The Awful Silence of God

Did you ever pray and hear no answer from God?

A man from Ivory Coast called Toualy Bai Laurent, who became a Christian in 1958, wanted to learn more and began to pray that God would send someone to translate the Bible into his Kouya language. By 1980 he was still praying with no sign that God had heard his prayers…

Francois Sare, a man from Burkina Faso became a Christian in 1989, the same year we went with Wycliffe Bible Translators to next door Ivory Coast.

“During all those years I haven’t been able to read the Bible in my own language. I’ve got my own French Bible but my first language is Bissa Barka. If the Bible was in Bissa Barka then I would be able to understand more than I can now. I think about how long it will be until we have the New Testament. I’m in a hurry to have it.”

Did you ever try to tell someone something, but they wouldn’t listen? That’s the same as the Old Testament prophets, like Amos, from Judah, whom God sent to “prophesy to my people Israel”. The prophets spent years proclaiming the Lord’s message, but nobody listened.

In the opening chapter of his book, Amos proclaimed God’s judgment on Israel’s neighbours – Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab – for what they had done to Israel. God would relent no longer: he would send fire to consume fortresses; kings and peoples would go into exile. Can you imagine Amos’ hearers enjoying this? Good for the Lord! They’re going to get what they deserve!

But in chapter two, Amos proclaimed judgment on Judah and Israel. Judah had been led astray by false gods just like their ancestors before them. They rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep his decrees. It was a chicken and egg situation: their rejection of God’s law led to worship of false gods which prevented them obeying God’s law… and so it went on.

Judah gets it quick and sharp, but the judgment on Israel lasts for almost five chapters. Israel is condemned for pressing into slavery those who cannot repay paltry debts; trampling on the heads of the poor; sexual immorality and drunkenness in the temples of false gods.

God said, “I will crush you!” You will not escape my judgment. You have been warned and you have continued to disobey. God said, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts.” Their token sacrifices failed to stop their wallowing in complacent pride and self-centred prosperity. “They do not know how to do right,” declared the Lord.

Interspersed in all this are appeals to “seek the Lord and live” – but no! Israel’s leaders, her priests and her king don’t like what they are hearing. If Amos could just be persuaded to go away.

So Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, accused Amos of conspiring against King Jeroboam. Imagine him spitting invective in the face of Amos as he says,  “Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Don’t prophesy any more at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

Amaziah confirmed the rejection of God. The ancient sanctuary of Bethel was not God’s. It belonged to king Jeroboam and his kingdom. Amaziah accused Amos of trying to profit from his prophecy.  Amos responded that the Lord would surely send Israel into exile.

And so we arrive at chapter 8 with Amos’ vision of a basket of ripe fruit. A positive harvest image? But no – the fruit was Israel ripe for punishment. Israel had rejected the invitations to seek the Lord; Israel had evicted Amos because they didn’t want to hear what he was saying.

They continued to do what the Lord had deplored:

“Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’ – skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.”

The judgment was serious: the earth darkened in broad daylight; joyful religious feasts turned to mourning; temple songs to wailing. But the bit that really hit me was verse 11!

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

The awful silence of God!

If you won’t listen to me, the Lord said, I won’t speak to you. It had been prophesied before. Amos prophesied over 300 years before Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets. There were several times when there seemed to be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, but the big one came in the inter-testamental period – those 400 years or so between the Old and New Testaments.

So what broke the silence? Gabriel spoke to a flabbergasted Zechariah and to an astonished Mary. Thirty years later, John the Baptist called out in a voice from the desert to prepare the way for the Lord, the arrival of the Messiah, fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, his cousin. The Lord chose to speak to his people again. Would they listen this time?

The modern famine of hearing the word of the Lord is double sided. One side is the majority of the world’s population who have access to the Bible but, like the people of Israel, many refuse to listen. Twenty first century people see the Bible and Christianity and even God as irrelevant, outdated, and often badly represented by Christians.

The other side is the millions who want to listen and hear, but they cannot – because the Bible is not available in their heart languages.

Toualy Bai Laurent from Ivory Coast had his prayers answered in the 1980s and, before he died a few years ago, he had his copy of the Kouya New Testament.

Francois from Burkina Faso is encouraged because a translation into Bissa Barka has begun thanks to fundraising during the 2011 Biblefresh year.

Postscript: Current estimates suggest around 209 million people speaking 1,967 languages may have a need for Bible translation to begin. See also

They still experience the famine of hearing the Word of the Lord.

This piece was first published on my blog on 20 December 2012 when I flagged it up as a draft. Now the article has been printed in the current edition of Presbyterian Women’s Wider World magazine..

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The Awful Silence of God

I’ve been asked to write a short piece on Amos as part of a series on the Minor Prophets for a local Christian magazine. Here’s my draft: I’d welcome feedback

Did you ever pray and hear no answer from God?

