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Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012a very great extent used for the publication ofmaterial that is wholly repugnant to the truthsof the Word of God. The television and eachof the other forms of mass media that are soprevalent today are also to a very great extentused to promote that which is evil: little is usedfor the advance of the apostolic directive ofthe Apostle Paul, ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoeverthings are true, whatsoever things are honest,whatsoever things are just, whatsoeverthings are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,whatsoever things are of good report; if therebe any virtue, and if there be any praise, thinkon these things’ (Philippians 4.8). Today, sadly,the Bible has been replaced in so many areas ofsociety by corrupt communications.The church is likewise a divine institution, ‘thepillar and ground of the truth’ (1 Timothy 3.15),of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the all-gloriousHead and King. And yet, how little concernthere appears to be among many of thosewho profess to be office-bearers and membersof ‘the church of the Living God’ (1 Timothy3.15) that the body of Christ be truly governedand regulated, not by the will of man or thetraditions of the past, but by the expressedWord of its Master and Lord. Solemnly, manysuch bodies could better be described as‘synagogues of Satan’ (Revelation 2.9), soexceedingly great is their dreadful departurefrom the Truth of God. Today, sadly, in manychurches the Bible is no longer the sole voiceof undisputed authority, but has given wayto pragmatism and the egocentricity of itsmembers and leaders.When the Lord brought Eve to Adam in theGarden of Eden, the first family unit wasinstituted. Today, little value is placed uponthe wonderful institution of the family or evenupon the bond of marriage, the Scripturalunion of one man to one woman. In toomany cases, young women with husbandsor ’partners‘ appear to be more concernedwith the advance of their professional careersthan they are with fulfilling the God-ordainedrole as a wife and mother. Men, for the mostpart lacking in Biblical leadership, are alsoto be blamed for the godlessness of manyhomes: homes where there is no family altar,no reading of the Word of God and no comingbefore the Most High to implore His favourand blessing upon parents and children. Manyof the Lord’s people also have to grieve overtheir own families and the way their childrenhave departed from the way in which theywere brought up. Today, sadly, the central placethe Bible should have in the home is largelyreplaced by the television and other sources ofworldly entertainments.Whilst recognising that very many believersin our supporting base will be seeking to liveout every part of their lives according to theprinciples of God’s Word, the question must beasked: what is the answer to the lamentableand solemn state of affairs described above? Itis—and can only be—the blessing of AlmightyGod once again upon His own Word as it istranslated, published, distributed, read andpreached among the peoples of the nations ofthe world!As we look around us today, the situationmay appear very discouraging. And it wouldbe so if we were to leave out of our thinkingGod and the glorious revelation that Hehas given of Himself in His Word! We haveevery reason to look up and forward withconfidence. The Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, isGod, reigning supremely over all. Everythingis subject unto Him! Therefore, in all the manydifficult and perplexing situations in whichthe Lord’s people find themselves, they are toconfide in the wonderful truths relating to theglory of their Lord declared throughout theHoly Scriptures. In Psalm 46.1, the Psalmist,speaking in the name of the people of God,states, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a verypresent help in trouble’. Later in the samePsalm, the Lord exhorts His people, ‘Be still, andknow that I am God: I will be exalted amongthe heathen, I will be exalted in the earth’; towhich words of confidence and comfort, weare instructed to respond, ‘The LORD of hosts iswith us; the God of Jacob is our refuge’ (Psalm46.10,11).We, therefore, urge all our members andfriends to join with us, prayerfully andpractically, beseeching the King of Zion at theThrone of Grace that it may please Him to bless5

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012Noah’sAltar ofThanksgivingBy the Rev. G. Hamstraa Vice-President of the SocietyAnd Noah buildedan altar unto theLORDGenesis 8.20It was a most remarkable day forNoah and his family when at God’scommand they left the ark. Duringthe most awesome and destructivecatastrophe in the history of mankind,the ark had served as their gracious andprotective abode. Leaving this home ofmercy, they entered an empty world,laid bare by the judgments of the Lord.As they looked around at a rapidlyrejuvenating earth, they observed many arenewed token of God’s goodness. For thefirst time in twelve months they put theirfeet on the soft green grass. They noticedthe birds enjoying new liberty andbuilding their nests. The other animalslikewise found or made their new homes.For Noah and his descendants there wasso much to discover and to do. Just thinkof the immediate need of building homesfor their families. Gardens and vineyardsneeded to be cultivated. Many of theanimals required human care. Noah,as the head of a new humanity, and hissons as his assistants, had a challengingmission to fulfill.Noah’s chief concern, however, wasnot the advancement of his family’simmediate needs. The very first task thegodly man undertook was the erectionof an altar to the Lord. How appropriate7

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordwas this beginning! The Lord is so worthyto receive the first and highest place inour affections. We owe our deepest praiseand gratitude to the Lord, especially inthe light of His priceless mercies andbountiful provisions.At the sacred altar Noah bent the knee inworship and adoration. Here he offeredthe sacrifice of thanksgiving for thedeliverance from the storms of God’sjudgments, and for the refuge in theark. At the same altar Noah came beforethe Lord in prayer and supplication.He petitioned the Most High for Hisblessings on his family’s future on therenewed earth. Moreover, the offeringwas also an expression of faith andconfidence in the Lord’s providing care.Before the flood, Noah, as the preacherof righteousness, exemplified unwaveringobedience to his divine calling. Now,at the altar, where he and his familyrendered praise and gratitude to the Lord,Noah presented an example of genuinethanksgiving.Noah was deeply aware of the faithfulnessof God, so wondrously displayed in themercy afforded to him and to his family.In distinction from all who vanished inthe waves of God’s displeasure, Noahand his family had been rescued by theLord. They could not claim their ownattainments as the reason for this specialdeliverance. That they were spared wasonly because Noah had found grace inthe sight of God. Who had ever greateroccasion to render thanksgiving to theLord than Noah?In building an altar to the Lord (thefirst altar mentioned in the Bible),Noah was motivated by the deepestreligious principles. Noah possessed aprecious treasure: he enjoyed a livingrelationship with the Lord. Like hisancestor Enoch, Noah walked withGod; like his descendant Abraham, theLord was Noah’s Shield and exceedinggreat Reward. That genuine bond ofgrace and fellowship was the secret ofNoah’s approach to God. The erectionof this altar was therefore much morethan a mere formal acknowledgementof the Lord’s goodness. The Lord meanteverything to Noah. Resembling thepsalmist, Noah could say, ‘Whom haveI in heaven but thee? and there is noneMount Ararat8

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordEditorial Reportby Philip J. D. HopkinsEditorial DirectorSnowy Kent countrysideIntroductionThe revision of the Delitzsch HebrewNew Testament is one of the Society’smore major undertakings at thepresent time. As work on the revised Gospelaccording to John was nearing conclusionin February, a number of matters made itnecessary for the General Secretary andme to visit Israel to oversee the finalisingof the text and to make preparations forits printing, publication and distribution.Thus on Monday 6 February, I left my‘snow-dressed’ home in the weald of Kentand headed for London Luton airport tocatch the11.10 a.m.easyJetflight to TelAviv. I wasthankfulthat,despitethe subzerotemperatures andthe snow-coveredlandscape, I had an excellent journey andarrived in good time to check in and meetup with the Society’s General Secretary,and with the Rev. John Goldby of the FreePresbyterian Church of Scotland, who ledthe revision work in Israel until returningto the UK in early 2011, and who has anongoing interest in the project.By the time we arrived in Israel darknesshad fallen, but it was nevertheless possibleto obtain a flavour of the country on thethirtymilejourney from theairport to Jerusalem,where we stayed for the duration of ourvisit. The road to Jerusalem took us by theValley of Ajalon, bringing to remembrance‘the day when the LORD delivered up theAmorites before the children of Israel, and[Joshua] said in the sight of Israel, Sun,stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou,Moon, in the valley of Ajalon’ (Joshua10.12). Signposts to Ashdod and Ashkelonsparked thoughts of the Philistines,who were such a thorn in the side of thechildren of Israel, and a further signpostto Bethshemesh called to mind the returnof the ark recorded in 1 Samuel 6. Soonthe low country was left behind, and wecommenced the long ascent to Jerusalem,passing Kirjathjearim to the left on ourway. At around 8.00 p.m., we arrived inthe old city of Jerusalem and disembarkedat Christchurch Guesthouse, wherewe received excellent and inexpensivehospitality for the duration of our stay.Christchurch GuesthouseFirst meetings with theRevision TeamThe first evening gave opportunity for thefirst time for me to meet in person with10

