“But to him that is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you with exultation blameless before his glory, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen.” Jude 24,25
With these words from Jude, Robert and Nicole Westerveld ended their time with the Yagwoia believers in July. These words speak of God’s faithfulness in the lives of us, His children. Robert and Nicole had not seen the believers in the tribe for almost two years. It was good that they were able to see how the Lord had worked in their lives and how they had grown in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
When Robert and Nicole flew into the tribe they had nice weather and the weather stayed nice during the whole time they were there. They had 10 days in Andakombi where they had an encouraging time with the believers. Robert taught Jude during the meetings with them. Almost all Iwalaqamalje believers were in Andakombi during their time there because they meet once a month from different villages in one village to encourage each other and when they were there it was Andakombi’s turn to host all the believers. They also enjoyed seeing several young people in the church actively serving the Lord. With his helpers, Robert was able to check all the last chapters of Exodus and the first chapters of Joshua.
After their time in Andakombi they spent a week on the other side of the tribe, dividing their time between the two dialects. Robert along with two helpers finished checking the second Bible lesson book for the Gwase people. After that, he was able to check all of Matthew with another two men for the Iqwaye New Testament. Robert and Nicole ended their time there with a visit to another village where Robert did some teaching. They were glad to see how well the teaching was received and how well some were reading their own language. They left audio Bibles and Bible lesson books at the different locations in the tribe.
Their return journey went well. Now that they are back in the Netherlands, Robert is working on the last part of the back to English translation of Exodus so they can send it all to the translation consultant. When that is done, he will continue working on the translation of Joshua for the Iwalaqamalje people and will adapt the translation of Mark for the Iqwaye people.