The latest version of my itinerary is :
I arrive at Lusaka Airport on Feb 2nd and stay 2 nights with Italian Roman Catholic missionary Fr Gian Battista Moroni. I met Fr Moroni twice in Rome last year. He has been a missionary in a Chichewa speaking area of Zambia for 28 years.
I’m also met at the airport by Steven Kaombe who will travel from Mozambique and be my companion throughout my time in Zambia. Steven travelled to Lilongwe in Malawi for ‘easyBibles’ meetings in 2008. He is a very talented translator, particularly into Chichewa and Yao but also Portuguese. With his wife Grace he is also doing Nyanja – one of her mother-tongues.
Feb 4th – we move to Kabwe, Zambia and meet with 15 translators and checkers of ‘easy to read’ Bibles from 8 nations (DRC, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and possibly Lesotho) at Acts Bible Church in Kabwe, Zambia from Feb 4-13th. Rev Ignatius Chumwe, the pastor and the congregation are providing very generous hospitality.
Please pray that Bishop Evariste Numbi (African Inland Church, DRC – Lutheran) and Pastor Elie Kakudji will get permission to travel further south than Ndola and join us in Kabwe.
At this preparatory conference we shall listen to one another and hope to improve our abilities to produce, check and field-test the over 20 languages represented. I shall start as Chairman but hope to hand this over as the Conference progresses. Please pray that God will take hold of these meetings and surprise us – for His Glory!
Email partners – because of distances and costs – are Ethiopia, Egypt, Uganda and possibly Southern Sudan (I met a wonderful Bishop for this new country last Thursday in North Wales).
Then if all goes well, in November, or earlier, the aim is to meet again – as a larger group from even more countries – with African leadership – each language having completed at least the 4 gospels at the ‘easy’ level and 100 gospel stories at the ‘veryeasy’ level for a FULL AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR ‘EASYBIBLES’.
Feb 13th – Steven and I travel to Livingstone in Zambia seeking contacts from Botswana, Angola and Namibia.
Feb 18th – Back to Lusaka
Feb 19th – fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to meet Abraham Getachew and 2 friends to move Amharic and Oromo forward; then to London.
LATEST NEWS!! Two friends – one from Nairobi, Kenya and the other from near Arusha, Tanzania have already said that although they’re not able to come in February – they hope to attend in November. Praise God!!
Delegates have to find their own bus fares as well as doing the work as volunteers in the first place. This time i’m only paying bus fares for 2 people -who are working fluently for the poor people in their own languages.
Please email me if you wish to contribute – some people have helped already; BUT i’ll also be raising funds for the ‘book printing and posting’ CHARITABLE CLUB in the Britannia Building Society in March. Obviously it is best to help Africa by getting the printing done there. As i travel, i shall be seeking information from printers like the African Inland Press i once visited in Mwanza, Tanzania.