Okphela of Nigeria
About 100,000 Okphela speakers live in midwestern Nigeria. An additional 50,000 people understand the Okphela language because they speak closely related dialects. Although up to 70 percent of the people would identify themselves as Christians, their exposure to the gospel has been through English or the Yoruba trade language, not through their own Okphela language. As a result, very few have a real understanding of faith in Christ, and their lives continue to be dominated by their traditional animistic religion. Before the 1990s, the Okphela language had never been written down. But a small group of Christians began seeking translation of the Scriptures, and one well-educated Okphela man, a newspaper writer, approached the Nigerian Bible translation organization looking for a way to do translation for his people. After his initial approach, he and his wife became so committed to Bible translation for the languages of Nigeria that they took a 50 percent cut in pay and joined the organization as managers. Project Goal: NT plus OT Portions.
- Now that the Okphela team has reached the important milestone of drafting the whole New Testament, they’ve begun focusing on the last leg of their journey to get it into people’s hands. Pray that God will give the team strength and discernment to reach their goal of a completed New Testament by next year.
- Important testing for clarification of meaning of the 4 gospels is going on. Pray that local people will interact well during Scripture testing sessions and offer valuable help to the team to revise the translation.
- Because of problems in the past, continue to pray that the Lord will meet the team’s ongoing needs for reliable technical equipment.