(Story by Rev. Linus W. Otronyi.)

God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that work in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Eph:3:20-21

It is amazing that God works in the ways that exceed our imagination! A few months ago, some of us were wondering if the Bette language group will be able to meet up with the series of projects (such as the Jesus film, FCBH, etc.) lined up for the Ogoja languages with at least the New Testament. At that point this group did not have a language committee. They were not showing up for some of the preliminary meetings. We were just making contacts with some church leaders and trusting God for the rest. Our fear was heightened when they could not attend the first Jesus film workshop on the first and second days. We had almost given up on them, but suddenly they showed up in good number and with strong interest. They finished the first workshop, returned home, and started thinking of forming a language committee—which they have successfully done. They decided to meet for three days to work on their script. They are now ahead of some of the other groups in their script, demonstrating their commitment. While the main involvement if this work in Bette has been from the Assemblies of God, they have brought a few members of other denominations to join them to work on the script. However, they will need some significant guidance. This is above what we imagined.

In one of their script writing meetings, they started discussing the need to review the New Testament and perhaps work on the Old Testament after the Jesus Film project. One of them drew our attention to one translation problem he observed in the NT. That was the title of the book of Acts of the Apostles in the language. The Bette Bible has “Akpe” which means behaviour of the Apostles while they think it should have been “Aki” which means works of the Apostles. This represents some of the problems translators face in trying to convey the original meaning into their Mother Tongue. After this discussion, one of them read a passage from the Bible again. The passage caught one passerby’s attention and she stopped to listen and after listening she said, “This is what they should be reading for us in the Church, so that we can understand what God is saying better. We are not English people, but we are Bette people.”

A few weeks later, I set out from Ogoja to go Jos to attend the Annual Business Meeting of the Nigeria Group. The journey was not unusual, but I saw God in action again. When I got to the motorpark in Makurdi (a town almost halfway between Ogoja and Jos), I was supposed to join a vehicle that was almost ready to move, but they did not take me because I was with a sister who carried some load. There was no space for her load in the vehicle and I was not ready to leave her behind since we started the journey from home together. So the vehicle left us and we had to wait for several hours for another vehicle, and my meeting in Jos was supposed to be on the next day. I could not imagine spending the night on the road, and with the security situation in Jos I did not want to arrive late at night. In all these things God gave his peace and patience and I was calmed. We moved from Makurdi and got to Lafia (another town after Makurdi); there the vehicle I was supposed to enter in Makurdi was broken down. There was no sign or hope that they were going to repair the vehicle and travel to Jos that same day. Then I understood what God was doing by the delay. As it turned out, we arrived in Jos shortly after dark. It is always good to follow God’s leading and above all to trust Him for He knows all and is able to do more than we can ask.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 9th, 2011 at 6:04 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.