Forgotten and By-passed

It’s not on the way to anywhere!

Main Bissau waterfront road

Guinea-Bissau is a tiny, forgotten West African country stuck between Senegal and Guinea-Conakry. Not only is it isolated geographically, due to huge rivers and an island archipelago, but its Portuguese national language further separates it from all of its French-speaking neighbors. It’s no wonder that the sense of being forgotten, bypassed, and marginalized seems to be written all over the faces of its citizens.

Sunday morning church service

Yet, I have found the past four days here in Guniea-Bissau some of the most fulfilling of my recent travels. I was invited on this trip by Miguel Indibe, the director of ITA, the Institute of Translation and Literacy. Thanks to an introduction bu Bruce Smith, CEO of Wycliffe Associates, I met Miguel two years ago and ever since have been mentoring him in his leadership role. But this was my first chance to visit his country.

Despite being a tiny country with a population of less than two million, it is not short on tribal languages which number about thirty. But of those, only one has a complete Bible and three have New Testaments. However, all Bible resources are super dated making them especially irrelevant to the youth. And the couple of translation projects that are underway are all taking way longer than expected thanks to being at the bottom of everyone’s priority list for completion.

Sharing Wycliffe Associate tablet translation resources

So what has made this trip so fulfilling? First, it was the pleasure of speaking to the 1,200 who were packed into a Sunday morning service all sharing the “joy of the Lord” in typical African fashion. Second, it was seeing the excitement and renewed hope in the eyes of the Bible translation staff as I shared new resources Wycliffe Associates has available for them that could significantly speed up their translation efforts. Third, it was being invited to address a number of national church leaders and helping them learn how to connect with the continental African mission’s movement. The VP of one church group said to me, “No one from Guinea-Bissau has ever participated in a major African or global consultation because we always learn about them after the fact. Finally, you are here telling us of two opportunities to attend African conferences next year. You can bet this time we’ll be represented.”

 Guinea-Bissau may be small and forgotten, but it has a higher percentage of Christians than any of its neighbors. And, from what I can see, they’re ready to be mobilized. It is a privilege for me to play a tiny role in helping to make that happen.

Guinea-Bissua church leaders glad to be encouraged

Saying Goodbye to Comrades in Ministry

Within the last two days, I received word of the deaths of two comrades-in-ministry who played special roles in my life.

Phil Arendt, a fellow resident of Spokane, WA, quietly slipped away from his family Sunday morning after fighting a year-long battle with a cancerous brain tumor. I got to know Phil when I became CEO of Partners International and discovered this third-career missionary on staff who was personally modeling for everyone how to live out what it means to be a servant partner. After years as a mission pastor in Modesto, CA and equipped with a doctorate in missiology, Phil and his family joined SIM and spent a decade in Ethiopia pouring his life into national church leaders. He joined Partners International upon his return to the US and, by the time I arrived, was already expanding his role as a Bible teacher and leadership mentor around the world. I immediately asked him to become one of my VPs. Phil was truly a pioneer and expert in the area of orality and story telling, bringing into close relationship with PI such organizations as Scriptures In Use and Harvest International. In many ways, what I am doing today follows the example of Phil in terms of his effort to be available globally as a mentor, trainer, and encourager of national Christian ministry leaders in the least resourced areas of the world.

 Gary Bishop came to Mission Aviation Fellowship in 1998 as President/CEO. For the next five years I served as his Vice President for Research and Strategic Planning. Together, we crafted a new mission statement for the organization and reaffirmed MAF’s historic by-line of “conquering barriers.”, MAF was not an easy role for Gary because of not having had any previous international mission experience.  Although he brought considerable business knowledge from his previous role as director of the Pittsburg International Airport, Gary faced the challenge of leading an organization that was in the middle of many strategic changes.  One of those was partnering with the Packer Aircraft Project, the forerunner of the Quest Aircraft Company that now produces the turbine-powered Kodiak aircraft used extensively in mission aviation. Gary’s presence at MAF had a major impact on my life, and it was his encouragement in many ways that led to my eventual acceptance of the role of CEO at Partners International.

