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7/30/2009

The Word in Audio Form Is Producing Church Growth!

The country administrator of Faith Comes By Hearing, Apolinaire Ambasa, reports that the Word of God is stirring up the church in the Koonzime area. He writes:
"After 2 quarters of activities, the program is impacting the Koonzime land. The attendance in many churches is increasing and some people now understand deeply what Christian life is. In Malen, the group leader – he comes from 6 km away - succeeded to create a church. At the beginning, he set up a listening group and when the group grew, the listeners decided to get in touch with the Parish Pastor. They expressed their desire to transform their group into a church. The day of the inauguration of the church, the participants offered a piece of land for the building in presence of their chief and the listening group leader was appointed the Catechist of the new church.
"Some Koonzime pastors testified that since their church started the program, there are many conversions of adults and young people. The attendance in church services is increasing; the number of adults who are requesting baptism has increased. There is a great improvement in the lives of Christians.
"The program helped the Achip Catholic Church (Koonzime) to restart functioning again. This church was closed because of spiritual crisis which discouraged the Christians to continue attending church services.
"In Ngoulmakong in Koonzime land, two sisters reconciled after listening to Mathieu 5. They spent 10 years without talking to each other."

How Long to Create a Draft of a New Testament?


I've been adapting the Nzime New Testament into Njyem, and 92.35% of the New Testament remains to be adapted. The last time I was able to work on this was in March. I had about 2 days' worth of time with Jean Bart KUL and Etienne AMFANGNSO', and we completed Mark 1-6 and Luke 22-24. The program we used was "Adapt-It", which worked like a gem.
In my experience, 1.9% of the New Testament can be done every day. This means that the remainder of the Njyem New Testament should require only 48 more days of work.

7/28/2009

Njyem Hearing God's Word... in Nzime(!)

The Nzime received the New Testament in 1998 as a result of the support of CABTAL and other funders. Then they received generous support from Faith Comes By Hearing, which orchestrated the recording of their New Testament and the distribution of "Proclaimers", digital players that are powered by the sun. They saw the Nzime at first responding little to the printed New Testament, but then responding with joy and excitement at the arrival of the Proclaimers. They gather together in listening groups and let the translated and recorded Word of God pour into their ears and hearts. Lives are changed, relationships restored, and people given new hope. One of the readers, Bolakam Severin, died recently in total peace, asking for nothing but the Proclaimer that he could play at all times.
ASTRADHE is the literacy and Scripture-Impact organization that is providing the supervision for this far-flung program.
The Njyem, meanwhile, were seeing little progress on their side of the river. Life was not bad, but it wasn't quite what it should be, either. They asked for a New Testament to be translated, but the resources were not forthcoming. They waited some more and then they did something uncharacteristic... they asked and asked again for the Proclaimers to be brought south across the river for use in their villages. They knew that this was going to mean that the Nzime language would gain more of a foothold in their midst, but they could not let that distasteful aspect come between them and their deeper exposure to the Word of God.
After all, the proverb says "a drowning man will even grab a snake that is swimming by if will help him to survive".
They still want the word of God in their language, but until that happens, they know they need the Proclaimer and the Nzime language that it brings.
The Presbyterian pastor of Ngoyla is Reverend Bengene Mebere Innocent. He wrote:
"We ask you to esctend the praiseworthy project into our sector, that of the Njyem. This program you initiated faacilitates the evangelization of a people group through the hearing of the Word of God in the local language.
"We have met in August 2008 in Ngoyla to study how to better evangelize this area and it was found that the main handicap was that the majority of the population was illiterate, and for this reason very few read the Bible.
"Having heard a member of ASTRADHE speak of the FCBH program, we expressed our appreciation for the program and are asking that in the days to come seven listening centers should be opened as a preliminary step. ...I will supervise the listening centers so that peoplle are blessed by the Word of God."
In the days to come, however, the Roman Catholic curé based in Ngoyla also said that he would supervise listening centers for his own parishioners. As a result, twenty listening centers have been started in the Njyem area, half under the supervision of each of the major Christian communions.
Recently, Rufine Adjowa returned from her Njyem village and said that the Proclaimer is used in church where the reading of the Word of God is called for. She said lives are being touched by God and they are finding a sure basis for their faith in God.

"Janvier" Ekoalea Recording the book of Genesis


Since 1998, when we finished typesetting and publishing the Nzime (Koonzime) New Testament, we began training "Janvier" Ekoalea as a Bible translator for the Badwe'e. He was the choice of Samuel Mpiale, who was retiring. Over the years Janvier, whose real name is Ekoalea Mvolo Maurice, has blossomed and developed as a song-writer and translator of the Bible in his language.
He is shown standing in the recording studio he built in the translation and literacy office of Somalomo. That was where they recorded the Gospel of Mark that is now being heard throughout the Badwe'e area by means of the Megavoice player.

