The work among the Latin American tribes is so complicated because the communities have lived in virtual isolation for so long. This has allowed the development of many more dialects. Just as it was a temptation to early missionaries just to ignore the native languages and preach in Spanish, so now it is a temptation to ignore the dialect differences, once the first translation has been completed within a language group.

The Highland Totonac had the first translation, the project on which Manuel Arenas cooperated with Herman Aschmann. Later, Felipe Ramos worked with Herman on a revision, and that translation has been the basis for church life in the largest part of the tribe.

But Herman knew the work was not done: he went on to translate into the Papantla dialect, and the Chicontla dialect, all completed before his death a year ago. People responding to the Totonac radio program often request these specific versions of the New Testament, because they speak more clearly and directly to their spiritual needs.

Now we are following the translation getting underway in a fourth dialect, the Jicotepec. The team there, Juan and Tiburcio, with the guidance of Wycliffe’s Gerry Andersen, can learn a lot from the previous translations, because they are all from related dialects. But they all feel strongly that their people need to have the Word of God in the words they use every day.

And they tell us there is a fifth dialect spoken somewhere in the Totonac Sierra, that should also receive its own translation of God’s message to them. Even with the enormous progress of the Gospel among the Totonacs we are seeing today, we still need much prayer before the work is done.

Thank you for praying!

Dale W. Kietzman