Annual Report | 2015

Light in the Kamis Darkness

For the last five years, SIL* has been supporting a project translating the New Testament into Kamis, one of many tribal languages in South America’s Amazon jungle. The translation team considers it their mission to bring the light of God’s Word into the darkness of Kamis culture. The Kamis people know darkness — the visible kind that comes from a lack of electricity, and the spiritual kind that comes from a perpetual fear of mercenary spirits called the Jai, who control their fate.

The Kamis people look to the Jaibana, sorcerers who influence the Jai, to bring good luck or administer retribution to their lives. The Holy Spirit is new to them, so they question his power. Is he stronger than the Jai? These questions are being answered every day. Recently, a Kamis woman was bitten by a deadly snake. A believer in Christ, she invited fellow Christians to pray for her. As they prayed throughout the night, the news of her condition and her unconventional treatment spread. “If she dies,” village leaders said, “it will be because the Jai are more powerful than the Holy Spirit.” By morning, she was still alive. She eventually fully recovered, and today her story testifies to the power of the Holy Spirit in her village.

The local Kamis translation team has recently translated the book of Philemon, which challenges the pervasive Kamis culture of retribution. In Kamis communities, petty criminals are punished harshly, often by spending several days in the stocks, vulnerable to weather, pests and ridicule; to murder a thief or debtor is not considered unjust. In this context, local translators were shocked to read how the Apostle Paul recommended a thief so highly — that he would even take on the thief’s debt as his own. Paul’s behavior demonstrated a kind of forgiveness rarely found in Kamis culture.

One of the translators recently shared how this new biblical concept of forgiveness has changed his life.

“A neighbor stole a pig from me, and I was ready to kill him; I even went looking for him on the mountain with my machete. But on the way, a voice told me, ‘Don’t do it.’ I fell to my knees and wept. When I got up, I went to his house and forgave him. When he asked me why, I told him because that’s what Jesus would do. He asked to be introduced to Jesus, and he is now a follower of Jesus like me.”

The Kamis translation of the New Testament is still incomplete, but its light is already piercing the surrounding darkness. Members of the translation team are gaining a reputation as Bible experts; local pastors are increasingly coming to them to clarify the Word and rectify false teachings. As they come to know the Word of God for themselves, their light shines bright into the Kamsis’s darkness, and the power of that darkness is beginning to wane.

*One of Wycliffe’s primary partners

Mukasa John and Saliima’s Story

For centuries, the Bwisi people of Uganda had no access to Scripture. But that changed in 1992 when missionaries started translating the Bible into the Bwisi language. Today, Mukasa John and his wife Saliima tell the story of the freedom they found through Scripture.

“Before I began reading God’s Word, I was very, very badly off,” says Mukasa John. “I was a drunkard, and the Word of God was very far from me.

“Because of my behavior, I lost my teaching job and sold my land, which I am no longer able to get back. I had no friends, my clan members hated me, and I had no peace with my wife and children.

“Because of me, my children lost their chance of being educated and our family often went hungry. I used to sleep with other men’s wives and there was no peace in my home. Eventually my children left and went to live with relatives.

“Whenever I drank, I would fight with my wife and beat her almost to the point of death. I wanted to kill her. I would even shoot her with a slingshot. I was taken to jail for a week because of beating her so badly. My wife became very sad and sorrowful because of the suffering I brought her.

“Then the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark in my own Bwisi language touched my life so much I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.”

Saliima’s Response

“I see my husband being totally changed in a Christian way. He is no longer drinking, smoking and beating me like a drum.

“We are reading the book of Mark and other books together. We are walking together. He is even telling me how much money he has, which was difficult for him before. I am now the treasurer of our home in everything.

“I used to have to sleep in the bush, but now I am in my house, with my husband, with peace.

“I do regret the time my husband wasted doing things that did not bring profit in our home. We lost the chance of educating our children. But we are now trying to educate our grandchildren — teaching them the Word of God.”

Mukasa John’s Growth

“The verses that really touched me were where John the Baptist preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins. In addition, Jesus’ words that say it is what comes out of a man — from his heart — that defiles him. From the book of Hebrews, God commands us to honor the marriage bed and to not let it become defiled. Up to now those words still challenge me.

“Ever since I have had the Word of God in my own language, my level of understanding has increased. I was trying to memorize verses in other languages, but the verses left my memory. These days, when I memorize verses in Bwisi, though the exact words may go out from my head, I always remain with the meaning of the verse.”