"If you want to hide something from an African, put it in a book"

John first heard this saying while in a village in northern Nigeria last fall.  Together with the local language communities and several colleagues, plans were being made to start/re-start three Bible translation projects there.   These communities are still largely oral communication-based cultures (there are still many throughout the world) which is why many Bible translations are no longer only published in book format.   Your partnership with our ministry with Wycliffe Bible translators is helping to not only translate Bibles but also providing access to God's word in ways that are relevant for their current culture.  

 

Three of the languages John is involved with in these communities are working out of one office as a cluster project.  In many cases, a cluster approach is viewed as a preferable way to proceed with translation when the languages are related, the communities share many cultural similarities and they are close geographically.  This particular cluster project involves:

• ·         The ut-Hun language: their New Testament was dedicated in Nigeria on 6th January 2018 and is currently being "adapted" into the…
• ·         us-Saare language:  these two were formerly considered the same language, until the Jesus Film was completed in ut-Hun and it became evident that the us-Saare people did not understand it. 
• ·         The ut-Ma'in language: this is also being adapted from ut-Hun. Currently they are working on selected books from both the old and new testaments.

Each of these translations will be published in text as well as phone apps, audio and some video.

   

Recent reports from these projects remind us that they rely on our prayers.  A translator with the ut-Hun project recently had an accident; his hand was dislocated, delaying the drafting of the book of Exodus.  The us-Saare translation has not begun yet; they’re currently collecting and analyzing stories to better understand how the language is structured, which will help them when they work on Bible translation.  The ut-Ma'in translators are working on Romans and are finding it a challenging book to translate.

27 Ne̱t-u̱ wa zu̱, Bo̱r-yu̱ zu̱u̱g, cwan u-Ru̱ Faru̱k u̱ jab-u̱ ró ne̱ be̱e̱t, u̱ fat-u̱r ró ne̱, u̱ be̱b-u̱r ró ne̱, u̱ dorog-u̱s ró ne̱. Bo̱ cwan wa u̱s-bo̱r u̱ ró ka bo̱ tonte̱ hi-du̱ war ró.

28 Ye̱so̱ zu̱ wu̱n, Bo̱ waru̱g ho̱n ho̱n. Ha bo̱ no̱m iya, bo̱ de̱ kwu̱m-du̱ fat-du̱ za u̱r-ma.

Luke 10:27-28   in ut-Ma'in