Pray for Senegal

The last consultant check for the Mankanya New Testament took place in June 2012. The translation team is preparing to typeset the New Testament and Genesis. This preparation requires performing consistency checks, writing introductions, and choosing illustrations. Ask God to give the team perseverance and good concentration as they finalize this detailed work. Pray, too, for the audio recording of passages from these Scriptures. Pray for the audio distribution, as well as that of various booklets. Praise God that the Mankanya people are already hearing God's Word in their own language. Pray that many will hear God's voice clearly.

BUDIK; Senegal; 3,375; New Tribes Mission. Pray as the team revises some of the books that were translated many years ago. All of the epistles are done; only the four Gospels remain. Pray that the team will be able to get a lot of translation work done during the breaks they take from working in the fields. Ask God to stir up interest for the translated Scriptures in the hearts of believers who cannot read. Pray that they will see the benefit of learning about and reading God’s Word for themselves. Many who are unable to read may now listen to Scripture materials on MP3 players. www.ntm.org

BANDIAL; Senegal; 11,200. In 2012, the German linguist and exegete of the Bandial translation team left Senegal to relocate to France. He continues to be involved with the translation project from there. Pray for the team as they adapt to a new work routine, often connecting by Skype. They hope to have most of the remaining New Testament books consultant checked by the end of 2013. Pray for enough consultants, as well as for good health and stamina for all the team.

MANKANYA; Senegal/Guinea-Bissau/Gambia; 65,000. The last consultant check for the New Testament took place in June 2012. The translation team is now preparing to typeset the New Testament and Genesis, planned for April 2013. This preparation requires performing consistency checks, writing introductions, and choosing illustrations. Ask God to give the team perseverance and good concentration for this detailed work. Pray, too, for the audio recording of passages from these Scriptures. Pray for their distribution, as well as that of various booklets. Praise God that the Mankanya people are already hearing God’s Word in their own language. Pray that many will hear God’s voice clearly.

Ten years after the first chapters of the Mankanya Scriptures were checked by a translation consultant*, the final chapters of the New Testament were checked and approved. The translation team is thrilled to have reached this important milestone. Their work is not done, however. They now need to check that words have been translated and spelt consistently, to write a glossary and introductions to each book, and to choose illustrations—among other things. Pray for the two Mankanya translators, Jacques and Gustave, as they continue to prepare the manuscript of Genesis and the New Testament for publication in 2013.

*A consultant goes over the translation with the team, checking for accuracy, clarity and naturalness, and looking for omissions, extraneous thoughts or possible misconceptions.

BUDIK; Senegal; 3,375; New Tribes Mission. Pray as the team revises some of the books that were translated many years ago. Pray that the team would be able to get a lot of work done on translation and teaching lessons during the breaks they are able to take from working in the fields. Ask God to stir up interest for the translated Scriptures in the hearts of believers who cannot read. Pray that they will see the benefit of learning about and reading God’s Word for themselves. www.ntm.org

As we have grown more dependent on computers, there can really be problems when they don't work.  The climate and power situation in West Africa is particularly hard on computers and much of the computer department's time is spent solving software and hardware issues.  Please pray for the protection of equipment and valuable language and translation data.

The next four years are crucial ones for building anticipation of the translated Scriptures amongst the Wamey people.  The project has always been a challenging one as this people group is so scattered throughout Senegal, their real homeland being in Guinea. Pray for solidarity to grow in the Wamey community and for growing momentum in translation.

Wycliffe Russia: After a few months visiting home in Russia Lena will return to Senegal, where she will continue analysing the Gusilay language, as a first step towards producing a tentative alphabet. Because of security concerns, she has been working mainly with Gusilay speakers outside the homeland. However, involving the community is vital in order to produce a workable alphabet acceptable to all. Let’s pray for stability in this troubled region.

When Wycliffe Russia was formed in 1999, many doubted whether Russian Christians would provide sufficient financial support for Bible translation overseas. However, today, 14 Russian Wycliffe members are serving in the Russian Federation, Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia and Asia.