For us, the story starts over 30 years ago. I was young and passionate about seeing God glorified among the peoples, and I had been invited to go to a Muslim nation with a medical team.  That particular country was unreached and underserved.  I approached the Board of Missions at our church with an application for service there. That was the end of that story, because the chairman of the missions board asked me to marry him, and we went off on a wonderful 30 year mission adventure in a completely different part of the world!

As a couple, we were involved with Bible translation for two languages, teaching people to read, and helping them learn to meet God in His Word. But I continued to pray for the people of that country I never went to. I always wondered if God would send me there “later.” 

Around 2015, our oldest daughter became involved with Kotobanu refugees. I was thrilled to hear that my own daughter was reaching out to unreached people from the country where I had wanted to serve all those years ago. Through her church, my daughter and her husband were involved in some ESL and practical help for newcomers from this group to the USA. God did amazing things to bring these refugees in contact with the ministry team. My husband and I started praying for this church team as they began to build relationships among the Kotobanu people. 

Not long afterwards, on a short visit back to the USA, my husband and I were able to meet a few of the Kotobanu people ourselves. I couldn’t help but ask if my hope for ministry among these people was finally coming true. Even though neither of us had the opportunity for specific ministry among them at that time, we did plant ideas about ways to preserve their language. 

A few years later, I was in the USA for a visit, and our daughter told me that the Kotobanu were asking some of the ministry team to learn their language. The team was finding this particularly challenging because the language was unwritten, and no outsider had studied it before. I agreed to give a couple language coaching sessions to some of the team.

Early in 2020, our lives were turned upside down with the birth of our daughter’s second child. He was born with a constellation of devastating heart defects. We decided to come and help out. Miracle after miracle got us here: last minute flights just before a border closed, finding housing very close to our daughter, getting a vehicle--all in the context of the rising pandemic. But we feel God brought us to the USA for another purpose as well.  We began to be more and more involved in the local ministry team. While still working in our roles on the other side of the earth, we began to take an ever-increasing role in mentoring the people working on the language side of things for the Kotobanu. 

Today, the language team has a working alphabet and a 1200+ word dictionary. The Kotobanu community is planning to start the Language and Identity Journey to see how they can maintain and develop their language in their new situation. One member of the original church ministry team has joined SIL with the goal of getting more training and eventually doing Bible translation. Others are considering how they can also join the team and contribute. 

As for my husband and I, we have now taken official SIL partial-assignments working with this group. New doors keep opening for language development, trauma healing, and translation work. God has provided funding as well. It’s our goal to support this language community and the ministry team and to find ways to share Gospel truths with them through their languages. We look forward with anticipation and hope to see this community respond to God’s call for them to come to himself, and to see them engaging with His Word in the languages that speak best to them, including their Kotobanu language. 

Anonymous Author

The depressing and overcrowded facility where Araya came to stay was home to 18,000 people, 6,000 of whom were Kunamas. The camp was isolated from the rest of Ethiopia; the nearest town an hour away. Permission had to be obtained for anyone to leave the camp no matter what the reason. “We were all desperate,” Araya recalled. “No one knew what was going to happen. We were all stressed out. There were no jobs, and not much to do. We all shared one thing: a hope that we would be able to go to another country to work, go to school and follow our dreams.”

Araya, stunned though he was at this unforeseen turn of events, soon became a camp leader and interpreter providing crucial help with medical and immigration needs for his fellow Kunamas. Because of his language acuity and law experience, he became a sort of intermediary between them and the camp authorities. He helped in organizing monthly rations, and communicating important messages and information. This was crucial since most Kunamas spoke only Kunama while the camp authorities spoke English, or Amharic, or Tigrinya. “My community needed help and I was glad to be able to help them,” Araya confided.  He spent three years in this camp.

Araya had grown up in a Christian family in Eritrea.  His parents attended the Swedish Baptist church in the city of Barentou.  In 1999, he had been one of the very first children to leave his town to attend college.  He studied law, and graduated with a law degree in 2005.  He then returned to Barentou where he worked as a prosecutor in the high court of the region.  He never foresaw the bleak turn of events which would cause him to take a different path to serve his people. 