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012the members of the revision team residentin Israel, as for the last eighteen monthscontact had been at a distance via email,Skype and telephone. On Tuesday, wespent the whole day discussing the manyand varied aspects of the project withthe team. Items on the agenda includeda review of the latest statusof the revision of John andMatthew, the situationconcerning the sourcingof a suitable Hebrew font,and a detailed discussionon what we should publishand how best we couldpublicise and explain ourrevision work. Initial plansfor the typesetting andprinting of the work on Johnwere developed and consideration wasgiven as to what we should publish in thefuture. The outline content for the prefacefor the Gospel according to John was alsoprepared.Another important aspect of our meetingwas to review the nature of revisionbeing carried out and the methodologyemployed. Such reviews are crucial forensuring that the parameters of the projectare still being adhered to, and if departuresbecome apparent then corrective actioncan be taken. Methodology is alsoimportant, as teams sometimes developinefficient ways of working, and it oftentakes someone from outside the team tospot such inefficiencies and to provide helpto establish efficient working practices. Onthis visit it was gratifying to find that theteam had continued to work within agreedparameters and were carrying out the workin a streamlined manner.Among the conclusions and outcomesreached on the first day of meetings wasthat the Gospel according to John inHebrew will be published in three forms,God willing—a single language edition,a Hebrew-English diglot and a Hebrew-Russian diglot—in order to ensure thewidest possible usefulness and circulationamong the Christian and Messianic Jewishcommunities in Israel. The format that eachof these editions would take was agreed,and a suitable Hebrew font purchased. Itwas noted further that theGospel according to John willneed to be distributed freeof charge if it is to be widelycirculated, in part becauseit is promoting the revisionwork that we are doing, andin part because this is theaccepted norm in Israel.Further meetingsOne area where those workingon translation projects often requiresupport from Head Office staff is inthe realm of typesetting and printing.Linguists and missionaries tend not tobe experienced in this area, and we atTyndale House are happy to impartPart of the Jerusalem city wallour knowledge andexperience, and to support as much aswe can. Therefore, a considerable portionof our visit focused on the typesetting,printing and publication of the revisedHebrew John. On Wednesday morning wemade an early start in order to be presentat a 9.00 a.m. meeting in Rishon leTsion11

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordA hill near Jerusalemwith the director of a Christian publishinghouse and his typesetter. The meetingfocused on the layout desired for the threedifferent forms in which the revised Gospelis due to be published. As a general point,the Society is anxious to ensure that thequality of the layout of its other languageScriptures matches that in our own settingsof the Authorised (King James) Version;thus much care andattention is neededto ensure a pleasingoutcome, particularlyfor diglot publications.The digitising of theSociety’s GinsbergHebrew Old Testamentwas also touched upon,and it is a goal, shouldfunds become available,to make the Hebrew OldTestament and GreekThe Western WallNew Testament available for download onour website and also for other media, suchas ebook readers, in order to reach a wideraudience with the Biblical texts underlyingall our Scripture publications.From the Christian publishing house inRishon leTsion, we proceeded to a printingworks in Tel Aviv, and after a short tourof the works, discussed the page sizeand the optimum number of pages inorder to make the printing most costeffective.For the Hebrew John, the planis to print around 3,000 to 5,000 copiesand quotations for these two quantitieswere requested, together with the samequantity for each of the Hebrew-Englishand Hebrew-Russian diglot publications.From the printers, we made our way by carto Mevasseret, a town close to Jerusalem,and the venue of our next meeting.Although the weather was fine, there wasno time (sadly) to stop and admire thescenery, although we did note the almondtrees in blossom in the Ajalon Valley andthe wonderful Judean Hills as we travelledto meet with Mr. Syvanto of the FinnishBible Institute.Mr. Syvanto has been living and working inIsrael for much of the past sixty years, andit was a privilege to meet with him, andto hear about his long-time commitmentto the publication and distribution ofChristianliterature withinIsrael. We were ableto update him asto progress on theproject and weregratified to hearfor ourselves hispledge to continuesupporting therevision work ona shared basiswith the Society.We very muchappreciated the hospitality received.The views from Mevasseret across thevalleys and hills, and the sight of the highhills round about Jerusalem as we returnedto the old city of Jerusalem brought tomind the lovely words of Psalm 125.2. 1 Inthe evening, we were able to join in publicworship with a small, local congregation.Although Russian Jews made up nearlyhalf of those attending, there were aboutnine different nationalities present,reflecting the diverse mix of nationalities to12

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012be found living in Israel today.Scripture distributionopportunitiesThursday was another day packed withmeetings, the first commencing at 8.30a.m. This was followed at 10.00 a.m.by a meeting with a local missionarypastor, who told us about the increasingopportunities open to him for thedistribution of Bibles in Israel, particularlyto African refugees among whom he wasregularly distributing aid and Scripturesin Tel Aviv. These refugees come fromcountries like Sudan, Eritrea and the IvoryCoast, and some are hungry, not just forphysical food, but also for the Word of God.Opportunities also exist among the largenumbers of migrant workers from places asfar afield as Nepal, and also from Spanishspeakingcountries. There is thus a callfor Scriptures in English, Hebrew, Arabic,Spanish, and Nepali.Before lunch we visited another printingworks, this time in Jerusalem, and we werepleased to see a very modern operation inwhich considerable investment had beenmade, with some of the latest equipmentin the field of digital printing being used.However, this printer undertakes a lot ofprinting for Jewish religious organisationsand it may not prove possible for them toprint our revised Gospel.It is best practice for the Society toobtain quotations for the printing of itspublications from three different printers,and we were able to source informationconcerning a third suitable printer fromour after-lunch session with a PalestinianChristian, whohas been acustomer andgrantee of theSociety formany years.He was alsoable to speakabout hisdistributionwork, partof which isundertakenwith Mr.Syvanto, and toA modern Israeli homeinform us concerningonline Bible correspondence courses whichhe runs in Arabic. We were encouragedto hear that correspondents came froma variety of Arabic-speaking countries,including some that are virtually closed tothe Gospel, and were very encouraged thatthe faithful Van Dyck version of the ArabicScriptures published by the Society is usedright across their ministry.Brief tour of JerusalemAfter a further brief meeting whichconcluded at about 4.00 p.m., we wereable to spend a short while looking aroundthe old city of Jerusalem. We viewed thepossible site of the death and burial of theLord Jesus Christ in east Jerusalem withgreat interest and then, as dusk fell, wewalked through the magnificent DamascusGate into the Arab market and onwardsinto west Jerusalem to view the Western,Looking over Jerusalem rooftops13 13

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Record6th century Byzantine Streetor Wailing, Wall. This is located at the footof the western side of the Temple Mount,and is a remnant of the ancient wall thatsurrounded the Temple courtyard. It isbelieved that half of thevisible section of thewall (and the portionbelow street level) wasconstructed by Herodthe Great around 19BC in his expansion ofthe Second Temple.Coming away fromthe Western Wall, wewere able to lookbeyond it towardsthe Temple Mountabove, and to theDome of the Rockand the Al Aqsamosque. The final stopon our rapid tour wasThe Temple Mount andthe Dome of the Rockto look at some of the excavations made inthe city of Jerusalem, which are uncoveringlower layers of the city. At one point, partof a Byzantine street dating from the 6thcentury AD has been revealed; close tothis a small section of wall dating back tothe 7-8th century BC (covering the time ofHezekiah) has been uncovered, togetherwith a later section of wall believed to datefrom the 1st century BC.Friday, our final day in this remarkablecity, gave us a final session in the morningwith the revision team, looking at a fewremaining aspects of the project. Workingintensively together we were able to finaliseall (bar one verse) of the revised text of Johnby reaching agreement on some specificdifficulties. In addition, we discussed theplanned timings for this project with theexpressed aim of concluding the revisionof the whole New Testament in five years’time, i.e., by February 2017, if the Lord will.In the afternoon, we returned to Tel Avivairport and flew back to London Luton.ConclusionEven in these days of modern technology,when excellent programmes like Skypefacilitate video communications acrossthe world, there is still nothingthat can better face-to-facemeetings. Being able tomeet people with whomone has worked at a distancestrengthens relationships andmakes for more productivefuture working relationships. Thisis especially so in the Society’swork since all such meetings areopened and closed with prayer.In addition, matters that maybe awkward to deal with at adistance, or even not apparent,can be discussed and dealt with farmore easily in person. Much wasaccomplished with the revision team beingall together in one place, and the visits tothe two printing works and the meetingswith various key contacts have opened upnew and useful avenues that we trust willbe beneficial for the project as a whole,and for the Society’s work in Israel.Endnotes1. ‘As the mountains are round about Jerusalem,so the Lord is round about his people fromhenceforth even for ever.’14

