An unexpectedly fun stop on the way

Storytime with Zach

Princeton was supposed to share about Scripture Engagement in a seminary on the way to Abuja for some planning meetings we had there.  They were observing an International Day by celebrating their own ethnos (nations) within Nigeria and the nations around the world.  I briefly sat in the chapel sanctuary and watched Princeton’s presentation, and some of the songs and dance that followed.  I even got to taste a special traditional bean dish with black sesame seeds.  Delicious!

But I quickly slipped outside to our display at the entrance.  Several people were looking at our banner with all the languages that have some portion of Scripture translated already.  I wanted to engage them in discussion so they could learn more about the importance of Bible translation.

I asked one man, “Do you see your language?”  We found his language, Tyap, quickly on the banner.  “Did you know there are audio Scripture available in your language?”  I asked.  He didn’t.  “Do you have a phone that plays songs?  Shall it put it on there for you?”  He was quite thrilled to accept.

Sadly, he didn’t have space on his memory card, but I soon found myself putting audio Scriptures on many others’ phones in their languages.  It “just happened” that we had a stack of papers along with us with questions for leading an audio Bible study on them.  I had more than enough to give one to each person who collected the Scriptures. 

Two or three hours passed so quickly I hardly noticed.  For this one, I sent Scriptures through an app on my phone.  For that one, I explained that Bible translation is just starting and they should try hard to find out who is doing it and encourage them.   For the next one, I demonstrated how to use a solar-powered audio Bible device.  For the yet another one, I made a call to find out the price of a Bible we had brought for display, but decided to sell instead. I felt surprised.  I had just come to watch a short presentation, but here I was surrounded by a crowd of people, helping them all to access Bibles in their own languages.

I can't hear you

Storytime with Zach

Have you ever wanted to look like you have it all together?  I felt that way a little bit as we tried something new this last weekend.  We wrote up some fictional stories a few years ago based on real experiences.  Each story gives an example of problems some communities have had in using their Scriptures.  Then we play the stories and give people time to think about how they might apply in their own communities.  My friend and colleague Rev. Linus had the great idea a few years ago that these stories should be recorded in an audio format in the local language of the people.  His idea was that people may feel the stories happened closer to home if they hear them in their own language than if they hear them in English or even in Hausa.

In the morning before we traveled, I remembered I still didn’t have a printed copy of them.  There hadn’t been any power in the office because it was closed due to the elections.  So there I was on the morning of our journey with no printout.  Since the person who usually takes our children to school was sick, Christy was doing that, and I was home with Mari and Lydia.  This meant I couldn’t even go early to print.  So, as I hurriedly packed my things, I also e-mailed the document to someone in the office asking her to print it.  As we passed by the office to pick some people up, I literally ran in and grabbed the printout.

After dinner we were supposed to meet with Mr. Dako to record some stories in his language.  He showed up with his wife, and at about 9:30pm we all met to discuss the stories.   I had those printouts and we all looked over them together.  We were all already too tired for the careful work, so Linus had the wise suggestion that we not attempt to record the stories that night.

The next morning we met at 7am.  We sat outside in a lovely, shady garden environment.  We were planning to translate the stories orally, but Mr. Dako showed up with a hand-written translation of six of the ten stories.  Wow!  As we worked through the translation, his wife commented on small mistakes of accuracy, and we got the stories just right.  

However, we had one small problem.  I was planning to use my laptop to record.  I often use my laptop for making calls, so I knew the microphone worked.  What I had forgotten about those calls is that I usually lean in close to the screen and half shout into it, so that the other person could hear me.  Mr. Dako read in a perfectly natural voice, just the kind I used to love when recording word lists.  But even when I amplified it on my computer, you could barely hear his voice at all. 

I didn’t let on that I was a bit worried.  I just had him practice the next two stories while I tried something else.  My phone makes nice recordings too, why not use that?  Sure enough the phone was able to play back a story loud and clear.  While he got ready for the next story, I transferred the file from my phone to my computer.  I opened the file expecting to see the waveforms, but I just got an error message… a very unhelpful one at that.  I had reached a dead-end.

I grabbed my colleague’s phone, and found it had a voice recorder, too.  I recorded a sample file, and saw that it ended with “.ogg”.  That should work on my computer!  But when I tried to connect his phone to my computer the image on the phone screen danced up and down and even turned upside down.  I had never seen anything like that before!  I’ve learned not to be too surprised and still tried to connect it.  It wouldn’t go no matter how I coaxed. By now Mr. Dako had practiced a few stories, but I still didn’t know how we would record them.

I confessed to the group that I wasn’t sure how we would record the stories, and asked if we could pray together specifically for the technology.  We prayed, and Dako continued getting ready.  At this point, I picked up Princeton’s phone.  This one didn’t have an audio recorder at all!   But that could be fixed easily.  Princeton connected his phone to a wifi hotspot on my phone and downloaded a popular sound recorder from Google Play (the android app store).  The sound recorder worked fine, and the recording played on my computer. Even better, when I pulled out the mp3 radio we had brought for small groups to use to listen and discuss the stories, the test file worked there, too!

After each story, we played it back and asked what he had said.  In only two cases did we need to make corrections.  It wasn’t as careful and accurate as Bible translation, which would require a written back translation, consultant checking, and community testing (among other things).  We just wanted stories about challenges people face in using Scriptures that sounded as if they could have happened right here in Gbari-speaking land.  

All the paper below (to the left) of the rope were added after discussing the stories

We did end up using the stories.  The responses didn’t lead quite as much as we hoped to bringing out challenges in using Scriptures.  However, as we worked on back translating the stories I was impressed that they were right on target.  Also, at the end of the day two people happened to comment how striking it was that these stories sounded “just like they had happened in Gbari land”.  Please pray with us as we continue to develop ways of working with communities to identify their Scripture Engagement needs.  Pray that God gives us success… and humility!

