I am surrounded by light when I get off the small plane Cesna 1979 and step on the runway after a five hour flight. This unknown light gives me a deeper understanding on how God watches the Earth. The Nadëb group is one of the nations or ethnos God desires to redeem so they may be part of His people –as mentioned in Matthew 28, Acts 2 and Revelation 7--–, much more than just 350 people… Today, a young and gentle chief called Eduardo welcomes us. In the 60’s, a white man decided to release the Nadëb people from foreign oppression and took them to the land that now belongs to them. In the 70’s, a foreign couple took the first steps in the long road the Nadëb have walked with SIL Brazil in order to translate God’s Word. Another team kept walking in this road, until Rodolfo and Beatrice Senn –an Argentinian man and a Swiss woman– took over the missionary work that has reached a port of victory and celebration.

I remember well my solitary long walks by the runway” –says Rodolfo–. “How am I going to do it, I wondered? I found it difficult, very difficult to learn the language. My children were young and there were many things to do. But we knew if God had been leading us till here, He was going to be faithful to complete His good work”. And this (Nadëb) is certainly a complex language. Phonetics is so wide that its six vowels multiply into glottalized, nasalized and pharyngealized sounds, not to mention the extended variants. To all this must be added the very particular syntax and semantics. Nadëb people call God P’op hagää Doo which literally means ‘The one who dwells on high’. Beatrice –who took over the development of a local school in the Nadëb language–, also tells us: “Older people made a great effort, although they did not have skill enough to learn to read fluently”. Obviously, the Nadëb language did not have a written system. Therefore, the Senns witnessed the hard –but possible process– to develop a phonetic system, a literacy method, a literacy campaign and a bilingual education program in this small village made up of some 130 people. “The legendary chief Joaquín made a significant contribution to translation process” –says Rodol-fo–. “He helped me to learn the language. He gave me his trust and friendship”. Joaquín formed his team of leaders, from which Eduardo arose as the new chief of Rozado, a beautiful village that borders the Uneixú River, a small branch of the Black River, which is a tributary of the Amazon River. Rozado was the scene of the transformation –throughout almost five decades– of Nadëb people.

Mrs. Francisca –a leader of the community– lived the worst moment of her life when her daugh-ter Socorro (just 12 years old) was diagnosed as having uterus cancer. Francisca and Socorro were very desperate and discouraged while they waited for the day of the risky surgery. “One night, I stayed alone in the hospital because my mom had gone to eat out” –says Socorro–. “Then, a voice whispered in my ear and said: ‘Don’t worry. Everything is in my hands’”. She remembered that when she opened her eyes…no one was in her hospital room. “I went into the corridor and I saw no one, not even a nurse”. For this reason, she knew the Lord Jesus was giving her faith to make it through. “Then, a man who gave Bibles in the hospital gave me one and told me: ‘Read it. God wants to help you’. And I started reading the portion that says: If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest” –remembers Socorro, who is now married and has four children–. “Doctors said I would never be able to have children”, she says with a smile on her face.The dramatic episode that resulted in a healing miracle unleashed the faith of the Nadëb people. “They prayed with us, even though they did not know Jesus yet. But when we get off from the light aircraft with the young Socorro healed, the community accepted Jesus, headed by chief Joaquín. I remember Socorro embraced her brother… we wept tears of joy” –says Rodolfo, who can’t help but be moved–. “From then on, we witnessed the forming of the native church with its own leadership and a deep-rooted teaching of God’s Word”. Today, this same young woman called Socorro translates the Old Testament in her own language. As in many other parts of the world, the church and the school grew hand-in-hand. Rodolfo and their Nadëb assistants translated long hours every day. Mr. Joaquín and the team of leaders led church in worship, baptism, teaching and doctrine. Meanwhile, Beatrice formed a Nadëb team of teachers and designed the classes and the materials by levels, shifts and ages. Gabriela –a visitor from Argentina– remembers the day when she got involved in a womens’ meeting at the Nadëb church. “Beatrice handed out a card for each woman. When they started reading, I realized those were new Bible versicles that Rodolfo and Mr. Joaquín had just translat-ed to Nadëb language. They looked like water drops falling into thirsty mouths”. It was 2006, and the process of the New Testament translation was about 54% along. Likewise, the Nadëb people had published the story of Creation and the book of Jonah. “Then, we realized the deep transformation the community was having, as a result of a Gospel that took root deeper and deeper with the roots of the Good Seed.

