Khesed News #82  August 2010

CSIS – Indigenous Scriptures   - page 1
New Fires among Youth             - page  2
Film Project: A Pocket of Fire   - page  2
Khesed Directors Program         - page  2
Where is Your Home?                - page 3
Australia - Whose Land?            - page  4
The Canberra Declaration          - page 5
World Indigenous Gathering      - page 6

CSIS: Coordinating Support for
Indigenous Scriptures

When the Bible translations workers at
Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, NT, completed their
New Testament: ‘God-Wangarrwu Walngamirr
Dharuk’ in 2008, a new organisation was set
up to help other language groups benefit
from their work, and to support Indigenous
Scripture initiatives in four regions around
Northern and Central Australia. Coordinating
Support for Indigenous Scriptures is a project
of the Uniting Aboriginal & Islander Christian
Congress and the Northern Synod of the
Uniting Church in Australia. The Project is
working in Arnhem Land, West Kimberley
and Central Australia.

Khesed Ministries invites you to join
us in supporting them in prayer, finance,
telling others about them or in practical
help. For further details contact CSIS:
PO Box 38221 Winnellie NT 0821
Phone 08 8982 3400
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web www.csis.org.au

West Arnhem Workshop
- by Lindsay Parkhill, Issue #3 July 2010 of
COORDN8, CSIS Magazine

If you fly over Western Arnhem Land,
it appears to be vast areas of wilderness with
little sign of human habitat. But looks are
deceptive. There are many people in different
language groups calling this area home, and
exciting things have been happening in the
church there.

Last year, at Marrkolidjban Homeland,
about 80km south west of Maningrida, 22
ne Christians were baptised. I caught up with
the church elders, Jimmy Jalurali and Kenan
Namurndja, and found them expressing a
deeply felt need for God’s Word in their own
language, Kuninjku. Kuninjku is a strong
language spoken in a number of actively
Christian communities, where the cross of Jesus
has been raised and praise to God in Kuninjku
song is heard daily. People are hungry for God’s
Word in their language. However, the facility
for Bible study is limited as it has to be done
in a language that is not their heart language.
Doing Bible study in English does not reach
into the heart. There is some translation done
in Kunwinjku, a neighbouring language, but
this also has proved inadequate. So these elders
asked if the Scriptures could be translated into
their own language.

CSIS formed for the support of people
groups just like this. So AuSIL, an organisation
in partnership with CSIS, provided the
computer as well as the software ‘Our Word’.
At the end of May, three Kuninjku people
headed to Janiru to be trained in using the
software, and the translation began. It was
exciting to watch the very first words of
Scripture being translated into Kuninjku.
Work began with the translation of Mark
chapter 5, the story of the Gerasene Demoniac.
It is still very early days for this project and
these folk need your prayers.

Please pray that this work will continue,
and that more language workers will become
involved in the daily routine of translation
work.

Wangurri Response
In CSIS Magazine, COORDN8, Issue #3 July
2010, Yurranydjil told Mary Skidmore the story of
the time when she was checking chapters of Scripture
translation for comprehension and naturalness.

In the group was one old man and one
old lady working with us. They were listening
really hard. Suddenly that old man said:
“Yakay! Is that what the story means? It’s the
same story I have been growing up with, but
now I hear it and understand it in my own
language.”

He said that when he heard those Scriptures
read, it made him feel really warm! A lot of
other people were sitting and listening really
hard too. When we had to leave the next
morning that old man asked us to come with
the last 4 chapters so that they could finish
checking them for us. We did go back and
finish those chapters.

I then took these new Scriptures to
Buymarr during a funeral. The people were
just amazed to hear God’s Word in Wangurri.
After that I went by boat to Milingimbi and
found the same encouraging response with
Wangurri speakers there.