World Report 353, September 2000 -- Africa

ODUMASE KROBO, Ghana; May 2000 — Nearly 150 years after Christianity first came to Dangmeland, its people have the Bible in their own tongue.

The launch ceremony, held recently in Odumase Krobo, in Ghana’s Eastern Region, was attended by government officials, church leaders, chiefs, pastors and choirs from Dangme communities, members of the board of the Bible Society of Ghana (BSG), Bible distributors and BSG translators.

The guest of honour at the ceremony, Eastern Regional Minister Patience Adow, expressed the hope that the new Bible would work its effect on communities “in dire need of transformation and renewal”. She blamed much of Ghana’s high crime rate on imported television programmes and videos. People sought to emulate them, she said, when they should be reading the Bible, holding family devotions and living disciplined lives.

Decadence

“If we do not feed the minds of our people, especially the young ones, with the Word of God,” she said, “they will be fed with other – secular – information that panders to social ills and moral decadence.”

The 1.1 million Dangme speakers live mainly in southeastern Ghana and on the coast around Accra. For years they have had to use the Bible in Ga.

The BSG published the Dangme New Testament in 1972. It was reprinted in 1977. In 1978 work began on a translation of the Old Testament and a review of the New Testament was started.

The new translation has come not a day too soon, according to one observer. The Rev Francis Djangmah, chaplain of the Krobo Girls Senior Secondary School in Odumase Krobo, thinks its publication may be just in time to avert a serious spiritual and moral disaster among the Dangme.

“For well over one hundred years we have been compelled to use the Ga Bible,” he said. “And for several years the Ga language has not been taught in any schools in Dangmeland. Hence many generations of our people can hardly speak, understand or read the Ga language.

Growth

“[The new Bible] is the starting point for great spiritual revival and growth in Dangmeland.”

Nene Sakite II, king of the Krobo people, an ethnic sub-group of the Dangme, said the new Bible would become a benchmark for the Dangme language.

Kofi Owusu, the General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana, thanked the pastors and churches, the chiefs and people of Dangmeland for all their support and help. He urged the people of Dangmeland to cherish this Scripture and promote it, and endeavour to obey it.

After the launch ceremony, nearly a thousand copies of the Bible were sold. In addition, 3,200 copies of the Bible which had been paid for in advance were collected by their delighted purchasers. (WR 353/23 - 9.00) [PHOTOS]

Scriptures Bring Hope to People
with AIDS in Botswana

KEMPTON PARK, South Africa — Special Scripture Portions are helping the Bible Society of Botswana to give hope to many young people living with AIDS, according to a progress report on Opportunity 21 (O-21) projects in Southern Africa.

Some 4,700 copies of the English version, entitled Living in Hope, had been distributed by the end of July. The report, submitted by the Rev Evariste Munyabarame, the O-21 Southern Africa Regional Manager, says:

“When you go into hospitals, those once bright, fresh faces are like those of old men and women yet they belong to young people who have been caught in the web of AIDS. This program is helping us to build hope in the lives of so many young people suffering from AIDS in the hospitals.”

Home-based

According to a recent report, one-fifth of Botswana’s entire population are infected with HIV. The Society also reports “positive responses” from its distribution to HIV/AIDS hospices and home-based care groups of infected people and their families. Prisoners, too, it says, have welcomed the booklet “with open hearts”, requesting copies daily, and many copies have been distributed to schools.

The booklet is available in Setswana as well as English, and young people from churches and other Christian organisations are helping to distribute it.

Radio

The Society has put radio to good use in publicising the Portion. “This has worked so well that great numbers of young people come to the Bible Society asking for ‘the AIDS booklet’,” says the report.

Botswana’s plans for its O-21 project include distribution of several other Portions. One, entitled Be the Best You Can Be, aims to encourage young people to see the best in themselves in the presence of God. The other, called simply Peace!, is designed to let young people know they are instruments of God’s peace.

