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.