11-26-2019: Some days ago I was asked to translate the maldivians dictionary into english, so that it might help workers from other nations to learn Maldivian. This will take about one year, as the other work has to be continued. At the same time, I am planning to review the short grammar of the Maldivian language, as there is now more linguistic literature. This second edition of the short grammar will also be published on this website in both languages, english and german.
11-3-2019: Next sunday, there will be the international day of prayer for persecuted christians. The main focus this year will be on China and Nigeria, but there are persecuted christians in many other nations as well. If you want to pray for the Maldivian christians as well, I will be able to send you some material for the preparation of the prayer.
10-30-2019: It has been quite a while, that I haven't reviewed this website. The reason is, that there had been difficulties, that brought me into depression again. Nevertheless, the work on facebook had been going on: The daily bible texts, the pictures with bible verses, and I even started to publish small texts about biblical texts. These texts are in english, the bible texts in maldivian. There are so many christian texts in english in the web, so why this? Well, on the one hand, my knowledge of Maldivian is not good enough for writing a whole text. On the other hand: I have 5000 friends on facebook, and facebook is so nice to distribute the texts among them. That's what other preachers can't. The maldivian-german dictionary has been renewed. And now, I want to keep this website actual again.
When I was searching for a new possibility to bring the gospel to Maldives, a friend had a good idea. Now I am adding bible texts to pictures, published every Sunday. This sounds easier than it is. I need pictures, suitable and really nice. I was not sure whether it was good to take pictures from our culture, but I don't have other. And I can't take the pictures of other people, due to Copyright. There is only a small number of maldivian scripts (at least I know only a small number). Then, the programs for pictures, they are mainly not programmed to deal with writing from right to left. I need to look after the interpunction: It tends to hide somewhere else in the line... So the fotos are nice, but they don't look professional. I was really astonished, that this bible verses with fotos are well accepted. Each of them is seen by 90-110 people, with 125 people looking regularily! That's quite a nice percentage of the maldivian christians! As this service is accepted so well, I need the possibility to take a lot of good fotos this spring, fotos, that will be enough for the rest of the year. And I need a program not only for optimizing the fotos (I'm still learning), but that is also compatible to the maldivian way to write. So I am glad for everybody who is praying for with me!
The prayer for Maldives is the basis and the start of my work. In 1999, I read, that Maldives were one of the last 5 non-reached nations. This information was already old, but in all the years following, I was not able to cease prayer. During some of these years, I had no access to informations about Maldives (due to a lack of internet access). After this, I realised, that meanwhile God had already done most of that, what I had been praying for. Prayer is so important. It encourages the christians in Maldives, and - God just wants us to pray, to talk with Him. The one, who is praying, will see God at work. Of several prayer movements for Maldives, that had been during the last years, meanwhile all have stopped (at least, all that I had found out). So I created the Facebook-site "Maldives Prayer". Here, about 20 people are daily praying for Maldives, others do so now and then. You will find the texts also here on this website - on Facebook there are fotos added. The prayer-items are combined with a lot of informations about this nation, because I made the experience, that this brings this nation nearer to on one's heart, and because it is easier to pray continously with ever new informations.
One of the first informations I got about Maldives was, that missionaries had been deported, that there weren't any missionaries on the field any more. Well, by that time the maldivian christians were already very active, but still missionaries from other nations are very important. Who are regularily deported again. The first one or two years on the field are years of learning the language. So I thought, whether it might be useful if the missionaries had a dictionary. From 2000 to 2003, I was working on a maldivian-german dictionary. There were already two lists with maldivian words, but they were not enough. So I started to learn dhivehi (maldivian) using bilingual articles of a newpaper, and two maldivian schoolbooks. 2003, just before the birth of my first son, the dictionary included about 5500 Words. I published it in the internet, and a mission agency used it to make materials for the preparation of missionaries. During the next years, I had not enough time to continue the work on it, but now I have started to prepare a second edition including all words of the maldivian bible. After this, I am planning to make a maldivian-english dictionary, so that missionaries of other nations might have a good dictionary, too, and that they might be able to use the maldivian bible for their work in Christ.
The situation in Maldives is difficult, not only for the maldivian christians, but also for the christians among the expatriates as well as for the missionaries. They can't talk about Christ in public, they can't meet for prayer, people, who like them, can't show it, and so they only hear people who hate them. This is a very heavy load to bear. Many feel so alone - or are even depressive. If someone gets missionary care from his mission agency, then it might be bearable. But indian tentmakers often don't have a missionary agency. Some of them are connected via social media, others are alone on their island. It's difficult to find them. And if you find one, then his english might be poor. But where ever it is possible, they shall get some encouraging words.
In 1999, I read "Operation World": In Maldives there'd be no christians, no bible-translation, no missionaries. That's a challenge to pray. Well, the informations were too old - indeed, by that time there were 50 christians, 20 missionaries had just been expelled, and some verses of the bible had been translated. Nevertheless, by that time and now, Maldives were and are one of the least reached countries to the gospel. Work on a pioneers field needs to be supported by prayer. The christians need encouragement and they need to know, that they are not alone. The team of translators needs wisdom to translate the bible into a very different culture and language. There is always a need of new missionaries, as many christian expatriates have been expelled from Maldives. Christian work is only possible, when God prevents their persecutors from seeing it. Prayer is needed. Daily prayer informations you will find here on this website, and on facebook on the site "Maldives Prayer".
A strict rule of the maldivian customs: No import of Bibles. This rule you will find on an information paper that every tourist will get. Even if you'd get a bible or two through, the next problem is this: Whom to give? Maldivian christians need to hide - sometimes they even don't know each other. Therefore the team of translators are editing the translated parts of the Bible as app for android on google play. But what to do about those using a computer or an i-phone? Or who don't dare to install the bible? For these people Johanna Mission is publishing the bible on the facebook site "Johanna Maldives", three stories a day. By this, we are reaching actually 200 Maldivians a week.