Postscript

…more than just giving people a book, even if that book is the Bible.  Discipleship is also about believers having relationship with God and other believers, and believers learning to apply the principles of scripture in their everyday life.

We’ve been with Shu-Mei the last few days learning about her and her role in Cameroon.  She is originally from Taiwan, but spent several years in Paris before coming to Africa.  She works in Cameroon as a scripture use worker. Scripture use workers help communities where Bible translation is in progress or complete learn to interact and use scriptures in church and every day life.  They may conduct Bible studies, help communities create scripture media (scriptures in an audio format, etc), help communities interact with social issues using scripture (e.g. AIDS), and more.

We flew to a village called Yimbere where Shu-Mei worked for a couple of years with a couple who were translating the New Testament into Kwanja, a language group of about 20,000.  Martin and Joan Weber began translation work in 1982, and the New Testament was completed and then dedicated in December of 2006.   The Kwanja now have scripture in their own language, but having a book is not the end.  Scripture use was part of this translation project all along.  Shu-Mei and a small team contributed to helping this project by conducting workshops with church leaders showing them how to conduct Bible studies and how to integrate mother-tongue scriptures into their church services (previously conducted in the national language, French).  Some churches in the village are now using the Kwanja New Testament often and have incorporated what they learned in scripture use workshops into their services.  A couple of people that Shu-Mei worked with are now teaching the principles she taught them to others.  The translation team there is now working on translating the Old Testament into Kwanja.

It had been a while since Shu-Mei had visited Yimbere, but while we were going around with her, it was clear that she was remembered and missed.  We heard people call out greetings to her.  Children were yelling, “Shu-Mei, Shu Mei.” Men and women would come up to her and greet her by name.   Her closest friend from the village invited us to her home where we talked, ate and prayed with her.

Photo by Zeke du Plessis

A highlight of our visit to Yimbere was going up a nearby mountain to pray.  We prayed for Africa. We prayed for the Kwanja people that God would touch their lives and transform the lives of more individuals as well as the whole community.  We prayed for each other.  We thanked God for His goodness and faithfulness.

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