February Prayer Letter

Dear Prayer Supporters,

On the mission field, you just never know what hats you might be asked to wear! These last few months have been a bit different from the kind of work I normally do as a translation consultant. I’ve worn the hat of “traveler”, as I’ve had the opportunity to join a BI coworker to visit each of our past, current, and even some future translation projects throughout southern Chad. Also I’ve had a taste for what it’s like to be a computer technician as I participated in a computer training workshop. I wonder what hat I’ll be wearing next!

A Whirlwind Tour

In November, we had a guest from the office of Bibles International in Michigan: Dave Cropsey, the BI projects coordinator for Africa and Europe. He only had about a week and a half to spend in Sarh, but we were able to give him a whirlwind tour of our Chadian translation and literacy projects: We visited all eight current and past projects, as well as two potential future projects. It was an exhausting tour, but we are thankful for all that we were able to accomplish while he was here.

Computer Training

For many years, our Chadian translators have made do with battery-powered keyboards for typing up their translations. But recently we have been able to overcome several logistic hurdles to providing computers for each of our current projects, even those who live in remote villages without electricity. This has been very exciting, but it means a steep learning curve for our translators, many of whom had never used a computer before, let alone the translation software that our work requires them to use. In December, Dr Troy Manning, BI’s chief consultant, came to conduct a two-week computer training workshop for all five of our ongoing Bible translation projects. I attended as an assistant. It was a lot of information for the translators to try to absorb in the short time we had to teach them, but they worked very hard to learn all they could. Pray for them as they seek to apply what they’ve learned as they continue their translation work.

Bible Translation Workshops for 2018

This year I will be working with Bible translations in four different languages. Three are projects I’ve worked with in the past: Sara Kaba Naa, Sara Kaba Deme, and Sara Madjingay. A fourth project, the Ngam, is in desperate need of help, but there are very few French-speaking consultants currently available, so my coworker Joshua Hedges and I will be sharing the load for this project for this year. Joshua will also continue helping the Day (pronounced “die”) project with their final checks. Please pray for the progress of each of these translation projects.

Need for Peace

The primary school near my house has been strangely quiet this week; the usual clamor of the schoolchildren is absent, although it is not vacation. There is a nation-wide strike for all schools and public hospitals; even private schools are currently shut down. This happened in 2016, and that year the schools and hospitals were closed for most of the year. Now they are on strike once again, and so far no there is no sign of a resolution. Pray that the situation will be resolved peaceably.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.

In Christ's Service,
Anna Beth Wivell