Bible Translation in Cameroon

A recent broadcast of the 700 Club had a segment describing the work of Bible translation that is happening here in Cameroon. CBN news has graciously allowed us permission to post this clip here on the blog, so please take a few minutes to see some of the wonderful sights of our "home" and also to get a very good summary of the work of Bible translation that you are a part of, through your support of our work here.

If the video above does not work, feel free to check out the full broadcast at: http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/archive/club/700club030912_ws .  The segment on Cameroon begins at about minute 17.

(video posted here courtesy of CBN News; used with permission)

Introducing Marie Noel

I love how God provides for us in ways that are so much better than what we would do for ourselves.

Recently I was looking for someone new to help me in the home. Our old househelp, Emma, just had a baby girl and will now stay home. When she is ready to come back to work, we are praying that God will provide a new job for her, one that she can continue with after we go on furlough in June. When we began looking for someone to take her place, I thought I knew who it was that God had lined up for me. After all, the timing was right as far as I could see, I could communicate with her and she has years of experience so I could get lots done for furlough packing. But no, every time I pushed on that door it became closed again. I really didn't want to try an inexperienced, French speaking young lady in my home at this time. Didn't God get that? Well, He did. And He knew better. 

 

Let me introduce Marie Noel; married, mother of 2 year old twins, delightful, worshiping, inexperienced, eager to learn, efficient, and get this: She understands what I'm asking for in my broken, childlike French! So far, she has been exactly what we needed, and we are very thankful that God provided in ways that we didn't look for!

Nocturnal Visitors and other Philosophical Musings

We got home from church today and discovered that we had a visitor. This visitor has been around for some time, though only Josiah has seen him with any regularity. However, today, Lori discovered his hiding place and we all went out to greet him and officially welcome him to our compound.

Can you see our visitor, hiding behind the palm fronds?

I'm talking, of course, about an owl. Josiah has seen him flying around our yard several times at night, and most of us have heard him from time to time, but this is the first time we were all able to see him and get a good look at him. He was hiding behind the fronds of one of the palm trees that grows next to our wall, and if the other birds hadn't given him away, Lori probably never would have seen him. Now, we're wondering how many times he's been roosting there, watching us go about our business in the yard without us ever knowing he was there. Talk about clandestine surveillance!

But as we were gathering near the tree he was hiding behind, trying to find the best angle to take a picture of him, I was struck by a strange thought. Here we were, gathering around this interesting visitor, trying to get a good look at him, commenting on how beautiful and cool he looked and just generally marveling at our good fortune to be able to see, up close, one of these amazing creatures. But it occurred to me that the Cameroonians who live on the other side of the wall he was roosting on would likely have had a very different reaction. In many Cameroonian cultures, the owl is a very bad, very unlucky omen; often it symbolizes the coming of difficulty, disease or death. As a general rule, Cameroonians don't like owls, and if he had been discovered roosting in the next yard over, they probably would have chased him away or tried to kill him. What was a wonder and blessing to us would have seemed a burden and a curse to them.

Here's a better look at him

Which got me thinking about the passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 15 - 16:

For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? (NIV)

As we live out our Christian walk, people will react to the aroma of Christ that we carry with us. And sometimes, they will react negatively because they smell in our life the aroma of their death in rejecting Christ. But I think the important lesson is that we're not responsible for their reaction; that is God's job and the work of His Spirit. We just need to be sure we're roosting where He has called us to be. He'll take care of the rest.

PS - Both pictures were taken by Josiah, who took the trouble to climb a ladder to get a better shot at him.

God Speaks Nooni!

Nooni New Testaments arrive in Lassin

On December 22, 2011, the Nooni people of the Northwest of Cameroon celebrated the arrival of the newly translated Nooni New Testament! This is the culmination of about twenty years of effort, spearheaded by Wycliffe translators Dave and Cindy Lux. Dave and Cindy came to Cameroon in the early 90's with their four children, moved to the village of Lassin where they began working with the Nooni people to translate God's Word into the Nooni language.

Dave Lux with the Nooni translation team

This is a very special translation for us, because Kevin had the privilege of teaching all four of the Lux children as they grew and went through high school. So the Nooni translation is one of those that we have had a direct hand in helping to complete; Dave and Cindy have said publicly many times that, if Rain Forest International School did not exist, they would not have been able to remain in Cameroon and complete the work of translation that they felt called to do. So we are rejoicing along with the Lux family as they celebrate the completion of this great work, giving the Nooni people God's Word in the language of their hearts.

And of course, we are always reminded that, just as we supported Dave and Cindy in their work, making the Nooni translation a reality, many of you have faithfully stood behind us in our ministry, making our contribution to Bible translation in Cameroon possible. So we hope you will rejoice along with us at how God has used you to provide His Word to the Nooni people of Cameroon!

