I'm not sure if I told you that Joseph's mama has heart disease and the doctor has prescribed some meds for her to begin taking. She's asked that we pray for her. She is 49 I think.
I'm not sure the extent to which I commented on all the difficulties at church last Lord's Day, but I've been praying for all the sicknesses and also for Sam & Rebecca's car. I know that must be discouraging for them. ...
Here is a sort of commentary on what I see the men doing in our Psalter committees: They begin each Psalm section by one person reading from the Judson Bible while the others follow along in the metrical translation. If there are any obvious divergences, they immediately mark those during the first reading. Then they correct the metrical translation based upon the Judson Bible. Also, one of the groups (but not both) have access to the English Authorized Version and the Hebrew Bible.
Next they teach themselves the Psalm tune from the Comprehensive Psalter (actually they use the sol-fa notation we gave them last trip). They do this by singing "do-re-mi" then attempt stanza by stanza to sing the words of the Psalter to the tune they've just learned. This uncovers problems that exist with singing with a tonal language. Even though there may be perfect sense when reading the metrical version as though it were a "poem," when singing it new problems often arise. If a written word should be spoken with an upward-going tone, for example, and the musical tone is downward-going the result could be anything from nonsense to an incorrect rendering of the meaning or idea.
At this point the *real* work of the committee begins. Their task is to phrase the Burmese in such a way that the musical tunes and verbal tones coincide. They occasionally make changes to the tune, but that is generally only when the tune is so complex (moves so much in the melody) that it is simply too hard to make sense of the Burmese language using the tune.
All but two of the men doing the actual work are Karen (Kayin). B. Nwee and Tun Hlaing are both Khumi Chin from near the Rakhine State. Be Nwee seems to keep his mouth shut most of the time. Sicne neither of them, nor Moe Lwin, is a professional musician, they are asking only for lunch money and no wages.
Each group appears to be able to finish something under 15 selections per day. So we may not be able to finish the project by this Friday. In that case, some of them will work on Saturday and some on Monday or Tuesday. There is still a chance we will finish the project "on time and within budget."
Guess who just walked in!! Shweki Hoipang. Now the gang is all here, except for Pasiang [Siang Hope]. Shwekey took Greek from me back on the first trip that I met Siang Hope. He has been in UK for the past two years, studying first with New Tribes Mission and then in Wales. He still has one more year to go for his M.A. degree, then perhaps he will return and be able to work with Pasiang. He is in the same denomination with Allan Richardson and is now going to Kalemyo for their denominational meeting and then he will return to UK after that. I am sending the Heidelberg Catechism book along with him to Allan for translation. What a joy to meet him!! Hopefully he will be back from Kalemyo on 28 February and if he is, then I will be able to see him again. I think it would be marvelous for him and Siang Hope to be able to work together. Shwekey's English is much improved and he wants to show me pictures of him with Ian Paisley. :)
God's blessings,
Richard Bacon GOLDEN GUEST INN Yangon, Myanmar
Dear Family and Friends, The email has been working kind of slow this week, so this is the first email I have received since Monday. It looks like he sent it Tuesday morning his time/Monday evening Dallas time. I just received it Wednesday evening at around 5:00.
Email from Dr. Bacon Tuesday am 2/22/06
Yesterday while I was in the back house with the musicians, Joseph Peka called and talked with Nay Yee. He was requesting prayer for his mother. She was in some of th pictures I showed at the BI before I left for this trip to MM. Remember the pictures from the hospital...she was the older woman in the pictures along with Joseph, Marte, and baby Simeona.
Here are some notes I jotted in my journal yesterday in no particular order:
Jeff Easley, his coworker Dave, and I all went to the Myanmar Golf Club after "work" (class) today to see if they had anything by way of "souvenir" that we could bring back. I got two golf shirts and Jeff bought nine (9) golf towels. I'm not sure what we'll do with them. Jeff said some of his contributors would love to have a golf towel from a foreign golf club. I told him my Presbyterian contributors would be ashamed I was even at a ritzy place like that. :)
The men we hired to help with the Burmese Psalter are first rate and they've taken to it immediately. They are all members of a Christian musicians guild called CMF. Three of them are also members of something called "The Mercy Band." They apparently go from church to church and perform in a worship context. I say "apparently" because I had no translator today and most everything had to be done by hand signals and other gestures. This trip has been notable for not having a translator by my side at all times. Ruata tried (and did a decent job) on my trip going to Tahan and between Alan and Lai Thuama, I was able to get my ideas across fairly well. On the way back I had nobody to translate. I surely miss Siang Hope!
One of the revisers on the translation committee has been a model of humility before the Word of God. He speaks a few words of English and I speak even less Burmese, but between our broken phrases in one another's language we think we have communicated a little. When I was trying to explain the payment plan for a day's work, he kept telling me that the pay is very low. My comment was that the pay may be very low by US standards, it is actually very good here in MM. Finally he was able to communicate that the pay is a very low motive for his participation in the project and it doesn't really matter how or how much we pay him. The important thing to him, he said, is that the Holy Spirit may use his work to glorify God and edify his people here.
That is the same thing that Doolang (Tun Hlaing) the taxi driver tells me. He says he does not have enough education to attend Reformed Bible Institute (RBI) so he drives a taxi cab to help support the school so that others may attend and then spread the gospel in this country. Last time I was here -- August 2005 -- I bought him a "new used" set of tires for his taxi. He could hardly wait to show off his "new tires" to me. He has been "driving" our translation/revisers all over Yangon in order to help: doing what he can. I will try to remember other stories to tell about my taxi driver when I come back. Miss Hannah will remember him as the man who drove us to church on Sundays to the Mt. Zion [Presbyterian Church in Yangon].
Of course, everybody likes cake. We always have cake at our graduation when I teach courses here in Myanmar. If my cough continues, I'll ask Nay Yee about something to suppress it. Knowing how things are here in Myanmar, they probably sell codeine cough syrup over the counter. I was trying to explain "Presidents' Day" to U Khin and why Matthew [our son who works at a bank] gets the day off. Finally I told him it was like "Thiningyuk."[a holiday in Myanmar where candles are lit and released into the night sky!] He said, "oh, flying candles!"
One last note -- I've been very good about taking my thyroid tablets and vitamin C tablets. I can't say that I've been so good about taking all the rest of the pills (vitamins and whatnot). But except for the slight cough I feel very good. Please do pray for Joseph Peka's mother. It sounded very serious -- she has a history of high blood pressure and heart disease.
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