TANYAS TIMES

Prayer Points:
Pray for those affected by
the ongoing conflict in South
Sudan. Over 1.7 million peo-
ple are still displaced from
their homes, and have been
unable to plant any crops
this year.
Pray for lasting peace to
come so all the plans made
with the translation and liter-
acy teams can be carried out
in FY15.
Praise for all people who
have been impacted by the
language development pro-
jects over the past year
through reading Scripture
portions, seeing the Jesus
film, accessing information
about HIV/AIDS, and educa-
tion in their own languages.
Building Walls
As you approach the SIL-South Sudan compound in Juba, which is where I work and
live, the first thing you notice is the building of a new wall! For the past 35 years, our
compound has been surrounded by a bamboo fence. Unfortunately, recently, this has
not been enough to keep things out which should be kept out, nor things in which should
be kept in! So, like our neighbours, we have started building a concrete wall around our
compound. While building the fence, we are also in the middle of constructing a new
office block, which will also have a much larger workshop room so we can train even
more people in the coming years and provide space for more communities to work on
translation and other language development activities.
At the same time, my home church has started a sermon series about Ezra and Nehe-
miah, and the re-building of Jerusalem. Im able to listen to these sermons online, so
am following along with the journey of those in exile. Im also involved in a Bible study
with some friends here which is about the building of Gods dwelling place, the Taber-
nacle.
September always brings to a close our Fiscal Year, so the month is always full of finish-
ing up the years activities before the funding runs out on September 30! It also means
a time for reflecting on what has been done, and making plans for the coming Fiscal
Year. So being surrounded by all this building, and reading and listening about building,
I cant help but draw a few parallels between all this physical building thats going on
with concrete and blocks and the building thats going on in language communities.
Teachers are having their capacity built by learning how to teach more effectively, using
a language their students understand. South Sudans Ministry of Education is being
built up through the development of new curriculum and improved educational policies.
The Church is being built by the ongoing Bible translation and more and more people
reading the Word in their own language.
What a privilege it is to be a part of all this building! Of course, there are challenges to
any building - it takes a lot of hard work, which normally results in God building my own
character, teaching me more about grace and patience.
The Newsletter of Tanya Spronk, serving with Wycliffe Canada Fall 2014

The old fence
around our home
and office com-
pound has been
transformed into a
proper wall! Yes,
its common here
for people to build
high concrete
walls around their
property.
Contact Me
Wyclife Bible Translators
4316 10th St. NE
Calgary, AB
T2K 6K3

PO Box 628200
Orlando, FL
32862-8200

+211 918 613 387

Home Address:
151 Valley Ridge Green NW
Calgary, AB
T3B 5L6

Peace Building?
If youve been following the situation in South Sudan, you will be aware that the
conflict which broke out in December 2013 is still not settled. Over 1.7 million peo-
ple are still displaced from their homes, and people have not been able to plant
their crops this rainy season, meaning hunger is imminent. While peace talks are
ongoing, ceasefires have not held. Juba, where I live, has been quiet, so we carry
on our work here, but have not been able to visit some language communities
since last year, due to the current instability.
In the meantime, the government, churches and various NGOs are engaged in
peace-building activities and trauma healing programs. Ive had some very good
meetings and conversations with quite a variety of people about how important it is
to use someones own language to talk about these difficult issues.
Materials that SIL (Wycliffes sister organization that I work with here) has devel-
oped are so relevant in this current situation. For example, we have translated a
book called Healing the Wounds of Trauma into several South Sudanese lan-
guages. This book is aimed at helping church leaders and other Christians help
each other deal with some of the terrible things they have experienced.


www.wyclife.ca
www.sil.org
Nation Building
Over the past few months, I was also invited by the Ministry of Education to give input
into the new curriculum thats being developed for primary school. Peace Building was
one of the cross-cutting issues that we had to include in the literacy/language compo-
nent of the units we were writing, so we tried to include lots of stories and activities that
will not only improve childrens literacy skills, but will also help give them some skills in
dealing with conflict and to appreciate the diversity of their country.
Project Building
Our September planning meetings have come and gone, and we are still working on final-
izing the details of the budgets and activities for the coming year into the Results Based
Management format that we use, which tracks not only the individual activities, but also
the impact on the language communities. Its a lot of detail work! But there are some
exciting activities coming up in the area of literacy and education which Im looking for-
ward to. In the midst of the work that we do with the Bible translation and Literacy teams,
I also try to carve out some time to help other organizations with some training for mother
tongue teachers, or help in developing community development materials in various lan-
guages.
So the coming year is going to be a busy one, with some interesting things to do! There
are trips planned for teaching training in all corners of the country with the Dinka, Didinga,
Laarim and Baka language communities, a transition primer to develop in Tennet, and
all sorts of other books to develop in a handful of other languages. Of course, we are
praying that true and lasting peace will come to this country, so all these plans can be
carried out, resulting in transformed communities that are using their own languages for
the good of their people and to access the Word of God.
Once again, thank you for your continued support and prayers for the work here in South
Sudan. Peace, Tanya
Training another batch of Nuer teach-
ers in the UN Protection of Civilians
site in Juba.
I love all the opportuni-
ties I have to be in-
volved with literacy
work with other part-
ners here in South
Sudan. A Dinka litera-
cy class, led by volun-
teers that we visited
and supplied books for;
our display of sample
literacy books in vari-
ous languages at the
UNESCO International
Literacy Day celebra-
tion; opening of the
Consultative Workshop
on languages with the
Ministry of Education
at which I facilitated a
session on teacher
training.
Back at the office, spreadsheets full of indicators, outcomes, and impacts were flying around the offices and computers as we
had our Fiscal Year 2014 Review and 2015 Planning meetings with all the Bible translation and literacy teams that SIL - South
Sudan is involved with.

A few glimpses of home-life: Zane continues to work on growing his belly with lots of naps. I work on growing everyones bellies with my culinary adven-
tures. We had an outdoor viewing of the Football (soccer!) World Cup final. Football really started to grow on me during June and July!

For my summer
holiday, I got to
spend 2 weeks in
the UK with my
sister! Cathedrals,
Evensongs, mu-
seums and time
with Carla...What
a treat!