The TreasuryFrom the Resources DirectorIssue Number: 599 – April to June 2012As we come to write again, another three months of our short unworthy lives havepassed away into eternity forever. At the time of writing we are finalising theUK’s accounts for 2011 and it is with much gratitude that we acknowledge theLord’s great goodness in supplying our needs through another year. The UK provisionalfigure result for 2011 is a deficit of £96,000, just half of the deficit in 2010, which is mostencouraging. We are now working with our accountants to consolidate the worldwideaccounts for the Society.However, whilst the Society’s financial position is important, there is something that isinfinitely more important: the Holy Scriptures themselves, which the Society exists to‘publish and distribute…throughout the world in many languages’. I have been very struckrecently with Psalm 138.2, ‘thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name’. How greatmust the Word of God be, if it is exalted above all the glorious names that Christ bears! OurGeneral Secretary made a similar point at a recent Society meeting—every word in theScriptures is Christ directly speaking to man, to us personally—indeed, as the first verse ofthe Gospel according to John declares: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word waswith God, and the Word was God’ (John 1.1).How vital, then, that this precious Word, variously described as seed (Matthew 13.18-30), afire and a hammer (Jeremiah 23.29), a sword (Ephesians 6.17), rain and dew (Deuteronomy32.2), amongst other things, be distributed far and wide to fallen mankind that he mayhear the word of the Lord, who has promised that ‘it shall not return unto me void’ (Isaiah55.11). Indeed, how great the need is in the United Kingdom, particularly amongst theyoung, many of whom in this generation have not even heard the name of Christ otherthan by way of blasphemy. Doubtless those of you living in countries outside of the UnitedKingdom will have a similar concern to see the Word of God more widely distributed inyour own nation, and throughout the world.I am writing this article on the 60th anniversary (6th February 2012) of the accession ofHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to the throne. We are deeply thankful that the Lord hasspared Her Majesty for so many years and pray that she may be spared for years to come.Furthermore, as you may already know, the Society has published a special edition ofour Ruby Bible to celebrate this significant event and we are keen to get this Bible to asmany schoolchildren as possible, but also to prisoners and others where the Lord mightprovide opportunities. Whilst some churches and individuals will no doubt be able to fundthe distribution of this Bible in their local areas, others will not be in a position to do so. Alack of funding for local distribution may be particularly the case in some commonwealthcountries, where the Queen is Head of State. The Society is keen to be able to grant Jubilee15

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordBibles to those who have the practical means and the openings to distribute them, butnot the funding to pay for them. By way of example, each thousand Jubilee Bibles that theSociety might grant would cost us around £2,250 just on production costs, before postageand overheads are taken into account.As you know, the Society does not, as a matter of policy, carry out fundraising, believingthat all our supply is from the Lord through the instrumentality of our generous supporters.As the Apostle Paul proved when he left Macedonia, those that were instrumental insupplying his material needs were relatively few, but loyal and generous (Philippians4.15), and this is how the Society finds it financially—we are deeply thankful to you all. Webelieve that the Jubilee Project is worthy of being brought before all our readers for theirprayerful and practical support. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, following on as it does inthe year after the 400th anniversary of the Authorised (King James) Version, presents aspecial opportunity for the distribution of the English Scriptures to many who might nototherwise receive it.Therefore, our plea echoes the sentiment of that call received by Paul two thousand yearsago before he began his outbound journey: ‘Come over into Macedonia, and help us’ (Acts16.9). The need is vast and sadly the Society’s limited UK grants budget does not stretchto the supply of tens of thousands of Jubilee Bibles by way of grant, at least not withoutdecimating our overseas grants programme or cutting back on translation projects, neitherof which is desirable or feasible.We remain deeply thankful to all our members, supporters and friends for their partnershipwith us in this work, practically, financially and in prayer. We gratefully acknowledge receipt ofanonymous gifts totalling £13,631.38 for the period October to December 2011 (Matthew 6.4).Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginningof the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia,no church communicated with me as concerning givingand receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica yesent once and again unto my necessity. Not because Idesire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to youraccount.Philippians 4.15-17The ruins of ancient Philippi16

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012GeographyKenya, with an estimatedpopulation (2011) of morethan forty-one million and aland area of 571,416 sq. km. (220,625 sq.mi.), straddles the Equator on the easterncoast of Africa: the port city of Kisumu,on the Kavirondo Gulf of Lake Victoria, isalmost exactly on the Equator, and Nairobi,the capital city, is just south of it. Kenya’sadjacent western neighbours are Ugandaand Tanzania; continuing anticlockwisethe eastern neighbour is Somalia, thenEthiopia and Sudan to the north.Plains stretch from the coast, northwardalong the Somali border and westward(the Nyika Plain) toward the KenyaHighlands. The highland area is dividednorth to south along the Great Rift Valley.by C. P. HallihanNairobi is at the southern end of theAberdare Range, east of the rift; east ofthe Aberdare Range is Mount Kenya, thecountry’s highest mountain. 1 West of thehighlands, grasslands extend to LakeVictoria (the second largest freshwater lakein the world 2 ). The climate is varied: tropicalalong the coast, temperate inland, arid inthe north and northeast,with a great dealof sunshine all theyear round.Kenya has hugeand varied areas ofwildlife habitat; inthe Masai Mara, bluewildebeest and othersimilarly gracefulhornedSmall farm, Highlands, Kenya17Rich variety of wildlife; elephants, wildebeest andzebra roam the great savannah.

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordthe more populated regions, anda highway links Nairobi with AddisAbaba, Ethiopia. Mombasa is theprincipal port and Nairobi’s airportis one of the most important in EastAfrica. Tourism as a source of foreignexchange is encouraged by thegovernment.Major diseases in the country includemalaria, dysentery and trachoma.Sexually transmitted diseases arecommon, with HIV/AIDS nearlyepidemic. Self-help welfare activitiesare encouraged, owing to a shortageof skilled medical help in much of thecountry.animals 3 effect a large-scale (we’re talkingof millions of beasts) annual migration.The ‘African big five’ can be found in Kenya:the lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinocerosand elephant. Large areas now serve asgame reserves, notably the Nairobi andTsavo National Parks. 4 Regrettably, ivorypoaching is a continuing threat, especiallyalong the border with Somalia.Many ‘ordinary’ Kenyans today are stillinvolved with some form of agriculture,living and working on communally-ownedland. Although this is a prime earner,farming is largely restricted to the highrainfallareas of the highlands, centralRift Valley and around Lake Victoria, withcoffee and tea the main cash crops. Staplesinclude corn, potatoes, pulses, millet andbananas. The only natural source of fuel iswood from very limited forests.Major industrial activities deal withcement production and petroleumprocessing refineries at Mombasa. In 1981a geothermal station came online to helpsupplement hydroelectricity from theTana River. Road connections are good inHistoricalOutlineEarly SettlementFrom the Biblical region of Cush(approximating to modern Sudan andEthiopia, and the Horn of Africa) it isbelieved that people moved into the areanow known as Kenya in Abrahamic times.Later, around 500 BC, Nilotic-speaking 5pastoralists began to arrive from presentdaysouthern Sudan into Kenya. By the1st century AD Arab traders appearedalong the Kenya coast. Its proximity to theArabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf almostbegged colonisation, so that Arab andPersian settlements were plentiful alongthe coast by the 8th century. During thefirst millennium AD Bantu peoples alsomoved into the region from further west,bringing new developments in agricultureand iron working to this previously pastoralregion.Bantu now comprise three-quarters ofKenya’s population. For African mission,evangelism and Bible translation, theBantu languages, originating in the generalNigeria and Cameroon area of West Africa,18

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012are hugely important. They are amongthe most widely-spoken languages inAfrica, and include Shona and Zulu. TheBantu language with the greatest numberof speakers (eighty million across eightcountries) is Swahili, a meld of Bantu andArabic which has yielded a trading andcross-cultural lingua franca. Swahili is thefirst official language of modern Kenya,alongside English.Europeans and ColonialismIn the centuries preceding Europeancolonisation, the Swahili coast of Kenyawas part of the East African maritimeand shipbuilding region, which tradedwith the Arab world and India for ivoryand slaves. Arab/Persian influence onthe Kenyan coast was eclipsed in 1498by the arrival of the Portuguese. Theircourageous mastery of the complicationsof navigating the West African coast toround the Cape into the Indian Oceanleft the other European seafaringnations trailing far behind. Portugal’sinfluence was to be diminished in turnby the Islamic dominion of the Imam ofOman in the 1600s; however, the lastinglegacy of Portugal on the East African coastMap of the region dating from 1890was to turn it into an enduring stagingpoint for journeys across the Indian Ocean.Although Zanzibar and Dar Es Salaam,south of Kenya, were the most importantports for this, the Kenya/India connectionalso existed. When the British were ableto lease part of the Kenyan coast from theSultan of Zanzibar in 1887, work began ona railroad from Mombasa to Lake Victoria,with significant use of Indian labour.Their descendants remained in Kenya,forming the core of several distinct Indiancommunities, including Muslim and Sikh. 6The colonial history of Kenya derives fromthe Berlin Conference of 1885, where theEuropean powers divided East Africa into‘spheres of influence’. To avoid tripping overeach other in this region, Germany andBritain agreed thatthey would divide the area between them.When the Sultan of Zanzibar disagreed,19

