Townsend abandoned his attempts to sell Bibles and began living among the Cakchiquels. He learned their complex language, created an alphabet for it, analyzed the grammar, and translated the New Testament in the remarkably short span of ten years.

And that was the beginnings of the beginnings of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

In 2012 people are still asking the same question!

Far and near
It is said that you, God, speak!
How do you do that?
Is it in their tongues?
If it is truly so,
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

East and west, north and south,
The Creator speaks, it is said!
Not in the language as of birds;
But in other human tongues I cannot understand!
God, when will you speak in my tongue?

These are the  first two verses of a poem written by James Lokuuda Kadanya, a speaker of the Toposa language of South Sudan. Toposa is still without Scripture. The full poem appeared in the Wycliffe Blog this morning.

As you have read above, the Cakchiquel people got their New Testament in the 1920s.

Bai Laurent, a Kouya friend from Ivory Coast who has appeared in my blog before here and here, prayed a similar prayer for over 40 years and had the New Testament in his language before he died last year. It is that New Testament celebration that we are going to attend on 21 March.

What can you do to help James and the Toposa people get God’s Word in their language? Try looking at this!

And if you are in N.Ireland, come along to Wycliffe and Me on Saturday 25 February 2012. Find out more on our website

Barthe & Eugenie, our Bouhitafla neighbours, reading the Kouya New Testament

We have mixed feelings about returning to Ivory Coast.

We know why we are going – to celebrate the New Testament (10 years after it arrived in the country) & the Megavoice players (solar powered MP3 players with Luke and Acts loaded).

But we have some fears, some anxieties, some uncertainties… It is almost 15 years since we left Ivory Coast in July 1997. We really want to go and visit our Kouya friends again. But will we fit in? Will they remember us? Will we recognise them?

Then there’s a big cultural divide: we’ve got used to living  in Belfast. Despite the current economic problems here, we are incredibly wealthy compared to the people we are going to visit. We’ve got comfortable, we have a nice home…

Our Kouya friends have been living through ten years of political unrest and civil war! The civil war lines passed right through their territory. How can we empathise with them? We don’t speak Kouya and our French is pretty rusty…

Is it right to spend all that money on airfares and vaccinations and visas? Surely it could be better used?

But I do think it is right to go! Just by going, by being there, we will encourage our Kouya friends. We will join in their celebration and share it with them. We will be saying that we have not forgotten them;  that our church here has not forgotten them. And they will celebrate that God did not forget them.

Kouya New Testament

Kouya elder Bai Laurent became a Christian in the late 1950s and prayed for decades that God would send someone to translate the Bible in to the Kouya language. Laurent had a confidence in God and God heard his prayers even though Laurent had to wait so long for the answer.

God did not forget the Kouya people. In the 1980s God sent Philip & Heather Saunders and Eddie & Sue Arthur to work with the Kouya Christians. The Kouyas now have their New Testament.  God has given them his Word and pointed the way to reject the fear of spirits and fetishes and ceremonial masks that were all part of their animistic past. God has adopted them as his sons and daughters in Christ!

Tucked away off the Kings Road, The Poet succeeds where so many others fail: offering a little bit of something for everyone. Warm and welcoming at any time of day, Poet customers are looking for a quick and tasty lunch, a relaxed dinner, chic cocktails and a long cool pint after a hard day at work… and we are delighted to be able to satisfy their every need!

With live acoustic music every Friday and Saturday night, plus a relaxed live set on a Sunday afternoon you can’t help but fall in love with live music at The Poet. Our weekly pub quiz is a great chance to show off your general knowledge, and maybe win a prize into the bargain!

Our friends have asked us…

In keeping with the venue we hope you will bring a poem or a little writing on the theme of food or friendship to share.

So we have come up with two offerings, one each: an episode from Roald Dahl’s Dirty Beasts and a grace from Ivory Coast. Can you guess who’s reading which?

However since this blog wishes to encourage interest in Bible translation at every opportunity, here is the Kouya grace back translated into English.

Lord God, owner of earth and sky, I thank you. You put your good hand upon us, and you added this day to our years and for this reason I give you thanks. You have given us faith and you have given us this food, for this I thank you.

Father God, put your good hand on this food and bless it. Take out anything bad which may be in it and when we have eaten it, may our hearts be cool.