 
(By the way, do you want to see the stories?  I can e-mail them to you. Just e-mail me, or write a comment below)

Folding chairs and an Assistant Director

Have you ever helped after a church dinner to pack away the folding chairs?  When I was a teenager this was an activity that gave me surprising pleasure.  After the dinner was over while a few people were still lingering enjoying the fellowship, someone would start folding up the chairs and “breaking down” the tables.  Without anyone telling us to, a small group of men and youth would suddenly start working together.  The older ones would show the younger ones how the chair should hang upside down on their racks, all neatly facing the same way. The little ones would ride on the empty chair carts.  Kick, kick!  You hear the sounds of the supports of the table legs being folded up, as big men and teams of younger ones carry them away.  With each chair and each table there is a sense of satisfaction.  We are serving like Jesus!

One night (still in my teens) my dad started reading a simple little book titled Improving Your Serve to my brother, Josiah, and me.  It was an assignment in preparation for our first-ever mission trip to another country. We would work hard stripping paint, join the youth there in plaza evangelism, kill cockroaches with flaming hairspray (not really a recommended activity) and avoid drinking the tap water.  But all that is really another story.  As my Dad and Chuck Swindoll (the author of the book), walked me through Jesus’ teachings about serving, this same joy of serving like Jesus filled my heart.  But also, I began to be aware that the call to serve was something much bigger than volunteering to put away chairs on a Wednesday evening.   Jesus calls me to follow him in giving the service of my whole life, even at times when it is not my choice!

Thus, I find myself writing to you from Nigeria, far from family we miss, shower water you can drink, and outlets that give power 24/7. Yet surprisingly, though I wish I could just sit and be with my family, and I occasionally get frustrated by the unpredictable nature of life, I find that these are actually an easy part of service.  I have chosen to serve here, and find far more pleasures and joys in Nigeria than it costs to be here.

Recently I was convicted by two phrases that seem to echo from my mouth more often than they should: “in the last ten years since I came to Nigeria” and “but I am the Assistant Director for Scripture Engagement”. I have found that these two phrases sound like a variation on the theme song of the “Rulers of the Gentiles” who “lorded it over" those under their authority.

Not long ago I threw myself prostrate onto the bed in our prayer room, beating the pillows in frustration as I tried to pray.  It was just after two weeks of the intense period of visiting potential ministry partners and sometimes making calls in the evenings.  (See Primary and Pharmacy).  I was recovering from some bug that had given me a fever and though the fever was gone, I was still not back to full strength. I had just spent two hours of my official time off in the office working through a solution to a scheduling problem.  We had come up with what seemed like a good solution, and I finally got back to the house expecting to rest and recover when suddenly I got a text message.  As I read it, I realized that our whole solution was going to be thrown out, and I didn’t understand why.  I beat the pillows and cried out, “Why God?  Why?  Is it just my pride?  Does this thing I am working for really matter?  What should I do?”  All my experience and authority rushed to my mind.  I just couldn’t let go.  The struggle—not only with the situation, but also with my blinding pride—went on for the next three days.

I can’t sort it out on my own.  I need God’s help.  I can’t easily see what things are motivated by my strong desire to serve well, and what are motivated by pride.  That’s why I wrote these stories.  I encourage you to join me in prayer in this struggle.

From today (Wednesday) through Sunday our group is going on retreat.  The theme seems perfect for me: “Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ Jesus.”  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to make great advances in cleansing me and renewing me this week.

Primary and Pharmacy

"It feels just like we are on a survey." Luther and I had just walked into a primary school compound in a village just outside of Jos. Children were already studying in their classrooms as we crossed the empty field where they would play during break.

I remembered the days when Luther and I would enter a school like this to study the differences between dialects. I quoted the things I used to say to explain the work to the headmaster. "Hello, I am Zachariah and I am from America. We would like to play some stories to the children from nearby dialects to see how well they understand them. We are like John the Baptist preparing the way for Bible translation."

Now Luther is the survey team leader but we haven't come today to survey any languages. We are here to meet Mrs. Grace* and invite her to become a ministry partner.

After introducing himself and sharing a bit about what God is teaching him personally in his own life, Luther asks to hear more about Mrs. Grace. As Mrs Grace shares about her family and ministry, I feel a strange closeness to someone who had been a complete stranger a few minutes before. She shares about her church's missionaries and her desire for her children to be close to God. We have in common a passion for God's mission.

Another day, I sit in an appointment with another colleague, Rev. Peter. We have been visiting lecturers in the University College of Pharmacy. Schedules can sometimes be a bit flexible. This was set to be our first appointment, but now it is our third one.

We are meeting with Ngozi*, an Ibgo, just like Peter. She teases him that his Igbo language doesn't sound right. It has too much of an accent from his mother's Yoruba language.

As Peter presents the different aspects of our work she keeps interrupting with intelligent focused questions. "Are there really 500 languages in Nigeria or just dialects? If people can't read how will they be able to use the Bible translated in their language?"

Peter answers her questions with illustrations and stories that are perfect for this context. Finally he explains our need for ministry partners who will pray faithfully and support financially.

She seems interested, but needs me to pray about how much to commit to. She is also ready to share names of others Peter can call. Perhaps this week Peter will be meeting them. These are just two of fifteen appointments that each of my colleagues had last week. Please pray for us this week as we each go for fifteen more. Pray for God to connect us with people who will see the eternal value of Bible translation and Scripture Engagement. Pray that they will be faithful despite the financial challenges in Nigeria.

(This is my first post written from my phone.)
*Not their real names.