www.easyBibles.com

My time in China in March is yielding fruit. Please click on https://sites.google.com/site/easybibles2/veryeasychinese-from-zhoukou

Praise God! Please continue to pray for both teams there.

Perhaps at Ndola with several/many African leaders and languages represented, it will be a good opportunity to research the way we produce and field-test ‘veryeasy’ scriptures for learning disabled people.

These are really paraphrases like ‘The Message’ –  BUT we need them to follow the original texts as far as possible AT THE SAME TIME remembering the target readership.

In my quiet time this morning i was led to the old hymn ‘Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear; Things I would ask Him yo tell me if He were here……. ‘ full of good ideas for a starting syllabus!

Also in Ndola let us consider the value of ‘easy’ translations at level A – having  REDUCED VOCABULARIES AND SHORTER SENTENCES.  Wycliffe Associates UK  have given permission for teams to translate their level A in English (http://www.easyenglish.info/english-learners-bible/index.htm ) as long as we find serious checkers to check with the Greek. But it is best to just use (if you can ) the easyEnglish together with other Bibles already in the target language. So far only the Chinese team, i visited in March, is working at this level.

Ndola, Zambia in February 2012 will be full of opportunity and excitement!

These 4 books show our latest products. The bottom 2 are those spirally bound in Bradford; the easyFrench one is 4 Gospels in pink but will be red when thoroughly checked and formatted; the ‘veryeasy’ paraphrased stories book is light blue but will become Royal blue after further work done.

The top right blue book is a single gospel at ‘easy’ level which will again become red. All 3 of the above books were printed in Llangefni and stapled or spirally bound in Bradford. I cannot thank Ian Melton of Cefni computers and Richard Johnston enough for their splendid help. Ian also sells me refurbished laptops at reduced prices for Africa etc.

Sometimes for certain important languages like French for Africa and Swahili, i’m prepared to buy a few copies printed by my friend Phil Roberts of Tentmakers Publications, Stoke-on-Trent, UK. The yellow book above (top-left) is an example of his work. This has survived 10 years of much use in many countries. I’m starting to experiment with such A4 books of veryeasyChin for Mynamar/Burma. Soon. i’ll add some ‘veryeasy’French books too.

BUT THERE IS A VERY REAL PROBLEM :

POSTING BOOKS HAVING 4 GOSPELS OR LARGER BOOKS IS NOT SENSIBLE.

EVEN USING SURFACE MAIL (TRAVEL BY SEA) IT COSTS MORE THAT £4 TO SEND A BOOK THAT COST ONLY £2 TO MAKE.

WE’RE EFFECTIVELY POSTING TREES TO AFRICA!!

AND AFRICA HAS PLENTY OF TREES AND PLENTY OF PRINTING FIRMS.

So, please enjoy Christmas and next year I’ll be reminding you all of the ‘Easy To Read Bibles’ Britannia Club Account (for which there are 4 signatories) – from which we shall send money to pay printing bills – but only for products which have our full confidence, WRITTEN SACRIFICIALLY BY VOLUNTEERS.

Dear Rev Martin and Pastor Samuel,

God be with you all. From December 2011, We are opening  the way to the last  books of  the whole New  Testament  in Easy French  for Africa.  The  books of Galatians, Romans, Timothy 1 and 2, Hebrews, James, Peter1  and 2 are then being set to be written soon. Our faith is that the first drafts of the whole New Testament will be available in March 2011. Hence, a special working programme has been established night and day. Each member has his part to accomplish in the  fixed time by keeping the highest value of truth, sincerity and infaillibility of Holy Scriptures as Word of God  to save souls for  the  Kingdom of Heaven.

We will surely discuss with Rev Samuel for Swahili  (or better Kiswahili). The pure Kiswahili is used in the eastern part  of Africa.  In  DRC this Kiswahili is also used in some parts of  the country  such  as  MANIEMA, North and South Kivu provinces. The North Katanga Province where we live  uses an other Kiswahili  having some words different from  the original . But , the communication  between any kind of Kiswahili is  90 percent assured  because of many transactions.  We also learned  this pure Kiswahili at primary school. Bishop Evariste who often travelled to easten parts of Africa speaks and writes correctly this pure Kiswahili.  The pure LIngala has also disappeared . Many changes have been involved in the course of times .We will make clear  all this situation in Ndola with the help of God.

In total; African languages  should express the deep and actual  linguistic needs of  the consumers. I am basically a linguist by major. The Bishop is a historian.

We thank God that  such meetings to help one another to share experiences for the mighty glory of God.

I will certainly come back with more news to you all, while Bishop Evariste Numbi is on his way back to Lubumbashi.

Blessings, Pastor Elie.

Dear friends – today, November 26th is the 8th anniversary of ‘easyBibles’ starting in Kampala with Swahili at the request of Henry Kelula – General secretary of the Bible Society of Uganda. Next week Scottish friend and Comboni Fr John Fraser travels to Kampala to spend December there and in Lira. Perhaps, i will pop to see him for a few days – if he invites me – but after 38 years missionary work in N Uganda – where he bravely argued with and out-manoevered The Lord’s Resistance Army to reclaim many young men – who are throwing a party for him in Kampala. It would be presumptious for me to gate-crash such festivities.

From China – a wonderful Birthday Present was Luke ch4 at level A in easyChinese. This level is easier than level B – with a smaller vocabulary and shorter sentences – for people of average intelligence learning to read – and so far only exists in English and Chinese.

