The Talk Place

At Yaounde  

At Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, the Swiss representative, Daniel Oddon, gives us an update. He has been working with the local African team consisting of Alain, Joseph and Jean. They are gearing up to use new methods of sharing “the story of Jesus” in the local languages.   

For reaching out they are using slides and a projector, and distributing gospel cassettes. Taking battery operated cassette players into the villages is very effective. They are necessary to play GRN cassettes in areas where there is no electricity. The combination of gospel cassettes and hand wind cassette players is so effective that even the local cynics are won over.

Partners in the work of sharing “the story of Jesus in every language” are the radio stations in Douala, Yaounde, Ngaoundere, Bafoussam, Maroua, who are broadcasting gospel recordings made in local languages.

Another exciting thing that has happened is the increasing depth of collaboration with “Summer Institute of Linguistics” (SIL). Many of the translations of the scripts that the African team are using to make recordings with are being done by SIL expert linguists. These talented linguists are already translating local languages of the people groups being targeted. As a result the GRN team are achieving a great improvement in the quality of the content on their recordings.

At present, they have to import GRN Bible based picture books and flip charts that accompany our recording programmes. They are looking forward to the time when they will be able to publish the picture books and flip charts locally.

In the north of the country where recordist Justin lives they have set up a CD duplicating base to provide distribution materials, and are also looking forward to recording those languages needed in the province of North Cameroon. 

based on an article by Daniel Odon, from the Swiss “Echos d'Audio Gospel no2 – 2007”