evening began each day.
• In Psalm 2:3, the Hebrew says: “Let us tear apart their fetters, and let us cast off their cords from us!”  In Creole it is impossible to say “their fetters,” because the same word “yo” is used to indicate plural and third-person possession.  The result would be “chèn yo yo.”  So we had to leave only “yo” and leave it at that.

I’m thankful for what I was able to get done during the three days after the workshop.  I basically had to catch up from being away from the office for 6 months.  I was finally able to bring all of my financial records up to date.  But now I am getting ready to leave Grand Rapids again.  I won’t return until mid July.  But this trip will be different than the last, since I’ll see my sister and her hubby in Chicago, as well as my uncle and his new wife.  Then, I’ll be staying with my mom for the last half of the trip.  I’ll arrive in Greenville on May 18 and will be there until July 6. 

Tomorrow I head to Geneva, IL, for a missions conference at Calvary Baptist Church.  I’ll be speaking to the teens in SS and to the children in the AM service.  I present my ministry on Monday evening.  Please pray for effective ministry.  Pray also as I have much work still to do for the Children’s Church slot.