Buryat Praise Workshop
This post is an excerpt from SEND Canada's 2020 Annual Report. To read more, click here!
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Renata, a Canadian missionary in
Siberia, decided to learn how to play
the Morin Khurr - a traditional Buryat
instrument. When she started taking
lessons, she never imagined how it
would impact the Buryat people.
In 2013, Renata, Daniela, and another
couple started an instrumental music group to help their Russian church feel more welcoming to the Buryat people
in the community.
Renata played the
Morin Khuur in the group!
The worship songs the Buryat
believers sang had been translated
into Buryat from other languages.
The instrumental music group
believed that the Buryats, who are
an unreached people group (UPG),
needed their own worship music
and in their heart language.
Led by Daniela, a new group called
the Praise Workshop was born in 2018.
This group, including Buryat believers,
began writing songs in the Buryat
language. Daniela says, “Writing a
song is a very long process. We need
to persevere because there are five
dialects in the language! Also, there
is no complete Bible translation, so
there are many discussions about how
to translate terms like ‘God, Jesus, sin,
and resurrection.’”
The Praise Workshop will probably never know the full impact of their
music.
However, three sisters eventually
trusted Christ after a friend called and
said, “Turn on YouTube. Our Buryats are
singing there!”
Though not directly involved in the
writing process, Renata finds great joy
in seeing her Buryat brothers and sisters worship God in their heart language!
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