End words

Kara (not his real name) died of an undiagnosed disease on the floor of a mud hut in Chad, north-central Africa. Of the roughly 8,000 Ndam people living in Chad, Kara was unique. He was one of a very few who had heard the stories of Jesus read aloud from words on a page in the language of Ndam – a language that until recently never existed in written form.
William Cray’s quiet voice cracks and fades away in the telling of Kara’s story. His eyes tear. Vicki, his wife, reaches over and touches his arm. They wish they knew for sure if in the end the words had found their mark.
Translating

William and Kara would meet in the cooler part of the day, or whenever Kara arrived. “In Chad,” says William, “you can’t schedule people to come, but then when they show up you’d better have your stuff ready. He’d come over on his terms and his time, and when it got dark, he’d just light a lamp and we’d carry on.”

They were engaged in a key stage of Bible translation known as ‘testing’. William would read a passage to Kara that had been translated into his mother tongue Ndam, and Kara would respond to it, explaining in as much detail as possible what he understood the passage to mean. “Testing is cyclic, and it raises issues,” says William. “You go back and you rework it, and rework it. It might take you years to find the right terms, but you rework it until people understand it the way it’s meant to be understood.”

And it has taken years – 15 so far.

Different worlds

William and Vicki Cray come from vastly different worlds. When he was building fences as a ranch hand in Eastern Oregon, she was training as a British primary school teacher. But a common thread – the Scriptures – brought them together. Both had life-changing encounters with God’s Word in their early twenties, and both were compelled to have some part in bringing the Scriptures to those without access to them in their mother tongue.

They met at a language school in France where they were preparing for missionary careers in literacy and Bible translation. “I had no idea where God wanted me to work,” says Vicki, but she felt drawn to Africa’s French-speaking regions. “It seemed clear that there were loads of languages there, and lots of work to do.” William felt the same, and had learned of an opportunity in Chad through AIM among the Ndam, an Islamic people group living in the transitional zone between the predominantly Islamic north and the Christian/traditional religions south.

Not an easy place

It seemed a good fit, though Chad is not an easy place to live, and many expatriates don’t stay long. “We have an expression in Chad: ‘It’s nothing in particular, but everything in general.’ When you put it all together Chad is a hard package deal,” says William. Political tensions, coup attempts, and civil strife are commonplace. And there’s the heat. “I’m not sure Chad has a maximum temperature,” he says laughing. “It’s inescapable.”

But they have endured, and even thrived, living in a simple home and homeschooling two beautiful daughters. Their oldest, Rebecca, introduces herself in the English accent she’s picked up from her mother. “This one’s ten,” she says, pointing to herself, “and that one’s seven,” she says, pointing to her sister Susannah. For the girls, though Chad is hot and dry and dusty, it is also home.

A learning process

“There are 126 languages in Chad,” says William. “Most of them are fairly minor, and for some, the last generation to speak the language is just fading away.” But Ndam is solid, and what is known to translators as a ‘viable’ language – a mother tongue that will pass to the next generation. Since the Ndam are a distinct group who don’t speak any other language well enough to benefit from existing Scriptures, it was identified by Wycliffe Bible Translator’s Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) as a ‘definite’ translation need. So in 1994 the Crays set out on a journey of symbols, words, cultural meaning, and eternal Truth.

In 2008 the first Ndam translation of Genesis was published in three parts. Translation of the Book of Matthew progressed more quickly – begun in 2005 and published in September 2008. “And they went,” says Vicki, “like hotcakes.”

“You have to do your homework first, you have to study the language not just to learn it, but to figure out how the language works, right down at the grammar level and at the linguistic level,” says William. “What are the different sounds, how do they work with each other? That helps you to write an orthography or a writing system.

“You also do anthropological research because the culture has a lot of bearing on how people understand different things that are happening [in the Biblical accounts],” he says. “If you were to translate things without taking culture into account, you build errors into it without ever knowing it, because they simply understand it differently than you think they do.”

Once an alphabet is developed and a solid linguistic and cultural foundation is formed, the translation process can begin. And the Crays chose to start at the very beginning. “Genesis is absolutely foundational to the Gospel, and it’s a great bridge, especially if you’re working with an Islamic culture, because they find in it something that they’re already familiar with; many Ndam men are named Musa or Ibrahim or Yusuf. Genesis tells you where man came from, where the world came from, where sin came from, who God is and how God relates to man.”

In close consultation with SIL workers based in Chad, William pressed forward through years of translating, testing, revising, translating, testing and revising. In 2008 the first Ndam translation of Genesis was published in three parts. Translation of the Book of Matthew progressed more quickly – begun in 2005 and published in September 2008.

“And they went,” says Vicki, “like hotcakes.”

The reading problem

Fifteen years of hard and hot work. Two books. And just about no one who could read them.

Illiteracy is a problem faced by Bible translators the world over, and there is no easy solution. William worked with an SIL literacy consultant to develop a transitional primer intended for those relatively few Ndam who are already literate in French. “It’s a commitment to learn how to read and it can take two or three years for adults who aren’t literate in any language. It’s a huge element they’re adding to their life,” says William. And many simply don’t see the need. “They don’t need to read to be a farmer, or a hunter, or a merchant – and there’s always something else to do.” Recognizing that many will never learn to read, the Crays are exploring the production of Bible audio recordings as well.

Pride in print

A few Ndam who are already literate in French have caught on to the fundamentals of reading their language quite quickly. And for many, seeing their own language in print holds a significance all its own, even if they cannot read it. A key leader in the Ndam community told them, “We are very grateful for what you have done for our language.” An elderly man recently approached William smiling and holding out a portion of Scripture written in Ndam. “This is Ndam, isn’t it?” he said. “Read it to me! Read it to me!”

There is no Ndam church. And there are very few Ndam believers. But it is a testament to William and Vicki’s trust that there one day will be, that the book they have chosen to translate next is Ephesians – a book for believers; a book for the Church. “It explains to a believer what happened when he believed,” says William, “what he was, what he’s become, and what God has done.”

Both William and Vicki know the power of Scripture to change lives. Many years ago it changed their own. And they both know what it means to have Scripture’s Words – Scripture’s Truth – written on a page in the language of their hearts. Those Words are what brought them to Chad. Those Words are what kept them there. And those Words are why they will soon return.