After MAF, Gary and his wife, Donna, returned to Texas where he became president of World Bible Translation Center and eventually CEO of Far Corners Missions. A heart attack took Gary’s life unexpectedly on Monday.

As I reflect on the lives of these two friends, I can’t help but be reminded of both good and tough times we experienced together in our respective journeys of mission service. I am deeply thankful for how God used both men to shape me along the way and influence who I am today. 

Frogs On A Log

Austen Ukachi was a university student when God first touched him with a passion for prayer. Soon after he graduated, he found himself at the head of a national prayer movement that really took off across Nigeria. Looking back, it’s possible to trace the spontaneous outbreak of spiritual revivals linked to students committing themselves to prayer.

Austen found many of the students he mentored joining him for weekly worship and fellowship that eventually grew into a full-fledged church. Today, that church is an active denomination called He’s Alive Chapel that involves some 60 pastors all across Nigeria and spilling over into neighboring francaphone countries.

With Pastor Austen and He's Alive Chapel pastors

It’s with these pastors that Austen invited me to come and spend three days of strategic planning. “We want to sharpen our vision and mission and help inspire our people toward greater outreach in missions,” he told me. I was looking forward to it, since it’s the first time an African-birthed

church had asked for my help in this way.

My first challenge was to convince folks  that a new vision and mission statement would really help propel them toward greater outreach action. They read:

Vision: Building a barn for the Lord for the end time harvest reflecting the fullness of his glory.

Mission: He’s Alive Chapel is committed to evangelism, church planting, discipleship, mission, and spiritual warfare.

I was delighted to see the interest by all the participants during our sessions. Between planning orientations that I provided and group breakout sessions, everyone was fully engaged. But the high point for me was seeing the impact of how the “frogs on a log” riddle, which I had learned from Jon Hirst, CEO of Global Mapping International, convinced them them their mission needed to be about something more than just commitment. It goes like this:

Seven frogs were sitting on a log. Six decided to jump into the pond. How many were left?

The answers from the group were many: “One. Six. Seven.” So I tried it another way:

Seven frogs were sitting on a log. Six were committed to jump into the pond. How many were left?

Needless to say – they got the point immediately! Here’s now how their new strategic plan statements read.

Our Vision: God's people prepared, equipped and bringing in a global harvest of souls for His Kingdom and Glory.

 Our Mission: To spread the Gospel everywhere by means of evangelism, discipleship, church planting, missions, prayer and building strong families.

My prayer is that He's Alive Chapel will truly become even more alive in it's dedication to take God's Good News to those who desperately need to hear it.

Supreme Delight

With Justice Clara and Victor Tukura

It’s not every day that you are invited to dinner at the home of a Supreme Court Justice. And perhaps it is even more unusual that she be a woman and committed Christian on top of that. That is just what happened to me a few days ago while on this ministry trip here in Nigeria.

Justice Clara Ogunbiyi is one of fifteen who sit on Nigeria’s Supreme Court. She came up through the ranks of this country’s judicial system and now has a couple years left before her required retirement at the age of seventy. But during that time she has also contributed her leadership gifts by serving on the boards of several Christian ministries. One of those is the Missions Supporters League (MSL), a group for which I’ve been offering some consulting help. So it was through Victor Tukura, MSL’s General Director, that this evening with Justice Clara was arranged.

Not knowing exactly what to expect, I was very pleasantly surprised to find this woman to be an extremely humble and approachable civil servant, as was her husband, Dr. B.E. Ogunbiyi, a practicing OBGYN here in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. Our table conversation ranged from discussing the current state of the “culture wars” in the United States to the challenges of Boko Haram for the current Nigerian government. It was on this later topic that Justice Clara really opened up. Due to the fact that her home was in Borno State, the very region Boko Haram has targeted, she gave many dramatic examples of how this terrorist group has impacted her people.