“There are so many incidents of young people who are alcoholics or have other things that make their lives unpleasant just because they lack peace,” says the report. (WR 353/24 - 9.00)

Scripture Program Aims to Restore Hope
for the Future in Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Amid signs that the decade-long civil war could end soon, the Bible Society in Sierra Leone (BSSL) is planning to distribute thousands of Scriptures to bring hope to the country’s suffering people. The Society will initially provide 1,000 replacement Bibles for Christians who have lost everything in the war, and will make available 4,000 Portions, entitled God is our Refuge and Strength, for distribution among refugees. “We hope that we can raise the funds for these and further mercy distributions which will help to counter the evils of this dark period of our history,” said Ruby Pearce, BSSL Executive Secretary. “If we are to avoid more bloodshed, we must spread the gospel of reconciliation and forgiveness.” (WR 353/25 - 9.00) e-104

Adopting the ‘Great Commission Mentality’

Thanks to the Bible Society in Sudan, millions of Sudanese have been exposed to the Gospel through seeing the Jesus film. Makram Morgos, its Executive Secretary, believes this success has lessons for Bible Societies elsewhere

READING, England; May 2000 — For Makram Morgos, Executive Secretary of the Bible Society in Sudan, danger is simply a fact of life.

His home in Khartoum is frequently visited by the police, they track his daily movements and they have taken him in for questioning several times, yet he firmly believes that God will not allow him to come to harm while his part in fulfilling ‘the Great Commission’ remains unfinished.

Uncomfortable

He feels it is his task to reach every man, woman and child in Sudan with the Gospel message. And remarkably in a country as uncomfortable for Christians as Sudan can be, by the end of this year the Jesus film will have notched up audiences of more than 50 million. While that figure must include a number of ‘repeat viewings’, it nonetheless remains undeniable that the film must have been seen by a substantial part of the population of some 30 million people.

Remarkably in a country as uncomfortable for Christians as Sudan can be, by the end of this year the Jesus film will have notched up audiences of more than 50 million.

“When I first received the task from God I was reluctant to make it happen – it was just too huge,” he says. “We had no material, no staff, and of course the churches were slow in responding to such a plan. But it was the detail that convinced them.”

The first task was to set up teams to show the Jesus film. At that point, Campus Crusade for Christ came into the picture, providing projectors and the film itself – first in Sudanese Arabic and then in versions dubbed into eight more languages.

Since 1994 teams of projectionists and evangelists have travelled the length and breadth of Sudan, braving the war and belligerent authorities, as well as spiritual obstacles and threats, to reach every village and settlement with the film in a language the people will understand.

Follow-up

“The next stage was what I called ‘making disciples’,” Mr Morgos explains. “We had to find and train groups of evangelists and get them to train others.

“We decided that by involving the churches, Campus Crusade for Christ and the Bible Society, we could train enough people to work with the projectionists and do the follow-up after the film had been shown.”

After a slow beginning, the Bible Society now receives far more demands to train local evangelists than it can meet. There have also been problems in meeting the demand for Scriptures.

Decision

“When people see the Jesus film and read the Gospel of Luke, they want a New Testament or a Bible. We don’t just give out the Scriptures. Each one is given to a person who has made a decision for Christ.”

To his delight, with the project gaining the support of the UBS Opportunity 21 program, there will now be sufficient Scriptures to meet this year’s demand.

Mr Morgos believes that the way he has achieved his results may hold lessons for other Bible Societies. They tend to focus on methods, he says, rather than objectives.

“Scripture distribution is a method, not an objective. We measure the work too much in terms of numbers of Bibles distributed, not in terms of people. We should adopt what I call the ‘Great Commission mentality’ and evaluate our actions in the light of this. If we aim to reach just this or that group, that is all we will achieve. If we aim to reach everyone, God can help us to achieve this.

Goals

“I think we have proved in Sudan that things can be done to reach everyone with the Gospel – in the face of considerable opposition.

“What could we not achieve if we all set ourselves the goals to reach every person in the world with the Word of God? I believe that God will take care of all the problems if we focus on making disciples.”

As an example of disciple-making, he tells of how the Jesus film began to be shown to the top-security prisoners in Sudanese jails. Some accepted Christ, their lives changed and they started Bible discussion groups.

“In one prison a convicted murderer was causing disruption. He was due to be hanged. Then he saw the Jesus film and accepted Christ. He was discipled and became an advocate for peace. At first the guards did not believe him but he continued talking to others about their lifestyles and how they needed to find peace for their souls.

