No Ordinary Book: a Bible translator tells his story

No Ordinary Book revised 2015 edition

I think it was the first time I read a book about mission and felt like the missionary was a human being… and I liked that. Such a challenge and an eye-opener! I hope many young linguists read this book and get a taste for Bible translation.

Rachel Hanna (PhD student at Queen’s Universitty Belfast) quote on back cover of No Ordinary Book

In May 2013 I blogged Kouya Goes Kindle which flagged up that No Ordinary Book, revised and updated to include the 2012 New Testament dedication, had just become available on Kindle.

Last Friday, Philip gave me a personal copy of the new paperback version of the revised and updated edition which is now available from Amazon and soon via Philip’s independent publishing platform website.

Talking about the book with a colleague and flipping through some of the pages, took me back through over thrity years of friendship with Philip and Heather. I remembered times we have shared together in Côte d’Ivoire.

Although No Ordinary Book continues to bring memories for me, I want to endorse Rachel Hanna’s hope expressed above that many readers both young and older will be challenged to get involved in Bible translation. If that happens to you, here is a great place to start.

If you want to see a few of the many photos that I took at the dedication of the Kouya New Testament dedication in 2012, you can see them in my Facebook photo album

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Kouya Goes Kindle

On Wednesday 21 March 2012, hundreds of tee shirts proclaimed in the Kouya language that the Word of God is living and powerful. Kouya Christians and their neighbours gathered for the dedication of the Kouya New Testament which had been delayed during a decade of civil unrest and violence in the Ivory Coast.

Philip Saunders presented a copy of the Kouya New Testament to the chief of Dema village. That photo now adorns the front cover of the new edition of No Ordinary Book, the story of the Kouya New Testament.

No Ordinary Book, revised and updated to include the dedication, has just become available on Kindle

It was a privilege to live alongside the Kouya Project for 8 years in Ivory Coast.

It was a privilege to become friends with Kouya Christians including the translators.

It was a privilege to be asked to write the foreword for No Ordinary Book.

It was a privilege to have been at the dedication of the Kouya New Testament in March 2012.

It is a privilege now to recommend that you upload this great story to your Kindle!

If you want to see a few of the many photos that I took at the dedication, you can see them in my Facebook photo album

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Mission starts with God

On Saturday 10 November 2012, Wycliffe Bible Translators UK held a prayer event called Pray 10/11/12 at three venues around the UK. After an opening praise session, people at all three venues watched a video entitled Mission Starts with God in which our UK Director Eddie Arthur focussed our thoughts for the day by leading us through The Lord’s Prayer. You can click on the link in the previous sentence to watch the video – it’s worth it!

Eddie has used The Lord’s Prayer before in his e-book Praying for Missionaries. As it says on the Amazon Kindle page:

It is always difficult to know how to pray for people involved in Christian mission work. This short booklet uses the outline of the Lord’s Prayer as a template for effective, cutting edge, missionary prayer.

I guess the difference with the video is that Eddie tells stories from around the Wycliffe Bible translation world and we see photographs of many of the people involved.

And so I encourage you to watch the video and download Praying for Missionaries on to your Kindle – it costs the princely sum of £0.77 – and use both to pray for us and the ongoing work of Bible translation.

 

 

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