Embedding the work of Bible Translation in the African Context

We've been back in Huntington Beach 10 days now; the fridge is restocked, most of the things we have unpacked have been put away...we have pretty much caught up on some much needed sleep and have transitioned back into our weekly work routine. Although life seems back to our stateside version of normal, there is still a lot going on in our heads about this past summer’s trip; lots we would like to share with you. Here is one short story adapted from Shevawn's journal concerning our last Sunday morning in Tamale:

"This morning we visited the church that our dear friend Pastor Johnson Asare is affiliated with in Tamale. The highlight of the morning for me was when Mr Goodways, one of the Bible translators with the Nkonya project, got up during the open sharing time of the service to say that the Nknoya New Testament had been dedicated this past November. He wanted the church to rejoice with the Nkoyna people and he also wanted to thank them for their prayer support. It was wonderful to see how excited some of the members of the congregation became when they heard this...and then Pastor Johnson got up and asked the church "Can we not commit to sending 1000 cedis to this project by the end of the year to help them as they now continue the OT translation?" The congregation agreed; soon after that, one man stood up saying that because he was only able to be at this church infrequently, he would give 100 cedis now!


During the Annual General Meeting that the Ghana Institute of Linguistics Literacy and Bible translation held the previous two days, there was much talk about the challenge of helping the African church get involved in the work of Bible translation, so seeing this play out in front of our own eyes was so exciting! It turns out Mr. Goodways has been worshiping with this church whenever he was in Tamale during the past 5 years (which was not often as the Nkonya language group he works with is quite a distance away in southern Ghana). It was so encouraging to see the fruit of his relationship building; maybe especially so as we go home wondering how the Lord is going to supply some of our own financial needs.