Proverbs for the Badwe'e

The Badwe'e love their proverbs, and we have been privileged to live among them and hear them. We saw how impressive it was to people to hear an exhortation and then hear it followed by a proverb. It was a way of saying, "See? This point I am arguing for is in full agreement with everything that the Fathers have left us with! You should believe it as do I, because of my filial devotion to those who taught this to me."

I am doing honor to the memory of people like our host, Azabur Joseph "The Tall One" (Ajaajaa), by producing a volume of proverbs that were taught me. I know that my revision team will feast on the "delectible meal" that they find set before them and correct any errors I make, so earnest is their interest in their proverbs. Anyone wanting to participate in this process by email should contact me.
This publication, like every other one, is produced at the expense of someone of a charitable mindset. We are doing this one as a result of the successful "US government charitable giving campaign".

7/27/2009

Megavoices Bringing the Light of God's Word to Many

Megavoice (http://www.megavoice.com) is a great tool for bringing people under the powerful influence of God's Word! It is solar-powered, as is seen in the first picture. The Badwe'e people talk about "drying it in the sun" as they address the reality of exposing it to sunlight.

It is also simple to use and people find it infectious. They want to take it to the field with them or anywhere they happen to go.
They have found the truth and the life in Jesus as they hear the story of Mark's Gospel.

Two colleagues leaving today for literacy training

Francois Medjo (http://www.francoismedardmedjo.blogspot.com/) and Ferdinand Elanga (http://www.codylko.blogspot.com/) left today on their third (and final?) trip to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where they will complete a training program that shapes them into colleagues and peers of those in SIL who are doing literacy consultation.
They are leaving with documents in hand that will be examined and evaluated by Cathy Davison, the coordinator of the program ("la Pratique et Théorie de l'Alphabétisation"). This time, they should return with certificates from UNESCO that they will proudly show to one and all who wonder if they can help them with their literacy materials and literacy programs.
Pray for them to succeed in their training and come back recharged for more adventures.

Ferdinand was telling me today that his work as a literacy organizer in Mindourou has had some unforeseen impact outside the scope of his plans: 1.) Speakers of Mpubyeng, a dialect of Mpumpung, have indicated their interest in receiving his counsel and help as they learn to read and write in their mother tongue. 2.) There are two more new believers in Christ Jesus in Djaposten as a result of hearing the recording of MARK in the Badwe'e dialect. The Megavoice units are a big source of church growth! They are making impact far beyond our expectations!
The picture at the left shows some of the Badwe'e who contributed their voices to the recording of the Gospel of Mark. It took place in Somalomo, under the supervision of our SIL coworker, Duane Troyer.

7/23/2009

Publishing goals

This past Thursday we printed 25 copies of Badwe'e GENESIS for reviewers to study. The publisher of this document is CABTAL. They are one of the many members of Wycliffe Bible Translators International.
Another publication in circulation recently is the oral version of the KANDE Story. This is distributed by means of the "Sabre" player.
Soon we will begin printing a collection of works written by new Nzime authors that Francois Medjo trained last week in Lomié. A fund internal to SIL-Cameroon Branch is extending to them the needed money for publication.
We also have funding for the Nzime transition primer, used among Nzimes literate in French. That should go to press in August.
We are still hoping to find sponsors for the following books:
  • The Badwe'e transition primer (for Badwe'es literate in French already)
  • 300 copies of the Nzime "KANDE Story", which teaches the facts of AIDS and the way communities can survive it.)
  • 300 copies of the Badwe'e "KANDE Story".

7/22/2009

Francois MEDJO busy in Lomie

Francois is our partner in the work, based with his family in Lomie. He oversees everthing there: literacy program development, training, capacity-building, ... you name it! His website is http://www.francoismedardmedjo.blogspot.com/.
He says that young and old Nzime are coming to his door at all times to be involved in the acquisition of reading and writing skills. The Njyem are becoming more and more earnest about the use of their language in nontraditional ways.
Visit his site see how you can help him and his team.
Most recently, he created a team of people to read a story in Nzime that recounts a typical AIDS tragedy. This story is called "Kande's Story" in English, and it is being used powerfully in various translated forms throughout Africa. It is his goal to add the sound to the PowerPoint presentation and then project it throughout the Nzime area.
As he said, "Ignorance kills; people die because they don't know what they are supposed to do. The Kande story will help them avoid this outcome."
Francois leads a nongovernmental organization, ASTRADHE, that is a member of a consortium of NGOs. They have asked his organization to take the lead role in AIDS education.

