Blog - Page 139 of 140 - Christ Church

Ji ‘Mi -Gba Microfinance Seminar

Bakwe' Mission on June 21, 2008

On Thursday Benjamin finished up teaching the micro business seminar with the help of Perez and Alexis translating into Bakwé. About fifteen Bakwé men and women came to receive a refresher course on what Dr. Kjell Christophersen taught a year ago –how to determine whether a business activity is viable or not. After a day of review and some teaching on good business practices, Benjamin went on to teach basic accounting & book keeping. He walked them through many examples and showed them how they should keep track of their expenses and income; and also, how to calculate profit. The hardest thing for them was to understand how amortize their larger equipment. After many questions and examples worked out on the board I think they got it.

On the last day we passed out T-shirts that were donated by Credenda and took a group picture (see photos). Before everyone returned to their villages there were some short speeches thanking us for coming. Everyone was very appreciative.

One of the highlights for me during the seminar was seeing a group of older men, during lunch break, reading out loud from the Bakwé Scriptures we have translated. Thank you for your prayers. Benjamin did a great job!

Sowuta of Gblétia

Bakwe' Mission on June 16, 2008

While we were on the porch this evening before dinner Perez brought by Sowuta, an older woman from Gblétia, a village 30km to the north of us. She has learned to read and Perez, one of our Bakwé literacy teachers, was so proud of her. Other people had told me about this woman. She had some gray hair and was obviously older. She said that she had never gone to school, but that she has learned to read in our literacy classes. She has amazed everyone! To prove it to us Perez handed her the Bakwé primer and she read the first several pages that had pictures and words under them. I praised her but I was wondering if she had just memorized these, but then she turned to the very back of the primer and began reading the last and hardest story about Rat and Lizard. She read fluently! She handed the primer back to Perez.

Then, she fumbled with her bag and pulled out a well worn copy of the Gospel of John in Bakwé. I could tell it had been well used because it had oily brown stains where you flip the pages and some pages were bent at the tips. She opened it up and began reading from John 1:1. Again, she read fluently. Tears came to my eyes. After several verses he stopped and explained to Perez how she had read the whole book, all the way to where it talks about Lazarus dying and Jesus raising him to life, and to where it talks about Jesus dying. She was so proud. She said the Baoulé and the Mossi had their Bibles, but the Bakwé didn’t for a long time, and she now can read it in her own language. She also said that many Bakwé don’t get it; they don’t see the importance in reading. So she is on a campaign. She tells everyone she meets to come to class and learn to read or themselves. I was so encouraged and you could tell that Perez was proud of her too.

It makes it all worth it to see someone excited about reading God’s Word! And someone who had no access to it before this! Praise God who blesses the work of our hands and the sweat, the tears, the malaria, the typhoid and the fatigue)! On our way to San-Pédro on the 24th we will leave here at 6:30am and stop in the village of Petit Gabo on the way to San-Pédro just to observe another reading class in action. This village has literacy class at 7am in the morning before going to the fields.

Galatians and James Checked

Bakwe' Mission on June 16, 2008

It took less time than we thought it would and we didn’t have to work evenings. Jonathan Burmeister, long time veteran Bible translator and translation consultant, checked over every verse of Galatians and James in two days. We worked solid Tuesday through Wednesday using a Bakwé person that didn’t participate in the translation process to back-translate from Bakwé to literal French. This way Jonathan, who doesn’t know any Bakwé, could see our translation and check it against the Greek. He often would ask questions of the back-translator to satisfy himself that we were faithfully translating the original. Overall Jonathan didn’t find any real problems and he said that we were doing a good job. He was surprised that it only took two days to check both books. We took a third day to add some more footnotes to both books and discuss the future books that we are going to translate. In all it was a very encouraging time.

Arrival in Touadji II

Bakwe' Mission on June 11, 2008

We pulled into the village around 5pm on Monday. Not a lot of people were home yet from their various activities, but we did get some shouts and waves welcoming us from the courtyards that we drove by. Tuesday morning we went out early to give our condolences to two families that lost a family member since I was here last November. Then we went around and greeted each family in the village, which is the custom when you have been away for a while. And you have to do it very early. We actually woke up some people out of their beds. Sounds rude, but that is the custom here.

After the greetings, which took an hour and a half, we returned to the house and had coffee and baguettes. Then we worked for 9 hours. I worked with my team checking the first four chapters of Galatians with Mr. Burmeister (a translation consultant). Benjamin worked with Pastor Firmain in another room training him on the new audio equipment we brought out. Later in the day as we worked in the next room we could hear the Bakwé singing and drumming group raising their voices in the recording studio.

We are making good progress and the weather is nearly perfect. Today we should finish Galatians and start checking our translation of James. More on translation checking another time. For now I hear breakfast being made in the kitchen, so off we go for coffee and French baguettes.

Spokane-Minneapolis-Paris-Abidjan

Bakwe' Mission on June 8, 2008

It took about 35 hours of travel including the layovers. We were tired as we pulled into the Guest House in Abidjan but grateful for an uneventful trip. All our baggage arrived! It was early evening and we were welcomed by one of our colleagues and offered a hot spaghetti meal and mangoes for desert! After eating and visiting for a while I was happy to get back up to our apartment and listen to the night noises coming in the windows. The frog and cricket chorus is especially good during rainy season, which is in full swing right now! The night was cooler but humid.

We slept well. After coffee and a ‘pain-au-chocolat’ we drove to the Cocody UEESO Church for Lord’s Day worship service. More boisterous than ours, but then we’re in Africa! Clapping, subdued dancing, and singing –all at the same time– is definitely something people here are good at! (I wonder what King David’s dancing looked like?)

After church I took Benjamin to a cook shop in the poorer section of town where we could get a plate of rice and peanut sauce for less than two bucks. No, I’m not trying to kill him; just the experience you now! OK, you do have to wave the flies off your food, but it was tasty and acceptably clean. The cook worked for years cooking for the German embassy folks I’m told.

The rest of this sabbath day we mostly relaxed and wrote home. Tomorrow after a meeting in the morning with my field director we will get in my truck and drive west for 6-8 hours (depending on the road) to the village of Touadji and try to get set up before it gets too late in the evening. A translation consultant is coming out with us to do a verse by verse check of our translation of Galatians and James into Bakwé. We should have some more interesting pictures coming soon.