Last week from 17-23 July, I was at New Horizon.
Evening celebration with Ben Kwashi
New Horizon has been going at Coleraine University since summer 1989 – the year we left N. Ireland to teach at Vavoua International School in Ivory Coast as members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. In recent years Hope Street (the mission zone at New Horizon) has been operated as a multi-mission effort under the auspices of MAP [Mission Agencies Partnership] – and this year I was there to do my shifts in Hope Street, but also because I particularly wanted to hear two of the main stage speakers – Chris Wright and Archbishop Ben Kwashi.
Chris Wright, author of "The Mission of God"
As you can see below, Chris comes from Belfast and is the younger brother of a long term friend who lives close to us in Belfast. I have learned a lot from listening to Chris on downloads and reading his books, so was very keen to attend his series of morning Bible Readings throughout the week. I was not disappointed!
Chris Wright was born and grew up in Belfast but over the years has spent more of his life in India and England. In September 2001 Chris was appointed to his present role as the International Director of the Langham Partnership International. Chris and his wife, Liz, belong to All Souls Church, Langham Place where Chris enjoys preaching from time to time as a member of the ministry team. He enjoys running, birding and watching rugby and has a passion to bring to life the relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics. Chris loves preaching and teaching the Bible, which he does now mostly through the Langham Preaching seminars in different parts of the world. When not travelling for this ministry he gives about 3 months of each year to his continuing writing projects. Chris and Liz live in London and have 4 adult children and 2 grandchildren.
Ben Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos, Nigeria
I was equally keen to hear Bishop Ben (as he became affectionately known throughout the week) since Wycliffe UK has strong links with Bible translation in Nigeria and Ben was once featured in a Wycliffe video stating: “Bible translation is evangelism!”
Ben Kwashi was born into a church-going family and went through normal primary education attending the Nigerian Military School. Although he had been preparing for a military career he received a clear call to go into the church’s ministry in 1976. He served in the Church for some two years before being sent for training to the Theological College of Northern Nigeria at Bukuru, Jos. He was ordained in 1982 and in January 2008 he was presented as the Archbishop of Jos Province, Nigeria. His pastoral experience is wide and varied as he has worked in rural and urban churches. In 1987 his church and vicarage were totally burned down in Christian-Muslim riots. He is currently the International Chairman of SOMA (Sharing of Ministries Abroad) and is well known as a preacher and evangelist throughout Nigeria and also in other African countries, England and America. He is married to Gloria and they have 6 children.
Another link was between Ben and the Theological College of Northern Nigeria where Ben studied. We have Wycliffe UK members teaching at TCCN on the Bible Translation degree course for Nigerian Bible translators. One of the New Horizon mission projects for 2010 will support a Wycliffe UK project to part fund Nigerian Bible translation students at TCNN.
As the New Horizon website says:
This year at New Horizon we will be supporting the efforts of 3 Mission Projects. One of these is:
Wycliffe Bible Translators programme for the training of Nigerian Bible translators at the Training College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN). In a country with more than 300 language groups, this programme will help meet the urgent need for well-equipped Nigerian translators.
Actually Nigeria has over 500 listed languages! And many of these still need Bible translation… If the New Horizon income allows this project to be supported, 18 more Nigerian Bible translators will be trained to work on some of those languages.
New Horizon has promised that we will soon be able to download the talks of all the main speakers from their website… I’m looking forward to that!
John 20:21 