When Whitworth Professor of Theology Roger Mohrlang returned to Michika, Nigeria, last summer after a 34-year absence, he received a hero's welcome.
Mohrlang, who first traveled to Michika in 1968 to translate the New Testament into the language of the Kamwe people, returned to the booming market town to help work on a Kamwe translation of the Old Testament. During his four-week visit, he was interviewed on state television, spoke at several large church gatherings, and was honored during an outdoor reception attended by 2,000 people at the new Michika Civic Centre. He also opened the new Kamwe Christian Community Forum.
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Many of the children with Mohrlang are John Guli's grandchildren.
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"After 34 years away, I was deeply moved by the warm welcome of so many people and their expressions of appreciation," Mohrlang says. "One of the greatest joys was to see the extent to which the gospel has now permeated the area. Here is one Nigerian group on the borders of Islam that has responded in large numbers to the gospel of Jesus Christ."
From 1968-74, Mohrlang translated the New Testament while living in a mud hut in Michika with a man who had three wives. He worked at a small table, without amenities such as electric lights or access to a library. The first edition of the Kamwe New Testament, which was published in 1976, sold out. In 1997, 10,000 copies of a revised second edition were printed, and 25,000 copies of a new paperback version recently arrived in Nigeria. The New Testament also provided the text for the translation of the film Jesus into the Kamwe language.
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Mohrlang with Pastor Stephen Vandi |
The arrival of the Kamwe New Testament helped usher in an explosion of conversions to Christianity. In the 1950s, very few Christians lived in the area. Converted Kamwe lepers and a blind man were the first evangelists, and by the time Mohrlang arrived in the late 1960s, small churches dotted most of the larger villages. Now, an estimated 95 percent of the Kamwe people, a total of nearly 400,000, call themselves Christians. Churches have been established throughout the region, and 26 denominations now thrive in Michika.
"Many factors contributed to that phenomenal increase of Christians among the Kamwe, but Roger's New Testament translation, and the fact that it wasn't a Western import but the result of Roger pitching his tent among the people, surely has played a very significant role," says Whitworth Professor of Theology Jim Edwards, '67. "Roger's experience this past summer was thrilling, not simply because it is about Roger, but because it is about the marvelous outworking of God's grace among the Kamwe through Roger."
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1972: Morhlang with John Guli, the primary translator of the first edition of the Kamwe New Testament, who was later killed in a tragic car accident. |
While in Michika, Mohrlang worked with the Kamwe Bible Translation Committee, taught a course to 30 potential Bible translators and reviewers, and assessed the chief translators' work on Ruth, Esther, and parts of Exodus. His primary goal was to help lay the foundation for the translation of the Kamwe Old Testament, which is expected to take about 10 years to complete. The Kamwe people hope that Mohrlang will be able to return to Michika once a year to serve as a translation consultant until the entire Kamwe Bible is published.
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