I knew a man from Ivory Coast who became a Christian in 1958. He wanted to learn more and began to pray that God would send someone to translate the Bible into his Kouya language. By 1980 he was still praying with no sign that God had heard his prayers…

Did you ever try to tell someone something, but they wouldn’t listen? That’s like the Old Testament prophets who spent years proclaiming the Lord’s message – but nobody listened.

Like Amos, from Judah, whom God sent to “prophesy to my people Israel”. In the first chapter or so, Amos proclaimed God’s judgment on Israel’s neighbours – Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab – for what they had done to Israel. God would relent no longer: he would send fire to consume fortresses; kings and peoples would go into exile. Can you imagine Amos’ hearers enjoying this? Good for the Lord! They’re going to get what they deserve!

But in chapter two, Amos proclaimed judgment on Judah and Israel. Judah had been led astray by false gods just like their ancestors before them. They rejected the law of the Lord and did not keep his decrees. It was a chicken and egg situation: their rejection of God’s law led to worship of false gods which prevented them obeying God’s law… and so it went on.

Judah gets it quick and sharp, but the judgment on Israel lasts for almost five chapters. Israel is condemned for pressing into slavery those who cannot repay paltry debts; trampling on the heads of the poor; sexual immorality and drunkenness in the temples of false gods.

God said, “I will crush you!” You will not escape my judgment. You have been warned and you have continued to disobey. God said, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts.” Their token sacrifices failed to stop their wallowing in complacent pride and self-centred prosperity. “They do not know how to do right,” declared the Lord.

Interspersed in all this are appeals to “seek the Lord and live” – but no! Israel’s leaders, her priests and her king don’t like what they are hearing. If Amos could just be persuaded to go away…

So Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, accused Amos of conspiring against King Jeroboam. Can you imagine him spitting invective in the face of Amos as he said?

“Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Don’t prophesy any more at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.”

Amaziah confirmed the rejection of God. The ancient sanctuary of Bethel was not God’s. It belonged to king Jeroboam and his kingdom. Amaziah accused Amos of trying to profit from his prophecy.  Amos responded that the Lord would surely send Israel into exile.

And so we arrive at chapter 8 with Amos’ vision of a basket of ripe fruit. A positive harvest image, but no – the fruit was Israel ripe for punishment. Israel had rejected the invitations to seek the Lord; Israel had evicted Amos because they didn’t want to hear what he was saying. They continued to do what the Lord had deplored:

“Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’ – skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.”

The judgment was serious: the earth darkened in broad daylight; joyful religious feasts turned to mourning; temple songs to wailing. But the bit that really hit me was verse 11!

“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.”

The awful silence of God!

If you won’t listen to me, the Lord said, I won’t speak to you. It had been prophesied before. Amos prophesied over 300 years before Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets. There were several times when there seemed to be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, but the big one came in the inter-testamental period – those roughly 400 years between the New and Old Testaments.

So what broke the silence? Gabriel spoke to a flabbergasted Zechariah and to an astonished Mary. Thirty years later, John the Baptist called out in a voice from the desert to prepare the way for the Lord, the arrival of the Messiah, fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus, his cousin. The Lord chose to speak to his people again. Would they listen this time?

The modern famine of hearing the word of the Lord is double sided. One side is the majority of the world’s population who have access to the Bible but, like the people of Israel, many refuse to listen. Twenty first century people see the Bible and Christianity and even God as irrelevant, outdated, and often badly represented by Christians.

The other side is the millions who want to listen and hear, but they cannot – because the Bible is not available in their heart languages.

I know a man from Burkina Faso who became a Christian in 1989, the same year we went with Wycliffe Bible Translators to next door Ivory Coast.

“During all those years I haven’t been able to read the Bible in my own language. I’ve got my own French Bible but my first language is Bissa Barka. If the Bible was in Bissa Barka then I would be able to understand more than I can now. I think about how long it will be until we have the New Testament. I’m in a hurry to have it.”

Toualy Bai Laurent from Ivory Coast had his prayers answered in the 1980s and, before he died a few years ago, he had his copy of the Kouya New Testament.

Francois from Burkina Faso is encouraged because a translation into Bissa Barka has begun thanks to fundraising during the 2011 Biblefresh year.

Postscript: Current estimates suggest around 209 million people speaking 1,967 languages may have a need for Bible translation to begin. See also

They still experience the famine of hearing the Word of the Lord.

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‘No one should have to learn a foreign language so that they can hear about Jesus.’ No.2

‘No one should have to learn a foreign language so that they can hear about Jesus.’

Thanks to the work of the Ndop Cluster Team in NW Cameroon, the Bamunka people dedicated the Gospel of Luke in March 2012 – the first Scripture in their language.

