The Presbyterian Church and the Roman Catholic Church were also represented, and the Rev Sister Mwadi Diijuul, who had been the first coordinator of the translation project, summed up the project’s history:
“For 13 years the Presbyterian and Catholic Churches have worked to ensure that this project would succeed, providing human, material and financial resources as well as spiritual support so that we could dedicate ourselves to a work that will bring God’s Word to the 200,000 speakers of the Kanyok language. All this was done under the aegis of the Bible Society,” she said.
Joel N’Shisso, the Business Manager of the Bible Society, expressed thanks to the churches for their support for the project, and, pointing out how heavily subsidised the production of the New Testament was, he encouraged people to give more support to Bible Society work.
Then everyone gathered around the New Testaments and prayed that God would bless this work in bringing many Kanyok speakers to know him through it.
Then sample copies were given to dignitaries, church leaders and to the translators and reviewers, which, it was hoped, would now give them an incentive to organise effective evangelisation of the Mwene-Ditu region of East Kasai.
He ended his speech by quoting Pope John-Paul II, who had written in his book Ecclesia in Africa: “The church’s mission to evangelise the people of Africa will be accomplished with the New Testament.”
Other speakers expressed their gratitude to the UBS for supporting this project and therefore honouring the Kanyok people.
It was announced at the end of the service that there would be another dedication ceremony in the heart of Kanyok country some 1,000km (650 miles) southwest of Kinshasa.