One story she told me, however, was unexpected. “As a result of the bold testimony of Christians in the face of these atrocities,” she said, “hundreds of local Muslims there are giving their heart to Christ.” She went on to tell of two young Christian brothers who, in front of a huge crowd, were told to recant their faith and embrace Islam “or else.” When the first young man refused, he was slaughtered immediately. Then they approached his brother with the same demand, thinking that witnessing his brother’s death would change his mind. He also refused and was also the immediate victim of Boko Haram’s savage cruelty. “It is exactly this kind of incredible dedication,” Justice Clara explained, “that has turned the hearts of so many Muslims in that region to Christ.

Leaving her home that evening made me more committed than ever to pray for our Nigerian brothers and sisters – whether facing a terrorist threat like Boko Haram or facing the challenges of nation-shaping decisions at the level of the Supreme Court.

The Whole World in His Hands

He might be approaching the age of eighty, but George Verwer is no less capable of shouldering the challenge of the whole world has he was sixty years ago!

You might not think about coming to Nigeria and participating in a mission mobilization conference a likely place to run into a missionary legend, but that is just what happened me these past few days here in Abuja, Nigeria. “Selected or Solution” was the theme of this third annual Leadership Summit organized by my friend, Timothy Olonade, who invited a list of inspirational international speakers including George Verwer. Fueling the growing passion for cross-cultural missions in this country, this event is becoming a significant opportunity to learn about the latest resources and methods available to African churches and mission organizations. Along with my friends Jon Hirst, from Global Mapping, and Al Hawthorne, from Wycliffe Associates, I was one of eleven presenters offering elective workshops about everything from how to raise funds to how to translate the Bible.

Nigerian mission leaders recommitting to engage in
world outreach

But without question, the highlight of each day was the evening session presented by George Verwer. As founder of Operation Mobilization, George’s passion for sharing God’s Good News has spread across the world by means of the Logos and Doulos ships as well as through thousands of young people who serve in just about every country on earth. Having experienced before George’s unique presentation style complete with world map jacket and giant beach ball globe in a South Korea football stadium during GCOWE 1995, I was happy to see that he was still as compelling a speaker as ever. What has changed for George, by his own admission, is much more concern for a wholistic view of the Gospel that includes care for such things as human trafficking, HIV-AIDS, rights of the unborn, and clean water.

With George Verwer after fifty-two years

It was fun to reminisce with George about a time in 1963 when we first encountered each other. I was twelve years old on a family camping vacation in Europe and George was launching the first summer youth rally of OM. My dad got permission to pitch our tent on the grounds of a Paris chateau used by the European Bible Institute. So did George. Except our tent slept five and his was huge military style affair that accommodated several hundred young people for his evening rallies! Never would I have imaged back then that our paths would cross again fifty-two years later in a place like Abuja, Nigeria.

I praise God for the faithfulness of people like George Verwer that has resulted in millions learning about the love of Jesus and hope of peace with God.

Unexpected Blessing

He really wanted me to see his brand new training center, but I didn't know why. I thought perhaps it might be another case of an African ministry leader wanting to show me his dream project and then hoping I would help him fund the completion of it.

But I couldn't have been more wrong. Pastor Selenga was not your typical ministry leader. Besides having been the legal rep for his own denomination, he was now the director of ReachAfrica—the regional division of ReachGlobal formerly known as the Evangelical Free Church Mission. It's not every day that an African, let alone a Congolese, is a senior executive of an American mission.

Thirty minutes later, we had navigated the traffic jams of Kinshasa and rolled into the small courtyard of CEMIER—Centre d’Equipement en Mission et Leadership de ReachAfrica. As I was shown around, I couldn't believe this entire facility had been modified, prepped for operation and that already over one hundred pastors and layman were enrolled in courses. That doesn't include the two dozen women at risk being helped at a vocational center behind the main building.