To learn more about how to help get God’s Word to every language go to

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‘No one should have to learn a foreign language so that they can hear about Jesus.’ No.1

‘No one should have to learn a foreign language so that they can hear about Jesus.’

Biblefresh 2011 Photo credit Clare Kendall

Thanks to financial gifts during the 2011 Biblefresh year, the Bible is now being translated into Francois’ language Bissa Barka.

To learn more go to

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Translation transformation in Burkina Faso

Women from Niaogho village reading their Bissa Lebir New Testaments

Following up on yesterday’s blog Old Shoe, Old Bible I tracked down the original quote from Krish Kandiah (in the July/August edition of IDEA magazine page 6) commenting on a recent visit to EA partners in Burkina Faso.

In the UK we know the value of native translation – having the Bible in English has shaped our culture. Our problem is that we’ve lost our appetite for the Bible. But in Burkina Faso, the President of the African Evangelical Alliance, Pastor Samuel Yameogo, told me the people there would rather have a Bible than shoes.

In the energy sapping heat of 50 degrees, we visited a village church. It was hard to imagine anything stirring, but inside there was a lively literacy project running for women and girls who can’t go to school. I realised the impact having the Bible in their language would have.

Krish has just summed up Biblefresh for me:

• reviving the appetite for the Bible in the UK and Ireland
• challenging UK and Irish Christians to support Bible translation in Burkina Faso – and hopefully creating a lasting realisation of the Bible translation need around the world

Francois Sare, a farmer from Garango village, can't wait to get the New Testament in his Bissa Barka language

Francois has both a good corn harvest and some shoes – but he also has this message for us:

… my first language is Bissa Barka. If the Bible was in Bissa Barka then I would be able to understand more than I can now.  I think about how long it will be until we have the New Testament. I’m in a hurry to have it.  I would say to people in Britain that I hope that the Lord will help them and give them the strength to support this project.

Read more of Francois’ story on the Wycliffe Biblefresh pages – and link to more stories about Bissa Lebir and Bissa Barka.

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Old Shoe, Old Bible

When I read a recent report about Krish Kandiah’s Biblefresh visit to Burkina Faso, there was one thing which struck me more than anything else. In this desperately poor country, the President of the African Evangelical Alliance nonetheless said that the people in his churches would ‘rather have a Bible than shoes’. In a land of Biblical plenty, that really got me thinking, and so the small art project below was born.   Richard Littledale

Inspired by a quotation in print that the writer had heard while visiting Burkina Faso where the Biblefresh translation initiative is focussed, Richard Littledale got creative! It was almost Blue Peteresque in its simplicity: here we have a worn out old shoe and an old discarded Bible – what can we make of them?

worn out shoe and discarded Bible

And yet the blog turned out to be a profound parable of Bible plenty versus Bible poverty! The Bible Shoe was created – and Richard creatively highlights many of our thoughts in his 8 bullet points.

The Bible Shoe

There is  the shadow of treating a Bible as an idol that we must not mistreat; the uneasiness of daring to cut up even an old unwanted Bible. And yet Richard shows how both receive a new lease of life as they are combined together. For me the penultimate bullet point is most poignant. There is just one shoe, not a pair. Bible inequality is clearly exhibited.

Statistics are often dubious, but there is one which I use in speaking about Wycliffe and Bible translation. I use it with reservation, but it suggests that there are more versions of the Bible available in English than there languages with a full translation of the Bible. The Bible translation task remains a challenge – over 2,000 languages spoken by over 350 million people have not a word of the Bible.

Find the Wycliffe statistics here. I’m happy with them – and they are backed up by other organisations including the Bible Societies.

Thanks to Richard for his reactions to the quote that many people in churches in Burkina Faso would ‘rather have a Bible than shoes’.

While readers check out Richard’s full blog, I think I’ll go and see if I can find a worn out shoe and an unwanted Bible…

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Wycliffe at Dublin Culture Night 23 September 2011

Jon at the "translation desk"

It’s a fine and fancy ramble from the northside to the south… 100 miles in fact from Belfast to Dublin last Friday to be part of the Grace Fellowship Church event as part of Dublin Culture Night. See also my recent blog.

I had brought with me a substantial part of the Wycliffe UK travelling exhibition – see below – to stand alongside Jon Blackwell’s Bible translation desk, Mick Toolin’s Water for Cameroon exhibit and lots of other stuff provided by Grace Fellowship Church.

Wycliffe UK travelling exhibition

And here’s me talking to a medical student from Singapore and her mother in front of the stands with the bread display and an international selection of breads for visitors to taste … in fact it was my evening meal!