Nadëb group from the Brazilian Amazon finally receives the New

Testament in their mother tongue. They show a genuine

transformation at individual and community levels.

Struggling uphill to make ends meet

All things work together for good to them that love God

Article and Photos by Leo Vartanian.

Bible translation implies contextualization. The Lamb of God presented by John the Baptist required a footnote where translators explained that the only way Israelites could be redeemed for their sins was by shedding the blood of a lamb (ovelinha). This and many other examples confirm that the message of the Gospel needs to be accurate, practical and relevant for each age and each culture of the world. “That is why John presents Jesus as the ovelinha God gave to forgive our sins”, explains Rodolfo.Their children Diego, Rafael and Angélica Senn grew up playing with Nadëb children. “We became very close friends and we spent the afternoons fishing, swimming, learning and also, playing soccer” –remember Diego and Rafi–. “When we planned the visit of our children to Rozado village for the New Testament dedication, Angélica told me: ‘It would be great to come back home, mom!’”, says Beatrice when talking about the experience to raise their children in the jungle. “Nothing compares to see a community transformed by God’s Word. For us, it was not about getting a better car, a bigger house or the comfort of a city. How can you compare those things with the time a leader shot out of his chair and could read aloud a word in the Nadëb language? ‘It is true! I can read, too’, he said”. Rodolfo’s testimony shows the comprehensive transformation this community –hidden in the northern zone of the Brazil-ian state of Amazonas, a few 248 miles from the borderline between Venezuela and Colombia– has experienced. Nadëb children now read fluently in their own language and the school continues to improve year by year.Before, Nadëb people defended to death from their enemies. They had forgotten their songs and dances. They were deceitful and underestimated. Their low esteem made them believe God had given all the skills to foreigners and He had set them aside when He created the world. “Today, I can say this community is a model. Nadëb bilingual school is the one each group in Brazil would like to have. People are having a good financial management. They are making progress at individual, family and community levels. They guide a biblical and healthy church and they dream about taking the message to others around”, eloquently says Gabriel, a Brazilian missionary who traveled with his family to celebrate the New Testament Dedication among the Nadëb people from Rozado. “I am very familiar with other Brazilian native groups and I can say the marked difference in the Nadëb village is the result of the healthy, practical and relevant arrival of the Gospel to the people”, concludes Gabriel.

The Senn family prepared significantly for the great celebration. Sixteen years of continuing work comes to an end while they place the New Testaments in some peculiar baskets the Nadëb people have made of palm leaves and tied with natural strings. “In these baskets, we will give the New Testaments to the main chief Mr. Joaquín and he will deliver them to the people. We came here and they welcomed us. We played our part and so did they. We travelled by light aircraft and they built the runway. We brought the Book and they now receive it and deliver it”, explains Rodolfo, who shows a great cultural sensitivity and empathy. It is stunning and beautiful to listen to Rodolfo, Beatrice and their children talking Nadëb fluently. They speak naturally and joke with people. They embrace each other and pray togeth-er, there is barely a trace of cultural differences. The Senns were adopted as part of the Nadëb people.The celebration begins. Men wear headbands with feathers. Women are painted with tradition-al painting of bright colors. They dance together in circles around the baskets that contain the Scriptures. They dance for love and they dance for Jesus, the Incarnate Word. They begin to open the baskets and they lift the New Testament in the presence of everyone. These are ancestral words, the truth in a new language. Shouts of joy and cane blows accompany the party beat of the Nadëb traditional dance. But in the background –as in another dimension– a sound of broken chains is listened. Chains that had been tying up a marginalized people for decades, are broken today by the sword of the Spirit. The sword is now in their hands. The Nadëb people are free and they chose the better path. “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, said the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them” (Hebrews 10.16)

The same message in different wrapping

It is time to celebrate Jesus!

Nadëb village in Rozado, the scene of a historic transformation.

Rodolfo Senn has been translating the New Testament along with the Nadëb people, which is

going to be delivered the next day in these traditional baskets made of palm leaves.

The Young chief Eduardo now holds the sword in his hand while he leads the Nadëb church.

Socorro and her husband Paulo with their youngest child. She was a key player at the

beginning of this story and now she translates the Old Testament in order to complete the Bible in

the Nadëb language.

The ancestral message of God’s Word is now surrounded by the sounds and shapes of Nadëb

language.

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