Dear Supporter,

Just a word as we approach Christmas.

In the Guera…

Songwriting Workshop

Following on from the analyses of the status Eight Conditions (between 2021-2023)in several communities with which we work, the question emerged as to how to strengthen those areas which seemed weak and reinforce those which seemed to be working so that the Message can pass in ways meaningful to the people surveyed. Hence, the Songwriting workshop.

Five of the six language communities invited, came. As they have a limited complement of the Bible, summaries of Bible stories

(recorded oral summaries of major Bible stories) were the ‘text’ most used to create songs from (Joseph’s brothers’ treatment of him, the woman at the well, the fall of the walls of Jericho and the scattering of people over the globe.

By the end of the 3 days, not only had each community drafted three songs but now that they had the knowledge of how to create songs, they wanted to continue creating them!

We are planning the next workshop for around the end of October - beginning of November 2025. In the meantime, we have asked each group to have a total of ten songs, (from Creation to the end of Joseph’s story )written by then. These we plan to eventually make available to their communities.

Sad News

The below photo is of me and one of our collaborators. It was taken on the afternoon that he brought me back after I had gone to spend a weekend with him and his family.

There are no declared Christians amongst the group with which he worked so I had gone to promote the song writing workshop and to solicit the aide of competent personnel amongst this people group. The whole purpose for this workshop was to create Scripture-based songs in a manner that people would perceive as their own.

He was brutally and tragically killed five weeks after the workshop. As an evangelist, one of his roles included providing some medical care to the local population.

One of the patients presenting for treatment, died even before she had completed the course of treatment. Ps Bani was in no way involved in her care. Nevertheless, her husband, when he returned from his travels and learned of his wife’s death, determined that someone had to pay.

The husband was not able to lay hand on the evangelist who administered care to his wife and as Ps Bani happened to fulfil this ministry too, the husband turned his attention to him, stabbing him several times.

He leaves behind eight children, ranging in ages from two to thirty, his wife and his mother. As he laid dying he confirmed that he did not know and had never met his assailant and uttered:

I forgive him’

A murder shocking to all but an even more astonishing death-bed pronouncement that has left people wondering: who was this man? How could he have said this?

Please pray for his family, his community and the assailant that God, in His infinite wisdom and mercy, will turn this situation for the good and for His glory.

Ethnoarts Presentation

What are the Arts and more specifically, what are your art forms and how can they be appropriated as potent means of communicating the Message inside and outside of the church? This was the aim of the presentation at the meeting held by our partner organisation, the CRCTBG(Regional Coordination of the Committees for Translating the Bible into the Languages of the Guéra).

After outlining some of the more common artistic genres, we asked those present to divide up into groups as they responded to questions around their creative arts, and to think of how they could be infused with meanings to help the Message to pass.

As I work on analysing the responses given, please pray that we will find culturally-appropriate but innovative ways of using their artistry.

Prayer Points

Praise God for

• the success of the song writing workshop amongst specific ‘unreached’ groups.
• the opportunity to do a presentation which invited leaders of the churches in the Guera to reflect on their cultural artefacts and how these could be used in outreach and training.
• the Season we are in and what it means to us.

Please pray:

• that the participants of the songwriting workshop will be faithful and inspired over the year and compose 10 songs as requested.
• that following on from the Ethnoarts presentation and analysis of the responses given, we will find additional ways to reach the peoples of the Guera.
• for the initiative to help people develop competence in reading the Bible in Chadian Arabic.

Signing off

Thank you for your support and for your interest in my work.

Merry Christmas!

Sharon

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