Option #1: Just use the word "God". Problems: it has no meaning for them,
and just makes it seem like He is an outsider's god. Also, when coupled
with their title for an unmarried male figure (similar to English's "Mr.",
its pronunciation is eerily close to the ancient snake they believe first
originated their staple food, taro).
Option #2: Use one of the names they have for powerful spirits in their
culture. Problems: none of these figures have attributes remotely similar
to the Creator of the universe, and in fact have many negative
characteristics we wouldn't want them to associate with God.
Option #3: Would you believe that there is a verb in Akolet that means "to
make something out of nothing/to create"? It's true! It's an archaic word,
simply because no human makes anything out of nothing, so when would you
even use a word like that? But we heard it a few times, and then discussed
with some people that if we nominalize it, then put the 1st person plural
inclusive pronoun on it, what we get is "Ker Etolingka" - or "Our
(inclusive) Creator". We think that's pretty cool! We've been using this
title now for several months and it has really caught on here.
So along with praising Him for giving us a good way to refer to Him in the
Akolet language, would you praise Ker Etolingka "Our Creator" with us for
the following things also?
-For Sapu (SAH-poo) and Kola (as in coca-COLA), 2 new men from the main
village, who've just begun helping in Bible translation and Bible lesson
writing in addition to our other 5 main helpers. We have such great helpers
who are faithful in coming, excited to help however they can, and God is
visibly at work in their lives in the process!
-For a very encouraging visit with the Davis family from our home church in
Iowa! We're also thankful for ALL the work they got done, but especially on
printing and laminating literacy materials.
-For our new co-workers the Warners planning to move here in late March.
(We hope to have some photos of them on our website in a month or so.)
-For preparations for the literacy class going well so far. We're now
planning on beginning class in early April rather than June.
-For helping us to be almost done with the Genesis portions we need for the
Bible teaching, and just recently starting into Exodus translation as well.
-For 8 awesome years of marriage as of February 9! God has truly blessed us
in our relationship.
Thanks for praying for us, and we know you'll rejoice with us in all that
Ker Etolingka is doing here.
His instruments for His glory among the Akolet people,
Adam & Julie Martin
