紀念與肯定麥煜道牧師
在台灣協助聖經翻譯之團隊
On May 8, 2019, in honour and recognition of the Bible translation teams I serve in Taiwan, my alma mater Knox College conferred on me an honorary D.D. The announcement from the College reads:
The Board of Governors of Knox College is pleased to announce that the degree Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) will be conferred upon the Rev. Dr. Paul McLean in recognition of outstanding service in the completed and ongoing work of Bible translation together with the translation teams of The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT).
In conferring this degree, Knox College lifts up the partnership between The Presbyterian Church in Canada and The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan in Bible translation, especially the work of the translation teams among Taiwan’s Hakka people and Taiwan’s indigenous peoples.
On the day of Convocation, I was invited to speak about my call and mission work at a luncheon hosted by the Knox-Ewart Graduates’ Association. In attendance were the Rev. Dr. John Vissers (Principal of Knox College), faculty, staff, distinguished guests & alumni, and this year’s graduating class.
Below is a slightly revised version of the talk I gave, along with photos of the Bible translation teams I serve in Taiwan. I accepted the D.D. in honour and recognition of my beloved coworkers and dedicate it to our ongoing teamwork and partnership in mission. To God be the glory.
Paul McLean (麥煜道牧師) with Bible translation coworkers at the UBS/BSTWN Translators Training Workshop (2018-08-15). BSTWN General Secretary Rev. Daniel Cheng (鄭正人牧師) is front row 5th from left. On his left is Associate General Secretary of the PCT, Rev. ‘Eleng Tjaljimaraw (高天惠牧師). She is Chair of the PCT’s Committee to Promote Indigenous Bible Translations and herself a Paiwan Bible translator.
It is a privilege for me and my wife Mary Beth to join with you on this joyful day of celebration. In biblical words that have been transcribed, translated and transmitted into 100s of languages,
“Hallelujah! Praise the LORD!”
Or in some of Taiwan’s indigenous languages:
<<Drengedrengera ki TAMATAMA!>> (Ngudradrekai)
<<Sanparavacu tua MALAILAING!>> (Paiwan)
<<Trahu squ Mrhuw Wagiq!>> (Tayal)
We praise and give thanks to the LORD our God, who has called us to be student-followers of our Great Teacher and Saviour Jesus Christ, and equipped us by the Holy Spirit in various ways for service in Christian Mission.
On this Convocation day, we do well to remember with gratitude those people God has used in calling us to study at Knox or Ewart College, and those people who have supported us through our studies. In my case, I thank God for my parents, my beloved wife and our three sons. I remember the minister, elders and Sunday School teachers of my hometown church, St. Andrew’s, Brampton. My uncle Rev. Mac McLean served for many years as a Superintendent of Mission in Manitoba & North-Western Ontario. He got me thinking from a young age about cross-cultural mission. I thank God for Rev. Walter McLean who served as a missionary in Nigeria. He was my minister during undergrad years in Waterloo.
I give thanks to God for a faithful Anglican priest, Rev. Dr. Frank Uhlir, who was liberated twice from his homeland in Czechoslovakia after he was imprisoned by the Nazis then by the Communists. He emigrated to Canada where he studied theology and became a faithful preacher of the Gospel and a man of prayer. God used him to call me away from a life spent in Mathematics & Physics to enroll in Knox College in 1979. I thank God for Rev. Alex McCombie – a 60-year Knox alumnus from the Class of 1959. Alex was my mentor for two years when I assisted him at St. Andrew’s Islington. God used him and others in that church, including my friend John Vissers, to deepen my awareness of global cross-cultural mission.
In the spring of 1982, during my final year of M.Div. studies at Knox, my classmates and I were interviewed for pastoral ministries in rural and remote parts of Canada or for mission work overseas. Through Bible reading, prayer, conversations with family and friends, then through extensive interviews with former missionaries who were serving on the Board of World Mission, Mary Beth and I felt God’s call to go overseas to serve as partners in mission with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. The PCT asked us to live and serve among the minority Hakka people, which meant learning their language and customs.
In the summer of 1982, while we were preparing to leave Canada and go to Taiwan, we happened to meet the Moderator of the PCT who was in Canada for meetings. The Rev. David Lai Chun-min, who himself is Hakka, was thrilled to hear we were going to live and serve among his people. He proceeded to give me a new Hakka name:
<<Mak Muk-sṳ 麥牧師>> “Pastor-teacher Wheat”
Then he challenged me: Paul, when you go to Taiwan, don’t forget Jesus’ teaching in John 12:24,
“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…”
Jesus was that first Grain of Wheat. And he calls us all to follow his example of self-sacrificing love and service.
