Kafa Bible translation September-2014

Project Goals

• To make the whole Bible available in the Kafa Language by 2017
• To stimulate an increase in scripture use among the Kafa people

About the Setting

Kafa is a mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia. For 500 years it was an independent kingdom and it is celebrated as the place where coffee originated. Numbers of believers have grown rapidly; now there are more than 500 evangelical churches. When the Church spreads as fast as this, one of the serious issues evangelists and leaders face is discipling all those people.

Kafa people believe in God, however they also believe there are many mediators through whom they approach God. Traditional believers see those as spirits; Orthodox believers see them as angels and saints.

The story to date

New Zealander Ruth Cremer worked on the Kafa New Testament translation for many years, and when that was finished, began work on the Old Testament at the request of Kafa leaders.  Three-quarters of that is now also complete.  Ruth died in 2008, and this year another key translator has died of cancer, leaving a young family.  The project leaders are committed to the whole of scripture being available to the 1.2 million people who speak Kafa, and a similar dialect, in order to stimulate increased study of scripture through Bible reading programmes provided in the mother-tongue of these people.

Project need

NZ $306,500 to finish the translation and print Bibles.  Donate here and quote Kafa Bible Translation #ET 092402

Prayer requests

• For the widow and children of Gezahegn, the translator who died of cancer earlier this year
• For Matewos Gebremariam as he manages the translation work while studying for his Master in Biblical Translation
• For completion of the checking process of the Old Testament translation
• That the whole Kafa Bible will soon be in the hands of the Kafa people