The BARAHs tidings, August 2018

Follow this link to see our August 2018 newsletter

Marinnet's Baptism

September 16, 2018 marked the day that Marinnet has been waiting for. She had reminded me several times that she hopes that I am not traveling. I made sure to return back home from Yaounde on September 15 to witness her baptism.
What an awesome situation to witness your own daughter process the Gospel over time and then personally take the decision to baptize.
I really praise God for the growth she is experiencing and I ask God to bless her continue in her walk with God.
This year it conicided with her birthday and it should be noted that she and Lilian have the same birth day 12th September so we left the birthdays to celebrate today with the baptism.
Marie is a 3-H president and also a children teacher. So several of them came home to celebrate with her. Find a short video here of Marie at the pool.

Birthday Girls

Lii square

Trip to Maroua (August 2018)

Nice meals in Maroua

Apparently, this is the best time to be here in Maroua. It is raining and so the environment is fresh. I was blessed to be well taken care of by my friends, colleagues, mentees and those that I have coached and those that I supervise. It was good to spend time with them, their families, go to church with them and get to see where they live and work. Get to eat with them, visit their restaurants etc. In the Keufkeuf's home, MariAnne their 2 year old daughter thrilled me. She knows how to manipulate the computer alread!

MariAnne Richard's smart 2 year old daughter

Eating together in the mat is fun

Kadada, his wife and daughter

What a great word "Thank you"

On Friday 10th August I received a phone call from one of the translators that I had trained in Maroua. I thought he was calling because something was not working as is often the case with some of the translators that we support. So right away, I was already getting ready and even said a breath prayer asking the Lord to help resolve the problem that Kosma Jonathan might have. To might greatest dismay, he said he was only calling to thank me. He said all what they had learned especially about how to check their word list was useful and it helping them to advance in cleaning their text.

This was very encouraging as hardly does anyone ever call me back to say thank you. 

Kadada helping Kosma Jonathan (Mbudum team)

Later that same day, I was teaching the exegetes and translation consultants some advanced tools in ParaTExt on how to setup their space to do exegetical work. I got feedback that this was really what they wanted to learn and that it was going to be immediately put to use. This is very encouraging as I feel that my time is not wasted but instead useful as I can be part of the Bible Translation process by helping translators to speed up their process.

ParaTExt workshop in Maroua

July 30 - August 3rd, I spend the week working with 14 participants from 7 language communities in Far North of Cameroon. We ate together prayed together and studied together. I learned a lot about them and their communities. Most of them we have been on contact on the phone for me to help them remotely but this time was face-to-face and building relationships. It should be noted that my French is not very good but several times, they told me that my type of French is instead the one they understand better.
Our devotions came from Walking with Jesus Video series. It was indeed very timely and useful. Participants learned a lot and had so much to share from this video series. Personally, I love these videos and want to see them translated into major language groups in Cameroon.

Kadada (My Trainee) helping participants

Mofu-Gudur translators

Matal translators discovering send/receive

Group photo with all the participants and regional director for Grand North

Chai house. This is where we eat our meals everyday. Nice and open place. 

This is the series that we used for our devotions all week. It is amazing, a must watch especially for new believers. 

Access to Scripture in the appropriate media

One of the communities that we work with has been insisting that their scriptures should be made available not only in print but equally in audio as well as Android specifically in YouVersion format so that they can have it delivered unto their phones on a daily basis. To some people, it sounded as if they were asking too much for a start but to me, these are the formats that will make several people to really engage with the Scriptures very fast. This is equally an indicator that we need to listen to the people and provide what will serve them well not just what we think or want for them.
It was not until last Sunday in our Church that this became very clear to me as an older lady sat in front of me and I could see her using her Android phone to access Scriptures of course in English. Bambalang a language in the Ndop plain of North West Cameroon. So I greeted her in her language and you can imagine how she smiled back. I only know a few greetings in Bambalang though. Our SIL friends have been developing this language over the years. I have known the translators and we had a good relationship over the years. In fact, we just finished a workshop in which I was teaching the translators some tools they will use as they are nearing the completion of their NT and getting things ready for typesetting. I promised this lady that not long from now, she will access the Bible in her phone in the language of her heart and she is really looking forward tot that. She was surprised to hear that it is possible for her to have Scriptures in her language in her phone. She just come to Bamenda to visit her son. So it is encouraging to note that even people in the village access Scripture via their phones. I was just helping the translators as they are almost rounding up.

After Church, I made sure to greet her and told her that I really appreciate seeing her use her phone to access Scriptures. We got into a discussion and I sought to know what her language is. She speaks
I can see that with time more and more people will access Scripture this way. I need to get my mother an Android phone too as soon as possible. It is possible that accessing Scriptures in electronic formats like Android can also promote mother tongue literacy because people can easily switch between versions and read them. It is not easy to bring two Bibles to Church but carrying an Android device one can have more than one version installed. One good thing about electronic publishing too is that once a book is ready, it can be published and feedback can be gotten on the go as people begin to read it.

ParaTExt migration workshop in the Grand South

During the week of July 2, we got together with 14 translators, 2 exegetes and one consultant in the Francophone South of Cameroon to do a ParaTExt 8.0 workshop. This workshop was planned 8 months ago and closer to the time, I got word that there was no money. I am very thankful to the Chief Operations Officer, the National Translation Coordinator etc for having a good discussion and supporting me to see that this workshop takes place. It was a very interesting week with the devotions and the participants had the opportunity to share what they learned the previous day. We also had enough time to pray for each of the projects. Though I have challenges teaching in French, it was worth a try.