We’ve become a family. My husband and I don’t have children of our own, so they became our children—our brothers, our sisters, our uncles. Some of them became my grandpa and grandma.
Yo Artz and her husband, Bob, spent 13 years helping the Tang,* a language community in a sensitive region of southeast Asia, translate the New Testament into their own language. Living in a Tang village full-time would have attracted too much attention from the authorities, so Yo made the trip from her home in a neighbouring country whenever it was safe. Those visits cemented the love she and members of the Tang community felt for each other.
It’s amazing—every time I live in the village, how much love they give me, and how much I love them.
Learning from the community
Even though Yo was officially the linguistics and exegetical expert in the project, she often found herself learning profound lessons about faith from the Tang community.
“Seeing them grow, seeing them become more brave in their faith and seeing them choose God in the midst of difficulties taught me a lot, and blessed my heart a lot. I think their faith is stronger than mine. God’s reason for putting me there was to teach me faith.“
Yo can trace significant pieces of her spiritual growth to the time she spent with the Tang community. The close relationships she developed made it especially difficult when she and Bob considered what they should do when work on the translated New Testament was complete.
“Maybe it’s my weakness and strength at the same time: when I have invested my life with a group of people, I feel like I want to be with them until I die. But for them to grow, we need to let them fly with their own wings and stand on their own feet.
“We need to become father and then brother, and then friend. And then outsider. We need to finally leave and let them grow by themselves.“
Creating distance…and growth
Yo and Bob knew they needed to create distance to allow the Tang to grow. Instead of continuing with the Old Testament translation after the New Testament was completed, they decided to step away and allow the now fully-trained Tang team to continue with the next phase of translation. It wasn’t what they wanted, personally. But it was the best way for them to show love to the community who had become their family.
Yo continues to work with other translation projects in the region in her role as a translation consultant with Wycliffe Thai Foundation. While it has been painful to leave the Tang, she has warm memories of their time together, and she’s deeply proud to see the progress they are making.
“It’s so wonderful to see them grow and manage the Old Testament project on their own. They are flying on eagle wings.“
*pseudonym