While living in the refugee camp in Ethiopia, Araya encountered the power of God in a new way.  The Kunama church in his homeland was conservative, and oppressed by the government. In the camp, there was religious freedom and three churches of a more pentecostal persuasion were meeting. He saw pastors care for the physical and spiritual needs of the refugees with obvious signs of God’s Spirit at work. “There I saw God’s power through physical healings, and people being delivered of demon possession,” Araya recalled.  Araya started reading the Bible more, and through this, developed a deeper internal commitment to his own faith in Jesus.

The Kunamas in the camp did have Scripture of sorts. They had access to a 60 year old New Testament translation which was still helpful to them. However, most Kunamas could not obtain those Scriptures, so the ones who could read, used English or Amharic Bibles, and interpreted for others. Araya observed that in whatever language, the Scriptures were very important in the camp. 

In 2010, Araya came to the US to stay.  He now lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota along with two thousand other Kunama people.  Because of his past experience as an interpreter, the Sioux Falls Community Church chose Araya to be one of three translators to produce the Kunama Jesus Film translation. 

The impact of the Jesus Film contributed to a growing interest in carrying out a new Bible translation in the standard Kunama Itana dialect. The Itana dialect is used for government, school grades 1-5, radio, church, etc. The existing Kunama Bible, translated completely by only one individual, is in a different dialect and contains numerous errors.  Both the Kunamas in the diaspora and those in the homeland voiced their desire for a new Bible in the standard dialect. 

Araya was again selected by a fellowship of Kunama church leaders to work on this new enterprise in partnership with Wycliffe USA.   When asked what his goal was for being a part of this project, Araya replied, “To provide my people with a well-translated, simple, understandable, and mistake-free translation of God’s word.” He added, “The largest population of Kunamas is still in Eritrea. Everything we do has the homeland in mind. We look forward to shipping new Bibles to that community someday.”

Araya continues to be very involved in church activities and in the larger diaspora community.  The local church relies on him for all things “writing”.  He has written church policies, church teachings for new members, and other items.  In the larger community, he helps with English, job applications, green cards, and the naturalization process, basically whatever anyone needs.

Araya says that God works in mysterious ways.  He explained to us that he never imagined that he would leave his hometown and country, or give up his profession. He still greatly misses his family and calls his mother in Eritrea frequently.  He misses the weather and the beautiful agricultural fields that make up his homeland. However, it is apparent that Araya has a servant’s heart, and his motivation was and continues to be to serve God and his community.  

As Araya stated, God works in mysterious ways.  We often don’t know His plans for us.  But God has a purpose for us.  He seems to have raised up Araya with special skills and knowledge to help his community with exactly the things they need.

Click this link to hear Araya reading newly translated Ephesians 1:13 in Kunama. 

“I don’t want any Kunama anywhere to be left behind because of language” Stefano Dago replied when I asked him why he was so passionate about having the Bible available in a good Kunama translation.

Stefano grew up in a Catholic family in Eritrea. Although he always loved God, he often struggled with the need for confession. This struggle drove him to read the Bible, to learn more.  He sensed that God was asking him to deepen his own faith, guide his family, and be a leader.

In Eritrea, in the context of endless wars and political upheaval, Stefano’s parents moved to a farm to provide safety for their family. In 1980, Stefano took responsibility for his 8 year old brother and fled to Sudan. There he lived and worked for 7 years as a pharmacy technician, changed his name to Mohammed, and learned Arabic.

In 1987, he resettled in Minneapolis.  The Catholic Church of St. Mark sponsored him.  He remembers receiving a welcome gift of $200, a hat, and a shirt. Stefano struggled with culture shock, intensified by raising his young brother, getting him to school every day, finding a babysitter and all the other requirements the child needed. At this point, Stefano realized how difficult it was for his brother and other Kunama children to grow up in America.  With so much freedom, the children were constantly tempted to take wrong turns.  God inspired Stefano to look for ways to provide healthy influences for kids, strong families, a Kunama church, and access to Scripture.

Stefano found a small Eritrean house church in Minneapolis.  Here he learned the meaning of being born again.  He decided that the church needed a proper place to meet and so Stefano put his leadership skills to work and found an American Pentecostal church that was willing to share its facilities by allowing them to meet in their basement.  They could not afford to pay rent, so Stefano worked as the church janitor in exchange for the use of their facilities. The pastor of this church helped him legally change his name back to Stefano.