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordprotesting that he was the ruler, theGerman chancellor Bismarck sent fivewarships to train their guns on his palace;the sultan then ‘agreed’!German East Africa covered the areas nowknown as Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania:an area three times the size of modernGermany—lebensraum 7 indeed. In 1895the UK government established the EastAfrican Protectorate and opened thefertile highlands to white settlers. Thesesettlers had a voice in government evenbefore it was officially made a UK colonyin 1920, but Africans had neither voicenor representation, being prohibited fromdirect political participation in Kenyanaffairs until 1944. Experiments with coffeegrowing were made by British settlersaround 1905, and the highlands becamerich in coffeeKing’s Africa Rifles 1908production.Tea plantationsfollowed in1923, but onlythe settlerswere to profitfrom thesubsequentexport trades.The proximityof Germanand British powersin East Africa meant that the Great War,1914–1918, involved Africa too. The BritishArmy recruited two hundred thousandEast Africans as askaris, foot soldiers, inthe British-officered King’s African Rifles.Afterwards, in 1921, the protectoratebecame Kenya, with the status of BritishCrown Colony. By 1922 mission-educatedAfricans began to protest their exclusionfrom affairs; Harry Thuku, from the Kikuyuethnic group, emerged as leader of theEast African Association (EAA), and wasarrested. A young Kikuyu EAA member,Jomo Kenyatta, went to university inEngland in 1931, returning years laterto become a world-renowned politicalleader in Kenya. Later in the 1930s ErnestHemingway visited, writing there for a brieftime. World war erupted again, involvingEast Africa particularly because of theItalian presence in Ethiopia followingMussolini’s invasion. 8Towards IndependenceThrough the 1930s Kenyatta’s methods ofprotest and pressure were peaceful, butMau Mau guerrillashe warned that lack of progress wouldresult in a ‘dangerous explosion’. Eventswere overtaken by a more powerful andalarming challenge to British colonialrule. In 1952 a militant independencemovement, Mau Mau, a Kikuyu anticolonialorganisation, made its presenceand demands painfully clear—to drive thewhiteMauman from Kenya. Mauguerrillas organisedthemselvesas the KenyaLand FreedomArmy (KFLA).Jomo Kenyatta,regarded as theirleader, wasjailed.Britainsenttroops,20Jomo Kenyatta

declaring a state of emergency in Kenya.The hedonistic lifestyle of the European‘Happy Valley’ set in the Naivashahighlands area became untenable as theMau Mau uprising progressed during the1950s. This was very costly of lives, mostlyto the Africans, and much of that inflictedby the Mau Mau. By 1960 Britain began toprepare for Kenyan independence.On 12 December 1963, independencewas finally gained and in 1964 Jamhuriya Kenya—the Republic of Kenya—wasdeclared, with Jomo Kenyatta as firstwas in Uganda.)Jomo Kenyatta died in 1978 at hisMombasa home. Under his leadershipKenya had become one of the moststable and prosperous countries in Africa.Despite his mistakes, Kenyatta had theaffection of most Kenyans and the respectof politicians abroad. The Republic ofKenya held promises which were soonto fade. Kenyatta’s successor, Daniel arapMoi, inherited a stable country with goodeconomic growth. During the 1980sthough, growth was marred by inflation,president. The Kenyan African DemocraticUnion (KADU), which had begun asan opposition to Kenyatta’s KenyanAfrican National Union (KANU), wasthen integrated with KANU, which left agovernment without opposition. Conflictsbetween ethnic groups continued,particularly with the Luo 9 and the Kikuyu.By 1974, with Jomo Kenyatta re-electedas president, KiSwahili was the officiallanguage in the parliament. In 1976 theUgandan dictator Idi Amin claimed hugetracts of Kenya. (There were historicprecedents: until colonial line drawing onmaps, the eastern coast of Lake Victoria,including the Kenyan port city of Kisumu,Central Nairobi todaydroughts, and a rapid population riseleading to unemployment, not helped byMoi’s lack of roots in, and the support of,any dominant Kenyan tribe. By 1982 Kenyawas officially a one party (KANU) state.With the collapse of the cold war tensionsin Europe, support for African regimesas buffers against communism declinedrapidly. By 1991 Moi could no longersuppress opposition: a multi-partysituation was allowed and a decade ofpolitical infighting and violence followed.By early 1992 there were several newparties formed, and multi-party elections21

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordwere held with KANU retaining a majorityof the legislature. In 2002, a coalition ofopposition parties joined forces with aKANU breakaway faction to form theNational Rainbow Coalition (NARC). Theircandidate, Mwai Kibaki, was elected thecountry’s third president. In December2007 more elections were held. MwaiKibaki and NARC were the winners, andviolence erupted. At least 1,500 peopledied and over 300,000 were ‘internallydisplaced’, along with serious disruptionof public transport, and multiplication ofstrikes and stoppages.You may well ask ‘do we need to knowall this?’ Yes; if only to have meaningfulcontext for the work of mission, from theChurch Missionary Society of the mid-19thcentury to the Free Presbyterian Church ofScotland Mission in the early-21st century;and for prayerful interest in the work of TBSin connection with the need for authenticand dependable Bible translations into thelanguages of East Africa.MissionReligions in KenyaThree-quarters of all Kenyans professChristianity, nominal or otherwise, themajority being Protestant. About onefifthof the population still adhere totraditional beliefs and religions. A minorityof Kenyans (6%) are Muslim, mainly onthe coast and in the region borderingSomalia. Kenyan Islam, mostly Sunni, isthe result of centuries of contact withthe Arabian Peninsula and forms thebackbone of Swahili society in the NorthEastern Province and Coast Province.An even smaller number, less than 1%,practice Hinduism in Kenya. This is derivedagain from the earlier coastal trade withGujarati and Marwar in India and EastAfrica. Many of the labourers imported forthe Uganda-Kenya Railway simply settledin Kenya, bringing with them the cloudof religious beliefs that form the Hindureligion; Nairobi and Mombasa have anumber of Hindu temples. From 1945, theBaha’i religion has been in Kenya, currentlynumbered at about 1% of the population.However, it is the ancient and indigenousbeliefs and cults which give a constantbackground to all mission work inKenya. Several sources refer to theseas diminished, or even threatened, butthis is not a clear picture. As in manyother parts of the world the problem formissionaries, evangelists, pastors andchurches is that these elements of earlier,post-Babel religions, are too often justabsorbed, even swallowed whole, insidethe apparent profession and practice ofChristianity. There may indeed be only asmall percentage of the population openlyfollowing the older forms, but many anevangelist, pastor or teacher will recognisewith distress the continuing impact ofthose forms and attitudes in church life,personal godliness, and moral and spiritualcharacter.Though these beliefs and rituals do varyamong the ethnic groups in Kenya, theyshare general characteristics, believing‘God’ to be commonly manifested in thesun, moon, mountains, stars and trees,especially the fig-tree; witchcraft anddevil worship have been rampant inKenya. In Nairobi there were temples fordevil worship; some such rituals include22

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012human sacrifice, black magic and narcoticdrugs. 10 Truly we wrestle not with fleshand blood (Ephesians 6.12); let us ratherwrestle in prayer for those good Christianworkers who daily feel the weight of theundisguised roaring of the enemy in suchcircumstances.Early Protestant MissionWorkJohann Ludwig Krapf, 1810-1887, was amissionary pioneer to East Africa. Bornin Germany and educated at the BasleMission School in Switzerland and atTübingen University, he completed hisstudies in 1834 to become a Lutheranpastor. A visitor from Basle reawakened hismissionary commitments, and he travelledwith the Church Missionary Society ofthe Anglican Church to Ethiopia in 1837.Protestant missionaries were expelled fromthose regions in 1843, and Krapf travelledto Zanzibar and then to Mombasa. In theappalling conditions there his wife, Rosine,and their newborninfant died of fever,Krapf himself toodelirious even toname the child.Seriallybetrayed byhis associates,and besetwith tropicalillnesses, theclimate, andcrampedandoppressive living conditions, JohannKrapf’s daily life was a misery. He wasplunged into depression, suffering alonefor two years; yet in that testing time hetranslated the New Testament and otherBible portions, plus the Book of CommonPrayer, into Swahili. He also challenged theChurch Missionary Society to make theMombasa grave of his wife and child thestarting point for the conversion of EastAfrica.The arrival of Swiss missionary JohannRebmann rekindled Krapf’s ownenthusiasm, and they made plans totravel inland. Between 1847 and 1849,six journeys of exploration were made,and they became the first Europeans tosee Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Talesof a snow-covered peak near the equatorwere not believed, and their report inThe Church Missionary Intelligencer,May 1849, generated heated armchairargument, in which learned but untravelledgentlemen declared it to beimpossible for snow-clad mountains to bein the Equatorial region. Unaware of theselearned pronouncements, three ancientlocal languages had already named Mt.Kenya as ‘looking like ostrich feathers’, ‘agreat white plume’.Johann Krapf’s plan to link the westand east coasts of Africa with a chain ofChristian missionaries and mission stationsfailed to materialise, and he returned toGermany in 1853 to write his memoirs. Thisbook, Travels, Researches and MissionaryLabours, stirred Methodist missions tostart work in Kenya. Krapf did return toAfrica, accompanying an expeditioninto Ethiopia as an interpreterin 1867/8. However, hishealth failed and hereturned to Germany forthe last time.Krapf’s missionarywork was not builtJohann Ludwig Krapf, 1810-188723