When we got to Selenga’s office, he smiled and said, “All this is here because of you.” My puzzled look prompted his explanation. Last year, During another trip to Kinshasa in order to accompany and translate for two representatives of a mission-minded philanthropic foundation. Among some 40 national church leaders I had introduced them to, was Selenga. What I never knew is that my two friends had maintained dialog with him resulting in a grant that allowed Selenga to acquire, remodel and launch this center all in a few short months.

There is nothing more rewarding for me than to be a network connector that results in a positive advancement for God’s Kingdom. And when it happens as an unexpected blessing, it's the most rewarding of all!

Congress is in Session

They are calling it the 5th Congress on National Evangelism. Held in a big meeting room at the Shaumba high school in Kinshasa, this is a significant event for the leaders of Protestant churches here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since this event is hosted by my friend, Bishop Nyamuke, head of the ECC  department of evangelism, I received an invitation some time ago to participate and help out with some of the planning for it.

The central objective of the Congress is to breathe new life into a five-year-old plan that has five key strategies for advancing God’s Kingdom in DRC:
1. Plant new churches where they are needed,
2. Encourage mature discipleship amount church members,
3. Help children aged 4 to 18 develop a Christian world view
4. Teach families how to become centers of Christian education
5. Reach the least, poorly and unreached populations of the country.

Jon & Bishop Nyamuke

Two themes have particularly impressed me from the many presentations given during our sessions. The first one is a deep concern over the perception that DRC is facing increased pressure from the West to adopt a liberal social agenda that includes inclusion of gay rights into the mainstream of its culture. The examples given of how this agenda is already being pushed by conditions put on aid grants from the U.S. is startling and discouraging.

The second theme, which is much more encouraging, has to do with the amazing number of resources already available for the ECC and its member churches. Dozens of national and expat organizations exist now in the DRC with great curricula, books, training courses, etc. in French but the problem is that most churches don't even know they exist. This Congress has been good for exposure of these resources, but much more needs to happen for full national access.

As Bishop Nyamuke and I, plus a small team of four, discuss this, we agree to launch a new, concerted thrust  to help promote this national plan of evangelism during the next two years. We've even given it a name: MissioCongo. Besides replicating this Congress in some regional mini events during the next few months, MissioCongo will also involve a new prayer strategy for evangelism, new communication strategy using text messaging and newsletters and a new evangelism resource website.

When I was invited to this event, I knew I might be asked  to share something sometime. I didn't expect I would be giving the opening devotional, a plenary session on stewardship and host the open mike sharing period at the end of each day. But I am thrilled to see the positive impact that seems to be happening here and pray that this MissioCongo follow-up plan truly keeps the churches in DRC pressing forward in advancing the cause of Christ in this huge country.

WE can overcome!

Bible translation is getting a new boost in Ethiopia!

For several decades, the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) people have worked on Bible translations for Ethiopia’s primary languages. But this country has over 80 different languages and dialects that need Bible translation. Approaching the task the traditional way would, no doubt, take multiple decades more.

Enter Wycliffe Ethiopia, fondly referred to as WE!

A couple years ago, a handful of the national Ethiopian staff working with SIL decided to form their own registered organization that would work alongside SIL, but tackle the challenge with some new approaches intended to speed up the translation process. In particular, they wanted to create stronger partnership with national church denominations to encourage greater participation in translation at the grass-roots level.

Leading the WE in a management workshop (above)
Tefera receiving the 11th translation of OBS (below)

For four full days during this trip of mine to Ethiopia, I’ve had the privilege of working with the WE director, Tefera, and his leadership team in crafting a new strategic plan and discussing how to develop organizationally into a strong, successful ministry. It’s always fun working with emerging African ministry leaders, but this experience of helping to crystalize the dreams and aspirations of these WE brothers and sisters has been especially rewarding. What has surprised me is that their vision is not only to be a catalyst to Ethiopian churches for Bible translation, but they believe their influence and resource help should spread beyond the borders to the other countries of Africa as well.

