Home again, home again...
I travel a lot. At least three times a year, I travel to Africa – either to the Republic of Congo (RC), where most of my work is, or to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where we’re helping to support more national Bible translation projects. Although they both have “Congo” in their names, these are two different countries with their own language groups who need Scripture - let's look at RC in this post.
What do you do, Alan?
Since I became a Field Coordinator in 2018, I’ve made multiple trips to RC and two times I've gone to the DRC. I just returned from my third visit of this year to the RC last week. I spent almost two weeks in the capital, Brazzaville, where I was able to work with the administrative staff supporting the work of Bible translation.
Africans are very relational and, thankfully, God made me very relational. A Field Coordinator is a project liaison officer and so I am liaison between American project funders and the men and women translating the New Testament into their own languages.
By going in person, I’m able to get to know them better, discuss projects and problems face-to-face, see their challenges and the joys, pray with them, and get to know my national translation colleagues in a more authentic way.
Nine communities and nine translations!
In the past seven years, I’ve been able to travel to all nine projects in Republic of Congo that Wycliffe is providing funding for: Kituba, Yaka, Dondo, Teke SW, Teke Plateau, Ngungwel, Bekwel, Mboko, and Bongili.
The Kituba is a regional language spoken by over four million people in the southern half of the Republic Congo. The Kituba New Testament was translated and published almost ten years ago and the Bible is waiting to be published.
The Bekwel people have waited many years for their own Scriptures. I was privileged to lead the first sociolinguistic survey of the Bekwel at the end of my first term in Africa (1989-1991). That survey showed that there was a definite need for Bekwel to have their own translation. And the Bekwel New Testament has been typeset and will be published soon.
Both the Kituba and Bekwel translation projects should celebrate their completion with a dedication in 2026. Meanwhile, the Dondo and Teke SW translation teams hope to finish translating their New Testaments in the next year and will also celebrate when their published and printed copies are in hand.
Each of these translation projects represents thousands of people who will have access to the transforming message of God's Word in a language that best speaks to their hearts. Because of your partnership with me in prayer and many in giving, we are having an eternal impact in each of these communities.
Thank you for standing with us!
Moloko Update
In my last blog I asked you to pray for the Moloko New Testament translators who were in the capital city of Cameroon typesetting the finished New Testament. Thank you for praying! They did finish the typesetting and now the next step is to have the New Testaments printed, then shipped to the Moloko. They plan to have a dedication celebration sometime in 2026 and I plan to go. Contact me if you'd like to go with me - it'll be an exciting, joyful time for the Moloko and us.
