From the New to the Full

'Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path'

Psalm 119: 105 in Dagbani

In 1974, the Dagomba people held the New Testament in their hands for the first time and read the Word of God in their own language, Dagbani. In 2007, 33 years later, another momentous event took place when the Dagombas held the full Dagbani Bible in their hands for the first time. It was indeed a wonderful celebration on 2nd June this year. We wish you could have been there to witness the joy and enthusiasm with which the Dagomba Christians cheered and danced when the full Bible in Dagbani was presented to the people.

The eldest translator, Rev. Wumbee, told his story. When he was asked to help with the translation and he agreed, some people declared him insane. ‘Don’t you know’, they said, ‘that most translators will never read their own translation? That most of them will die before holding the Bible in their hands?’ But there he stood, proudly holding that precious life changing Word of God in his hands. He will never be able to see the full impact of his work, but many generations after him will enjoy its fruits.

One of our church leaders commented that he himself had struggled to understand the Old Testament in a foreign language (English), but that his children can now read and understand the Word of God without any problem because it has been translated in their mother tongue, the language of their hearts.

PRAYER AND PRAISE

• Praise and rejoice with us that we now have the full Bible in the Dagbani language. It is such an answer to prayer.




• Pray that this Word will have a dramatic impact on the lives of the Dagomba people.




• Pray for wisdom for the pastors and church leaders as they use the Dagbani Bible in their preaching and teaching.




• There is now a great responsiblity for church leaders to provide good Old Testament Bible teaching. Please pray for good understanding and Bible teaching of the Old Testament in the Dagomba churches.




• Pray for opportunities to develop Bible study teaching aids in the Dagbani language.
  

Micah's Outdooring

In August this year we were delighted with the safe arrival of our second son, Micah. We decided to be in Accra for his birth so, in mid-July, we made the 13 hour road journey from Yendi to Accra. Micah was born on 18th August and on 16th September we returned to our home in Yendi.

Traditionally in Dagbon a new born baby receives his or her name on the 8th day. Family, friends and neighbours gather to observe the naming ceremony and food is shared. This gathering is called an 'outdooring'. It usually begins early in the morning with the naming ceremony and visitors continue to come and go throughout the day to greet and welcome the new baby.

'Micah's naming ceremony'

As Micah was born in Accra it took us a little longer to organise the ‘outdooring’. However, on Saturday 6th October during a church service, at one of our village churches, Micah was officially introduced to the public and received his names; Micah (Who is like God) Wunzooya (God is great).

More than 400 people came and went during the day and a lot of food was prepared by the women from our village churches. Usually rice or yam is served with a tomato stew and some meat. In total we used 2 goats, 1 ram, 50kg rice and 400 tubers of yam to feed our guests.

It was also a big day for Samuel. The Dagomba men have a traditional dress known as a “smock” and the occasion was first time that Samuel wore his Dagomba “smock”.

'Samuel and a friend proudly wearing their Dagomba "smocks"'

'outdooring gifts of 2 goats and a ram'

Supporting our work - how you can help us

We feel we are very privileged to be able to live, work and serve amongst the people of Northern Ghana. We know that we cannot do this work on our own and we are thankful to God that He provides people who are willing to stand with us and support us in both spiritual and practical ways. If you are interested in helping to support our work, here are the ways you can be involved:

By Praying:
We would be delighted if you would like to commit to praying for us regularly to enable us to accomplish the work that God has called us to do.

Our intention is to post our prayer requests regularly on this blog site, under the Prayer and Praise section, as well as giving details of prayer requests in our blog entries.

If you would also like to receive a copy of our newsletter, please contact us at yakubufamghana@googlemail.com and we will add your email address to our mailing list.

By Giving:
As a family, support for our financial needs comes from churches, individuals, family and friends. We believe that those who support us have been guided by God to do so and this causes rejoicing both for us, as the recipients, and our supporters, as the givers. The financial support we receive plays a crucial role in furthering God’s kingdom, as it enables us to continue to serve Him where we believe He has placed us.

If you are interested in supporting us, as a family, or wish to partner with us in one of our specific projects, we would love to hear from you. For more information, please contact us by email at yakubufamghana@googlemail.com.

Where we live

We live in a small village called Kuga just outside the district capital Yendi in the northern part of Ghana. Yendi is approx 1 hour’s road journey from Tamale (the capital city of the northern region), which in turn is a 12 hour road journey from Accra (the capital city of Ghana) situated on the south coast.

Most people in the village of Kuga live in compound houses. These houses are made up of a number of square or round rooms built in a circle. The houses are built with mud and roofed with thatch.

Those who can afford it build one structure comprising of a number of rooms instead of several separate rooms. They use a mixture of mud and cement for these buildings and use corrugated roofing sheets instead of thatch, as the sheets last much longer. Although the houses and rooms often look relatively small, it is amazing to see how many people gather in them at night to eat and sleep. It is not uncommon that one room accommodates more than 10 people (including children).

our house in the village of Kuga, Yendi

a neighbour's mud and thatch compound house

a neighbour's house with corrugated roofing sheets

Introducing ourselves and our ministry

Ghana has over 60 different languages and people groups. Abukari is a Dagomba, a people group from northern Ghana who number approx 800,000 and speak the Dagbani language. He is a Pastor with the ‘Bible Church of Africa’ and he oversees about 20 churches in the area around Yendi, training leaders as well as church members. Abukari also heads a Bible Correspondence Course with the organisation "Call of Hope", which is based in Tamale. Joke is from the Netherlands and came to Ghana in 1995 to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators in the Dagbani Literacy Project. It was through Joke’s work in literacy with the small Dagomba churches in the Yendi area that we met and married in June 2000. We continue to live and work in the Yendi area.

In the area we work, less than 5% of the people are Christian and most adhere to another religion. Many Christians are first generation believers and are often under enormous pressure to give up their faith. Also, only a very few of the church members have received any formal education. Discipleship and leadership training is therefore an important aspect of Abukari’s work, in order to strengthen the churches and make them sustainable by rooting them in the knowledge of God’s Word.

Also in our area, the illiteracy rate amongst adults is about 80%. There is a proverb in Dagbani which says, ‘Zilinsi ngmani yung, bangsim nye neesim’. This means, ‘ignorance is like the night, wisdom is like the light.’ Through literacy work the Word of God becomes accessible to the Dagomba and light shines in their darkness. Literacy also leads to acquiring other important knowledge about health, agriculture, trade, culture, hygiene, etc. All this knowledge is important to the Dagomba people to help them develop themselves and improve upon their living standards. Word and deed also go hand in hand in the literacy programme. Helping literacy students to set up small scale development projects such as soya bean farming or shea butter production helps address some of their financial burdens. Through this work a bridge is also being built to tell them about God.

We are always encouraged to see how, without a lot of theological knowledge, the young Dagomba Christians testify of God's strength and presence in their lives, His protection, help, healing and deliverance. The essence of the work is not in the fact that we (Abukari and Joke) have been sent out, but that God is gracious and His steadfast love never ceases and knows no bounds. God is the God of the entire earth and the real missionary is God Himself.