God reveals much to us through the Holy Scriptures. Those who read the Holy Scriptures can come to know God and also learn a lot about us humans.
But when you hear the words of a God in another language that is not your mother tongue, are you able to understand all of it? You will probably miss a lot of things. And it won't touch your heart as if it were your mother tongue. There are many languages spoken in this world, in total more than 7,000 languages. Some languages are spoken by many people. Other languages are spoken by fewer people. But to God, all languages are equal. The Mogofin language is worth as much as other languages.
God is powerful! Everything He reveals, He can also say to us in our mother tongue so that we will understand it well. The Mogofin also deserve to have the words of God in their own language, so that they can read it, and thereby come to know God.
For more than 20 years there have been Mogofin who have been working to translate God's word into the Mogofin language. Many words have already been translated into Mogofin from the Tawrat, the Injil and Jabura.
Alseni Mamaduba started this work many years ago. He has proven that he is very good at translating, And has done a service to many people of the Mogofin by doing so. His loyalty and commitment is great.
Arafan has also done a lot. Thanks to his work, many parts of the Holy Scriptures have become available in the Mogofin language. Even though not all of these books have already been published, they are already available as proof translations thanks to his efforts. Since he is also supervising the literacy work, he encourages other people in the area to read and write.
When parts of the Holy Scriptures are translated, they cannot be published immediately. The translation first has to be thoroughly checked. We want to make sure the message of the translation matches that of the original text in Hebrew or Greek. Several years ago, Mamaduba Lere also joined the translation team. He as well gives a lot of advice for improving the translation.
In addition, we also ask many elderly and young people from the Mogofin villages listen to the translation, to see if the correct language has been used. We also check if they know all the words used in the translation. Above all, let's honor the elders for their efforts!
There are many more people who help in translation, like Kumbasa and Alasan, who have a lot of knowledge of French language.
We do our best to make sure that the Mogofin who cannot read can still hear the translated Scriptures in their own language. An audio recording is made of almost every book published in the Mogofin. Those recordings can be put on memory cards, so that people can listen to the audio recordings on their phones. Ali Kuntabibi is helping the Mogofin area tremendously with this recording work.
May God bless all these people, as well as all those who are doing their best to ensure that the Holy Scriptures are made available in the Mogofin!
May God ensure that the Mogofin know God through His translated words so that they worship Him as He wants them to!