Generosity brings joy - Cameroon

Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL) has the joy of sharing God’s abundant provision with the communities it serves. In addition to partnering with Bible translation projects through financial, consulting and administrative support, CABTAL also invests in communities through personal visits, not only to take care of work-related business, but also to offer encouragement, build relationships and pray for needs they come across. CABTAL’s General Director, Mr Emmanuel Keyeh, and his staff take opportunities to visit far flung communities, which are sometimes difficult to reach. They get to see God at work in people’s lives as they generously sacrifice their time, safety and convenience by travelling to local language areas.  

Faro community attending the signing of the partnership agreement. Photo: CABTAL

On 11 April, the director and some of his staff met with five language communities of the Faro department in the North Region of Cameroon. They signed partnership agreements for New Testament translation in the Guimbe, Kompana, Dugun, Duupa and Kolbila languages. In the previous year, while visiting during the mobilisation phase of this cluster project, the director and some of his team had prayed at the bedside of Timothée, a young man with a painful mouth ulcer. Within a month Timothée recovered completely. As a result, his family, formerly followers of another religion, have all become followers of Christ. 

With the memory of this miraculous healing still fresh in their minds, the local population from the five communities came out to give their appreciation to CABTAL. During the partnership signing ceremony, they honoured the visiting CABTAL delegation with pomp and solemnity on the esplanade of the traditional chiefdom. The ceremony was punctuated from start to finish by traditional local dances, enthusiastically performed by young men and women in the intense heat. The young men rolled on the ground, in the dust, as a cultural expression of gratitude. These exceptional expressions of joy on a cultural level revealed the people’s abundant gratitude to God and to CABTAL for what is being done in their community. 

Faro people playing music during the signing of the partnership agreement. Photo: CABTAL

In this language cluster, community leaders have been trained and oral Bible storying has begun to reveal to them the Word of God in their mother tongues. One of the community leaders, a Muslim by faith, attended the event. He remembered many kidnappings of people that the community had often suffered from. He argued that the Bible translated into his language would help to bring peace to his community. He stressed: "I want the Bible translated so that our children will no longer go astray. Without language development, our children will grow up to become something else".

Hundreds of community members, both Christians and Muslims, attended the signing ceremony of the partnership agreement. CABTAL staff eagerly anticipate the transformation that God will bring to these five communities over the next few years as the New Testament is translated and made available to them in their languages.They have been used by God to plant seeds of generosity in the community, and have already seen a harvest of gratitude that is softening hearts to receive God’s Word.