The newly created Esther Carson Translation Center in Peru recently completed its first project: translating the Local and District Government section of the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene and other material into the native Awajún language spoken by the Aguaruna tribe. 

The year 2024 will mark 100 years since the arrival of missionaries Roger Winnas and his wife, Esther Carson Winans, to the Peruvian Amazon to work in the Aguaruna tribe. According to Mission to the World, Carson took the time to learn the local language in order to help the early missionaries earn trust and build a friendship with the Aguaruna tribe. 

Esther was the first person to take the oral language of Awajún and create the written word of the Awajún language. She also translated Scripture into the native language for them to understand God’s Word, hence the naming of the translation center in her honor. Carson died in the mission field in 1928. 

The Esther Carson Translation Center is staffed by four brothers from the Aguarunas tribe, who were able to work on the translation, printing, and presenting of the Local and District Government section of the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene into the Awajún language, as well as the translation of the material Way, Truth, Life: Discipleship as a Journey of Grace by General Superintendent David Busic and the book Nazarene Essentials: Who we are and what we believe.

In January, these materials were delivered to 274 participants in the assemblies and the three Aguarunas districts. The materials were received with great joy and gratitude.

Currently, there are three ecclesiastical districts in the Aguaruna area, more than 200 churches, and a membership of more than 6,000 Nazarenes.

--Church of the Nazarene South America Region