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordupon much by others—several historiesof African mission and Christianity eitherignore him or make only passing reference.His first ten years supposedly saw onlytwo converts. His linguistic studies areperhaps a better legacy, giving the firstSwahili grammar and a Swahili dictionary;he published twenty-five books, includinga comparative vocabulary of six Bantulanguages. He certainly gave inspiration forlater labours in both Kenya and Tanzania,and his house at Rabai near Mombasabecame a museum, the place whereChristianity and modern learning in Kenyastarted. The Anglican Church of Kenyacount him as their founding father, andthe building housing the German Embassyat Nairobi is called ‘Ludwig Krapf House’.Through Krapf, in differing ways, Anglican,Lutheran and Methodist mission and Biblework were settled in Kenya. There weresome remarkable African evangelists fromvery early in the work and a first Africanmartyr in East Africa, David Koi, in 1883.…and ContinuanceKenya seemed a magnet for missions.Krapf’s vision of a mission chain unitingEast and West Africa became part ofPeter Cameron Scott’s commitment forthe Africa Inland Mission (AIM), begunin 1895. The Philadelphia MissionaryCouncil was formed to support the work,and Arthur T. Pierson was an influentialcouncil member. 11 In October 1895 AIM’sfirst mission group, consisting of Scott, hissister Margaret, and six others, arrived inEast Africa. The mission had four stations,all in Kenya, and more workers arrivedfrom Canada and the United States,making the group fifteen. In December1896, Peter Scott died and the missionalmost disintegrated. Charles Hurlburt ofthe Pennsylvania Bible Institute becamedirector of the mission, moving with hisfamily to lead AIM from headquarters24established at Kijabe, Kenya.After, this, the canvas becomes toocrowded for detail. Pentecostal groupsappeared within AIM, and these havebecome inseparable from the Kenyanscene, splitting, merging, realigning withone or another, and shading into thedeveloping indigenous churches. Forexample, the Gospel Missionary Society, aPentecostal group within AIM, constituteditself a separate mission in 1902. During1940 to 1945, when this Society was tryingto close down its work, some missionariesrejoined the Africa Inland Mission, whilethe Society itself joined the Church ofScotland Mission, which later became thePresbyterian Church of East Africa.Thomas Wakefield, ‘Bwana Wakfili’, servedas a Methodist missionary in Kenya fortwenty-seven years from 1861 to 1889.Although he made Bible translationsinto local native languages he remainsbetter known as an explorer, botanist andmap-maker than as a missionary: a notinfrequent bypath meadow for Europeanworkers. United States missionaries startedthe work of the Church of God in westernKenya in 1905 and one of their first workerswas Yohana Mbila, a black South African.Most Western church bodies, sound orunsound, were soon replicated in Kenya.There can be no simple understanding ofmission work based on Biblical principles inKenya: think of any ‘churchy’ organisationthat you might find in the Western worldand be assured that they are all to be foundin Kenya, inseparable from the social,political and ex-colonial issues, seeking,and finding, their own proselytes there.And that is before we have remarked on……The Indigenous Churches.David B. Barrett 12 in Schism and Renewalin Africa strongly suggests that Americantraditional culture and American religion aswell as missionary paternalism, the colonial

legacy together with the conditions ofmodern society, are factors that havebeen responsible for the proliferation ofindigenous churches. This movementbegan during the colonial period and didnot end with independence. Of seventhousand-plus indigenous churches inAfrica there are over one hundred andeighty in Kenya, mostly located in westernKenya. These indigenous churches grewin areas where missions had been wellreceived, and response to mission teachingwas positive.However, the volatile admixture ofChristian teaching, mission education andrapidly growing cultural nationalism couldnot run in the mission channels. MissionderivedChristian churches came to beregarded as imperialistic and aggressivelyhostile to African culture, and includedissues now found in the secular media suchas the matter of female circumcision, whichearly on was an extremely fierce area ofconflict between mission Christianity andAfrican culture.Mission churches and the white racewere indiscriminately and collectivelydenounced by some leaders. There weresome who were opposed to ‘missionary’Christianity but wished to retain aChristian identity: they took recourse inthe founding of independent churchesand schools. It was not only the rejectionof Western (‘Christian’) education, culture,even medicine, that generated such adisconnection. Some indigenous churchesarose from plain dissatisfaction with theleadership style and paternalism of themission churches. There were also, and stillare, declarations of resentment towardsthe decadence that (they feel) traditionalChristianity tolerates. No surprise then thatthey strive to make a culturally relevant‘indigenised’ Christianity by incorporatingAfrican traditional religious world-views. 13After independence, many such groupsIssue Number: 599 – April to June 201225registered as bona fide churches. They lookfor a buoyant church that reflects Africanspirituality, attaching great importanceto community life and human relationsand giving women a prominent placein the hierarchy of the church. Thesechurches have experienced growthbecause, they claim, they are so relevantto their adherents. We believe rather thata Christian church needs first of all to behonestly relevant to the Word of God, theBible. I quote from the translators’ prefaceto the Authorised Version: ‘But now whatpiety without truth? what truth (whatsaving truth) without the word of God?what word of God (whereof we may besure) without the Scripture?’ 14 With this, wenow turn to consider TBS and the Bible inKenya.Bible MattersSwahiliSwahili or KiSwahili is a Bantu language,and five million people speak it as theirnative language; the total number ofspeakers is said to exceed one hundredmillion. Originally written in Arabic script,Swahili orthography is now based on theLatin alphabet introduced by missionariesand colonial administrators. In the AfricanUnion 15 there is today growing pressure forthe overall use of Swahili as the unifyinglanguage of Africa south of the Sahara.What great need, then, for a sound Bibleversion in this language!By 1844, a foundation had been laid forthe translation of the Bible into KimvitaKiSwahili (the Mombasa dialect) by Krapf.Very soon standardisation of the languagebecame an issue, and in the 1920sKiunguja KiSwahili (the Zanzibar dialect)was favoured. The need for a commonKiSwahili Bible, blending as far as possiblethe most used dialects, led in 1950 to aNew Testament—the KiSwahili Union

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordVersion—with the Old Testament addedin 1952.There have been five major versions inKiSwahili: Kiugunja in 1891, Kimvita in1914, Roehl in 1937, 16 the Swahili Unionin 1952, and Habari Njema in 1996. Themeaning of the last-named will indicatethe pedigree of this chain; ‘Habari Njema’means ‘Good News’. It was begun in1973 as an inter-denominational andinternational effort; Roman Catholic andProtestant traditions were accepted in thisedition. At the risk of repeating myself,how great is the need for a sound Bibleversion in this widely-used language!TBS has been investigatingfor some time what can bedone in this language, but wedo not yet have a firm projectin hand; please pray that theLord would provide us withsuitably qualified personnel toundertake the much neededwork of preparing a faithfuland accurate version of theSwahili Scriptures translatedout of the original tongueswith reference to the best ofthe former translations. Of theseventy-four people groups inKenya, eighteen are listed in OperationWorld as unreached. TBS has involvementin only two Kenyan Bible projects, Pokotand EkeGusii.Pokot (Pökoot)In 1931 Christian missionaries establisheda work in the Turkana region of Kenyaamong the Pokot. The Bible Churchmen’sMissionary Society (Anglican) set up aministry in Kacheliba, and about thesame time the African Inland Missionbegan work at Maron among the eastPokot. These missionaries found the Pokotresistant to Christianity, as well as toeducation and other development help,and the Pokot have sustained a reputationfor resistance to Western and Christianinfluences.About half of the Pokot are semi-nomadic,semi-pastoralists: people who herd cattle,sheep, and goats and live off the productsof their stock. Others are agriculturalists,living wherever conditions allow farming.Pokot society is thoroughly paternalistic: awoman has no voice in any public forums;she has no authority within her ownhomestead, being considered as ‘foolish’ asthe cows for which she is traded.Believing that death is the end of life, withno afterlife, this present world is mostMr and Mrs Tottys’ home todayimportant and is precious to the Pokot.Much of their religious ritual is involvedin warding off illness or in effecting cures.Most Pokot still follow their traditionalreligion: approximately 15% of Pokot aredesignated Christian while the remaining85% are traditionalists. Even among theChristians, the traditional religion worldviewis still dominant.A notable missionary to the Pokot wasLawrence Totty. Born in Wellington,Shropshire, in 1908, later moving toCheltenham, in the late 1920s he becamea missionary for the Bible Churchmen’sMissionary Society (BCMS, now Crosslinks).In 1930, the BCMS sent him to Kacheliba,26

