2008 Letter No 08

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for August 2008:

Two of the things which are at the heart of our identity as Baptist Christians are a reverence for the Bible and a concern that the gospel be proclaimed to all nations.

William Carey, who founded the Baptist Missionary Society with others in 1792, is often referred to as the father of modern missions, and it is no surprise that the core of his work in North East India, where he worked as a pioneer missionary, was to translate the Bible into a number of different local languages. Mission and the translation of the Bible go hand in hand, because they are both about bringing the good news of Jesus to people who do not know it.

As many of you will already know there is an initiative among Baptists in the Black Country to support a project called ‘First Gospel’ operated by Wycliffe Bible Translators. It is an exciting opportunity for us to join together in a significant mission venture to the Koma people of Nigeria, who have no Christian Scriptures in their own language. The Koma are a very isolated people group, who live high in the mountains on the border with Cameroon, far from any roads. Amazingly, the outside world only became aware of their existence in the 1980s, since which time various Christian groups in Nigeria have become involved in mission work among them. There is now a small number of evangelical Koma Christians.

A small team of volunteer Koma Bible translators has been identified. They already know the language and the culture, and over the next four years they will be guided by experienced Bible translators through the process of translating the gospel of Luke into their own language. The part which we will play in the project is to support that small team of translators and the consultant trainers working with them with both prayer and finance.

The project starts in September and the finances required will be £6,000 per year for four years. The total cost will therefore be £24,000, and we can look forward to celebrating the commissioning of a Koma version of Luke’s gospel in the autumn of 2012. Bible-based discipleship materials, recordings of passages from Luke and a Koma version of the Jesus film, which is based on Luke’s gospel, will also be developed. Baptist churches in the Black Country will be supporting this jointly with prayer meetings for the project about three times a year and by contributing financially.

There are 27 Baptist churches in the Black Country Group, and they vary greatly in size. However, if each church managed to contribute £20 per month then the costs would be met. Different churches will raise funds in different ways, and at West Bromwich Baptist Church we may yet discuss organising gift days or designating some of our church funds to support the project, but initially I hope that interested individuals in the church might consider pledging a regular gift to support this work. I will be arranging for pledge forms to be available so that those who are interested can make it known that they intend to give financial support and those who coordinating the project can make their plans, knowing the level of financial support which is coming in.

Not everyone will be called to support this project, but I do encourage each of you to give some thought as to whether you should be giving to it. It is an exciting way of bringing the gospel to people who have not heard it and strengthening the small Koma church with the Scriptures in their own language. Let me know what you think, and if you want to get involved financially or in other ways.