New Leadership for the Njyem Language Committee

Last month Francois Medjo went by motorcycle 120 miles from Lomie to Ngoyla and back, one of the main places where the Njyem people, who speak a neighboring language, are located. Last year, we helped them to produce The Gospel of Mark and an order of worship for the Roman Catho­lic Church. After that, we noticed that there seemed to be little movement for­ward. They seemed at risk of losing in­ter­est in this project. Rufine Adjowa, a proud speaker of Njyem living outside of the area, re­quested that Francois pay the com­mu­nity a visit and see what could be done to restart the project. During his visit, he exhorted them about the need for ongoing programs of translation and literacy. They chose some new leaders for this project, in­clud­ing the schoolteacher, Mbi Aimé, and proposed a list of activities for the next three months. These include as­sembl­ing a collection of Njyem pro­verbs and revising a draft hymnbook. A meeting will be held in December to look at what has been accomp­lished. The Roman Catholic priest of Ngoyla, Rev. Mpa Tarcisius, has a big role in the Njyem language committee even though he does not speak their lan­guage yet. He wants to participate in all these activities in the interest of building a viable Bible translation committee. Although these people are mini­mally impacted by the Christian Gospel, several groups of the Njyem who also understand Nzime somewhat have been listening to recordings of the Nzime New Testament. Please pray for a powerful move­ment of God among the Njyem.