In your name and in your son, Jesus’ name. So be it.

Getting in the mood for our visit to Ivory Coast in March – see Mangoes in Paradise 2

Update: vaccinations started this morning.

I have just read my daily Bible passage with SU WordLive. Mark is so concise, dramatic, direct in his story telling…

The Calling of the First Disciples   Mark 1:14-20

¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” ¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

… and I’m thinking wouldn’t it be great to have someone like Mark (who had first hand experience of Jesus’ teaching and ministry and also learned lots from Peter’s experiences of how Jesus called his disciples) to be part of the Wycliffe UK recruitment team. It looks like it would be so easy.

• Bump into an IT geek: “Hey, you, follow me and I will make you an IT support person at Horsleys Green.” And off he goes to work with Andy and Patrick – just like that!
• Meet a Queen’s University French and linguistics student: “Hey, you, follow me and I will make you into a Wycliffe member analysing an unwritten language in Senegal.” And off she goes – just like that!
• Introduced to an accountant and his wife with an interest in translation in a church I’d never been to before: “Hey, guys, follow me and I will make you useful in Bible translation.” And so they e-mail their resignations, join Wycliffe and head off to… wherever – just like that!

But then I’ve always said that our role is to facilitate the people to whom God is speaking and so we need to be in tune with what the Holy Spirit is doing… and be patient… and let God work.

But wouldn’t it be nice to just walk up to someone and say, “Hey, join Wycliffe!”

Lord, send the people you want along to Wycliffe and Me at Saintfield Road Presbyterian Church, Belfast on Saturday 25 February 2012.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.  As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.  They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”   But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”   So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.  That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.   Genesis 11:1-9

RBS to cut 3,500 jobs in investment bank shake-up

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it will cut a further 3,500 jobs, with most of them to happen this year.  The cuts are part of a reorganisation and shrinkage of its investment bank.  The losses, which will be split between its UK and international offices, come on top of 2,000 cuts announced earlier.  BBC news 12 January 2012

Today we see individuals and groups striving to outdo one another in the height and grandeur of their buildings. People and nations invest time, wealth, and political and technological expertise endeavouring to ensure security and a name. Associated is a fear of loss of identity through being ‘scattered’.

God’s evaluation is that such attitudes and actions are disastrous for the future of his world. The inhabitants’ focus is ‘us’ and ‘what we can do’, ‘our security, reputation and identity’. How different will be God’s subsequent action, as the genealogy (vs 10–32) leads on to Abraham’s family and a fresh beginning. God calls Abraham to leave familiar surroundings and his security, to go to some unknown place where ‘I will make your name great’. That is the path to security and a name, and blessing for ‘all peoples on earth’ (12:1–4).  SU WordLive comment on Genesis 11 by GJ Wenham

On the Friday we took a walk to Lough Shannagh, the largest natural lake in the Mournes.

Misty Lough Shannagh

Lunchtime

John at LoughShannagh

And so we arrived at Glasdrumman Lodge for the night. Had a good fish dish at the Harbour Inn in Annalong. Our room was Slieve Binnian – and guess what our view from the bedroom window was ?

Slieve Binnian from our room

Next morning after a very good gourmet breakfast, we set off to walk through the mountains to Newcastle, the Lodge staff having offered to pick us up at Donard Park and bring us back to pick up the car. So off we went accompanied by the Lodge dog which we later learned was very fond of accompanying randon guests up into the mountains…

Slieve Binnian as we left the Lodge

Rainbow over Binnian from the slopes of Rocky Mountain

We climbed past Long Seefin, rounded Rocky Moutain and dropped down into the Bog of Donard from where he took the Brandy Pad before climbing the crest and descending to Newcastle by the horribly rough Glen River route – possibly my least favourite path in the Moures. It was very windy all the way from the Bog of Donard, but we got brilliant misty views back down the Annalong Vally with the Devil’s Coachroad on the far side. here’s just one of them…

Magical view down Annalong Valley

A great mini break!

Bai Laurent with Kouya NT printout under a mango tree

Last week I booked flights to return to Ivory Coast. We left there as a family in July 1997 having completed an 8 year Wycliffe assignment at Vavoua International School teaching the children of mission families working in West Africa. Both our children and myself have made separate trips back to Ivory Coast quite a while ago, but for my wife, this will be her first time in Africa for almost 15 years.

