Nigerian Staff Raising Support

One of the great joys over the last few years has been seeing Nigerian Christians recognise the importance of translating and using the Bible enough to dedicate themselves to this great task.

With over 500 distinct cultural and linguistic groups in Nigeria it’s a world within a country, and so there’s a great opportunity for cross-cultural service. Who is going to fund this? It isn’t such an obvious money-spinner as English-language education, medicine or law, and not many churches have caught the vision yet, so our new colleagues are dependent on partners getting behind them — whether in Nigeria or elsewhere — to fund their work.

Here’s a newsletter highlighting a little of what some of them do, celebrating 5 years of the Nigerian Missionary Staff programme.

To add to what they write in the newsletter:

• Aku, who has written the first page and pulled things together for this issue, is a former student of mine at TCNN. His wife more recently also studied with us there.

• John Azomo has been a constant encouragement for us to think, work and live Christianly in the office. I always appreciate his cultural and theological insights.
• Janet Abai has blessed us in many ways – from finance to arts to Human Resources.
• Iliya Yakubu has worked hard for many years in doing audio (and sometimes video) recordings very well, which helps people engage with the scripture more immediately than print.
• Julius and Yaks are a joy to be around in the office, and Julius in particular pointed out that our Nigerian language card game was lacking Chadic languages. We hope to remedy that soon.

We would love it if you could seize the opportunity to partner with one of our colleagues. Details are in the newsletter, but from the UK:

• For online giving, go to wycliffe.org.uk/donate/. Select “people” and then specify the person’s name, followed by the words “Nigerian Missionary Staff”. You can contribute monthly, by automatic bank withdrawal, or you can give a one-time gift.
• Cheques may be made out to Wycliffe Bible Translators and sent to the address below. Please include a note specifying the name of the person you wish to donate to, followed by the words “Nigerian Missionary Staff”.
• Wycliffe Bible Translators PO Box 1594
  High Wycombe HP11 9NA