He is risen!

Happy Easter to all! The woman you see pictured here now has an especially happy Easter. Our next door neighbor was in Bangui, Central African Republic this past week to do some fine tuning on a New Testament translation into the Gbaya language. Here is his joyful post from last Saturday:

After listening to me play a selection of the Gbaya New Testament a woman outside our window said, "Hey! That's my language!" I was able to copy the files onto her phone. Here she is listening to the New Testament in her language, Gbaya, for the first time. She was very happy.

The smile you see on this woman's face represents in a very tangible way the eternal fruit of Gospel labor here. Our next door neighbor is on the "front lines" so to speak. He is a translation consultant, (although displaced from Bangui last year because of civil war.) For now, he and his family live here in Yaoundé; as the political situation and safety in Central African Republic allows, he returns for ongoing Bible translation work there. Their willingness to live with this recurring risk is because of the certainty of Easter: Christ is risen! That is good news this world desperately needs to hear.

Our own role in Bible translation is less direct in the sense that we are "just" teaching missionary kids and caring in various other ways for their families so they can continue in their labors. Even so, it is a part that is integral to the larger team effort. All of us long for the day when every people and tribe and nation will be able to proclaim "He is risen indeed!" and "He speaks my language!"