7/19/2009

Nzime Creation Story

The Nzime have a version of the creation story that resembles the biblical account at a few points. Here it is:

When God (Nzyɛm) created the world, he made man and woman, male and female gorilla, and Eleme. Eleme was a bodiless, sentient being that could speak and which lived in the plantain "tree" near the man's house. The man and the male gorilla enjoyed each other's company, but they had a falling-out when the gorilla let the fire die out. Upset by the man's anger, the gorilla left with his wife to parts unknown in the forest. They man went after them to bring them back, but could not find them again.
Meanwhile, the woman was bored and left to herself, together with the children and domesticated animals. She was cooking in her kitchen and saw an opportunity to leave the cooking in order to have a conversation with Eleme. She talked to him at the plantain "tree" and then said she would have to return to her cooking. "Would you like to continue our conversation in the kitchen?" "Yes." "Well then, get on my shoulders, and I will carry you there." "I don't travel on shoulders." "How do you travel?" "In their stomachs." "So how do I carry you in my stomach?" "Bend over." She bent over and Eleme went into her stomach by way of the anus.
When she arrived in the kitchen, she asked him to get out. "I don't get out." "Well then, stay where you are." "Fine!"
The conversation continued and before long she felt stabbing pain. "What are you doing to me?" "I'm hungry!" "What can I feed you? What do you eat? Plantains?" "I eat meat!"
She first fed him all the animals of the village and then she fed him all of their children. Still Eleme was hungry!
Then the husband came back and was astonished by the unaccustomed silence in the village. "Where are the animals and children?" "Eleme ate them."
The next morning at dawn, the man got up and talked to God, telling him about the horrible development in the village. God had a solution: "I will kill your wife and give you another one." "No, please don't. I am used to her."
So God took leave of him and never returned to his village.
The story ends: "And that is why, ever since that day, children are born with meleme in them."

Note: The best, most obvious candidate for diabolos (Greek), "devil/demon", is eleme. A secular humanist French colonial administrator with a passion for anthropology, Koch, saw and understood that eleme was to be so understood. Nevertheless, the Nzime people sometimes see this as bearing a tenuous connection with "demon" or "devil", since eleme has a physical manifestation. They sometimes allege that they could find it in an autopsy, it being somewhat like a supplementary organ. It is supposedly a spherical being, having a mouth and teeth. If it is turned toward the backbone, the person with eleme is a shaman, or spirit-healer. If its mouth is turned toward the stomach, the person is a sorceror. The sorceror must find sources of blood for the eleme, or else it will chew away at his own stomach.
If the sorceror is grief-stricken about killing people to feed the eleme, he or she can consult a shaman, who will turn the eleme so that its mouth gnaws ineffectually at the backbone rather than at the stomach. At that time, the ex-sorceror will have become a shaman, too, one who can heal rather than kill with the powers of his oleme, or power to engage in sorcery or shamanism.
The person with eleme who wants to become a new creation in Christ through faith in him, has a problem: what will happen to his eleme? Does he or she need to have a surgical operation to remove it? I asked a person whose faith I trusted as being sincere, and she answered, "I do not know, but I suspect that Jesus makes the eleme die and then rot inside me. It doesn't need to be removed by surgery anymore."
This, dear reader, is what we call "ethnotheology": dealing with the facts of life, as understood by the culture, from the perspecive of Christianity which has been internalized by a full member of the culture.

7/18/2009

You can hear the Nzime New Testament Free!

The digital recording of the Nzime New Testament is available free to anyone who wants it at http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/. This is a dramatic recording that will inspire and delight you, ... provided that you understand Koonzime.
You can also buy a $29 individual digital playback unit of the Scriptures in many languages, including Nzime. They call it a "Bible stick". They send it without any additional charge for postage and handling.
I just learned that the funds for the recording came from Faith Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM. The Nzime are very grateful to them for their generous gift!

7/17/2009

The Great Flood: part of the Badwe'e oral tradition

The Bible gives testimony that the Great Flood (Gen. 6-8) occurred in about 2348 BC, or about 1656 years after Creation. I believe this to be true, which immediately puts me at the mercy of scoffers, this being the end of the present age. This dismissive attitude toward the testimony about a worldwide flood was detailed in 2 Peter 3: 3-7:

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (NIV)

There is, however, a massive base of data about the Great Flood that concords with the biblical narrative. One element of this data is the testimony of oral traditions coming from every corner of the globe, all substantiating that narrative.
The question we asked ourselves was why this seemed to be lacking in the Badwe'e or Nzime oral tradition. Later on, my wife, Mary, suggested to me how they actually did tell the story before unintentionally distorting it later on.

As we reconstruct their story of the flood, they had a very brief but true summary of it:

"Our ancestors were saved from drowning in water through the help of Noah."

The part to note here is that the expression "through the help of" is communicated by the common dead metaphor "on (or 'in/at') the back of". This is not extraordinary. It is the normal way to convey the meaning "through the help or agency of".


