Guatemala
John and Diana Lubeck were called by God 37 years ago to serve as Bible translators and missionaries to the ChortÌ people of Guatemala. After moving to a ChortÌ village to learn the language and culture, the Lubecks began creating an alphabet and analyzing the grammar, and then started work on translating the New Testament into the ChortÌ language. After 24 years of labor, the completed New Testament was dedicated in 1997.
The ChortÌ are descendants of the ancient Mayan people who existed before the time of Christ and live in villages that are scattered all over the rugged mountains of eastern Guatemala. The language they speak is also called ChortÌ, and although Spanish is the dominant language in Guatemala there are still about 30,000 people who speak ChortÌ.
One of the reasons why these people have guarded their language is because of strong cultural values which say “No one can tell me what to do” and “All change is bad.” But Jesus said in Luke 11:28, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Jesus came to bring change to all of mankind including the ChortÌ. In Matthew 18:2-3 it says, “He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'”
Although the translation of the New Testament has been completed, John and Diana have stayed with the ChortÌ people to translate the Old Testament. With the help of Wilian and Olga RamÌrez, two brilliant ChortÌ mother tongue translators, they have now reported that the first draft of the Old Testament has been completed! But by no means is this to say that the ChortÌ Bible is ready to be printed. There are still many revisions and checks to be done.
There are two ChortÌ members of the translation team in addition to Wilian and Olga, a support team comprised of Timoteo and Trine. They are all dedicated to getting God’s Word out to the ChortÌ people – their people. They have demonstrated over and over again that they are every bit as called to this task as are John and Diana.
