Wycliffe UK blog

In yesterday’s post from Geoffrey Hunt, he and Rosemary worked with the Hanga people of northern Ghana, to translate the New Testament and support literacy in Hanga. When the New Testament was completed, there were just a few Hanga Christians, and only 500 New Testaments were published. Years later, Geoffrey returned to Ghana to help work start on the Old Testament. With colleagues, they produces Key Scripture booklets in Hanga. What follows is Geoffrey’s account of the impact of the booklets:

The translation team prepared a leaflet of Key Scriptures, mainly from the Hanga New Testament. The leaflet was divided into four sections: the beginning (some verses from Genesis), sin and salvation, discipleship and people who refuse. It was photocopied for distribution.

The next Sunday the translation team travelled along the western side of the Hanga territory and sold packs of 20 leaflets to leaders of four separate Hanga churches. In the most distant village a woman begged for a Hanga New Testament, but only a few were available for the whole Hanga area. However, her church leader said that she could have the one available for his church. The leader of another Hanga church asked for 10 New Testaments, but there was only one to give him. A few days later, a man came from that distant village and said that the village needed more copies of the Key Scriptures’ leaflet. Obviously Hanga literacy is still flourishing among some of the Hanga people and just needs encouragement, but the young people need to learn.

The following Sunday the team visited the eastern side of the Hanga territory, including the village where the Hunt family had lived. There is no church in that village, but they are keen that their children learn to read and write Hanga. They were also happy to buy a 20-pack of the Key Scriptures leaflets. That night, after their visitors had left, the villagers gathered together to read the leaflets and, the next night, one of them phoned to ask, “Are all these passages from the book that Mr. Hunt translated?” When he was assured that they were, he asked, “Why didn’t you give this to us before?”

Well, of course, they had the New Testament but, as new literates, they had not been able to find what they wanted from a book of five hundred pages. But presented as a leaflet of key Scriptures, it opened their minds to what it was all about. There was one verse (‘There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ 1Tim 2:5) that a severely alcoholic Hanga man read and came to know Christ. Another verse (‘Anybody will not be able to reach my father God’s place unless I have him go’ Jn 14:6b lit.) was one that had led a Muslim to keep searching, because Muhammad never made such a claim.

In 1971 Geoffrey and Rosemary Hunt went to live among the Hanga people of northern Ghana. The Hanga people were a small group of just a few thousand people and their language had never been written. Geoffrey and Rosemary learnt the language and produced a writing system that was easy to learn. They also translated the New Testament and provided other books.

They started teaching people how to read their own language, with some surprising results. One unschooled man of about 17 learnt to read and write Hanga in two weeks. Another unschooled boy of perhaps 12 learnt to read and write Hanga in four weeks and shortly afterwards wrote a letter to Geoffrey. Another man, though, took two years to learn, but he eventually became a church leader.

Geoffrey testing literacy materials with a Hanga boy

When Geoffrey and Rosemary left in early 1982, they only knew of two Hanga Christians. They had not preached to the people, just lived among them and served them. But what happened next was what God did: an indigenous church sprang up through the literacy and the Hanga Scriptures, aided by a few people that God sent. Through various ups and downs the church grew stronger and now there are hundreds of Christians, and many are very ready to say that it was only because of the literacy and the Hanga Scriptures that they became Christians.

In autumn 2009 the Hanga church asked Geoffrey and Rosemary about translating the Old Testament and, early in 2011, Geoffrey found himself back in Hanga land training three Hanga people to translate. Except for email, none of the translators knew how use a computer, so they had to start with the basics. The idea was to translate selections from the Old Testament, starting with Genesis, and make each group of selections available to the Hanga people as soon as they had been thoroughly checked, printing them as a leaflet made from a folded sheet of paper. But the four week visit was too short to make much happen.

Early in 2012, on Geoffrey’s next visit, the need to revive literacy in the Hanga language was in focus. And the need for fresh reading materials was obvious. The translation team decided to start by reviving literacy among the churches, so they prepared a leaflet of Key Scriptures, mainly from the Hanga New Testament. The leaflet was divided into four sections: the beginning (some verses from Genesis), sin and salvation, discipleship and people who refuse. It was photocopied for distribution.

This account comes straight from Geoffrey Hunt. What impact do you think ‘key Scripture booklets’ would have for a community which already had the New Testament? Find out tomorrow!