In time, Stefano organized an outreach to the neighborhood, and this small Eritrean church grew from 12 attendees to 40. They added a communal meal after church, and the numbers continued to increase.  Stefano organized a conference with a special speaker, English translators, and hundreds of participants.  Eventually the church allowed them to use their main sanctuary--no longer did they have to meet in the basement! Finally, Stefano recruited an Eritrean pastor from Oklahoma to pastor the church. 

Beginning in the year 2000 many more Kunama refugees began to come to the US.  Stefano started serving these new arrivals by helping in their transition, arranging English classes, housing, jobs, enrollment in colleges, etc.  When I asked how he made a living at that time he said, “The new refugees often gave me their first paycheck as a way of thanking me”.  Stefano became well-known as a medical and legal translator for Arabic, Kunama, and Tigrinya. He continues to do that today.

Stefano’s closest Kunama friend, Solomon, saw Stefano’s heart for their people. and together they discussed producing the Jesus Film in Kunama.  A local contact helped them make it happen and the film was produced in Sioux Falls in 2016 in the studio of a marketing firm whose owner had befriended Stefano.  This film has had a tremendous impact on Kunama people everywhere.

Next, Stefano and Solomon along with church leaders and other believers decided that the Kunama needed a modern Bible.  The Kumana Scriptures that were currently available were very poor quality, and no one really used them.  Stefano contacted Wycliffe in Orlando to seek help, and was eventually connected to Rick Chiesa and Steve Salowitz, the project liaisons for Wycliffe USA.  The project is now well underway and a team of consultants is currently working to train and equip the Kunama team.

Throughout this time, God moved significantly in Stefano’s family. Stefano’s brother, Muru, and his family moved to Sioux Falls where many refugees work in large meat factories.  Muru accepted Jesus in a small Kunama church that met in a basement.  They prayed for a better place and God provided the facilities at a local Bible church where they now meet every Sunday afternoon.

Stefano also told me about the power of God’s Word in the life of his wife, Alganesh.  She was not a believer when they were married, and she had a wild lifestyle.  He begged her to read just one chapter of the Bible, and to attend church with him just once.  On the day she reluctantly attended, she was overcome by God’s Spirit and Stefano says that she is now a stronger believer than he is, full of fire for the Lord.  “God transformed my house,” says Stefano.

Currently the work on a new Kunama translation continues. A fellowship of church leaders representing all the Kunama churches in North America selected one translator from each church.  Eight translators now form the New Testament virtual translation team. Stefano is not one of the translators but the "mover & shaker" and facilitator for the project, behind the scenes. Stefano has a deep faith in God and in His provision.  He struggles with the idea of being paid for translating God’s Word, consequently, the US Kunama team all work as volunteers.  Each translator drafts Scripture, and every Saturday night they meet via Zoom to team check these Scriptures.  Consultants have been identified and they are now receiving training in translation processes and tools to enable work to progress more quickly and smoothly.  In the midst of it all, Stefano is pursuing his dream--that no Kunama is left behind.

[Stefano is currently facilitating a Wycliffe US, Wycliffe Ethiopia and

SIL-partnered translation project in the Kunama language.]

Who are you working with here in Kenya?

“I am working with diaspora refugees, especially those in refugee camps.”

Can you please describe some of the challenges refugees face?

“Refugees make up a different kind of diaspora. They live in a very unique context, with very unique challenges. They depend fully on UNHCR and other NGOs that are there in the refugee camps to help, but this dependency limits them. They don’t have the right to work, they don’t have the right to do so many other things that normal citizens do.

         “People who are members of the diaspora who are staying in Europe and America receive a status that allows them to work and to live like normal citizens; refugees in Africa don’t receive that. Their lives are completely different from other members of the diaspora who are settled and living integrated fully in the countries where they live.”

You are saying that the refugees in Nairobi are not allowed to have work visas?

“Not in Nairobi alone, throughout Kenya, and in Malawi especially. If you have a refugee status, you are not allowed to work. Even if you want to work, even if you are qualified, you are not allowed to work normally. If you do find a way around the work permit situation, it will be under different circumstances than NGOs or than citizens of the country operate. “

Are there other restrictions?

“The children of refugees cannot easily access education. They can go as far as secondary school, but when they try to go to colleges or universities, they can’t because they don’t have proper IDs to enroll in higher education here in Kenya.”

