Douglas and Jennings Boone Update from Congo

Dear friends,

Thank you for your prayers for our recent trip to Congo! It was a very eventful trip, involving translation checking in Goma, a week of visiting and scouting in Bunia, and a week of group meetings at a retreat center outside Bunia. We went with a lot of questions, and came back with some encouraging answers.

Jennings in Goma: Over the past year or so, we have given news from the Tembo translation team (photo below). They are unable to live in their home area because of militia attacks there, and so they work on a displaced basis in the city of Goma. I (Jennings) was very excited to have the chance to visit them in February, to check part of Matthew’s Gospel. It was my first solo trip into Congo and my first trip to Goma, and it was quite amazing. Much of the city is built the lava left by centuries of eruptions of the volcano Nyiragongo. It looks as if someone poured asphalt everywhere but didn’t smooth it down. For their translation work, the Tembo team are using adaptation software which creates a rough draft of Scripture based on a related language. The translators then modify it to fit the natural discourse of their language and check it with speakers of the language to see that it is clear. My job, then, is to check accuracy with them, to ask about naturalness and clarity, and to discuss whether the style will be acceptable to the churches. We made excellent progress, completing more than half the book of Matthew. During break times and on the weekend, I got to learn more about Tembo culture and their current events, and to visit the city. War has dispersed the Tembo community throughout the North Kivu region. On Sunday nights, there is a Tembo language radio show broadcast throughout the region. The show includes songs, Scripture reading and a sermon. At the end, people are encouraged to call in to the station to greet friends and family in other areas, keeping the Tembo community connected. So far, only Luke and Genesis are available in published form, and Tembo pastors are very eager for more. The head translator, Masumbuko Shabani, says that when they send portions of Matthew to the villages for checking, the pastors do not want to send them back; they want to use even the rough drafts in services. I was greatly encouraged by the hard work the Tembo translators are doing, and moved by the strength of their community, even in war. I look forward to working with them again.

Moving into Congo: One of our big questions prior to this trip was about moving to the town of Bunia. We spent a week there in February, visiting friends and colleagues (including Bagamba Araali, below) and getting a feel for the town and housing possibilities. We already knew “why” the move made sense: it puts us much closer to our work and to our Congolese colleagues. They are encouraged to have more of us expats living “in country” with them. The time seems right. What we didn’t know was the “when” or “where”. And now we think we have answers! Friends working in Bunia have asked us to house-sit for them from late July until mid-October of this year. That fits perfectly with the timeframe we were thinking of for our move, and it gives us a “base” in Bunia from which to look for our own housing! We are very grateful for this answer to prayer. Please pray for wisdom and stamina as we plan this move to Congo in July, and all the packing, logistics, and other preparation that will go with it.

Future of our group: Eastern Congo Group spent a week at a conference center outside of Bunia to talk about our structure and the future of the group. We had seen for some time that our activities were out of balance with our resources (personnel, financial, etc.), and that we needed to adjust. We voted to relinquish our charter, which puts much of our administration and governance in the hands of the Africa Area department of SIL. This will free up more of us to focus on the language work that we were called here to do. We are grateful for the leadership of our director, Tim Raymond, our Executive Committee Chair Jill Brace and Francophone Region leaders Gary and Glenys Sweetman who led these meetings. Please pray for this time of transition, for increased unity in our group and shared vision with our partners. One day during that week of meetings, we invited Congolese church leaders to join us, so we could hear their vision and concerns about Bible translation and share with them SIL’s vision and role. It was encouraging to hear these Congolese partners take increased ownership for this ministry, and to hear how using mother-tongue language Scripture creates excitement and better understanding in their churches.

Douglas’ work: These days, I (Douglas) am working on two main fronts: planning research in the DRC, and designing sociolinguistics training for use across Africa. March 31 is the deadline for me to submit Research Department plans (activities and budget) for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. It was very helpful to talk with Bagamba Araali last month about these. (He and I are the department; we both have other responsibilities as well.) Now I'm looking forward to the closer collaboration that our move to Bunia will make possible. On the "training" front, I am the lead developer of an introductory course in sociolinguistics to be offered—in French—in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in October and November. We expect about thirty students in four "tracks": Linguistics, Literacy, Bible translation, and Scripture Use/ Missiology. To do their work in these fields, they need to understand the role of language in society. I'm preparing the framework that the teachers will use in six months' time: suggested readings, learning objectives, sample assignments, etc. The tasks on both fronts are stretching me, and I appreciate your prayers that I'll learn and grow while doing a good job on them all.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Douglas and Jennings