So why are we returning to the land of mangoes? To be part of a belated celebration of the New Testament in the Kouya language. Belated because the Kouya New Testaments arrived in the port of Abidjan in 2002 the day after Wycliffe personnel were evacuated due to the worsening political situation. Belated because that led to ten years of civil unrest and violence. Belated because the civil war battle lines in Ivory Coast were drawn right through Kouya territory. Belated because for the past decade, the Kouya church leaders have not judged it wise to hold a public celebration of God’s Word in their heart language.

But now they feel the time is right.

Mangoes in paradise 1 was some thoughts on Genesis 3 and Adam and Eve’s encounter with the fruit of the forbidden tree and the consequences of that disobedience for mankind. This blog is about my memories of a very peaceful rural environment where we lived and taught young people and made friends with Kouya neighbours in Bouhitafla and Dema and Gouabafla – and where almost everyone had a mango tree, not just for the delicious fruit, but also for the shade that the tree gave. It is also about my thoughts of how that peaceful rural area was plunged into conflict and suffering because Ivorians could not live and work and do politics together peacefully. It is also about how the Kouya New Testament brought encouragement and hope to suffering Kouya Christians – and how other Kouyas came to faith by hearing God’s Word in their heart language for the first time.

At this point, the flights are booked and we’re planning vaccinations and visas and travel insurance and all those things… but I’m starting to taste the mangoes. The fresh mangoes, not the UK supermarket mangoes.  And I’m looking forward to seeing people that I haven’t seen since 1998. And I’m wondering how much it has all changed in Abidjan and in Kouya land…

Arrived in the office just after eight, turned on the computer, got a cup of coffee – and opened SU WordLive to read my daily Bible passage. Genesis 3 – the Fall of Man. The image was not the traditional apple on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – but then the Bible never said that it was. I was happy to see the picture above of some mangoes, one of my favourite fruits.

⁴ “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

¹¹ And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

This morning’s SU WordLIve Main Point by Mike Hawthorne…

More than a story

There is a danger, as we read about the baddy serpent, lovely Eve, dim-witted Adam and the tasty, tempting fruit, that the homely familiarity of the tale disguises the misery of what takes place. God in his grace has given us a story which can be presented in cartoon form to small children but the significance of the events is profound and disastrous for humankind.

Our choice
At a point in history, our race – our relatives – chose to disobey their creator, to ignore his plan for their well-being and to engage with evil. The evil was beyond Adam and Eve’s full understanding (and ours, thankfully) but they knew they were choosing to do wrong.

Had I been there in that garden, would I have decided differently? Alas, the evidence of my own life is not hopeful.

Adam and Eve chose disobedience; Adam and Eve realised what they had done; Adam and Eve hid from God; God came searching for them – God still comes searching for us. We continue to make bad choices, but God still loves us because he created us and we have just celebrated the turning point in history when God the Father translated himself from divine into human in the person of God the Son – Jesus of Nazareth. John 1:14

Read more including Deeper Study by John Olley at SU WordLive

The Bible is not about human search for God but God’s search for men and women.

They cover a lot of politics north and south; sport… mostly golf, of course; the Queen’s historic visit to the Republic of Ireland; strikes; the MTV awards in Belfast; and the Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band winning the pipe band World Championships. Incidentally a former drum major from the very same band once trained  me as a teenager in a Boys Brigade bugle band.

You can view much better images of all 21 photos at the link above, but here are my personal choices…

1. Thousands protest the dissident Republican murder of young Roman Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr and absolutely rejecting any return to sectarian violence in N. Ireland

2. The Queen’s historic visit to the GAA headquarters Croke Park in Dublin… just one incident in the amazing series of quite historic events

3. Rory McIlroy – our amazing young Nornirn winner of the US Open

4. Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band world champions 2011 – look quite delighted with themselves, don’t they? Lovely picture!

5. Darren Clarke celebrates with a traditional pint of Guinness after winning the British Open to complete the NI trio of Open winners in just over a year

All, in their own ways, positive images to end the year… and that’s in some contrast to a very depressing view of the world today on BBC News at Ten this evening.