         “When you go to the refugee camp one picture that you see is so many small children running around in the camp with very minimal care because the parents do not know what to do, they don’t know how they can take care of them. Some do go to school but others are not motivated to go because if you go to school in the refugee camp you do not get properly trained teachers to come and teach; there are no materials.

         “It is sad because there are probably trained teachers among the refugees but they will seldom be allowed to teach, and if they are allowed to teach, they will not be given a salary like any other person. So, those who are qualified will not come to teach because they need to find other ways to earn money so they can support their families.”

Can you please explain your desire to work in this area?

“I think it is mainly because SIL has decided, in this moment of time, to reach out to people in the refugee camps. I became a person that was approached to be part of a team.

         “But if you ask why I am attracted to them, it is because I understand where they are. I have been there before; I can easily identify with their situation. This is true especially when I visit the refugee camp, and I see how mothers are struggling to feed their children, how homes are being broken because of too much trauma. I understand that these people are in a huge depressing situation and they don’t know how to come out of it, and in the process everybody gets stressed and there is a lot of violence because of that. “

How much does your own life experience help you with your work?

“I lived in a refugee camp for a year, and I think that is long enough for me to understand the trouble and the pain that people go through in the refugee camps. Even after I left the camp here in Nairobi, it took me a long time to be able to do what I am doing now.

         “This is because if someone thinks you have been a refugee, the thought that comes to their mind is that you are not worthy, you are not good enough. You have to work very hard to prove to people that you are worthy. I think I have been fortunate to get connected to people in my life who believed that I could actually do something, and encouraged me to go to school. When I finished school people came and encouraged me to try some jobs, and to get out there so that people would know about me. It requires a lot of personal effort, but also it requires people who will come and actually speak for you because you don’t have a voice. Unless someone speaks for you, almost nothing will happen.”

It seems like you really have a heart for refugees.

“I am so passionate about what I do because I know that most of those people don’t have a voice. And, those who speak for them, sometimes they don’t speak accurately for them. So I am determined to speak for them and to speak accurately. I am praying for God to help me be the voice. No matter how small that voice is, I am determined to be that voice, and hopefully raise up some other people who will join me and make that voice so loud that the world can hear!

         “I think that's probably how I can summarize the passion that I have to be an advocate, to be a mouth that will speak whenever I can for those who do not have the opportunity to speak for themselves.”

Can you please describe what you do when you go into the refugee camps?

“I have not gone too many times yet because of COVID. I made 3 visits to Dzaleka Refugee Camp in 2019. We were invited by a local organization, There is Hope, in partnership with the International Association For Refugees.

         “After our first visit in Jan 2019, we planned for our first trauma healing workshop to take place in August 2019. In 2020 we planned so many other visits and training, but none of them happened because of COVID. But, after the first training in 2019, we established some relationships with people and pastors in the refugee camp.

         “After we did the first trauma healing program, what I did, and what I still do is to maintain the contacts with the people we’ve trained, speaking to them often, encouraging them and helping them whenever they need someone to talk to.”

Have you seen any results from the training you did?

 “One lady we trained, Grace, created an organization called Tazama, which is a Swahili word that means “Come and see.” It is based on Psalm 46:8. It basically means that people should come and see what the Lord has done. That is the context of how Tazama was born. Right now Tazama has almost 200 members. What they are doing now is inviting people to come and go through healing groups, and after that they get together and come up with small income generating projects to support each other, and to support themselves.

         “The requirement for anyone to become a member in Tazama is that they need to have gone through healing groups so that everybody starts processing their pain and their grief, and so that together, as a community, they can continue supporting each other. To me that's what probably needs doing among the people who are hopeless. The people I am referring to don’t see any hope at all.

         “Grace told me, ‘I do not want to see women being lonely in their own home. I want all of us together so we can support each other because when people come together they share their fear, they share their laughter and also they dream together.’  That helps them to start rebuilding some sense of dignity, some sense of resilience together as a group, as a community. “

The refugees that you are working with are from what countries?

The ones that are in Malawi are from Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Those are the major nationalities in the refugee camp in Malawi. But we are also working in South Sudan, and with refugees from Sudan as well, and also in Uganda. They come from different tribal groups.

Have you made any observations about the importance of a good Bible translation for these people?