Mary Beth and I moved to Taiwan in January 1983 and soon found ourselves living in the Hakka countryside, literally on the edge of a rice field. There were 40,000 Hakka people in town, with only one church and about 80 members. I thank God for Rev. Hiû San-hiùng (邱善雄牧師) who was our minister. With much love, patience and good humour, he and members of the church taught us how to speak the difficult Hakka language. During that 1st year of intensive language study in our home beside the rice fields, I would sometimes stare at my bookcase and ask myself,
“Why did you bother bringing your Hebrew and Greek Bibles,
lexica, grammars and commentaries?”
A year later, it just so happened that a team of Hakka ministers and elders was being formed under the direction of the Bible Society in Taiwan. Their mission? To translate the New Testament into Hakka for the 1st time in Taiwan. One day Rev. Hiû brought a draft translation of Mark’s Gospel to my Hakka language class. When I discovered some typos and mistakes in the translation, he said,
<<Ngì yit-thin oi chhâm-kâ ngài-têu ke fân-yi̍t séu-chû!>>
“You must join our translation team!”
I knew then why God had called us to Taiwan. In 1984, Rev. Hiû and I became coworkers in Hakka Bible translation. We were coworkers when we finished translating the whole Bible in 2012.
Over the years that I served on the Hakka Bible translation project, God taught me lessons in teamwork. As each member on the team humbly offered their various God-given gifts back to God, and prayed, and worked together with the same goal in mind, as we looked to the Lord for insights, we discovered that God the Holy Spirit could do wonderful things. The right word, the right phrase, to translate the meaning in Scripture into good clear Hakka:
<<Song-ti thung-siak sṳ-kiên-ngìn…>>
“God pain-loves the world…” (John 3:16)
For two periods during the Hakka Bible project, I was back here in Canada, in fact, back here studying at Knox College, the Toronto School of Theology and the University of Toronto. I thank God for my gifted teachers during those periods of further study and research, in particular, Stan Walters, Gerry Sheppard, Pat Dutcher-Walls, John Revell and my doctoral thesis director Al Pietersma. God used each of them in various ways to help make me a stronger teammate and better coworker with the Hakka team in Taiwan.
In 2012, after the Hakka Bible was published with much joy and celebration, I wondered,
“Lord, is that it? I’m still too young to retire. Pastoral ministry in Canada?
No more Hakka or Mandarin mission work?”
Just then, the Bible Society in Taiwan and leaders in the PCT approached me,
“Mài Mù-shr, you’ve learned a few things from helping translate the Hakka Bible. Would you be willing to serve as a Translation Advisor and work with several PCT indigenous teams who are trying to complete their Bibles?”
After they reassured me that I would not be taking the job away from a more suitable Taiwanese person, I agreed.
So, since 2012, I have had the great joy of serving with indigenous teams—again teamwork!—brilliant indigenous pastors and elders, men and women, who are faithfully using their God-given gifts to translate the whole Bible, each into their own endangered minority languages. It may come as a surprise to some of you, that most indigenous people in Taiwan are Christians. In the Presbyterian Church alone, there are over 500 indigenous congregations who are worshipping God on Sundays and at mid-week prayer services in a dozen different indigenous languages. Each indigenous community is hungry for the whole Bible in their own heart-language.
I thank God for all those, including Knox College, who have contributed to my call and my formation as a Bible translator and Translation Advisor. And I can’t say it loud enough: Any good work we have done is because of teamwork – teamwork led by God! Everyone on the team, humbly using their various gifts, all towards the same goal, relying on God the Holy Spirit to inspire us, teach us and lead us. I pray that you will all discover the joy of teamwork, in the congregations you go to serve or wherever the Lord sends you in mission and ministry.
When Dr. Vissers phoned and told me that Knox College wanted to confer on me an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree, I was rather reluctant to accept this generous offer. I told John, the only way I could accept, was if we could somehow recognize and honour the Bible translation teams I serve in Taiwan. So I invite you to join me now in thanking God for his steadfast love and faithfulness, as I name aloud and honour in your presence some of my teammates and coworkers on Bible translation teams in Taiwan:
1) Hiû San-hiùng, my 1st Hakka teacher then coworker on the Hakka team (客家聖經翻譯小組), my 2nd Hakka teacher and dear friend Chên Chhông-fat, plus Phàng Tet-kui, Phàng Tet-siû, Chên Chṳn-chûng, Liau Tet-thiâm, Hò Pit-ôn, Ya̍p Mî-fi, Ya̍p Mî-chṳ, Chhì Sṳn-fùng, Chheu Van-chhòng, Yì Chat-fûng and other members of the Hakka team.