It would have been a small step to take to go from that true statement to the one, showed below, that is distorted but contemporary and a part of a commonly-told story.
Note that in the second case, "on the back of" precedes the word "snake", which bears a very close resemblance to "Noah". In the story that is told, there was a friendly snake that stretched from one bank of a river to another that enabled the descendents of Koo--the Njeme, the Nzime and the Badwe'e-- to escape pursuers. They crossed over the river on the back of a snake with the exception of a woman who chopped it with her cutlass and died when it went into the river, taking her with it.
As you can see, the expression "on the back of" was interpreted in its literal sense in the contemporary story, rather than in the original metaphorical sense.

7/16/2009

The Njyem People


Our work in the Njyem area started in December 2001 when we spent a few weeks in the village of Mbalam 1. Our friends, mentors, and allies in this work have been Adjowa Rufine and Moise Mebere.
The Njyem have a website now that you can access, where we have put the little guidebook for their orthography. It is http://www.kulnjyem.blogspot.com/.
Their language is listed along with all the other languages of the world at http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=njy, which is the definitive catalogue of languages maintained by SIL.

7/15/2009

Orthography guides

On other websites there are some orthography guides that helps speakers of Njyem, Nzime and Badwe'e know where to put accents as he or she writes his/her language. The general rule is "no accents unless they are required by this book." So we hope that someone will find this and make use of it to become an author. The guides require that one have a reading knowledge of French. Here they are: Njyem: http://kulnjyem.blogspot.com/2009/07/aide-memoire-pour-les-ecrivains-njyem.html Badwe'e: http://codylko.blogspot.com/2009/07/guide-pour-les-ecrivains-badwee.html Nzime: http://francoismedardmedjo.blogspot.com/2009/07/guide-pour-lorthographe-nzime-allegee.html

7/14/2009

A Badwe'e Story











This story ends in a rather dreary way at first glance, and you wonder what the edification value of it is. You see, Zyem kills all his wives thinking that they would be raised from the dead afterward with pits on their heads. They would then be able to transport the pits to where the animals were, so the animals would die in them. He would be spared the trouble of digging new pits.
The point of this story is to poke ridicule at those who believe the fantastic claims of shamans or spirit-healers. They cannot do what they claim, which is nothing but a ruse to put credulous people at their mercy.




7/11/2009

Discourse Genres




The lecture on Wednesday was on the different types of discourse. It dealt with the issue of how discourses are structured internally and how one discourse genre or type dictates the way its component sentences and paragraphs are built up and juxtaposed.
Deuteronomy 4:9-14 is basically a Behavioral Discourse with an embedded Narrative discourse. The Narrative Discourse contains 7 episodes.

7/10/2009

Inclusio in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a


The analysis to the left was what I presented in my lecture today, although I don't claim that it is original. My best recollection is that I heard it from Dr. John Stek, who died last month. He taught me the principles of text analysis at Calvin Theological Seminary, in Grand Rapids Michigan. I had the privilege of studying there in 1984-85 and 1990-91. It might have been someone else, however. It certainly makes sense of the passage. The point is not the creation of man but the creation of holy time in a good creation. God rests and we celebrate His mighty acts of creation and redemption.

First week of the Translation Consultants' Seminar


The first week is over. Everything is going well, it would appear. I have contributed a devotional on Monday and lectures on Wednesday and Friday.

The devotional was on "The Promise of God is fulfilled as Its True Heir is Saved from Submission to Worldly and Demonic Forces" (Gen 31:22-34: 31) You can read the outline at the left if you click on the image.
See for yourselves if you can agree with me that when God blessed Jacob at the Jabok River, there was a decisive turning-point in the story. I see the meeting of Jacob with Esau as being anticlimactic after Jacob has received his new name and fresh blessing from God. Surely no false pretender to the promises of God could defeat God's declared plan to bless Jacob.

7/07/2009

Proverbs on line


I have just added my 79th proverb to the database at http://silcmb.org/. There is a better link at the bottom of this blog page. You can search for a topic such as "competition" and come up with a proverb that addresses the futility of competing with someone out of your class. The comparison is made to the water chevrotain, a very interesting water mammal here in Cameroon that is believed by the Nzime to swim exceptionally well. That's only one of many proverbs. To read more on this animal, go to http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Hyemoschus_aquaticus.html

You are needed

The Bible translation movement is vast but still holds out a place of service for each one of you. There is a new magazine that you can read from Wycliffe Bible Translators which explains more. http://content.yudu.com/Library/A18m4w/wycliffebrochure/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http://www.yudu.com/item/details/62033/wycliffe-brochure
WBT recruited me in 1972 and in 1975 Mary and I were seconded to work with SIL in Cameroon.
Let me know how available you are for this ministry. I have lots of concrete ideas. One entails preparing a dictionary for further development and printing. Another is assisting us in building a world-leading database of proverbs from the world we occupy as guests, here in Africa. You may be able to help out without leaving your home.

Literacy program among the Koonzime