It’s one thing to sit in a room for a several days talking about strategy, but during this time, I’ve also had a chance to witness WE already at work at tackling those 80 national languages that need God’s Word. Using a brand new approach to an initial Bible resource called Open Bible Stories (supplied by Wycliffe Associates) WE has challenged national churches to translate the labels of the fifty picture-stories into local languages as quickly as possible. WE’s goal is to have OBS available in all of Ethiopia’s languages done by the end of this year! If you think they’re dreaming, get this: WE completed the first Amharic version of OBS on March 10 and while I was here in the office, a key church leader showed up to deliver the eleventh language translation already completed! That means in just seven weeks, twelve Ethiopian language groups now have access to the story of the Bible that didn’t have it before!

Introducing Tefera and Shimeles at a coffeeshop (above)
Sharing about OBS with church-planting ministries (below)

 Even more personally exciting for me was a chance to introduce WE and this OBS project to a couple of the church-planting organizations I was visiting with during the first part of my trip here. Pastor Shimeles, director of the Horn of Africa Mission, had never met Tefera before but was overjoyed to hear that resources would soon be available that would open the door for his church-planters to reach new tribal areas of the country. We quickly arranged for some of his colleagues to come over and meet the whole WE team. One of the men called it an “historic meeting” as they all began to realize how they could help each other reach their mission objectives and ultimately speed the Gospel to the people of Ethiopia.

God has certainly done much through the faithful Western missionaries in Africa during the past hundred years. But I can’t wait to see what happens when He fully empowers this new generation of African ministry leaders to fulfill their dreams and visions for reaching the world for Christ. If this past week and a half in Ethiopia is any example of that, we’re in for some exciting days ahead!

Woman Power

“If I had to choose, I would take a woman any day over a man as a church-planter.”

I was somewhat startled to hear Pastor Shimeles, Director of Horn of Africa mission, make a statement like that. In an African culture where wives are normally extremely submissive to their husbands not to mention the strong male-dominated Islamic culture, I was surprised that women would even be seen as acceptable in the context of church planting. Nevertheless, Shimeles, was unequivocal in his praise for the women who are having tremendous success in starting up small, house-churches all across Ethiopia.

Tigest and Tsedash

On this day, I had a chance to meet a couple of them and also witness first hand some of the fruit of their labor. Pulling off the main asphalt road at the town of Alem T’ena, our 4 x 4 Toyota HiLux headed east across a very dry  countryside dotted with small, round farmer’s huts. We had loaded up the rear seat with three more passengers including two who were leading church planters now mentoring dozens of other women. Tsedash is the national women’s coordinator for HOA and Tigest is so far, her most productive mentoree. Together they gave our driver explicit directions how to navigate the difficult, barren terrain.

Every few minutes we encountered large flocks of cows and goats being driven to market interspersed with heavily laden donkeys carrying charcoal and fire wood for sale. “Normally, we travel this road in the back of a donkey cart,” they explained. “It usually takes us two to three hours instead of 45 minutes with a car.”

When we arrived at the church, the “congregation” of 25 were out in force singing choruses of worship and welcome. That was followed by multiple testimonies from mostly women telling how miraculous healings and deliverance from demonic spirits were part of the inspiration for forming this home house-church. These simple, yet passionate and authentic expressions of faith were decidedly impressive and touching. When they asked me to share some sort of devotional thought, I obliged, but would rather have listened to more of their stories.

Here's the house-church planted by these two women and a
shot of a challenging bridge-crossing along the way.

