What does Capacity Building mean?

Capacity is simply a description of what someone or something is capable of. Most people have the capacity for compassion, anger, joy, sorrow, etc. We also have the capacity for innovation, intelligence, understanding, and sin. Capacity is just a description of what a person, group of people, tool, or anything is capable of achieving. A child is less capable than an adult. A literate person is more capable than an illiterate person. A strong person is more capable than a weak person. These are all one-dimensional descriptions of capacity. So what does capacity in Bible translation mean? Well, think of this analogy. If you're intending to do some digging you can dig into the ground with your hands. That is one possible means of doing the job. However, you would do better to have a shovel, correct? Or if you have the use of heavy machinery you can move a great deal more ground with excavation machinery. Likewise there are tools and resources that can make our jobs as missionaries and translators more effective. An easy example is computers. Instead of writing out our translations by hand, how people had to do it for most of human history, we can use computers to type quickly(depending on the capacity of the person!), edit errors without extra use of materials, and print copies quickly for distribution and testing. Another example would be transportation. Over the past two centuries transportation technology has advanced tremendously. Walking is our most basic transportation mechanism built into our bodies by God. However, an animal-drawn cart works better, and an automobile even better, until we get to the best methods of transportation currently available like helicopters and airplanes(depending on the situation a helicopter may be better than an airplane or vice versa). Anyhow, capacity building is all about what tools can we leverage to make our work better and easier and at what cost. It is about building infrastructure to enable the best work possible.

It is important to note that capacity also involves the knowledge and abilities of individuals. Training is rightly a part of this category, however you will find the work we're doing in training Pamosu individuals on the calendar. You can also see our staff page to see the qualifications of each individual.

Ongoing Initiatives

House/Office:

We have some initial plans for building a new house with a substantial office underneath for the Pamosu speakers to work in. It would include a meeting room, some bunks, and a workspace to store supplies as well as provide space for any translator to work while in Avevete. A dedicated space to work will go a long way to creating a regular work ethic to effectively translate scripture.

Future Initiatives

Communications:

In addition to a place to work, modern technology affords us several different options for communications. For the purpose of e-mail, working remotely, Paratext backups and syncing, and other communications needs an internet connection is very useful. With technologies like Starlink being developed and rolled out in the near future a satellite internet connection would be very useful. Depending on what services are available after the office is built we may set up just 1 connection in Avevete, or if possible up to 3 total locations for the Pamosu speakers to be able to work, one in each main village. These extra satellite locations would be outfitted with solar panels, a battery, and some networking equipment inside a small office building(think barely larger than a cubicle).

Translation Center:

The Pamosu team members have informed us they have plans to build a kind of translation center of their own. This is helpful and encouraging. I think both this plan and ours to build a sturdier office will be extremely helpful to achieve our goals.

Completed Initiatives

Communications:

A very rudimentary internet connection has been established at the house Jason & Brenda live in while in Avevete. It is only a simple uplink to a nearby cell tower that has some reliability issues. It is all we have available to us at this time, so we have plans for further upgrades to our networking and communications capabilities.

Electronics distributed:

Each of the active translators have been supplied with initial laptops, smartphones, and solar panels. Though this will be an ongoing effort as equipment breaks down due to climate and unfamiliarity with this kind of equipment, the initial stage is complete and supplies will be replaced as needed.