8 AFRICA 8 Ask God to use the truth found in His Word to mature those who follow Christ. May the Scriptures draw CIDA; AFRICA others into a transforming relationship with Him. Praise the Lord! A production of dramatized MARBLE; AFRICA Scripture stories in Cida is now complete and the stories are being released one at a time on the Internet. The main translator in the Marble New Testament The Scripture website is getting about one thousand project suffered from ongoing health problems that hits a week, mostly from speakers of the language who prevented her from working. Praise the Lord that have immigrated to other countries. Pray that the she is now able to work again. Ask God to continue translation team will find ways to get the recordings to heal her body and keep her from further relapses. directly into the country, possibly through radio Pray for final revisions and consultant checks on broadcasts. Ask God to give creativity to the team as the manuscript to be completed so that the New they consider how to improve the online feedback Testament can be recorded and distributed in audio mechanism in order to increase communications format; it will then also be printed. Ask the Lord to between the audience and a local believer who is direct the team in finding the best ways to distribute responding to their questions and comments. Above these Scriptures, and for hearts eager to receive them. all, pray that these products will result in new NARA; AFRICA believers and communities of faith. Rejoice! The Nara New Testament is now available in KWEME; AFRICA (40,000) audio and PDF format on the Internet! Local believers The Kweme New Testament was completed and are increasingly interested in the translation as they an additional review of it was carried out last year. realize how much more clearly it communicates than Ask God to give alertness, joy, and wisdom to those regional translations they have used in the past. Pray involved in the typesetting. Pray for a good print job for transformed lives through the Word in Nara. Ask resulting in strong, durable books. Ask the Lord to for God’s blessing on each step of the production show the translation team the best way to distribute process as the New Testament goes to print. and make the Scriptures available in this people group. Meanwhile, translation of the Nara Old Testament THE FINISH LINE 2014: AFRICA 1 WYCLIFFE.ORG continues to move forward. To keep the translation’s evaluate each translated New Testament book this progress on pace, pray for open schedules that will year. They hope to have the New Testament ready for allow a translation consultant to meet with the Nara typesetting by the end of 2015, but much remains to team when needed. be done before then. Pray that nothing will impede their progress, and that they will stay focused. Pray RUPAIQA; AFRICA that the committees and organizations coordinating The process of consultant-checking the Rupaiqa Old the final translation and publication steps will work Testament translation is almost finished, but the last well together, and that they will be able to prepare the stage has gone more slowly than expected. The main language communities for distributing the translation. translator, expecting that the process would already Finally, ask God to raise up the funds needed for printing the New Testament. FON; BENIN (1,400,000) The Fon Bible has been ready for printing for a while, but difficulties in finding the funding to print two editions have stalled further progress. Ask the Lord to provide the funds in His good timing. Pray that local churches will prepare for the Scripture dedications as they wait. Once printed, pray that the finished books will be important tools for church leaders. The translation team is also producing an audio version of the Bible with Faith Comes By Hearing. Pray that this easy-access Scripture medium will have a large impact on the people. The mother tongue Fon community is mainly in the country of Benin, but smaller communities exist in a neighboring country, and many speak it as a trade language. Ask the Holy Spirit to allow this translation to bear much fruit among all be complete, made other commitments and is now speakers of the Fon language! only available to the rest of the team for a few weeks each year. Pray that God will provide a way forward, 8 BURKINA FASO 8 either through adding other qualified team members or by making a way for this senior translator to BUAMU; BURKINA FASO (186,000) be involved, in spite of his other commitments. In Hallelujah! The Buamu New Testament was the meantime, the local team has recognized that celebrated on April 20, 2013. At long last the they need to revise the New Testament which they Buama people have this precious book in their translated on their own several years ago. Pray that heart language. All of the churches in the area were they will be able to find the right team members to represented, both Catholic and Protestant. The be involved, and that the Lord will give guidance and president of one denomination challenged those patience through the process. present to make 2013 the “Year of the Bible in 8 BENIN 8 B u amu .” Thank the Lord that an audio recording was also produced later in the year. Ask God to use His AJA; BENIN/TOGO (512,000) Word—in written and audio forms—to impact the hearts and lives of the Buaba people. Work continues Ask the Lord to give the Aja translators and on portions of the Old Testament. consultants alert minds and sharp eyes as they THE FINISH LINE 2014: AFRICA 2 WYCLIFFE.ORG DAGARA; BURKINA FASO (100,000) all-powerful God to provide consultants, and pray for funds to come in so that the team members can Thank the Lord that the remaining books of the travel to the checking sessions. Lift up the need for New Testament have been drafted. They now need good health among the team members and their to be checked for comprehension by people in the families; this is a continual challenge. Thank the community and then reviewed by a consultant. Lord that some local church leaders have been People are usually occupied with agricultural tasks trained in promoting the use of the Scriptures. Pray during the rainy season, so ask God to provide a that they will apply what they have learned in their time and the funds necessary for the community churches and with individual members. check. Lift up the need for consultants to be available to help in prayer. Finances are needed to allow the 8 CAMEROON 8 team to travel and stay together at one location during the checking sessions. “Humanly speaking, it BUM; CAMEROON (21,400) is impossible. But with God everything is possible” (Matthew 19:26, NLT). Last year the Bum translation team made steady progress, and the New Testament will be typeset this DOGOSÉ; BURKINA FASO (40,000) year. Lift up in prayer the translation and typesetting teams as they finalize details like formatting and The remaining books of the Dogosé New Testament the right pictures to use. Pray for keen eyes for the have been drafted. The next steps are to test them for proofreaders so they will catch any errors before it comprehension and then revise them. Other books is sent for printing. Ask the Lord to watch over and are ready to be checked by a consultant for accuracy protect the printing presses, the binding machines, and and clarity. A huge obstacle has arisen though— the finished New Testaments when they are transported insufficient finances. The budget allocated in fiscal back to Cameroon. Above all, pray that the Holy Spirit year 2013 could not even cover the translation team will prepare fertile soil among local speakers to receive members’ salaries. Ask the Lord to protect the team His Word with eagerness. from discouragement. And please pray that God, Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy - www.cabtal.org who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, will raise up the funds so that revision, testing, and consultant HDI; CAMEROON (25,000) checking will take place. Pray that efforts made by the team to promote use of the Scriptures will bear fruit The day finally arrived—the Hdi people received the among Dogosé speakers. New Testament in their heart language on December 21, 2013! Some people even gave money early to reserve KAANSA; BURKINA FASO (6,000) their copy of the New Testament. Praise the Lord for seven hundred Hdi people who learned to read The final books of the Kaansa New Testament were during 2013. Ask God to keep the spark alive in their checked by a consultant last year. Pray for the translation hearts. Pray that the Hdi will thirst to know God better team members as they prepare for typesetting; this through reading His Word in their heart language. includes writing introductions for the books, creating a glossary, and inserting pictures and maps. Ask God to KWANJA; CAMEROON (20,000) enable those who typeset the manuscript to be alert and accurate. Pray that God will prepare Kaansa hearts to Pray that many Kwanjas will hear the audio receive His Word with joy. The finish line is getting closer! Scriptures and that the Holy Spirit will touch their lives and bring them to faith in Jesus. Pray SÌCÌTÉ; BURKINA FASO (38,000) for the Internet in Ngaoundéré to work better; it is needed for consultants to use Skype in order Some books of the Sìcìté New Testament are ready to check a three-year series of lectionaries.