One the way back, Tsedash told me there are now more than fifty-five women in the HOA who have been trained as church planters, only ten of whom receive any sort of remuneration for their effort as coordinators. Together, they have planted over 500 churches in just the past three years. Forty-three of them have been just since January! Those churches include more than 4000 baptized believers. When I asked why women seem to be so successful in this endeavor, Tsedash explained that it is a direct result of hearing about a Gospel message that gives women dignity and respect for their giftedness. “Their normal life is so difficult and meaningless, any hope of change is attractive to them. It doesn't take long for our workers to find a woman of peace in their villages—someone already open to spiritual things and asking questions to know more. These first contact ladies then invite family and friends to join them for a Discovery Bible Study and before you know it, three to five families will be meeting together.”

 What a privilege it has been to experience all this first hand and to see such a living example of how the Gospel message brings transformation and hope – especially to the lives of women here in Ethiopia.

You're Dreaming!

He said he would never forget the scene from that dream. It was a big room, like a hall filled with bunk beds reminiscent of a dormitory. But as he watched, the beds turned into gravestones—all except his own bed. And then, a framed picture on the wall, which he recognized as one of familiar paintings of Christ, slowly came to life. The figure beckoned him to follow and then said out loud, “You need to leave this place.”

Abdulaziz (left) with his mentor, Shimeles

I was interviewing Abdulaziz, one of the foremost church planting trainers in southern Ethiopia. Moments earlier, I had been watching this former Muslim Imam instruct a team of thirty-five men and women how to sensitively engage Islamic communities with the Gospel. Believe it or not, he was showing them how to start out by using key verses in the Koran that validate the authority and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The dream was only the beginning of Abdulaziz’s conversion story, however. As he began to question his Muslim faith, he was ostracized by his friends and family who eventually got him thrown in jail without any specified charge. He was there for nine months and never once was given a trial. But, this breech of justice turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It was there that he met Shimeles, a Christian brother who came every week sharing Christ with Abdulaziz and eventually discipling him in his new-found faith.  After he was released, he soon learned how to plant churches among other Muslim communities. Today, Abdulaziz tells me, he has trained close to 4,000 other men and women to do the same.

Big brother, Hussien, with Yusuf

We walk together past an outdoor kitchen to where some injera wat is waiting for us for lunch. Sitting across the table from me is Yusuf, a young church leader of 27 ready to tell me another dream story. “It was actually fifteen years ago that my brother, Hussien, had a dream about me,” he explains. “I was very young then, but he saw me in his dream running toward a very bright light that was coming from a Christian cemetery. He tried to run after me, but couldn’t keep up. For years, he suspected that the dream meant I would become a Christian, so he was afraid to tell me about it. Praise God, we have now both given our hearts to Christ and are serving Him by planting more churches.”

As amazing as these stories may be, I soon learn that somewhere around 35% of all the people in this predominantly Muslim region who become Christians, do so because of experiencing dreams similar to these. Without question, God has chosen this particular method to transmit His truth into the hearts and minds of these Ethiopians he has called to be His own. 

Superhighways and The Queen of Sheba

Since 1982, I've had the chance to visit more than 25 countries in Africa but until now, Ethiopia was not one of them. That’s why this visit has been such an eye-opener for me and is totally altering my preconceived expectations about this country.

For the past few days, I've been involved in interviewing church leaders as a means of gathering “success stories” of African ministries and churches involved in successful, sustainable outreach projects. This endeavor even landed me the privilege of a two day road trip with the Executive Director of the Horn of Africa Mission (HOA), one of the premier church-planting institutions in the country, if not the whole continent.

Adopting the very successful strategy called DMM (Disciple Making Movements, also known as CPM or Church Planting Movements), HOA is reporting unbelievable statistics in the advancement of the Gospel.  Altogether during the past 12 years, they have trained over 15,000 lay-church planters, documented over 10,000 new churches planted and validated that 200,000 new believers have been baptized. When I first heard these numbers while sitting in the director’s office, I found them a bit hard to believe. Nowhere in the rest of Africa am I aware of such successes. But after traveling for two days with the man himself and interviewing a half dozen of his grass-roots church planters, I am now a confirmed believer!

