Surprised

We were at Laundry Love and just 30 minutes before closing time a gentleman arrived with 3 small bags of laundry. I approached him to explain that he had missed the 8:45 PM deadline for the last load to go in the washers. I invited him back the second Wednesday of next month. I'm sure, that I was confusing him... as he said he came to this laundromat every few days. He then explained to me that he needed to wash his white shirt for work the following day... Once I realized that he wasn't aware that we offer free laundry the second Wednesday every month, I told him, that since he was paying for his own laundry, he could go ahead as long as he was aware the laundromat closed at 10 PM. It wasn't until I heard him talking to someone else a few minutes later that I realized he was from West Africa... right about that time he was answering a question from someone else, he said he was from Nigeria!
My ears then perked up!

As soon as his washing machine was started, I continued my conversation with Chris. He is from the same part of Nigeria that I had recently visited. We were both quite surprised. And when I mentioned that I am involved with Bible translation he said he was into that as well.

I wasn't quite convinced... seeing as how we were meeting for the first time in a Laundromat! Was this guy Really involved in Bible translation?

It turns out that Chris' language doesn't have a Bible... and in order to solve that problem, he did become a Bible translator!

When Chris had tried to organize a translation project for his language, there was little community support. So... he started by translating the entire Gospel of John into Esan.

Check out this recording of him reading from his own translation of John chapter one in his language.

If this came to your email with no video above, here's your link to the YouTube video https://youtu.be/aL4HRBcme-4 

As I did some research in order to put Chris in contact with the right folks in Nigeria I found out that his language: Esan is currently in the second year of a Bible translation project with another organisation. I'm sure Chris will be encouraged to find out that he isn't alone in this task.