“I think having a good Bible translation is very important. First of all in these refugee camps, most of the people are really hopeless, and they are looking for something to give them hope. That's why you find so many churches in the refugee camp; that is where they find acceptance. That’s where they find solace. Everywhere else in the camp is so depressing that people come to church so they can escape some of those things. If we don’t have the scriptures in a language that people can understand, that's going to be difficult.

         “In fact in this group that I was talking about, tazama, the trauma healing is almost like opening a door to scripture and helping people to see that actually scripture has something to say about their situation, and every other person’s situation. In some of the testimonies that we have heard, people say that after they have gone through a healing group that now the bible makes sense.

         “In fact one of the requests Grace has  made to me was, when I come back , to please bring nice Bibles because they need Bibles. For instance, if there is a meeting with around 40 people, and only one or two people have a Bible, it is difficult.

         “Since the people in this group speak different languages the challenge is how to find Bibles in all those languages that people can understand.  Mostly we use Swahili to communicate, so I will probably find some Swahili Bibles or some French Bibles. We find that the Bible is the most relevant book for people because it gives people hope, gives people some encouragement. It is the food of life really. And so if people cannot understand it, it becomes a problem.”

Could I conclude that SIL became a vehicle for you to fulfill what God was asking you to do?

“Correct. Somebody saw the potential in me. Somebody saw that I could do the work. Somebody overlooked my status and trusted me and I think that is what we need to do.

         “Diaspora people have skills. Diaspora people are not people who are looking out for handouts. They are people who are looking for opportunities to serve, to make the communities better, and countries better and themselves better. They have just found themselves in a very unfortunate situation. Given the opportunity they can work like any other normal person.”

Do you see people from the diaspora uniquely positioned by God to be used in His kingdom?

“One thing for sure I know, for people in diaspora, because everything else has fallen apart and there is nothing that is credible any longer, one thing that you learn is you learn to hear and to see what other people don’t see. That has helped me a lot.  “And diaspora people are not afraid to start afresh. If you start something and if something falls apart, you are not afraid, you are ready to start again.  Because you have seen it happen to others before. We have seen ourselves losing everything and losing people but then we know that, yes, there is always a second chance. There is always a new opportunity. There are always new wings to fly after you have lost everything that God gives you.  So yah, resilience is the key.”

Clene is a Global Diaspora Team member with SIL. She does trauma healing training workshops for refugees, and is a Bible translation consultant. Clene is married to a Rwandan pastor who works with the Kenyan national church in a training capacity. Clene has six children and one granddaughter.

Sunny moved to the United States after college and looked for ways to serve in missions as a computer programmer. “I realized that even though I did well with computers, I didn’t enjoy working with computers, and I was trying to use that for God’s glory for the rest of my life,” she said. “Whenever I tried to take one step forward in that direction, God blocked the doors.”

Sunny’s path to serving in missions took many unexpected turns.

Sunny wasn’t sure what to do, so she trusted God with the situation. “After waiting 15 years, I prayed to God and told him I was not going to look for opportunities anymore,” she said. “But I told him, ‘if it’s your will, you will have to open the door in a way only you can.’”

A short time later, a missionary from a Wycliffe Bible Translators partner organization contacted Sunny and asked if she’d consider representing Wycliffe to Korean American churches as a mobilizer, someone who disciples and trains new organizational recruits. Sunny enjoyed the chance to use her skills this way. “It seemed like God compiled all the things I loved to do and then asked me to do them as a mobilizer,” Sunny said. “It was similar to what I did for many years discipling the college group in my church.”

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Sunny has taken on many different roles since she joined Wycliffe in 1994. Throughout her journey she has learned to trust God with what happens next. “I don’t know what the future holds,” she said. “God will lead one step at a time. ... I’m just obeying what God has given me today and trusting that he’s going to lead me.”

After serving in the Philippines, Sunny moved to Dallas, Texas, to conduct research as an anthropologist. She noticed that out of the 2,000 language groups still in need of a fully translated Bible, at least half were in areas where foreigners were not able to work easily.

Sunny started working with the global diaspora team to locate people from language groups that still needed a fully translated Bible.

Sunny realized Bible translations teams needed a new approach to the translation process in order to access every language. “The potential solution was to translate the Bible with people who are outside of their homeland: the diaspora,” Sunny said. Sunny started working with the global diaspora team to locate people from language groups that still needed a fully translated Bible.