Kenya, to the Pokottribe. In 1932, AnnetteTarr, a teacher fromCheltenham, joined him.They married one yearlater, and continued tominister to the Pokottribe. Throughout thecolonial period this wasa ‘closed’ district, a bufferbetween the ‘whitehighlands’ of colonialKenya, and the shiftingfrontiers around LakeTurkana. Mrs Totty was theonly white woman in the area, and theirtwo daughters, Ann and Wendy, were bornin the mission field.The Totty family travelled either on footor by donkey, until they acquired a LandRover. They translated the whole of theNew Testament into the Pokot language,and this was subsequently published byTBS. In 1964 Lawrence and his wife retiredto England, leaving a heritage of twelveactive churches, fourteen schools, andmany Christians. In ‘retirement’ Lawrencebecame rector in Kingswood, near Wottonunder-Edge,Gloucestershire, and afterseveral years retired again. He was invitedto become, for four months, vicar of HolyTrinity Church, Cheltenham, while it wasclosed down. Four years later, when heeventually left, the church was thriving,and continues. In 1970 the Tottys wereinvited back to Kenya to celebrate fiftyyears since he first went to minister tothe Pokot. In 1998, after sixty-five years ofmarriage, Annette died; she had sufferedfrom arthritis for twenty years and wasbedridden. Lawrence survived her by threeyears, dying on 1 November 2001, agedninety-four. Anne Newman, our grantsofficer, met the Tottys in their Cheltenham‘retirement’, and in a subsequent visit toKenya was able to visit the area of theirlabours, and even to photograph their oldIssue Number: 599 – April to June 2012Cheltenham, England, twinned withKisuma, Kenya27house!Work continues in Kenya.A pastor of one of thechurches wrote in anemail to the Society,I was privileged ofknowing the Tottyssince 1955 when myfather went to WestPokot to pioneer AfricaInland Church. Theyworked closely inthe area. I also knew theCollins who started AIM inEast Pokot and Marakwet. Tom Collinsalso participated in the translatingof the Kisilat nyo rel (the Pokot NewTestament).Since 1984 the Free PresbyterianChurch of Ulster has sent outmissionaries to Kenya, working fromour church. We now have threemissionaries working in Pokot: onedoing Sabbath School work in ourchurches, another serving as principalin the school at Lityei and the thirdteaching music in the school.The pastor continued,While the Kenya Bible Society havecome out with fully translated PokotBible it is not sound, not up to thestandard of the Authorized Version.It will be helpful for TBS to considerrevising the Kisilat nyo ret and laterplan to translate the whole Bible. Inthis the Pokot will not lose the worksof the Tottys. At present the translationof the Bible by Kenya Bible Society isin use but those who have used it seethat it is not up to the standard of theolder New Testament TBS translation.I pray that God will make this possibleso that the Christians here will have atranslation which is sound.A thorough revision was put in hand

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordseveral years ago to bring the Society’sPokot New Testament into use again and toadd the Old Testament. Sadly this work hasscarcely progressed because of the classicproblems of the field: tardy and unwillingcommunications, failure to meet agreedtargets, and diversion of resources.It would be a joy to see the labours ofLawrence and Annette Totty continuedin the publication of a truly sound Bibletranslation in the Pokot language: so makeyour wants and petitions known, withthanksgiving.EkeGusiiThe Gusii community, also known as theKisii tribe, or, by their preference, AbaGusii,are East African Bantu. They speak thelanguage of Kisii, properly ekeGusii. Thislanguage is comparable to other Bantulanguages, with similar vocabulary andidiom, derived or acquired in the sameways.The Gusii are economically very active,with large tea estates, coffee, and bananagroves. Kisii Town is the main urbanand commercialcentre in the GusiiHighlands ofKenya, betweenthe Kavirondo Gulfof Lake Victoriaand the borderwith Tanzania. Itis at the centre ofthe western Kenyatourist circuit of theTabaka SoapstoneCarvings, MaasaiMara Game Reserve,Lambwe ValleyGame Reserve andindeed the entireMother and child from theMaasai MaraLake Victoria basin. Kisii Town was knownas ‘Bosongo’ by the Gusii, from ‘Abasongo’,meaning the ‘white people’ of colonialtimes. British forces moving out of range ofGerman gunboats on Lake Victoria duringthe Great War of 1914–18 probably beganthe town as a base. It is 309 km (192 miles)by road from Nairobi, and air services toKisii Town are minimal.This people declare themselves ChristianLabourers working in a tea plantation28

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012and Protestant. Reflecting Kenya asa whole, most are identified with theSeventh Day Adventists, others with thePentecostal Assemblies of God and interdenominationalcongregations such as theFull Gospel Church of Kenya. Kisii Town hasa Mosque for Muslims and a Temple forHindus. A surprising number of Kisii havegone abroad for education, and they arethe most heavily represented Kenyans inIndian and American universities.Keith Watkins, a minister of the FreeNear the summit of Mount KenyaPresbyterian Church of Scotland nowserving in Kenya and one-time memberof the TBS Committee, tells of the work inWest Kenya.The FPCS Mission work began in 1986,when the first deputies from Scotlandvisited Kenya. This visit was a responseto a letter written to the Scottishchurch by a resident of Sengera inKisiiland in Kenya. (Later the writerof that letter proved to be a conmanskilled in the art of deceiving churchesand missions—there are many suchin this part of Kenya, but the Lord canuse even evil intent for His purposes.)Further visits were made, and in theend the mission was registered, ahealth centre was built and regularchurch services established in variousplaces. Different ministerial, medicaland administrative staff workedin Kenya for varying periods. Thebeginnings of the Kenya Mission, withthe church deceived by a conman,were none too promising. But itwould be good to say with Joseph,‘Ye thought evil against me; but Godmeant it unto good, to bring to pass, asit is this day, to save much people alive’(Genesis 50.20). 17An EkeGusii translation of the whole Bibledoes exist, but it is highly inaccurate,even heretical. Ongoing translation of theportions to be read in public worship isa necessity, and there are great hopes ofTBS being able to publish a sound EkeGusiiNew Testament, and more. Since 2002Bible verses supplied by the mission havebeen used at TBS to produce our Words ofLife pictorial calendar in EkeGusii, for freedistribution. Do remember in your prayersthe issues faced in a culture that claimsto be Christian, but opposes anyone whoseeks fully to implement Biblical principles.Mr Watkins in a recent Synod report wrotethat, ‘Even in front of the Kirk Sessionbarefaced lies can be told. Discerning “thetrue grace of God” is so difficult when somany people are deliberately cheating,making the gospel a cover for secular gain’.EpilogueIn this magnificent country there arethree languages of particular note to TBS:Swahili, Pokot and EkeGusii.Swahili, in which there is no soundBible: if one could be accomplished in thesovereign providence of our God, it wouldserve across many countries. In many yearsof overseeing the preparation of bothour Golden Thoughts and Words of LifeCalendars, it always concerned me thatsuch a generally useful African languagewas not available to us.Pokot, in which the pioneering Scripturework of Lawrence and Annette Totty needsto be built upon, developed and enlarged:29

