by Dave and Ginny Long
13 July 2011

The Lord's Prayer in !Xoon (length 39 seconds) (Streaming)

Recently some young women from our church here in Ukhwi, Botswana, spent a few hours with us trying to translate the Lord's Prayer. These familiar words in English are not as easy to translate as one might think.

Hallowed or revered: I can come up with the word respect fairly easily, but the word in Greek means more than just respect, and an equivalent is hard to find.

Kingdom: The !Xoon have in the past been hunter-gatherers with no fixed property and no government; therefore this may draw a blank. Do we borrow a word? From what language? "Puso" or "Goromente" from Setswana would be easy and understandable here in Botswana, but not for the !Xoon speakers in Namibia.

Temptation, Evil, Glory: We're on a road to great discoveries, and great conundrums.

Our biggest hurdle is that the !Xoon have no words denoting one person's authority over another. "Authority, reign, rule, judge—anything having to do with courts and jurisprudence—is absent. I guess they expect life to be characterised by incongruities as well, for they have no word for "but" that we have yet come across.

I recently asked a Dutch missionary linguist how his team translated certain words. (His team is close to printing the New Testament in Naro, a San language.) His response was both reassuring and troubling—reassuring because the same issues are problematic for his team, and troubling because some of the challenges don't have fully satisfying answers. I wonder how difficult God found it to choose the words which He would use.

Technology Finds the !Xoon

	Cell phones charging on solar power

A cellular network tower was turned on in Ukhwi in October 2010, and the associated technology has been quickly embraced. The hottest cell phone in the Settlement doubles as an MP3 player. People often come to us to help them manage their files. If we make an MP3 file of the Lord's Prayer available in !Xoon, people will be happy to listen to it on their phones along with their music.

Electricity is hard to come by in Ukhwi, but since the initiation of cell service the number of cell phones has exploded. We were getting so tired of answering the door and managing the phones people brought to charge that I made a little charging station where people could help themselves to our solar power. It has become a popular service!

Who are the !Xoon?

!Xoon are a San people and their language is a western San tongue, among several of that language family. There are about 4000 speakers, and the town of Ukhwi is about in the geographical center of their distribution, which extends into Namibia. The language is dying, so a written translation of the entire Bible will not be done. However, our goal is to translate portions for distribution in audio form, translate the JESUS Film, and of course reach them with the spoken word!

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Update 30 January 2012: PRAISE GOD with us that a family from the UK will arrive in March 2012 to begin orientation to work with Dave and Ginny Long among the !Xoon. We are very thankful for their faith and courage to do this work in the desert. Please pray for this family: www.cismas.co.uk.