I hope to share in subsequent blogs some of the amazing stories I've heard along the way, but for now, here are two reasons why I think Ethiopia seems different than other African countries and therefore positioned as a missional pace-setter for Africa. 

1. It’s never been under colonial domination. Everywhere I sense a very different mindset than elsewhere on the continent since folks have never developed the same mindset of dependency. There is a “can do” attitude here that results in superhighways, large flocks of cows and goats and thousands donkey or horse carts that do the transporting of goods instead of women with baskets on their heads.
2. It has an unbroken influence of Christianity dating back to the third century, not to mention a claim to the Queen of Sheba from the reign of King Solomon. Regardless of the rise and impact of Islam over the years, it is clear that a Judeo-Christian value system is deeply rooted in the social consciousness. I believe this has impacted everything from the way women are valued to the normal accepted work ethic.

As a result, Ethiopia seems to be the place in Africa where remarkable advances are taking place in church planting and discipleship movements all fueled by the national churches themselves. So much so, that other African leaders are inviting themselves to come for visits to see how they do it.

So, stay tuned. I hope to find out some of those answers myself!

When Helping Still Hurts

The book, When Helping Hurts, is an excellent description of what happens when good intentioned Western aid can actually hurt more than it helps if it is administered without a good understanding of the cultural context. This past week while attending a leadership team meeting of MANI (Movement of African National Initiatives,) in Nairobi, Kenya, I've been impressed by how the legacy of some old well-intentioned help is still hurting.

MANI is all about catalyzing a mission movement in every country of Africa. For the past fifteen years, since the AD2000 & Beyond Movement, MANI has been working hard at inspiring efforts to reach the remaining unreached people groups across the continent as well as preparing Africans for ministry in global missions.

But today, MANI is recognizing that the greatest stumbling block to success is the lack of commitment on the part of local African churches to support mission outreach. The problem is not that they don’t think it should happen, but that church leaders continue to see mission work as something led and funded by Westerners. It all has to do with the way churches were originally planted in Africa 50 to 100 years ago. Most expat mission organizations modeled church-planting as something independent of mission outreach, especially to other tribes, nations or people groups. So today, the idea that a national church should prepare and financially support young missionaries for cross-cultural outreach simply doesn’t exit. Most churches still think the West will provide resources for that.

Reuben Ezemadu, continental coordinator for MANI, stated during one of our sessions that unfortunately, the vestiges of old “evangelical imperialism” still lives on in Africa, especially as we see current church leaders following patterns of their Western missionary forefathers.

This is why MANI is attempting to connect with top heads of African churches to cast new vision that Africans can and should be mobilizing and resourcing mission efforts. A major summit is being planned for a year from now in Accra, Ghana in hopes that several hundred presidents of church denominations will come together for that purpose.

I’m praying this event will be a watershed moment and begin shaping a new African paradigm that will see national churches shedding old hurtful attitudes and truly begin helping to spawn a new generation of mission outreach across the continent and around the globe.

Me and WE

You would think that the name Wycliffe Ethiopia would belong to an old, venerable institution that had been involved in Bible translation for decades. That’s why I was surprised to discover it’s only been around a couple of years.

Bible translation in Ethiopia has been happening for a long time, however, but it’s been under the ministry of SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) and handled primarily by a large contingent of expat staff.  Then, five years ago, the Ethiopian government demanded that all non-profit organizations had to register either for development work or religious work, but not the two together. SIL, for various reasons, choose the development identity. The government immediately frowned on their continued work on Bible translations.

That’s why a group of Ethiopian Bible translators and staff opted to leave SIL and form a new national entity properly registered to continue the Bible translation work. Enter Wycliffe Ethiopia (WE.)

This past week, I've had the privilege to spend two days with the sixteen staff members of WE. With their legal situation in hand, they now are needing to press ahead with such things as a strategic plan, HR polices and guidelines for a board of directors. I've been asked to help them do just that.

