What if you couldn’t read the Bible in your own language? 12/9/2018

Being able to read the Bible in our own language is something we often take for granted, but that’s not an option for many people. 12/9/2018

For many people around the world, the Bible is not available in their heart language. If it were, I’d be out of a job. 12/9/2018

Introductions Niger Republic, West Africa I’m doing Bible translation for the Woɗaaɓe Fulani people in Niger Republic, West Africa Hi, I’m Jean Baumbach 12/9/2018

The Woɗaaɓe Fulani There are approximately one million Fulani in Niger, with about half being speakers of the eastern dialect (the one I’m working on translating). 100,000 to 200,000 of these are Woɗaaɓe, about 500 of whom are Christians. 12/9/2018

Bible Translation- what is it? Bible translation is taking God’s Word and expressing it in another language. 12/9/2018

Mohamane and Keejo and I work together daily. The Translation Team Of course, I’m not doing this alone- I have two Fulani men who work with me. Mohamane and Keejo and I work together daily. 12/9/2018

The Process: Step One Our translation is a little different from others in that it’s being done in cooperation with the Fulfulde Harmonization Project. There are many dialects of Fulfulde, so a suggestion was made that we work together and use a computer program to make transfers from one dialect to another. Because of this, our first step is to take the rough draft we get from the computer and smooth things out so it sounds better and makes sense in our Fulfulde. (Fulfulde is the language of the Fulani people). 12/9/2018

Step Two: Revision Next we meet with Tambaya to go over the book in more detail. Tambaya has had training as a pastor and can also make use of the resources available in French. Tambaya Keejo Mohamane 12/9/2018

Step 3: Village Testing Keejo, Mohamane, and I travel to different towns or camps to make sure the translation is clear and understandable in other areas and to other Fulani clans. Since most people can’t read, Keejo and Mohamane take turns reading through the book verse by verse while I ask questions about each verse. 12/9/2018

Step 4: Translation Committee Next we go to Tassa Ibrahim to meet with the translation committee. The committee members help us make the translation flow better and check for any errors. My home at Tassa Ibrahim 12/9/2018

Final Step: Consultant Check The last step is to meet with the translation consultant who goes over each verse in detail to make sure it’s correctly translated and makes sugges- tions on how we can improve the translation. 12/9/2018

Progress Right now we have almost half of the New Testament translated into Woɗaaɓe Fulfulde. 12/9/2018

How You Can Help We have two major needs in order to complete the translation of the Bible into Fulfulde: prayer and financial support. Prayer is a very important part of the process. We need your prayer support in order to complete the translation. Without your prayers, I couldn’t keep working in Niger. 12/9/2018

Financial support: Finances are also needed to maintain the translation. These are used to pay the salaries of my co-translators, to cover the travel expenses as we do village testing, and to attend seminars to help us be better translators. The cost is approximately $1100/month. 12/9/2018

The Next Step If you would like to be involved in this ministry, you can contact me by email jean.baumbach@sim.org I send out quarterly prayer letters and some email updates in between. If you would like to be a financial partner, you can send contributions to: SIM-USA PO Box 7900 Charlotte, NC 28241-7900 (704) 588-4300 Please make your checks payable to SIM-USA and note that it is for the Fulfulde Literacy and Translation Project # NE 97427. Thanks for your help! 12/9/2018