We had a visitor at the compound for a few days. He was from Ghana. He came to our place to make contact with one of the groups that has recently done some Bible translation here. His goal - to find enough people who can read the recently published New Testament so that the whole thing can be recorded and then put on little MP3 players for the community. How cool is that? Quite honestly, I had no clue that people were coming here to do this sort of thing, but I was rather pleasantly surprised to chat with the guy about his work. Plus, I had a little gadget envy - he had an iPhone and another shiny iPod, among other things.
But gadget envy aside (because, well, obviously, hello, what do gadgets mean in light of the eternal implications of getting the Word into the hands (and ears!) of people who have never heard it before!), it was really cool to meet this guy. I'm still trying to figure out how it all works, but I think, basically, there is an organization that funds these sorts of recordings of translations. That group gets in touch with organizations like the one I work with, to see where the need is, and then they go and contract people like this Ghanaian guy to come out, work with the community, find enough people to read all the parts (they need something like 25, including a bunch of women - and finding literate women in a lot of these language groups is actually a lot harder than one might think :( ), and then finally do the recording of the Scriptures.
Really, it's a pretty neat set-up. And this Ghanaian guy was really cool. I think I like Ghanaians. Haven't met one yet that isn't stellar. He's been to 18 different African countries, doing this exact same sort of thing. He leaves his home for a few months at a time (usually it seems to take between 2 and 3 months to get a project completed), but seems to be incredibly motivated and positive about the realities of the challenges of what he's doing. I was really impressed, though, as he came by himself on this initial trip in - his first time in our lovely country here, and came with his cargo pants full of gadgets and a single carry-on backpack. He stayed for a week to see who he could find from this community and make plans to come back and set up his little mobile studio at the end of this month!
On the way to the airport yesterday, he mentioned that he had a friend of a friend who is based here with the UN, running a radio station which is sponsored by the UN. It's actually quite a decent radio station! They have a lot of call in shows, and it's always in a mix of the local Arabic and English, so it's really quite interesting to listen to, for the most part. Anyway, since the UN compound is right next to the airport, we made a quick stop at the radio station to visit this friend of a friend of his, who actually, as it happens, is someone I know from our Sunday night Bible study :)
Anyway, we only had a few minutes to stop before the plane was due to take off, but we had a great little tour of the radio studios. I even got to meet the DJ that I've heard on the radio - he was in the middle of the afternoon "drive home" talk show (makes me chuckle a bit, actually, because that program is modelled on a typical "afternoon drive home" show at home, where you get traffic reports and things like that. But if you knew where I lived, you'd understand why it makes me chuckle! (Remember, I live in a place where there are regulations about cattle on the roads written into the traffic laws).
But it was quite interesting to see where the radio station is, and to see how it all happens! It is truly amazing what they can do with shipping containers in these parts!
I'm also looking forward to seeing how our Ghanaian friend comes back with his mobile studio and to see how he sets it all up. Not that I know a thing about the topic, but it's always interesting to find out something new!
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