Singaporeans were not the only nationality that I talked to… a Cameroonian lady with three children who had lived in Dublin for 7 years was amazed to discover that I had visited her home area of Ndop, NW Cameroon, and that Jon’s laptop was showing his work on Luke in Bamunka, a neighbouring language to her own.

An American girl studying linguistics at University College Dublin, was equally amazed when she picked up the Sissala New Testament from Burkina Faso from our table – she had been on a Wycliffe USA Discovery team and had worked with the related Sissala team of N. Ghana.

And then there was the guy from Sweden and his girl friend from Colombia – both fascinated by languages… not to mention people from Poland, Sierra Leone, China and even some Irish

It was a great evening! Pray with us for potential Wycliffe recruits from around the world and with Grace for the conversations about Christianity that church members had with people who dropped in to see what was going on.

A few more pictures…

Admiring the Bamunka literacy T shirt

Conversation at the "translation desk"

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Rare King James Bible found: Bible historic or Biblefresh?

An old copy of the King James Bible, thought to be a rare original 1611 edition has been found in a village church in Wiltshire.

There are fewer than 200 original printings of the King James version known to exist. And it is believed that the rediscovered Bible is one of the few remaining editions printed in 1611.

As a former historian, this news appeals to me; original documents are the stuff of historical research, but the Bible has never been lost to us. The King James is just one of a long line of translations into English, all of which sought to make the Bible accessible to people in a way they could understand.

This year is of course the 400th anniversary of the first edition of the King James Version being printed in London. At that time, no one could have envisaged the impact that the translation would have: since then the King James Version has become the biggest selling book in the English language – apparently it has also been the most shop lifted book in history. It has shaped the English language and had a huge effect on the English speaking world. The King James Version has become a cultural icon.

But the Bible is far more than just a piece of literature, far more than a cultural icon – we believe it is the story of God’s involvement with the earth and its people from creation to the end of the world. Wycliffe Bible Translators wants to concentrate less on Bible historic and more on Biblefresh - whether that be people in the UK re-engaging with the Bible in ways that enables God to speak to them afresh or people in Burkina Faso and elsewhere receiving the Bible in their heart languages for the first time.

Geoff Procter is a member of the parochial church council where the rare original was found; I like his comment.

Mr Procter said the most important thing about the Bible was that it was meant to be a living working book for people to live by.

“Well I think what it’s going to do is enable us to talk about the Bible,” he said.

“Because in a secular world it’s seen as an important document it will actually bring the opportunities to us to go and discuss it in more detail.

“When we took it for evaluation to the curator of a Bible museum, one of the first things he said was whatever you do you must display this so that people can read the word.

“That stuck with me – you know the fact that it’s what it says rather than what it is.”

In a blog discussing reading the Bible together online in a variety of ways, Richard Littledale reminds us of the danger of God’s Word getting lost in the 2011 media plethora about the King James Bible…

Although people are talking at length about the linguistic heritage of the Bible in the English language, there is a danger that it becomes little more than a piece of heritage – like a stately home or a love letter preserved behind glass. We cannot afford to do this – which is why we must embrace these Twenty-First Century media to encourage a wholehearted debate about a book whose pages we regard as sacred.

This is the vision of Wycliffe Bible Translators – could you be a part of this?

By 2025, together with partners worldwide, we aim to see a Bible translation project begun in all the remaining languages that need one.

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Got a Bible? Give a Bible!

This presentation about the need for Bible translation in Burkina Faso is now available online. Please feel free to download it and share in your churches, homegroups and blogs. It would be especially wonderful if the online community could get behind Bible translation.

If you or your friends, home group, church…whoever wants to contribute to this Biblefresh project, go to this page on the Biblefresh website.

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Biblefresh Burkina Faso

 

A Burkinabe man

 

Colleague Phil Prior has been in Africa this past week…

Last Friday morning I left the UK and flew to Burkina Faso with a journalist and a photographer to visit a couple of language groups in the Bissa region of the country. Two flights and a three hour car journey later, we were meeting pastors and church leaders who, as yet, preach to a congregation from a Bible in a language that most don’t understand.

The purpose of Phil’s trip is to gather materials that I am looking forward to seeing and hearing – and using to promote our Wycliffe Biblefresh translation project for the Bissa people in Burkina Faso during 2011.

The stories we have heard, the video that has been shot and the photographs that have been taken, will all be shared with Christians in the UK through Biblefresh. It’s hoped that we will be able to encourage the church at home to support the church here in Burkina Faso and help the thousands of people in the Bissa region hear of God in their own language.

Just like the Dagara people also from Burkina Faso that our Engage team visited in 2009…

The Gospel of Mark in the Dagara language

To learn more about the Biblefresh Bible translation project, visit the Wycliffe blog article

Are you interested in finding out how you can be involved in helping 2,200 language communities without a single word of the Bible? Whay not come to a Wycliffe and Me day near you.

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