Almost There! Consultant checking for the book of Acts

There are only a 2 more days of checking left for the book of Acts! We were hoping that around 12 chapters would be done in these two weeks(there are 28 altogether), but the work has been slower than desired. It seems that the consultant checking would go faster and smoother if the original back-translator would be available for these times of checking, but it has not worked out for him to participate in this way for quite some time now. We are thankful for the replacement back-translator and pray not only that he would be a good help for translation, but that he would be touched in an eye-opening way as he hears God’s Word spoken to him for the first time.

Back-translator: A person who interprets a document previously translated into another language back to the original language.

For example, he translates verses written in Dadjo back into French to see if the Dadjo translation is good.

Checking the Book of Acts (finally)

We received news that one of the Chad language teams is unable to keep their scheduled time with the consultant. We are so thankful that the consultant is opening up this new vacancy time for us, and the Dadjo team, to start on the book of Acts. We were thinking it would be another year before Acts could be scheduled to begin the final phase of consultant checking, so we were both surprised and very pleased to hear of the news. We have two weeks for this, starting at the end of March, so although it is not long enough to finish the whole book if Acts, we should be able to get a considerable amount done (if everything goes well).

On another note, we are also thankful that Boko Haram has not made recent attacks in Chad in the past 2-3 months. Unfortunately, they are still making deadly attacks in the neighboring country of Nigeria. Just a week ago, they attacked and killed over 60 villagers including women and children.
The Sydney Morning Herald

REUTERS News

From Terrorist Attacks to Consultant Checking

It’s been awhile since our last blog post. How is the unrest in Chad? Well, news from Aug 29th is that Chad executed 10 Boko Haram members who were found guilty of terror crimes. On the other hand, there has been another recent attack from Boko Haram near Lake Chad (just North of the capital) on October 6th. 11 soldiers were killed and 13 others were wounded. 17 Boko Haram fighters were also killed. Lake Chad has been in a state of emergency for awhile as Boko Haram has used this lake which borders both Chad and Nigeria as an easy step-over to attack on Chadian soil. The country’s military continues to search out the area to be on their guard against the terrorist group.

On another note, translation is continuing as always. Galatians has proved to be quite challenging with the deep theological terminology. So even with only 6 chapters in Galatians, compared to the 24 from Luke, the small epistle is turning out to be a bigger job than it first appears.

Also, the translation team will be traveling from Mongo to N’Djamena soon to restart the consultant checking on the rest of the book of Luke. The first half of the book was finished last year, but with only 2 weeks scheduled for checking this November, it will be quite a feat to be able to finish the second half with the time allotted. Also, the back-translator who has been so good at the work in the past, has again been unable to help this time around. Izo did find another man who he thinks will be a good replacement, so we pray that all works out well and in good time.

More Suicide Bombers

We have received news of another recent attack in Chad’s capital. According to reuters, an international news agency headquartered in England, “A man dressed in a woman’s burqa blew himself up in the main market in Chad’s capital N’Djamena early on Saturday, killing 15 people and injuring 80, a police spokesman said. No group immediately claimed responsibility but Chad has blamed Boko Haram, the Islamist militant group based in neighbouring Nigeria, for a series of bombings and shootings in recent weeks.”
This is a repeat of what happened a month ago. Last time there were two attacks at the police headquarters, and this time it was in the main market. There was also an attack on a village at Lake Chad where Boko Haram killed 6 people. We were very saddened to hear of the attacks last time, yet also relieved that Art had just returned from his trip to Chad a few weeks earlier. As far as we know, our colleagues from other missions still have no plans to evacuate the country, although we know of one stateside who has been told to delay her return to Chad.
We continue to be sickened with what is happening regarding these incidents and others like them in neighboring countries, and ask for your prayers that there would be an end to this violence.

Suicide Bomber Attack

Yesterday, there were some attacks on two police installations in N’Djamena, with possibly 27 people dead and over a hundred injured. It is still unknown who is responsible for these attacks, but government officials believe that it is Boko Haram. Chad has been engaged in fighting against Boko Haram for several months now along with Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Although this is sad and frightening news for the country, and for our colleagues and friends there, we are thankful that Art is back home, and that he was able to meet all of his goals while in Chad last month. Please remember to pray for peace for Chad and for many to be drawn to the one true God no matter what takes place.