During this time Sunny also spent time visiting churches for refugees. She met people who truly treasured God’s Word and trusted him in the midst of suffering and challenging situations. Sunny observed: “I didn’t know a thing about what they were doing because ... they were speaking their language. ... But I saw how much love they had for God.”

Language is often very important to diaspora communities because it helps them sustain a connection to their homeland. “The only thing that’s left with them is their language and their culture,” Sunny said. “If they are interested in having the gospel in their own language, then we can work with them to start a translation project.”

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

Each diaspora translation project looks different. Some projects are based in the United States from start to finish. Other teams start translating in the home country but need to relocate elsewhere due to unrest.

By working closely with both the diaspora community and the community in their homeland, the entire language group can benefit.

Diaspora people groups often have better access to education, financial resources and training in their host country, such as the United States. By working closely with both the diaspora community and the community in their homeland, the entire language group can benefit. The mutual support also allows the group to take ownership of a project despite the distance.

In many cases, teams can eventually return to the home country to deliver the translated Scripture. For example, several people from a language group in Asia encountered God while they were refugees living in the U.S. They learned more and worked to translate the Bible into their language. After becoming American citizens with U.S. passports, they were able to return to their home country to share the translated Scripture.

Sunny is excited to see more translation projects started for diaspora people groups that still need the Bible.

Their unique experiences created a valuable way to encourage family and friends, and the impact was life changing: God transformed about 30% of the homeland language group through his Word! The group was inspired to travel to a neighboring country where more people from their language group were living and share the gospel there too. God used the team to reach many people, and another 10% responded to God’s Word and believed. “God works in mighty ways using diaspora people,” Sunny said.

Sunny is excited to see more translation projects started for diaspora people groups that still need the Bible. She said: “Many language groups are knocking on the door and saying, ‘We want the Bible in our language.’”

God continues to open up more opportunities to serve in critical roles with the global diaspora team and bring his Word to language groups that are still waiting.

Used by permission of Wycliffe USA.  This story first appeared on April 27, 2021 at this link: https://www.wycliffe.org/blog/posts/how-god-uses-the-diaspora-to-reach-across-borders 

Pastor Kividi thought carefully. “I would say that I have discovered that Jesus is my personal Savior and Lord; He has changed my life.  If anyone accepts Jesus as their Savior and Lord, He is going to change their life also. This is why I am committed to Bible translation projects, because of what He has done in my life and family.“

Kividi Kikama is a senior missiologist at JAARS.[1] Along with his specialized ministry among his own people, the Yansi from the DRC, his job involves building relationships, or as he puts it, “bridges” across cultures so people can work together more effectively.  He also does everything he can to bring about awareness that Bible translation is the most practical way of advancing the Great commission.

Kividi, father of 5, and grandfather of 7, first came to the United States in 1990. He had been invited to work as a “missions interpreter” with the American Baptist churches of Michigan, Great Lakes region. They had put a program in place which entailed inviting a national leader from one of their mission fields to spend a year with them traveling throughout their churches, sharing his story and ministry. His life and ministry represented the concrete fruit of their prayers and giving. They gave the national leader the title of “missions interpreter.” Kividi spent a year doing that.

Kividi’s church in the DRC was very supportive of him going to the USA. They expected that this opportunity would result in a blessing for the Yansi people. They did all they could to help him get to the United States.

After his time in Michigan, Kividi served in the Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Chicago, as a missionary in residence. After that, he attended Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, where God called him to respond to a great need in the Chicago area: to plant a church for immigrants, basically French speaking Congolese. He and his family planted that church and served it for 14 years.

Just as Kividi and his wife were sensing it was time to move to a different area of service, their eldest daughter called for help. She had a child with health issues and needed her parents. Realizing his associate pastor could carry on the work in Chicago, Kividi and his wife relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. Kividi describes this time in his life this way:

I didn’t know what to do. My wife was so involved with the children, the grandchildren, the one with the health problem. I knew I could help, but what about my ministry? What would I do here? We were praying. At that time God was speaking a word to me, ‘go into something deeper and wider.’ I I didn’t know what that meant.