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordthis project is stalled at present and inmuch need of effectual fervent prayer.EkeGusii, in which there is a living projectattended by many difficulties: who willhold up the hands of the workers in Kisii?Let a final word from Mr Watkins serveas a conclusion to the whole articleand a general exhortation to prayer forKenya—‘Yes, Kenyan churches are to thisday expanding and multiplying—butthere are almost no points at which KenyanChristianity coincides with the Biblicalversion. Many poor souls are plungingunprepared into eternity with a lie in theirright hand’ (Isaiah 44.20): and no soundScriptures in either hand.Endnotes1. It was on holiday in ‘Treetops’ lodgewithin sight of Mt. Kenya that the UK’sPrincess Elizabeth learned of the death ofher father, King George VI, on 6 February1952.2. Discussion of which lakes are largestcould constitute an entire book.Considerations include fresh versus saltwater, volume, surface area, etc., and anycombination thereof. This designationregarding Lake Victoria, however, is fairlysolid.3. ‘Bovids’ for the zoologists amongst us.4. Kenya has over forty game reservesand parks, and two maritime parks in theIndian Ocean.5. Learned arguments lie behind thedefinition of this word. A general idea ofsouthward movement of people alongthe axis of the Nile and Rift valleys issimplistic, but sufficient.6. To meet a gospel enquirer recently whodeclared himself a ‘Kenyan-Indian-Sikh’doesn’t seem quite so bizarre against thisbackground.7. A mainspring of German expansionistpolicy—literally ‘room to live’, butpolitically somewhat more complex inAfrica, and, failing that, in Europe on theway to Ukraine and Russia.8. Italian for ‘lebensraum, anyone?’9. The Luo also have strong ethnic andlinguistic affinity throughout Uganda andmainland Tanzania.10. The list is abbreviated: things such asshould not even be mentioned, I darenot.11. Pierson was a vigorous advocateof missions, transformer of missionaryliterature, collaborator in the productionof the Scofield Bible, and a sometimevisiting preacher at Spurgeon’s Tabernaclein London, UK.12. As quoted by Bishop ZablonNthamburi in ‘The Beginning andDevelopment of Christianity in Kenya’Dictionary of African Christianity (dacb.org,accessed 20 October 2011).13. What is surprising is that now inWestern Protestant Christianity, thesame process of ‘indigenising’ to localculture is a growing policy and practice;this ‘baptising’ of local gods, feasts andcustoms used to be a Roman Catholicpractice!14. The Translators to the Reader (London,England: Trinitarian Bible Society, 1998),p. 10.15. Established in July 2002, a successorto the Organisation of African Unity: theAfrican Union Commission is based inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia.16. Arose out of Lutheran work inTanzania; for ‘Karl Roehl and theEntangled History of the Swahili Bible’ seea draft document at www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk/media/documents/Seminarpapers.17. This from a personal email, in responseto my request for such information.30

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012The Word of GodAmong All NationsAlthough certain phrases and expressions used in these letters may not be doctrinallyaccurate or in correct English, we reproduce the letters essentially as received, knowingthat the Lord is using His Word to the glory of His Name and the furtherance of HisKingdom as the Scriptures are distributed among the nations of the world.EuropeFrom Durham City,EnglandI found these TBS postersdisplayed on a disused cinema inDurham City. An interesting witness!From a Scottish ministryto Eastern EuropeFirst of all we would like to thankyou for your perseverance in supportingour congregations with Hungarian andRomanian calendars. During the past fewyears, these means, besides the Bibles wereceived from you, were a blessed tool inour attempt to reach sinners for Christ. Weappreciate very much that you continuedthis support during these financiallydifficult years! Your perseverance andgenerous giving was a blessing again formany who are in contact with our churchesin Romania, Hungary and Ukraine. TheWord of God reached many people, andwe are sure that it will not turn backwithout doing the work of God. We wishand pray that our God might reward youabundantly! Many of those who receivedcalendars in the years before, in the end ofthe year are already looking forward to thenewcalendars. Besides them, there are manywho received calendars for the first time.We don’t know if there is a deadline forthe reports or not. In the earlier years wesent it in the first part of the year. Now, forvarious reasons, we can send you only nowthe report. We hope it is not too late. Wetried to distribute these means responsiblyto people who really wanted them. Youcan read the following quotations takenfrom thank-you letters of our co-workersand congregations from various places inRomania, Hungary and Ukraine.Romania:In our region, in the towns of SfantuGheorghe and Brasov, the calendarswere a blessed tool in our hands. Withthese means we were able to go to familieswho earlier had no contact at all with the31

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordWord of God. Although most of themare members of a state church, they areliving in a secular, worldly way. Our churchmembers distributed the calendars to theiracquaintances, neighbours, relatives andfriends. They reported good discussionsand possibilities for sharing the gospel.Some people were able to hang calendarsin public offices where many people cansee the Bible verses for a whole year.Visiting people with the calendars gave usa good opportunity to talk with those whoare open in some way to the Gospel. Weare thankful for your goodness in giving usthese materials.Romania:By the means of this letter, we would liketo thank you for the calendars we receivedthis year again. We were able to distributea large number of calendars to people whovisited our tent at the Winter Fair, whichwas organized in the centre of our city.There were people who received calendarsfrom us in the previous years, and whowere coming to our tent asking again forcalendars. Here are some examples:A woman told me that these are theblessed calendars she has received everyyear, and she puts the calendars even inher office in the City Hall.A young man told us that he began toread the verses written on the calendars,and that practice led him to read adevotional book. I gave him a copy of ourBible reading helper, which will lead himthrough the Bible in one year.All the calendars were distributed onthe first day of the Fair; therefore peoplewho came after that were woeful. Finallyour church members gave out their owncalendars, just to know that the Word ofGod arrived in some homes, and will beread. Our church members gave out a lot ofcalendars at their work places, and to theirfamilies.We distributed the Romanian languagecalendars too. I gave out the calendars toan elite Regiment of the Romanian Army,which has its base in our city, as well as tothe officers of the Air Defense Base, whichis near our city. We gave out calendarsto the students from the Romanian highschool.I would like to ask, if possible, send morecalendars, because there are a lot of thirstypeople here. If possible, please send someHungarian and Romanian Bibles too. Wepraise God for the blessing He gave us bythe calendars, and we continue to prayfor your blessed work through the Bibles,books and other literature you are printing.Romania:We were very glad that even during thesedifficult times, God moved our brothersto send us calendars again. May God blessthem abundantly! We live in a small town,with 5,000 inhabitants and all the peopleto whom we gave calendars were glad forthem. The distribution of the calendarsgave us good opportunities to meet newpeople and to share the Gospel. Since wehave received calendars for almost tenyears, many families have special placesin their homes for these calendars. Wewere able to distribute calendars to thelocal police officers, and they acceptedthem gladly. We offered calendars for thebank employees too, who also rejoiced forthem. With one of them we were able tohave further discussions about the gospel.Elderly people, who are having problemswith their sight, are especially glad for thelarge print. The Gypsy children, for whomwe are organizing Bible studies, recited allthe Bible verses from the calendars. Themembers of our church offered gladly theirhelp in the distribution of the calendars.We hope and pray that God might usethe Bible verses from the calendars for Hisglory and for the good of His people.32

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly Recordcalendar very gladly, and in the waitingroom many people could be blessed bythe words of God, during a whole year.While sick, the people usually are moreopen to spiritual discussions. We hopeGod will bless His word. Sadly for manypeople who came later, we had to saythat we ran out of calendars. These werewords from the letters of our co-workers,but I am sure that the pastors are morethankful for these materials than wordscan express. If it is possible for you tocontinue this ministry, we would welcomethe calendars and Bibles in the future too!We are sure that our Almighty God willreward you with heavenly treasures foryour generosity!From Lugansk Region, UkraineThere were plenty of people at our specialjubilee service (tenth anniversary of ourchurch). There were more people waitingto receive a TBS Bible than we actuallyhad. Married couples received one Bibleper couple, the rest one Bible per person.Thus we gave away all the thirty Bibles thatwere available. All people were pleasedand thank the society for your labours. Wethank you also. Please continue, persevereand we’ll keep praying for you.From a college in LondonI am writing to thank you foryour kindness in providing uswith copies of the Hebrew/Greek OriginalLanguages Bible. I have been teaching firstyear Hebrew students this year and theyvery much appreciated your kindness.We hope to encourage other students tobegin Hebrew studies at the start of thenext academic year and if it is still possibleto provide some original languagesBibles for them that would be very muchappreciated. Thank you very much foryour service to us and our students. Yourpartnership with us is a wonderfully kindprovision and we pray God will bless youas you have blessed us.From Stowmarket, Suffolk, EnglandThis is just a line to thank you ever so muchfor publishing the camouflaged Biblesfor service personnel. At the airfield, Iwas recently with pilots from Search andRescue. I gave to one of them in their littlerest room one of my books of poems. Apilot said to me, ‘You’ve written somepoems as prayers, will you say a prayerfor us right now?’ This was a wonderfulopportunity and I was able to presentto them two camouflaged Bibles whichwere warmly received. Please will youpray for me as I seek further opportunities,particularly as Prince Harry will be comingat some point to the airfield. May God useyou mightily.From Renfrewshire, ScotlandWe are so grateful to receive theseBibles. The club leaders have beenso excited as their kids are desperate forthem. It’s so good to have the completeBible to give to them. It’s so good to havesome who desire God’s Word in our society.Thank you so much from all who willreceive a Bible.AfricaFrom Kilgoris, KenyaReceive my Christian greetingsupon the arrival of this letter. First, Ithank you very much for the grant you sentme. The grant arrived, but only four of thesix parcels arrived, doubtless because ofproblems with our postal service. However,as you can see from the photo, distributionwent ahead—in this instance the littleones received colouring books, which theywill undoubtedly enjoy.34

