Naan Ko Rejouj (Words of Grace):
- Operates this web site
- Has a weekly radio program on the government radio station, V7AB, in the Marshall Islands
- Provides Bible Correspondence Courses in the Marshallese language
- Oversees the printing of Marshallse Bibles
- Produces tracts, booklets, and other literature
- Is involved in translating the final books of the Old Testament
- Provides occasional articles for the newspaper in Majuro
- Engages in other activities designed to help the spiritual lives of the Marshallese
Laura Baptist Church:
This church was started in 1989 and was incorporated in 1999.
Eric Fisher and David Utter currently co-lead this work. Our goal is to train a Marshallese man to take over and pastor this work. When the church is fully self-supporting and led by Marshallese, the missionaries plan to leave to start another work elsewhere.
The church currently meets at a large veranda built on to the Fishers' home. The church is saving money and plans to construct its own building.
Besides the normal Sunday morning and evening services, there are children's and adults' classes on Sunday mornings. There is also a Tuesday Bible study, bi-weekly youth meetings, and quarterly outreach meetings.
Bible Project Update:
Through the kindness and hard work of some friends in Colorado, the books of Genesis through Isaiah have been scanned into the computer. In mid May of 2002, the process of cleaning up the scanning errors was finished. The next step is to update the spelling of those books to the new standard in Marshallese. Then we will be editing (changing some of the old words which people do not know to modern ones and changing a few places where there were errors) and adding notes, cross references, and study helps. We need to check for consistency of names and places throughout the Bible. The books which we have translated (Jeremiah through Malachi) are still undergoing editing for accuracy and fluency.
To review the history of this Bible, the first missionaries, nearly 150 years ago, translated all the New Testament and the books of Genesis through Isaiah in the Old Testament. Because there is no standard written Marshallese grammar, and for many years there was no standard spelling, the language has changed a great deal. While the old translation is good, there are two primary problems: 1) It is not complete, and 2) there are many old words which people no longer understand.
By God's grace we have translated Jeremiah through Malachi from Hebrew to Marshallese and are planning on updating and printing the entire Bible. We have twice printed the Bible as it is with the existing portions. There is another translation in Marshallese. It is quite recent and is translated from the Good News For Modern Man version rather from the originals.