Also for Burma (Myanmar) we soon going to be posting 200 veryeasyChin booklets to Myanmar and to Burmese refugees in Australia – some printed by Ian in Llangefni and spirally bound by Richard in Bradford and some printed by Phil – who i met again 2 weeks ago and who did many very high quality books for easyEnglish, when i was co-ordinator. Phil has much personal interest in this Asian country himself. Another of God’s coincidences?

BUT THE IMPORTANT NEWS FOR THIS UPDATE IS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO – AND THE KNOCK-ON AFFECT FOR THE WHOLE SOUTHERN AFRICA REGION.

Bishop Evariste Numbi and Pastor Elie and their growing team having produced our first 4 gospel book in easyFrench for Africa are rapidly finishing the New Testament – as well as setting up and supervising teams to do similar work in Swahili (including Tanzanian friends led by Revd Samuel Mpanilehi ) and Lingala.

Surrounding nations effected include :

Malawi – where we are working through our 3rd gospel in easyChichewa and a Baptist pastor is joining the Yao team.

Mozambique – where Steven – rejoicing in the birth of his new daughter – is moving forward with Yao and Portuguese.

But, so far, the only team with 100 ‘veryeasy’ gospel stories and 4 ‘easy’ gospels is the one led by Bishop Evariste and Pastor Elie.

I LOOK FORWARD EAGERLY TO MEETING THEM IN NDOLA, ZAMBIA IN FEBRUARY. Friends from Zimbabwe and Zambia also hope to attend.

We praise God for such people.

Let us continue in prayer – that millions more may be able to read His Word.

The new spiral-bound books of the Four Gospels in easyFrench for Africa arrived this week for further formatting (helped by our friends in Wycliffe Associates – UK) – but we have a new problem. They weigh 660 grams and will cost about £3 to £4 to post to DRC – even by surface mail. This trebles the cost of supplying such books.

So we are investigating using local printers in the Congo itself. This will also be best for helping to improve employment prospects in Africa too.

The smaller booklets can still be produced in Wales – thanks again to the kindness of Ian Melton of Cefni Computers and Richard Johnston who gets them bound together in Bradford. Please pray for these new developments. I shall have to do less printing and more fund-raising – as teams gradually qualify for the ‘quality.easyBibles.com’ label and we’re working with larger books.

I was very impressed with the helpfulness of French people – particularly young people as i sought geographical directions in my enjoyable 4 days in Paris.

My stay at the guesthouse of the Sisters of Cluny enabled me to meet 4 very useful people for checking and even writing easy and veryeasy French – 2 medics, 1 teacher and a sister who may be able to find workers for veryeasy French Creole.

I left with a renewed determination to improve my French – ready for Ndola in Feb.

October was a wonderful month. Praise God!

Quality.easyBibles.com has settled down well – with all 4 gospels being checked and polished in ‘easyFrench for Africa’ and the same team from DRC growing larger to finish the New Testament as well as moving on to Swahili and Lingala.

EasyChichewa for Malawi and Zambia has 3 teams involved – Protestant and Catholic – and should soon also have all 4 gospels finished for checking.

We hope that these teams and others will be represented at our FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR ‘easyBibles’ AT NDOLA, ZAMBIA FOR FEB 5 – 12, 2012. So far, teams from DRC, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe hope to be involved and we wish to reach out to others too. The conference will at least be bilingual – French and English and hopefully add Portuguese too from Angola.

Soon, i again meet Comboni Fr John Fraser – this time in London. He’s going to spend the whole of December in Uganda and will help to encourage easyBibles there.

Myanmar – yesterday 47 Luke stories arrived in veryeasyChin from Revd Pa Hrang Hmung – the General Secretary of Upper Myanmar Chin Baptist Association. He asked me to mention his email address – phhmung@gmail.com . We have had several gmail chats – i met him in Tokyo last year- please encourage him and his very needy nation. This pastor’s dedication, together with the easyBroa from Cambodia and splendid easyBengali team in Bangladesh encourage me to consider an Asian version of ‘Ndola’ for much later next year – perhaps in Kuala Lumpur – it’s very easy to visit and great for hospitality. Please pray about this.

Tomorrow i go to Paris to meet with the leaders of ‘Faith & Light’ – http://www.faithandlight.org .

Thank you for your prayers

We rejoice to have a growing number of checkers for easyFrench – who will also improve punctuation and formatting. Welcome to Cynthia, Helen and Joyce to help Yvonne. These noble and experienced ladies cut their teeth on easyEnglish and transformed it.

Welcome too to Carol from China, who now lives in Hong Kong and is already checking 2 levels of Chinese.

Pastor Elie has also found new members. I hope to meet some of them at the nearby border city of Ndola in Zambia in Jan/Feb.

I WOULD LOVE TO TAKE A TEAM WITH ME! AIR FARE from London Heathrow to Ndola IS ABOUT £600 – of course we pay for ourselves.

I’ll seek cheap accommodation for us with the help of my friends.

Zambia is quite safe – i went there 4 years ago from Malawi by bus.

By the time we arrive they expect to have all 4 gospels plus over half the New Testament in easyFrench plus over 100 illustrated gospel stories in ‘veryeasy’ French plus a good start made on Swahili and Lingala.

Please pray about this.

The Congolese team based in Lubumbashi is growing. We now have the 4 Gospels at ‘easy’ level with Revelation, Acts and 1 Corinthians following; and 100 Gospel stories at ‘veryeasy’ level.

We also have more helpers from my easyEnglish friends in UK helping with checking punctuation, formatting and finding clip-art.