By John Halford
By John Halford
VERSAILLES, Indiana—Most WCG members speak English. That is because most of our media outreach over the years has been in that language. But we have had a vigorous publishing program in several other languages, including French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian and Russian. We even had one or two pieces of literature in Japanese.
Foreign language literature
Translation and publishing of foreign language literature were coordinated through headquarters and the satellite offices. These heavily subsidized programs were early victims of the downsizing and restructuring. So what non-English publications do we have today?
A surprising number considering the shortage of resources and the difficulties involved. Although computers have made some aspects of publishing easier, technology has not yet, and probably never will, solve one problem. How do you translate not only words but also the subtleties of meaning?
English is a fearfully difficult language to work with. You may not realize this if you have grown up with it. You know how to understand the word order and you recognize idioms. You know the difference between “there are an awful lot of people in this room” and “there are a lot of awful people in this room.” You can also figure out that “time flies like an arrow” and “fruit flies like bananas.” But what is the poor non-English speaker to make of it?
Nevertheless, the various branches of our church in non-English speaking places do translate and publish literature, both as outreach and for the church members.
Members in Central and South
America receive a magazine titled El Noticiero de
la Iglesia de Dios
Universal (The News of the Worldwide Church of God). The editor is David
Agreda in El Salvador.
Most of the material comes from the U.S. Worldwide News, but also from Canada’s Northern Light. Some original material is also written by members in Latin America. The translating team includes members from the United States, Ecuador, Spain and Peru. (Another example of our truly worldwide church.)
To save distribution costs, David sends El Noticiero as an electronic (pdf) file to the various pastors in the region. They then print it out for individual members. The Caribbean Office gives a subsidy to help the design and editing. Each congregation pays the local costs of printing and distribution.
A spin-off from this electronic distribution is that about 250 copies are also sent to people around the region and the world, who have visited the web page. You can have a look at El Noticiero for yourself. Go to our www.wcg.org web site and follow the links through “International” to Spanish areas and click on El Noticiero.
Our small church in Spain
publishes Verdad y Vida (Truth and Life). This is a bi-monthly magazine
with a circulation of about 1,400 copies. Indications are that each copy is read
by three
 Pedro Rufian |
to five people. Verdad y Vida is sent around the world. Editor Pedro Rufian reports readers in at least 21 countries.
Much of the material is based on our U.K. magazine, which freely shares its design work. About a quarter of the magazine is written by local members. The situation in Spain is different from the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. Like most of Europe, Spain has become a post-Christian society, with little interest in religion.
More worth than trouble?
Producing even a simple magazine takes a lot of time, and it is not cheap. Verdad y Vida almost pays for itself in donations, and the printers give a generous rate. But smaller churches must carefully evaluate whether the publication of a magazine is the best use of their resources. The effectiveness of print evangelism is almost impossible to quantify. Is it more trouble than it is worth, or more worth than it is trouble? Once such decisions were made by a central administration, but now each area has to decide for itself.
We should not rely on the printed word to carry the load of evangelism. But a magazine can go where a person may be thought of as an intruder. It can be an effective icebreaker, and a small locally produced publication may actually be better than a slick international magazine.
 Daniel Bosch |
Certainly this is the case with
Italy’s Seguimi (Follow Me), published by the local church. It is
12 pages, and black and white. Daniel Bosch, Italian national director, is
editor and
designer.
Most of the material is selected from our English language magazines. Italian members do the translating and designing. Printing is made possible by generous help from the Swiss congregations.
About 500 copies of each issue are distributed. It probably could be much higher if resources allowed. Seguimi has been responsible for bringing several people into contact with our congregations in Italy.
Next time we will look at what is happening in other parts of Europe, including France, Germany, Holland and—a real surprise—Bulgaria.
Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2003