Kividi explains that before he moved to Charlotte, he had never heard about JAARS as an organization supporting Bible translation. A friend of his daughter’s invited him to visit the JAARS headquarters near his new home. During this visit she asked him to consider volunteering there. Later he met the president of JAARS, Woody McLendon, who shared with Kividi that they had been praying for years for someone with credentials like his to serve as the director of the prayer ministry. Kividi told me:

         So there I was praying and people at JAARS had been praying, and so we came together. The more they knew me, the more they realized that I could do more than prayer ministry. They asked whether I was willing to serve as senior missiologist. This was not only my training but also my practice. I had been involved in doing missions as a missiologist, and, my Masters is in missiology, and my PhD is in intercultural studies. 

Not long after that someone at JAARS realized that Kividi was a native Iyansi speaker. The Yansi people did not have a completed translation of the Bible in their language. People at JAARS got excited and wondered if Kividi could take some leadership in a revived project to translate the Bible.  Kividi could, and did! He started working on the project, which included a revision of the Iyansi alphabet. At the time of this interview, the Yansi team has already checked Paul’s epistle to the Romans.  They have finished Luke, Matthew, Mark, Acts, First and Second Timothy and Titus. Kividi was heavily involved in the translation of the last three books, a role he wanted due to his pastor’s heart.

Whenever Kividi returns to his homeland, the DRC, he says the level of poverty and suffering strikes him. But, he is also thrilled to see how excited his people are to receive the scriptures in Iyansi. He recalls the time in 2015 when he and his wife visited the DRC. They took the Jesus film translated into Iyansi. He remembers that the people wanted to see the film every day. They cried tears of joy to hear their own language.

I asked Kividi what will happen in the Yansi church when they get the entire Scripture in their language. He answered:

I am expecting deeper transformations. I am expecting spiritual renewal in the whole region. This is going to really happen when they read the Word of God in Iyansi. One of the key leaders, there at the highest level said, ‘Wow, God knows Iyansi, and He can speak to us in Iyansi! Amazing.’ Another guy, here in the diaspora, said, ‘Please send me, even one chapter of the work of translation you have done. I want to read it in Iyansi.’ This is because in the Iyansi language you touch their myths, stories, traditions, and heart.

When I asked Kividi what he thought that transformation would look like he said:

Transformation is not only spiritual but it is also in human life. We are using   the term ‘holistic transformation’. The whole person, their community, because of their deeper understanding of the Word of God, they are coming together and working together to see change happen in their land.

As for the future and how he sees it, Kividi explained that from a mission perspective the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an old missionary field, but from the Bible translation perspective the DRC is a new field. “There is a lot of work still to be done,” he said, “and this is why we are committed to work on these many projects.”

Although it is evident God has used Dr. Kividi for many years, the words ‘deeper and wider’ do come to mind as we look at his life. From being a student, then a pastor, and now a consultant to a diaspora translation team, God is using him to bring the Scripture to life in a new language so his people can discover the real transformation that the Word of God can bring.

[1] JAARS supports Bible translation and language development worldwide through locally appropriate and sustainable solutions in transportation, technology, media and training.

Although Cember is not a refugee herself, many of her people were part of three politically motivated dispersions from Myanmar that took place in 1988, 1995, and the early 2000’s. Karenni people, those that speak the Kayah Li language, fled first to Thailand, and then to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Finland.

Long before she was married, Cember’s husband and his family escaped to Thailand after his village was destroyed by the Myanmar military in 1995. They lived in a refugee camp for more than twenty years. Then his family emigrated to Finland. After Cember’s marriage, she too went to Finland to live. Cember’s husband is a Finnish citizen and he and Cember have two children, so returning to Myanmar to stay is out of the question for them. Cember still longs for her homeland but she relates that her loneliness has actually opened many doors of ministry for her.

While growing up, Cember never imagined she would move to another country and remain there permanently. Her own family was not forced to leave Myanmar; her parents, brothers and sister are still living in Kayah province. However, when Cember married, she needed to move permanently to Finland. It was hard for her to decide to go there. When she was successful in obtaining her Finnish residence permit, she reasoned that her leaving Myanmar must be God’s will. Nevertheless, the move was extremely hard for her.  She had been working for her people as a literacy worker, and a translator. She was a language advocate in training teachers in mother tongue literacy.  She had helped them create curriculum and develop story books in the Kayah Li language. Her people did not want her to leave. They gossiped about her and loudly vocalized their displeasure. Cember told me that this caused her a great deal of heartache and pain.