Issue Number: 599 – April to June 2012Scripture colouring books in KenyaFrom Knysna, South AfricaThank you once again for theGolden Thoughts Calendars. I havea hospital ministry and each week Ivisit the General Hospital and hand outbootees and hats for the newborn babies,and tracts for their mums. I talk to themabout the Lord, read Scriptures from theBible if they wish, and then pray for them.I then go to the main wards and do thesame thing. Each year when I hand thecalendars out, the patients accept themgratefully, as I suppose they would battleto buy a calendar themselves as most ofthem are quite poor. To have those versesprinted and to see them every day must bea comfort and help to the people.From Bogoso, GhanaGreetings in the mighty nameof our Lord Jesus Christ. I reallythank the Lord who has given youtime to supply me Golden ThoughtsCalendars. I can’t thank you enoughfor your calendar. It is an excellentdevotional resource for me, and help toothers find deliverance from the powerof Satan, because of the many versesquoted and reference cited each day.Golden Thoughts always keep everyonefocused each day and month on God’songoing faithfulness to his children. YourGolden Thoughts Calendar has greatlyenriched me spiritually and enabled meto go a mile as far as Biblical teaching areconcerned, more so it has been a greathelp to me since I have been using themas my reference teaching material duringmy Bible studies fellowship. It is a source ofinspiration, encouragement, restoration,hope and comfort each day and month.Golden Thoughts led me down gentlepathways where I imagine myself walkingand talking with God on any given day; it’sa meaningful addition to my home andthose of others as well.From Afagnan, TogoThe Pensées Précieuses calendarshave arrived. We received themin two lots: three parcels first then oneafter, and all four contained one thousandcalendars in total. As usual, the distributionwas carried out by pastors and youngevangelists in the region. It was completedbefore 1st January. Previous recipientsasked for it again, and those who receivedit for the first time responded positively.Some, those who are not educated, weresurprised to see some differences betweenthe words in their Bible version and theverses on the calendar. By the grace ofGod we were able to explain things tothem. May the Lord be with all those whowork for the propagation of the Gospelthroughout the world.Calendar distribution in Ghana35

Trinitarian Bible Society – Quarterly RecordAmericasFrom Nuevitas Camaquey,CubaPerhaps you are surprised to geta letter from Cuba. I have written to youbecause the calendar which arrived atthis address had verses on it which werea blessing to my soul. I am a seventyyear-oldChristian lady and want to praiseyou for the beautiful work you do in theservice of the Lord. I want you to know thatI am praying for you special people, whoare doing such a special work. If you canreply to me, I will be anxiously awaiting aresponse from anyone at this bible society.You have been used for so much blessingin my life.AustraliaFrom Langford, Perth,Western AustraliaGreetings, friends and brethren,in the mighty Name of our Saviour and ourRedeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. I am fromPerth, Western Australia, and I am a 25 yearold aboriginal man from the Noongar tribe.It is a joy and a blessed opportunity to beable to share with the saints in the businessof God the Father.By the grace of God, I am a chaplain atthe juvenile detention centres for criminaldetainees, from which I was once a detaineemyself from the age of 13 to 18 years of age,back in 2001 to 2006. I have been workingthere since October 2011, when the Lordfirst opened the doors for me to reach outto young people in this area of His vineyard,to work with both aboriginal and nonaboriginalpeople. It has been a blessing36thus far and the Lord has been doing awonderful work in the lives many sinfulpeople, from where a few have receivedChrist as their Lord and Saviour. Other thanchaplain work, I have been blessed by theLord to be able to preach the word hereand there every now and then at differentchurches, or different organisations anddenominations.I thank God for the Authorised Version ofthe Scriptures from where the truth willset us free. We as aboriginal people areblessed to have wonderful support fromthe Trinitarian Bible Society from where mybrothers in Christ Rev. Malcolm Stuart, Rev.Pastor Christopher Tuck, Brother Alan Brownand others have been supporting andministering unto us and us with them as thebody of Christ, and members of His body.Do pray for the aboriginal people, as wellas for all nations, as we continue to serve asco-workers for Christ in the business of HisFather and our Father which is in heaven.Ephesians 6:10; “Finally, my brethren, bestrong in the Lord, and in the power of hismight.”AsiaFrom Rizal, PhilippinesWe thank the Lord so much forgiving us the Bibles that we needand to be used in our church here. Wethank you and your ministry with prayerthat the Lord will continue to support youuntil He comes. We received these Biblesin Wednesday morning, and our membersrejoice in our prayer meeting at night. Thiscoming Sunday we can give these Bibles toevery young person in the church. I believewe can use these Bibles for the salvation ofmany souls in our place. Thank you for yourlove to us.

Trinitarian Bible SocietyInternational HeadquartersTyndale House,Dorset Road,London,SW19 3NN,EnglandTelephone: (020) 8543 7857Facsimile: (020) 8543 6370email: contact@tbsbibles.orgwebsite: www.tbsbibles.orgOffice Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pmEnglish Charity Number: 233082Scottish Charity Number: SC038379V.A.T. Registration Number: GB 215 9219 67Auditors:Jacob Cavenagh & Skeet5 Robin Hood Lane,Sutton,Surrey,SM1 2SWSolicitors:Bates, Wells & Braithwaite2-6 Cannon Street,London,EC4M 6YABankers:Arbuthnot Latham & Co. Ltd.Arbuthnot House,20 Ropemaker Street,London, EC2Y 9ARSterling Account No.: 71529601 Sort Code: 30-13-93Swift ID Code: ARBUGB2LEuro Account No.: 31529601IBAN Euro Account No.: GB19 ARBU 3003 0831 5296 01International BranchesAustralian BranchNational Secretary: Mr. A. BrownTrinitarian Bible Society (Australia),P.O.Box 1381GRAFTON NSW 2460, AustraliaTel.: 02 6642 8880 Fax: 02 6642 8881email: TBS@trinitarianbiblesociety.org.auBrazilian BranchPresident: The Rev. Dr. T. L. GilmerGeneral Secretary: Mr. H. GilmerSociedade Bíblica Trinitariana do Brasil,Rua Julio de Castilhos, 108/120Belenzinho03059-000 São Paulo, SP, BrazilTel.: (11) 2693-5663 Fax: (11) 2695-3635email: sbtb@biblias.com.brCanadian BranchGeneral Secretary: Mr. A. Stoutjesdyk, B.Ed., M.Ed.Office Manager: Mr. J. van HuigenbosTrinitarian Bible Society (Canada)9128 Young Road,Chilliwack, B.C., V2P 4R4, CanadaTel.: (604) 793-2232 Fax: (604) 793-2262email: stoutjesdyk-tbs@caylix.comNew Zealand BranchSecretary: Mr. U. HaringaTrinitarian Bible Society (New Zealand),17 Heatherlea Street,P.O. Box 740, Gisborne, New ZealandTel. & Fax: 06-863-3700email: sales@tbsnz.org.nzU.S.A. BranchGeneral Secretary: Mr. W. Greendyk, B.A.Trinitarian Bible Society (U.S.A.)927 Alpine Commerce Park,Suite 100, Grand Rapids,Michigan 49544, U.S.A.Tel.: (616) 735-3695 Fax: (616) 785-7237email: tbsusa@sbcglobal.net

To publish and distribute the HolyScriptures throughout the world in manylanguages.To promote Bible translations which areaccurate and trustworthy, conforming tothe Hebrew Masoretic Text of the OldTestament, and the Greek Textus Receptusof the New Testament, upon which textsthe English Authorised Version is based.To be instrumental in bringing light andlife, through the Gospel of Christ, to thosewho are lost in sin and in the darkness offalse religion and unbelief.To uphold the doctrines of reformedChristianity, bearing witness to the equaland eternal deity of God the Father, Godthe Son and God the Holy Spirit, One Godin three Persons.To uphold the Bible as the inspired,inerrant Word of God.For the Glory of God and the Increaseof His Kingdom through the circulationof Protestant or uncorrupted versionsof the Word of God.For introductory literature andcatalogue please write to the Societyat the address givenISSN 0049-47129 770049 471000Tyndale House, Dorset Road,London, SW19 3NN, Englandemail: contact@tbsbibles.orgwww.tbsbibles.org