BIBLE TRANSLATION IN CROSS-CULTURAL MISSION: Is God an American? An Anthropological Perspective on the Missionary Work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, ed. by Søren Hvalkof and Peter Aaby

1985 ◽  
Vol 74 (295) ◽  
pp. 377-398
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Summer Institute ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Summer Institute Of Linguistics

A New Departure

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
Kathryn T. Long
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Television Program ◽  
Summer Institute ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Summer Institute Of Linguistics

This chapter introduces two women and two closely affiliated organizations that would play a significant role in missionary contact with the Waorani. The women were a missionary, Rachel Saint (sister of slain pilot Nate Saint), and Dayomæ, a young Wao woman who was Rachel Saint’s language helper. The two organizations were the Wycliffe Bible Translators, a group raising funds and recruiting personnel to translate the Bible into the languages of tribal peoples, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics, which supervised the work of linguists and Bible translators recruited by WBT abroad. Both groups were founded by W. Cameron Townsend, a controversial religious entrepreneur committed to Bible translation as key to successful missionary work. In 1957 Rachel Saint and Dayumæ were introduced to American audiences through an appearance on the television program This Is Your Life. A second version of the “auca epic” began to emerge.

The (Apparently) Idyllic Years

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-148
Author(s):  
Kathryn T. Long
Keyword(s):  
Gospel Of Mark ◽  
Summer Institute ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Summer Institute Of Linguistics ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Us ◽  
Amazonian Ecuador ◽  
Prayer Meetings ◽  
Christian Message

This chapter traces the years 1962 to 1968, when Rachel Saint, representing the Summer Institute of Linguistics, was the only full-time missionary among the Waorani and when the Guequitaidi (Guequita’s bunch), the name given Dayomæ’s kinship group, responded to the Christian message with miraculous openness. Evangelicals in the US were told that the Guequitaidi held prayer meetings and had received copies of the Gospel of Mark, translated by Saint and Dayomæ (though no one could read) and that some had volunteered to go as missionaries to the Piyæmoidi (downriver Waorani), who were their sworn enemies. In 1966 Saint took two Wao men to the Congress on World Evangelism in Berlin, where they captured the imaginations of delegates and the press. In 1968 Wao missionaries found their Piyæmoidi enemies. That contact and the discovery of oil in Amazonian Ecuador would forever change missionary work among the Waorani.

Breaking a Pattern of Dependence

2019 ◽  
pp. 202-213
Author(s):  
Kathryn T. Long
Keyword(s):  
Summer Institute ◽  
God's Will ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
Summer Institute Of Linguistics ◽  
Power Base ◽  
Slow Progress

This chapter analyzes the eight-year struggle of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Ecuador to remove Rachel Saint, one of their most famous missionaries, from the Waorani and to curb the culture of dependence Saint and Dayomæ had fostered. For more than a decade, Saint controlled outside access to the Waorani, while Dayomæ used her relationship with Saint to establish a power base in Tewæno. Jim Yost suggested that these dynamics exploited other Waorani, a conclusion backed by his SIL colleagues. Other concerns included the oppressive style of Christianity practiced in Tewæno and the slow progress of Bible translation. Saint fought back, confident that her actions reflected God’s will and what she erroneously believed was the matriarchal character of Wao culture. All attempts at compromise failed, and in April 1982 Saint retired, living the rest of her life near Dayomæ in the newly established village of Toñæmpade.

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