Cember’s professional success had not come easily. Her parents were farmers. It was hard for them to send their children to school, but they realized it was vitally important for their children to be educated. While in school, Cember had only one dress, and one uniform. Sometimes she collected vegetables and sold them in the market to get money for pencils and books. During this time, Cember relates that she had a conversion experience when she was 16. She listened to an evangelist and realized that, “Oh Jesus is dying for me and I need to accept Him.” She was then baptized. Although she says many Karenni people are traditionally Christians, not all have had true born-again experiences.  After her conversion, while still living in Myanmar, Cember worked for two years as a Bible translator for the Kayah Li language.  She was part of a team that translated the Old Testament books of Genesis, Psalms and Proverbs.

Cember views her exodus from Myanmar to Finland as a major thing God did in her life. She feels it is her own Joseph story. Before she left Myanmar there were many interpersonal challenges. There were painful accusations, and gossip because her people did not want her to leave. However, after she arrived in Finland, a political coup occurred in Myanmar, and Cember was in the perfect spot from which to help her people back home. Organizations gave money for the Karenni people through her. As she sent the funds back home, she knew that God had brought her out of Myanmar so she could help her people, her family and her country from the outside. 

Cember also told me that she realizes that the deep loneliness that she felt upon arrival in Finland, was the way God motivated her to minister to her own people who were living there too.  “When I was in Finland for the first year, their winter was dark, I had no friend, and I was bored and depressed. I prayed to God. ‘I want to serve you just open me the way and God gave me the idea. I didn’t know Zoom, so I just made it with messenger, and I just called 2 or 4 people and we start. Now every Sunday over 20 people gather on Zoom. When we ask God, He will open the way.” There are also Zoom meetings for mothers and children.

When I asked Cember Paw if she had noticed a difference between the behavior of Christians and non-Christians among the diaspora she said there was a big difference. “People who do not follow Jesus Christ complain all the time. Even if they have a high salary, they always need something more, they are not satisfied. But people who follow Christ, even if they don’t have a job, testify that God will open the way, and this is enough. ‘Even if we don’t have a salary God will take care of us,’ they say.”

I asked Cember if she thought living in a refugee camp drove people to become born-again believers. She answered that in her knowledge people do not become Christians in refugee camps: “They do not accept Jesus Christ there.  They have their own lives, and they are drinking alcohol, but when they move to Finland, people testify that now they are following Jesus Christ and they are happy with their life. They are satisfied.”

“Does it change your people when they read scripture in their own language?” I wanted to know. Cember told me that she teaches Kayah Li literature online, and when they learn to read that literature, they are also able to read the Scripture in Kayah Li. She told me her students say that when they read the Bible in Burmese and other languages, they didn’t understand anything, but when they read it in their mother tongue they understand the meaning and get encouraged by the Word.

Cember’s remarks about the Bible in the mother tongue raised another question. I asked her if it were easier to translate the scripture into Kayah Li when she was living in Myanmar or when she was living outside of Myanmar.

Cember noted that right now, because of the situation in Myanmar, translation was much easier from outside the country: “… there is no need to flee in the middle of the night; there is internet; there is electricity.”

Cember has lots of plans for future ministry to her people who are living both inside and outside of Myanmar. Her mentor with Seed Company has asked her to make a recording of Psalms in the Kayah Li language. Along with him, she also plans to translate the SIL trauma healing book into her language. The book will be used both in the diaspora, and in Myanmar. In Myanmar, she says, people are faced with so many problems that they are very depressed. On the other hand, her people living outside of Myanmar have traumatized hearts because they still remember what happened to them in the military raids. Currently Cember teaches a Bible study, and she has created a Zoom prayer meeting for 6 pm daily. There are always 4-5 people on Zoom meeting for prayer for Myanmar. She also posts lesson plans and scripture on Facebook. She is trying to write books in her language because there is only the Bible and no other reading material. She writes short devotionals similar to Daily Bread and posts them on Facebook. She dreams of making a dictionary.

I asked Cember what drives her to keep doing things for her people now that she herself is living in diaspora and happier. She said that the reason is that all people need to hear the Gospel, and accept Jesus as their Savior so that even when they are faced with problems they can call upon Him, and they can get peace of mind. “I want to share money, share knowledge of God. I don’t want to keep it for myself because sharing makes me happy, God is a giver, so we also come to know God through our giving.”