Abdoulaye Ouattara

Moise Kone

Kahayeregue Yeo

Abdoulaye (Speedy) Silue

Glenn and Linn Boese

PRAYER REQUESTS FOR AUGUST 2007:

Nyarafolo Project:

• Abdoulaye, translator-in-training at seminary, completed his MA thesis and was awarded a “bien” (good) by his thesis jury, July 2. This represented a huge victory over numerous obstacles, including the grueling oral examination before over one hundred witnesses! We were able to attend, along with two of our Nyarafolo colleagues (Moise and Sali), both cited in his thesis, which researched how to translate “love” in Nyarafolo. It was a fitting closing to the ceremony when we Nyarafolos sang Sali’s song, “God’s love never ends.”


• Abdoulaye will be moving his family back to Ferke at the end of August. Pray for them as they adjust to a whole new life after all this time in the big city, and for Abdoulaye has he reintegrates with our team here.


• He still has four courses to make up before he can receive his M.A. diploma from the seminary. If they are offered as modules (a few weeks long) he will attend them in Abidjan. We’ll ask for permission to do independent study if they are semester-long ones.


• Testing on drafts of Genesis 31-36 is now in process. Moise and Speedy are reading these chapters to a selection of Nyarafolos, both believers and unbelievers, to test the clarity of our rendition and several key terms. Please pray that we will learn whether our ways of translating God’s favor, faithfulness and unending love, are understood. Another term that is proving difficult is “strange gods.”



• Linn, meanwhile, is exegeting the rest of Genesis—the Joseph story. Our goal is to have the entire book ready for verification by a consultant in March/April 2008!.



• An exciting opportunity to get theWord out to Nyarafolo listeners is before us. Radio Sinai, broadcasting over the entire region in indigenous languages as well as French, is setting aside several program slots a week for Nyarafolo! We are trying to respond as quickly as possible. All of us have noticed that Nyarafolos everywhere are finding a way to listen to this voice that finally reaches even remote villages. Please pray for all of us as we gear up to take advantage of this awesome opportunity:


• Working with volunteers from the Ferke Baptist churches, we’ve been remodeling an old recording studio so that it is once again useable – including purchasing new equipment. This will definitely help us prepare programming!


• Pastors Kiidu and Fuhoton are preparing messages to be aired. Moise, on our translation team, is working on a chronological teaching program.


• An enthusiastic group of lay Nyarafolos is working on a variety show that will include community health teaching, literacy promotion, interviews and testimonies.


• Several groups are getting ready to record new Christian music in Nyarafolo!


• The very first Nyarafolo literature/cassette distribution center has opened in Ferke. Pray that people will come, listen, and buy products – as well as get excited about learning to read their language!


• The Fundaanrataadi?e – “Joy-finding-place”—is located at a busy intersection behind the main Ferke market where a row of new market stalls is taking root. People coming to town from many villages, as well as from major residential areas, pass right by. (See picture of the bookstall dedication.)


• The stall is a joint project with Christine, one of our dedicated Nyarafolo Group members who is also a popular hairdresser. She has moved her “beauty salon”, apprentices and all, to do their work in the shelter in front of the bookstore. Christine reads Nyarafolo fluently herself, is one of our major song-composers, and loves sales. She has already sold her small stock of mini-booklets in our folk tale series, as well as some primers. And she says people are asking for cassettes. (See picture, where Christine is leading a song at the dedication of the store.)

Nyarafolo Churches and Outreach:

• In Sonyono, where there has been much spiritual warfare, two more mature adult believers have recently professed faith in Jesus! This is part of the harvest coming from the strong testimony of the three adults who came to Christ over a year ago: the village chief (formerly leading village sacrifices and Muslim prayers) and his wife, as well as the former diviner. These three stood firm in spite of threats that they would not live through the year. That year is past! Most of the church congregation is considered “youth,” in their teens and twenties. Pray for all of them, that they would continue to grow deep roots in the love of Jesus, and shine as bright lights to everyone around.



• In Tiepogovogo, Pastor Pierre Fuhoton is training some of the lay leaders to preach. Some of them will be attending a preaching seminar that the Nyarafolo Translation Project is organizing, for the first week of September. Other lay preachers will be coming from at least three Senufo language groups in Mali to attend as well.



• Over one hundred Nyarafolo believers gathered for the Nyarafolo Bible Conference! March 14-18 marked the fifth annual Nyarafolo gathering, this year at the village where the very first Nyarafolos came to Christ a little over forty years ago through the ministry of Jim Gould: Pisankaha! This is the village where Linn’s father, Dwight Slater Sr., and his brother John, discipled believers during her growing-up years. Now a solid church with their own pastor, they welcomed the Nyarafolo Outreach Group and believers from six other villages as well as Ferke. Since they have not been involved in the earlier conferences, this was a historic event that united the scattered churches for the first time.


• This fellowship brought together brand-new persecuted believers (such as Tene and Laani, the chief’s wife and former diviner from Sonyono) and hardy souls like those from Pisankaha who have come through embattled times and could tell others how the Lord had helped them. Testimonies of God’s protection and provision were powerful!


• The teaching by Pastor Wonvaga Philippe was on the life of Abraham – a deeply affirming time for our translation team as we saw the Scriptures we recently translated being used with such enthusiasm as well as Scripture songs from our Abraham-song seminar in 2002.