It’s always so refreshing to meet more of the new generation of African leaders giving birth to and developing new ministries across this continent. WE is a great example. Led by a young man named Tefera, I sense both passion and vision for getting God’s Word to the remaining Ethiopian languages that want it.  And he’s not afraid to try some of the newest translation techniques that is revolutionizing how quickly the work can get done.

I look forward to see how this first introduction to WE will develop into some more organizational development workshops together later this year and beyond.

PTL for POD

Print On Demand or POD. I’m learning how this new technology is revolutionizing and accelerating the process of publishing new Bible translations.

Today, I had a chance to visit the new POD bureau here at the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust.  At first it looks like a plain room with some innocent-looking printers, a binding machine and a Mac computer. But, what I learned is that this $20,000 equipment investment (thanks to Wycliffe Associates) is going to significantly change the way Bibles become available to unreached people groups in this country. Let me explain.

In the past, a New Testament translation project would take around 10 years to complete. Once ready to print, it would be handed off to the Bible Society which has a standard minimum press order of 5,000 copies. At $10 each, that meant an additional $50,000 had to be raised above and beyond the cost of translation before the Bible Society would touch the project. That kind of money doesn’t come easily for the smaller people groups of Nigeria.  Therefore, it can take years before any printed Bibles are actually available even though the translation is already complete!  Would you believe that there are four to six completed New Testaments here at NBTT that have been waiting for two years for these funds and there’s still no hope in sight of getting them printed?

Completed paper-back POD book done here at NBTT

Enter POD! Now, with a completed New Testament in digital format, it is easily formatted and immediately uploaded to high-speed inkjet printers. Add a bit of hot-melt glue in a special binding machine, trim the edges and you have a completed two-hundred page paper-back book in minutes that costs around $3.50! And here’s the best part of all: it doesn’t cost any more to print one book or a hundred.  In fact, if a small people group want to start with 50 New Testaments, they can now do that and then come back later to add another order for five or fifty any time they want.

It’s been fun seeing the excitement grow in the eyes of the NBTT Executive Director as we’ve discussed the implications of this POD technology. Not only does it have the potential to add a healthy new income stream for NBTT, but they can now prevent any further delay in getting God’s Word out to those in Nigeria who desperately need it.

So, PTL for POD!

Supporting Supporters

Jos, Nigiera!

Once again I find myself in this cross-roads city in central Nigeria. After a six month's hiatus  in international travel, it feels good to be out here, on the road and sharing with my African brothers and sisters.

I'm back at the headquarter campus of the Nigeria Bible Translation Trust, the country's largest indigenous organization focused on getting God's Word written in all the remaining languages of the country that do not yet have a Bible.

This time, however, most of my audience are not the translators themselves, but members of their support committees. Usually community leaders or pastors of a related local church, they have never before been invited to participate in seminar designed to help them do their support job better. My role? To provide a number of short, impactful sessions that will help them gain a big picture understanding of the importance of Bible translation in missions plus learn a bit about good principles of project management, stewardship and team-building.

From the responses I've already received after the first two day workshop which involved about 160 men and women, I'm pleased by the affirmation I've received plus the request for copies of my talks all of which indicates that the messages seem to be getting through. Now I get to repeat the workshop again during the next two days with an even larger group of participants.

One treat for me was to discover among the participants some of the members of the translation project for the Kamwe people in northeast Nigeria. Coming from the very area where Boko Haram has devastated homes and churches, they have basically fled here to Jos and set up temporary residence in order to keep working on their Old Testament language project. Some have had their own homes destroyed and extended family members killed by the terrorists, yet, they carry on undaunted with this translation project. Amazing! These are the same men my good friend, Dr. Roger Mohrlang in Spokane, WA has been raising funds for as well as serving in the official capacity as language consultant.

What a privilege to stand next to men who truly know what it means to stand firm on the front lines of today's fiercest spiritual battles.