In My Heart Language for the Good of My Heart

GLOBAL VOICES

An Update from Dorothy Forsberg

Imagine what it would be like to hold a Bible in your language for the first time. This is what is happening for the Yom people in Benin, a country in West Africa.

“The home of voodoo,” Benin is a former French colony, and French is the national language and the language used for schooling. According to Operation World, however, there are 60 ethnic groups that speak 56 different languages. The Yom people group is one such group and has an estimated 300,000 speakers. As of this past August, the Yom people now have the complete Bible in their heart language—the language they think in and understand best.

A Look Back. . .

This process didn’t happen overnight. In fact, the Bible translation project started in 1951, when SIM worker C. Gordon Beacham Jr. and his wife, Joyce, arrived in country. Beacham worked with the son of the first Christian to learn the Yom language.

In 1977, College Church supported missionary Dorothy Forsberg arrived and quickly became immersed in the Yom New Testament translation. Computers arrived in 1983. Unfortunately, electricity had yet to arrive to the city of Tchaourou. Undaunted, the Beachams bought a generator. Dorothy, who was born with a congenital absence of her left hand, likes to say she, “single-handedly keyed in” about half of the Yom New Testament in three-hour sessions each afternoon. Joyce Beacham did the other half while on a home assignment in the U.S.

This year, Yom translators received Bibles. Pastor Issifou and his wife are on the left, Abel and his wife are on the right, the president of UEEB does the honors.

At last—New and Old in the Works

Thirty-four years from when the translation project began, the Yom New Testament was published in 1985, arriving in Benin in 1986. A dedication ceremony celebrated both the New Testament and a new church building.

Soon, Dorothy began to recruit an Old Testament translation team. They had a few drafts of the books of Genesis and Ruth and some of the psalms that Gordon Beacham had done, but the book they decided to tackle first on their own was Jonah. Dorothy thought it would be easy as a narrative text, even though the poetry of Jonah chapter two provided some challenges. All Bible translations need to be checked by a consultant, and the team found a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators willing to do the check. Thankfully, she was pleased with their translation.

Bibles in a shipping container, on their way to SIM headquarters

Piece by piece, the team translated the Old Testament and had it checked. Before publishing the Bible in full, they also wanted to update and revise the translation of the New Testament. Thankfully, the consultant they had worked with didn’t need to check the update, since one of Dorothy’s colleagues, Pastor Issifou Korogo, had become accredited as a Bible translation consultant in 2010.

Bibles arrive in Djougou

Africa, Europe, Asia and Back

The text of the Bible, translated in Benin, was sent to Switzerland for page layout and publishing. It went back and forth multiple times as discussions arose about the best placement of hyphens with a double column layout. From Switzerland the Bible was sent electronically to South Korea for printing, which took about three months. Once printed, the Bibles travelled by boat from South Korea to Africa and landed at the port of Cotonou in Benin.

In early August, the ship and its life-changing cargo of 4,000 Yom Bibles docked. From the port city of Cotonou, the Bibles were transported to Parakou where SIM has a Benin headquarters, and from there to be distributed outward.

Gordon Beacham working with André on the hilltop where they started the work at the Methodist compound, in the 1950s

Originally, SIM planned to hold a large dedication ceremony in Benin to celebrate the completion of this project, but with the global pandemic, these plans were reworked. On Saturday, August 29, SIM leadership, the Union of Evangelical Churches of Benin (UEEB) leadership, the bookstore leadership, leaders of the Yom group of churches, Yom pastors, representatives of the women’s organizations of the Yom churches, young people of the Yom churches, representatives of the Linguistic Commission for Yom and representatives of other UEEB churches in the town of Djougou gathered for a small ceremony. The plan is to hold a larger dedication service once restrictions are lifted.

Dorothy, Pastor Issifou Korogo and Abel Amos at an SIL workshop on the Book of Psalms (circa 1990s) in Kara, Togo

Now that the Bible has been distributed in this people’s own heart language, Dorothy’s desire is “to see a strengthening of the Yom churches as pastors and elder leaders read the Old Testament Scriptures. They have had the New Testament since 1986. And I hope to see people excited about having such a document in their language—Christians as well as Muslims and animists.”

In addition to supporting Dorothy since 1974, College Church also supported this Bible translation project at three separate times when they had funding difficulties and the final printing and distribution were in danger of being delayed. College Church also helped to provide funds to print 1,000 more Bibles than originally planned. In total, College Church has been blessed to give $12,000 toward this Bible translation project.

“Bible en yom”

Praise God for the Yom Bible! Praise him for Dorothy Forsberg and Gordon Beacham and others who gave their lives for this Bible translation project. Pray for Yom believers in the days ahead and for Muslims and animists to come to Christ through reading the Bible in the language of their heart.

About the Author | Dorothy Forsberg

Translator and missionary Dorothy Forsberg went to Benin in 1977, and kept her commitment to give the Yom people group a Bible in their heart language.