Scripture to break missionary ties
JUAREZ, Formosa, Argentina — Dr Michael Browne, an Anglican missionary from England, wants to break one of the ties between Argentina’s Toba people and missionaries like himself.
He hopes that the Toba New Testament he has been working on for several years will allow the indigenous Indians to be able to read and understand the Scriptures in their own language. That, he says, will allow them to learn from God’s Word how to live, and not simply imitate the lives of missionaries. “I believe the Toba New Testament will have quite a profound effect,” explains the translation project co-ordinator. “One of the things that I have struggled against is that the people who followed the first missionary did things just because of what he did. I try not to just cultivate that. Changed“Alfred Leake, the first missionary to the Toba, changed a war-like tribe into a largely Christian one. But my hope is that they will be able to go directly to the Scriptures to see how to live.” Dr Browne himself has experienced the profound impact of God’s Word on his life. He was working on his doctorate in microbiology at the University of Liverpool when he came to faith in Christ. “What helped me to become a Christian was reading little booklets on John’s Gospel,” he remembers. “So it is my prayer that the Tobas, through reading the Scriptures, will come to know Jesus in that same way.” The need for solid Scriptural understanding is great among the Tobas, he says, because there is fierce spiritual warfare going on. “In the spiritual realm, witchcraft is still strong,” Dr Browne declares. “Many Tobas live in fear. Some Christians still go to the shamans. And they do have power. That’s why I hope the New Testament in their own language will help them win that battle.” He gives one example of the testimony of an elderly Wichí pastor who asked the daughter of a local witch doctor to come to church. “That witch doctor came to the church and told a church member, ‘I am dying but I give you the power’. The man left the church for a while, but later came to the pastor’s house. He said, ‘I have so much power that I can disappear from in front of you right here.’ The pastor said as he watched, the man literally sank into the ground before his eyes.” Dr Browne says that in such spiritual battles some Toba Christians misunderstand the place of the Bible. “I’ve seen some people take the Bible, place it over a place that is injured, and pray using the Bible as some kind of magic object,” he explains. “My hope is that through reading the Scriptures, the people will get to know the Jesus who has already defeated the spirits.” And while Dr Browne did earn his PhD in microbiology, it seems that from the first, God had other plans for him. When he became active in a church in Liverpool, there were a lot of South Americans there. Then, when his parents moved house, their new vicar had been a missionary in Argentina and the vicar’s wife was the daughter of the first missionary to the Tobas. A couple of years after he became a Christian, Dr Browne was visiting another church where some missionaries from Peru were speaking and he picked up some literature from a mission society. “ I felt God asking, ‘What are you going to do for me?’ “I didn’t know – I was a microbiologist. I asked my vicar, and he suggested that I write to three missions. Only South American Mission responded with anything positive. Exciting“I went to the selection weekend. Part of it was a language aptitude test. A lady from Wycliffe gave it, and she felt God might be calling me to Bible translation work. I went to Wycliffe for more tests. “It went really well and it all
seemed so exciting. But I remember one part of a metaphor test. I thought,
‘I don’t know what I’m doing’. I prayed, ‘Lord,
if you’re calling me, you’re going to help me.’
“God helped me that day with something I couldn’t do on my own.” From that point, Dr Browne knew God wanted him in translation work. Now he is looking forward to the launch of the Toba New Testament. And he already is working to meet other literature needs. “I am working with the Tobas on literature and theological education,” he explains. “Although there is bilingual education in the schools, they don’t have any books in Toba. So there is a real need for biblical material to read. “For older people who haven’t had school education, we need adult literacy materials. Tobas are also asking for Spanish-Toba dictionaries, and we need new liturgies in Toba.” Even within the Toba Christian community, there are varying needs for Christian materials. “Young people want a more ‘free and easy’ style of worship,” Dr Browne notes. “Older people want a songbook and a printed liturgy.” Another challenge is the fact that many of the young people speak Spanish as well as Toba. In fact, Hilario Tenaiquin, a Toba pastor’s son who is working on the Letters of Paul for the new translation, says he had to go back and review his own language in order to make sure he was translating correctly. “Most of the people here speak Toba,” he explains, “but the young people are learning both Toba and Spanish in school, and most of them speak both. But we really do need a Toba Bible, because many people in the countryside only speak Spanish with difficulty. “At first I liked the Bible better in Spanish,” the young translator admits, “but the more I read in Toba, the more I liked it. “I think the complete Bible will be great for the community. The people are just waiting for the translation. They know it’s under way and they cannot wait to receive it.” And when they get it, Mr Browne smiles, perhaps they will be able to make life decisions for themselves, and not just rely on following the missionaries.(WR 380/11 - 10.03) 
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