One of our supporting churches recently asked for a report from us, in the form of the following questions. I wanted to share part of it with you all, since you may have some of the same questions.
What is your primary task or role as a missionary?
I am an International Bible Translation Consultant and also a Regional Consultant Coordinator. This means that:
1) I check translation drafts of the Bible verse-by-verse in four languages that are spoken by Roma (Gypsies) in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia. These four languages are called Serbian Arli, Gurbet, Chergash, and Macedonian Arli, and do not yet have a Bible in their languages. For the first three of those languages, we have completed the entire New Testament and are now translating the Old Testament, currently in the book of Joshua. In the fourth language, we have finished Matthew and Mark, and are currently working on 1 Timothy.
2) I train others who are becoming Bible translation consultants and help determine which books of the Bible they will be checking
3) As needed, I teach classes to the Bible translators (such as sociolinguistics, New Testament exegesis, New Testament Greek, etc.)
Describe what a typical week of activity looks like for you. For instance, how many people do you meet with, meetings do you lead, hours are spent doing your primary tasks, etc?
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I meet with one of the above-mentioned teams over Slack to check their next passage of Scripture. This involves four meetings per week with a total of nine translators. Meetings lack from 1-3 hours, as needed.
When I am not meeting with the translators, I write reports each of those days on what we changed in the draft translations, and I spend hours looking over the next verses that I will walk them through the next week (aiming to do a quality assurance check/consultation on 60 verses per day).
I also have weekly administrative tasks, including responding to e-mail, reading Slack messages, attending training or planning meetings via Zoom or Slack, bookkeeping and financial reports, thank you correspondence with our supporters, etc. My workday schedule starts at 7:45 or 8 a.m. and lasts until 5:30 p.m. or so. Some weekends, we travel to speak at churches that support us. Also, sometimes I am away overseas for training seminars or ministry events.
Describe the results of your ministry over the past year, however you measure your accomplishments.
We praise God that we have finished the New Testament in three languages and have made good headway in starting the NT in a fourth language. We've also made good progress in the first three languages in the Old Testament. Additionally, we led a summer team for a week of VBS and teenager outreach in two Roma villages in Croatia this summer. I have traveled to Albania, Croatia, Kenya, and South Africa, and have upcoming trips to Thailand and Serbia.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
Todd and Pamala Price
