FELL OWSHIP VIEWS
Rev. John Harwood (and his wife Rae) retired from ministry as Pastor of Christian Fellowship Chapel in Winnipeg, MB at the end of December. We are grateful for their many years of service.
A Tribute to Viola Warkentin Friesen by PAUL BOEKER Viola Warkentin Friesen grew up in the Evangelical
Mennonite Brethren Church in rural Meade County, Kansas. She prepared for mission work by attending Tabor College, Grace Bible Institute, and three terms of Summer Institute of Linguistics at Oklahoma State University.
Viola was accepted by Wycliffe Bible Translators in
1951 and assigned to southern Mexico. She worked in literacy programs, preparing primers and simple read- ing materials, teaching reading, and eventually training national teachers to teach literacy courses.
Of course, Viola’s main love was Bible translation.
Before she was directly involved in translation, she typed the New Testament for publication in the Tumbala dialect. In that pre-computer age, Viola typed the Gospel of Matthew 18 times before it was ready for publication! Though she did not do the actual translation, she did check parallel passages for the translations and did proof- reading. She also checked many Old Testament books before their publication in the Tumbala dialect.
Viola teamed up with Ruby Scott to study another
dialect — the Tila Ch’ol. They completed the first draft of the Tila Ch’ol New Testament in 10 years while also teaching reading classes. With the assistance of various translation helpers, the New Testament was completed by 1975 and dedicated in 1976. The story of this work is recorded in the book “Jungle Harvest” by Ruby Scott.
During these years, Viola and Ruby moved to a
new village every six months to teach reading and Bible classes to new believers. Through this strategy, they be- came well-known and were sought out for medical aid by people from seven to ten surrounding villages. This gave them an opportunity to share the Gospel with people who had never heard the good news before.
Viola and Ruby continued working and produced
a 442-page summary of the Old Testament including translations of 27 Psalms.
Recognizing that music is a great teacher and evangelist, Viola translated hymns into both dialects.
Ruby Scott, Viola’s translation co-worker, wrote two books about their work in Ch’ol, Mexico:
“Jungle Harvest: God’s Word Triumphs in Tila Hearts” and “e Black Tortillas Don’t Talk
Anymore” (people wore their Scripture recordings smooth!). Both books are available at
Amazon.com.
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She completed two editions of a hymnal in the Tila Ch’ol dialect and saw it through five printings.
Viola’s overseas work ended when she returned to
Meade in 1978 to care for her aging father. But she did not stop working. During that time, she helped to prepare a concordance for the Tila Ch’ol New Testament. The concordance was published in 1981.
After her father’s death, Viola resumed working with
Wycliffe at their center in Dallas, Texas. At about age 60, she learned to use a computer and for many years edited Wycliffe’s technical journal “Translation Notes” or “Jour- nal of Translation.” She would check every footnote and bibliographical reference for accuracy, often at a library (these were the days before WebCrawler and Yahoo). Her work benefitted translators worldwide.
Viola served with Wycliffe Bible Translators a total of
43 years before retirement. After retirement, she returned to Meade to marry a long-time supporter. Together for 28 years they were active in ministry to seniors. Her hus- band, Jake Z. Friesen, went to be with the Lord in 2018. Viola was called home to the Lord on December 18, 2020.
The Fellowship of Evangelical Bible Churches honors
the work of this humble servant in bringing the Gospel to so many in Mexico.
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