Strategic Opportunities

Kru of Ivory Coast

Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to be his teacher or counselor? (Isaiah 40:13, NLT)

In the past 30 years, linguists from around the world translated the New Testament into a handful of the 20 Kru languages spoken in Southwest Côte d’Ivoire. However, in 2002, civil war erupted and translation work stopped. Disarmament is still in process, so life in Kru communities is still unstable. Local people have lost land, churches and literacy centers to disgruntled vigilantes.

While about 25 percent of the Kru population consider themselves Christians, traditional beliefs are common. Realizing that if the Bible were to finally be translated into their languages, they would have to do it themselves, believers from four Kru languages formed a team. Church leaders have committed to promote use of the translated Scriptures throughout the churches in the Kru region as it is available. They plan to start with Mark, and then proceed with the other Gospels. Because singing is such a popular medium for communicating truth, the translators will first complete the Gospels in their languages and then put the Scriptures to music. A significant event during the second part is a workshop to create songs based on the Scripture translations and then record these on cassettes to prepare them for distribution and evaluation throughout the region.

  • Each of the four teams (Bete Guiberoua, Bete Gagnoa, Godie and We Southern) recently transitioned to an eight-year, full-scale project. They’re now working toward a whole New Testament. A new language team (Neyo) has joined the work as well. Pray for the brother of one of the translators. He’s gravely sick and hospitalized.

  • Keep praying that mother-tongue literacy will help prepare people to read the vernacular Scriptures for themselves.

  • Though the teams are continuing to translate, the political situation is very difficult and often stretches their endurance. The We Southern team has had to leave their village and move to a town for security reasons. The country has been split in a post-election crisis since last November. Pray for a resolution to the crisis.

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