Getting Around in Chad

    Smooth pavement in Chad has been a cause for celebration in the past, when we would make our long travels back and forth between Mongo and Chad’s capital of N’Djamena. We would leave Mongo early in the morning, and by mid-afternoon, after about 380 km of bumpy, dusty, dirt roads, as our wheels touched the smooth asphalt in Masaguet, we would all start screaming for joy to finally be on smooth roads again. The last 120 km to the capital seemed like a breeze.
    Progress came more quickly over the next several years. During our last term in Chad, we were able to drive on 300 km of pavement followed by only 200 km of dirt roads the rest of the way to our village. Then, shortly before we left 3 years ago, we only had less than 100 km of dirt roads. Most memorable was our very last trip out of our village as we approached the big wadi called the Bang Bang. This wadi was the main “rainy season river” that would block travelers from crossing for much of rainy season, therefore locking us into our village area for the whole of rainy season. On our last trip across the Bang Bang, we were able to drive “over” it on the newly built bridge. We were so amazed that we had to stop on the bridge and take pictures to remember this moment, but it was also sad to think that we would never need to ask locals, eager to make a buck, to help push our vehicle through the rushing waters again.
    Art has now been back to Mongo, Chad 3 times since we all left, and he reports that the paved road now goes all the way to Mongo, and beyond. What should be included is that, even though this road is paved pretty much across the country, when it comes to the part of this road that goes through the larger villages including Mongo, the work has not yet even started.

Task complete

Art’s trip to Chad went very, very well. He arrived home very exhausted from the many sleepless nights with the extreme heat of Chad’s hot season as well as the jet lag, and he also came home a bit sick with a tummy bug he caught there. But in the end, he is very happy with the results of this trip. Even with a day of computer problems, he was able to finish testing the rest of the book of Acts with the villagers, as well as spend time visiting Chadian friends and colleagues. We are so thankful for that and for everyone who helped to make this possible for us and for the Dadjo. We will have more to share in our next newsletter that comes out in the next month or two.

back to work

After losing a full day’s work because of computer problems, Art is back to work. As his problems all started yesterday, he was trying to get help from a colleague who is in Australia at the moment, so when this all happened for Art, the colleague was getting ready for bed. The difference in time zones worked against him. When he needed the help, the help was sleeping, and when the help was awake, Art was sleeping. Finally after they both were awake today, and after three more hours of working on it together via email, Art was finally able to get his work to show up on the computer again! Thanks you God! So, on with the translation work-still hoping to finish today which would leave the last couple of days for visiting more and traveling back to the capital.

quick update

As of this weekend, the translation work in Chad has been moving along well. Art has 2 more chapters to work on in order to call the entire book of Acts ready for it’s last stage of consultant checking. This, he was hoping to do in the next couple of days. However the heat in Chad has been climbing again, and his computer doesn’t like that. So this morning, everything came to a halt. After his computer shut down on him, and after getting it restarted, his translation program is nowhere to be seen. He cannot work on any translation without the translation program. He is sending out emails to see what can be done to get the work back on his computer so that he can get further, and hopefully still finish, the book of Acts, but he has already lost several hours of the little time he has left. We’ll pray and see.

Back in Chad

It has been a week now since Art arrived in Chad, and after visiting people in the capital, filling out paperwork for being in country, and another day of travel to the village, he was finally able to start some work with the translation team last Saturday. Since then (apart from Sunday) he has spent everyday going over several chapters of Acts with the team, and twice so far they were able to take the stories from Acts to different villages to test the accuracy of their translation. Today’s testings have been going well.

On a casual note, Art was able to visit several people last Sunday, and while he was visiting with some of these people, it rained! Being hot season still, the rain was so welcoming and brought the temps down a good 10F/5C degrees for a couple of days. Now it’s creeping back up to 110F/43.3C.