Hakka Bible Translators (1984)
Hakka Bible Translation Team and former BSTWN General Secretaries (2010-01). Rev Hiû San-hiùng is front row centre.
2) The ‘Amis team (阿美語聖經翻譯小組) including: Hani, Sing ‘Olam and his daughter Iwan, Iciro, Kino, Calaw and Futol.
‘Amis Bible Translation Team with BSTWN typesetters Joy and Ivy back-left (2018-09)
3) The Bunun team (布農語聖經翻譯小組) especially our 80-year old lead translator Manias, plus Sai, Alang, Bali, Banitul, Abus, Talum, Ibi, Qaisul and departed Anu, Suna and Vilian.
Bunun Bible Translation Team (2013-06). Manias is 2nd from the right.
Bunun Bible Translation Team (2019-02)
4) The Ngudradrekai team (魯凱語聖經翻譯小組) in particular: Tanubake, Palri, Ripunu, his father 86-year old Rev. Wang, Pelenge, Dhali and brilliant linguist dear departed Adriu.
Ngudradrekai Bible Translation Team at the celebration service for their new Bible (2017-07)
5) The Paiwan team (排灣語聖經翻譯小組) with: Tjanubak, Kualj, Ljegean, Ljumeg, Tjuwu, Tjukar, Giljgiljaw and Vuluk.
Paiwan Bible Translation Team (2017-05). Vuluk was absent for this photo.
Paiwan Bible Translation Team (2018-02). Team Chair Rev. Tjanubak was absent for this photo.
6) The Pinuyumayan team (比努悠瑪雅呢語聖經翻譯小組) with 79-year old lead translator Pu’ay, plus Aykiu, Haluwey, Alan, Pilay, Ahau and Damei.
Pinuyumayan Bible Translation Team (2017-11). Rev Pu’ay is 2nd from the right.
Pinuyumayan Bible translators Deacon Aykiu and Rev Pu’ay (2015-11)
7) The Tayal team (泰雅爾語聖經翻譯小組) with lead translator Watan Yawi, plus Syat, Hetay, Tamut, Atung and 88-year old Sangas.
Tayal Bible Translation Team (2017-12)
8) The Tsou team (鄒語聖經翻譯小組) with lead translator Mo’o Peongsi, plus Mo’o Eyaisikana, Voyu Peongsi and Paicx Yasiyungu.
Tsou/Cou Bible Translation Team (2018-11)
9) Rev. Dr. Isa Liang Wang-huei (梁望惠牧師), a gifted coworker and leader in revising 聖經：現代中文譯本 The Bible: Today’s Chinese Version (2019). (She is seated to my left in the photo above from the UBS/BSTWN Translators Training Workshop.)
10) General Secretaries and all the staff at the Bible Society in Taiwan, in particular, former General Secretaries Tsai Jen-li, David Lai Chun-min, Andrew Tsai and the current GS Daniel Cheng Cheng-ren. Plus Translation Advisors Dr. I-Jin Loh (駱維仁博士), Dr. Graham Ogden and Dr. Kuo-wei Peng (彭國瑋博士 Editor-in-Chief for the Chinese Union Study Bible Series of the Bible Society in Taiwan).
11) Our inspiring partners in mission throughout the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.
12) Former colleagues in the PCC’s Board of World Mission / International Ministries: George Malcolm, Earle Roberts, Glen Davis, Murray Garvin, Jamie Sutherland, Chris Costerus, Peter Riddell, Marjorie Ross, Wilma Welsh, Margaret Zondo and Gladys Stover, plus today’s IM staff Glynis Williams and Lily Ko.
13) Taiwanese churches in Canada, PCC churches large and small across the country, AMS groups, WMS groups, and many more.
Friends, as you graduate from Knox College to begin new ministries, or as you celebrate a milestone in your ongoing mission and service, or as you continue teaching other students at Knox College, I pray that all of us can follow our Lord Jesus and be “Grains of Wheat”, planted by God in different mission fields, bearing much good fruit for the extension of God’s Kingdom of compassion, justice, mercy and righteousness, so that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess in all of the world’s beautiful languages, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
All for the glory of our good and gracious God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”
Paul McLean (麥煜道牧師) receives an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) degree from Knox College (2019-05-08). The Rev. Daniel Cho, Moderator of the 2018 General Assembly of the PCC, read the citation. The Rev. Prof. Esther Acolatse presented the hood.
The Rev. Dr. John Vissers, Principal of Knox College, looks on as Paul is congratulated.
Paul with two long-time supporters, mother Mary and wife Mary Beth.