Execution

“The day of his execution came and he was a happy man. They put a red cloth over his head, as is the custom, but he kept on singing all the way to the gallows, even when they were putting the rope around his neck. Can you imagine the effect this had on the other prisoners, to see the power of God working in this man whom they had come to fear? Now the whole prison is changing.”

Mr Morgos tells other stories of whole villages changing, following the showing of the Jesus film. “They have become cleaner, healthier places; the people care for each other and have stopped old rivalries.

Health centres

“They are organising co-operatives and health centres. It is quite obvious that Christ is affecting every aspect of their lives,” Mr Morgos says.

“If you obey God you are going to get opposition, but while there are people out there dying without Christ, we should all be aggressively involved in reaching them.”

Makram Morgos is due to speak at the UBS World Assembly next month in Midrand, South Africa.

Former UBS Chief Editor Geoffrey Stamp is a freelance journalist based in England. (WR 353/26 - 9.00)

Zimbabwe Election Selections ‘Go Like Hot Cakes’

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Ten thousand Scripture Selections, entitled The Bible and Elections, were published by the Bible Society of Zimbabwe (BSZ) and distributed countrywide during parliamentary elections in June. The Selections were distributed to voters by thousands of election monitors deployed by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC). Densen Mafinyane, ZCC Secretary General, was amazed at the demand for the Selections. “They went like hot cakes – everyone wanted a copy,” he said. Since the distribution, sales of Bibles have increased, according to Gaylord Kambarami, BSZ General Secretary. “People wanted to follow up the Scripture verses found in the Selection by reading them in their context in the Bible,” he explained. (WR 353/27 - 9.00) e-104

The First Gospel in Kihehe

IRINGA, Tanzania — With the publication of the Gospel of Matthew in Kihehe, the Hehe people of Tanzania have part of the Word of God in their mother tongue. Despite a history of work among the people by missionaries for a hundred years, no attempt to render the Scriptures in the Hehe tongue itself was made until the last decade. The recent launch was an occasion of great joy. (WR 353/28 - 9.00) e-107

Jailed Armed Robber Comes
‘Face to Face’ with the Gospel

He began thinking about his life and taking an interest in spiritual matters. He found a copy of the Bible in the prison library, supplied through the Bible Society of Zambia’s (BSZ) Bibles for Prisoners program, and was affected by what he read.

LUSAKA, Zambia — Life has been difficult for 24-year-old Tony Mutondo. Orphaned when he was 18 months old, Mr Mutondo spent his childhood being passed from relative to relative, never knowing the stability of a normal family life.

In his teens he lived with his sister-in-law, who mistreated him. The situation became so bad that he ran away and lived on the streets. Young and vulnerable, he was influenced by other boys and soon fell into a life of crime. Then, in 1996, he agreed to take part in an armed robbery.

Mr Mutondo and his friends targeted a shop belonging to a development organisation. Holding a gun on the shop manager, the robbers managed to walk out of the shop with the money and thought themselves safe. A few days later, however, the police arrested them, and Mr Mutondo was eventually tried and convicted for armed robbery.

It was during this difficult time that he began thinking about his life and taking an interest in spiritual matters. He found a copy of the Bible in the prison library, supplied through the Bible Society of Zambia’s (BSZ) Bibles for Prisoners program, and was affected by what he read.

“Whilst in prison I came face to face with the Gospel,” he wrote in a letter to the BSZ, who sent him a Bible with a special message from Margaret Boster of Scotland, a supporter of the Bibles for Prisoners program.

He soon became a Christian, which helped him face the difficulties ahead. On the eve of his trial, Mr Mutondo joined other Christian prisoners in singing hymns and choruses of joy, asking God to forgive them.

After hearing the story of the robbery, however, the judge sentenced Mr Mutondo and his friends to life imprisonment. With much prayer he appealed to the Supreme Court and his term was reduced to 18 years with hard labour.

While he finds this difficult to face, Mr Mutondo rejoices that he will be out of prison one day. He has also forgiven his sister-in-law for mistreating him.

In a letter to the BSZ thanking them for their encouragement through the provision of Scriptures, Mr Mutondo said that he has a new goal in life:

“Now I want to grow in the things of God as per Matthew 6:33 – ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you’,” he concludes. (WR 353/29 - 9.00)

Dangme Bible Launched to People ‘in Need of Renewal’