Nooni pastors praying over a
Nooni New Testatment

Please pray with us that the Lord would bless the reading and sharing of His Word among the Nooni people, that the Nooni church would be strengthened and built up through a greater knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, and, above all, that the Lord's Name would be glorified in the hearts and lives of our Nooni brothers and sisters.

The Lux's daughter, Anna, and her husband Sam (both former students of Kevin's) were able to return to Cameroon to attend the dedication celebration in December, and they have produced a video chronicling the dedication ceremony. We would encourage you to take a look; we were greatly encouraged to see how clearly God worked to provide His Word to His people in the Nooni language and I hope you will be encouraged as well!

(if the video above doesn't work, here is the link to it: Nooni New Testament Dedication video )

Why We Do What We Do

Here is part of a letter that Wycliffe US President Bob Creason recently sent out to Wycliffe members around the world. We think it summarizes pretty well why we're here supporting the work of Bible translation in Cameroon:

In a minority language group where people are not well acquainted with Jesus, a woman was hired to translate one of the gospels. Although she was fluent in Russian (the language from which she was translating), she discovered that the words in her own language were “so beautiful—brighter, more touching, deeper than Russian.”  No matter how often she read the book, it still spoke to her: “I start crying when I read about Jesus being lonely and praying during the night before His crucifixion. When I read those words in my language I can’t stop crying. The words are so alive, they pierce my soul.” When she read it to others, they also wept.

In another language group in the area, a mother tongue translator needed to find out if a new translation of Mark’s Gospel communicated clearly, so she read it to a group of teachers.  Because she was concentrating very hard, she did not look up until she heard a noise that sounded like laughter. Was something wrong with the text? Did her listeners think it inappropriate to read in the local language when they were all educated in Russian?

Then she realized that it was not laughter but crying!  She looked up to see a school principal with his head bowed and a pool of tears on the desk in front of him. The story in Mark 12 about the poor widow giving her offering had touched him deeply. When he heard it in his own language, he realized that Jesus' words carried a challenge—it is not enough just to hear the words; we must live accordingly.

If these people speak and teach in the language of wider communication, why do they still respond in this way to their mother tongue? A translator in West Asia put it this way:  “We can understand the Bible with our mind in the national language, but it’s the mother tongue that plants the Word in our hearts.” After giving 18 years of his life to translating the New Testament into his own language, this man turned his attention to the Old Testament. Now the full Bible is being typeset by a partner organization and is expected to be dedicated in 2012.

Keeping up with the Chiltons...

Some recent activities in our personal lives:

            Ever played the game Hungry, Hungry Hippo with children? We had an adventure looking for the local hungry hippo when we took a family canoe trip on a local river; he was spotted by our friends in kayaks the week previous to our trip. We enjoyed our day buy saw no hungry hippo. I suppose that's good because he is reported to be aggressive.

            In between lots of illnesses we had some fun playing games and watching old TV shows thanks to our home Internet connection that we acquired to communicate with Bradley. It sure was a cool summer here with mostly cloudy days and very little rain. We also enjoyed doing lots of yard work together. Daniel and Josiah especially enjoy trimming our tree branches with machetes!
            At RFIS, volleyball has become an important activity for us, in addition to the normal Running Club. Josiah and Daniel are both improving their skills on the court, and both are running to be in shape for climbing Mt. Cameroon in late February. Please pray for the extra money they need to enjoy that activity.
            Normally, the Drama performance is second semester and you get a report about that in late spring, but this year it's happening before Christmas. The play: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The performers: Josiah Chilton, Daniel Chilton and about 12 other high school students.
            At our young school PRS we have a whole new staff! Praise God they arrived, and school is going smoothly. Pray that teachers, administrators and students would all thrive and God would be glorified throughout school.  

Here is an example of how God's word, through The Word Comes by Hearing, is affecting a community in Cameroon

This is a story told by a Cameroonian pastor:

I am a blind man and the leader of the Church of village S. When I became blind many years ago, I was discouraged and hopeless, but the Word of God continued to comfort me. The only problem I had was that I could not read though I had a Bible. It was not easy to get someone to be reading to me at home. On Sundays, someone reads while I preach. The other days of the week, I don’t have the opportunity to hear the Word of God as often as I would like. Sometimes I wanted to backslide, but I continued to pray for this situation until, one day, an Audio Bible was introduced to our church. After receiving the Proclaimer and the explanation to run the program, I was very happy because now I have the opportunity to hear more of the Word of God and understand it better as it is in my own language. Now, I have more hope in my life than ever before. The worries of getting someone to read for me and the idea of backsliding have disappeared. The time I spend in the Word has multiplied by ten. I can now preach better than before, and this has made some of our Christians who backslid to come back into the church. I am thankful to God for this marvelous tool!