Genesis being translated in Nzime

Francois MEDJO, the promoter of Scriptures in the Nzime area, has sent me the first eight chapters of Genesis to revise and comment on. These are in the Nzime dialect and represent the work of laymen and pastors. He sent them by attaching them to emails.
We are very grateful that the work of Bible translation can go forward through the wonders of the Internet.
The way we interact is by using the "tracking changes" feature of Word.
We are grateful to Microsoft for its contribution to this life-transforming task.

"Forgiveness" in the Badwe'e Bible Translation

In the life of the Nzime or Badwe'e, keeping a current record of wrong-doing is deemed to be very important. Physically, one may record an evil act by making a notch in the pole that crosses the kitchen at the mid-point. Whenever one enters, one can see all the notches and recite mentally what the person in question had done to warrant each notch.

Forgiveness, in the Nzime or Badwe'e setting means "removing all the marks of evil deeds (bɨbaa) that you have bent or counted out against someone".
This is said when the forgiveness preceded any altercation or accusation from the injured party. He has only "bent (a finger)" as a mental act when he took note of the harm that the person did him.
This is said when the forgiveness followed a public altercation or accusation from the injured party. He has "counted out" in an overt way the number of acts that harmed him, in the hearing of the offending party. While counting out these acts, he lays out a physical counter that may be a pebble or a strip of banana leaf.

When the offended party forgives the guilty party, the latter presents a meal involving meat to which they both eat. There is an expectation that there will be no future mention of the forgiven offenses.

Two Coworkers in Advanced Training

Our valued and committed Cameroonian coworkers are in training in Burkina Faso now, taking the third and last month of a 3-month training program spread over 3 years.
They have both posted their reports on progress in their respective areas of responsibility.
They are in French, for those who are interested in reading them and who read French. They are to be found at www.codylko.blogspot.com and www.francoismedardmedjo.blogspot.com.

At Maranatha Conference in Muskegon, Michigan

We are enjoying a week as the guests of the Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference in Muskegon MI. www.vacationwithpurpose.org They are giving this missionary couple a week of rest and refreshment at highly subsidized rates. Our son David and his wife Anna and kids are here, too.
Keith Beavon

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.

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".