For the past two years the American Lutheran Congregation has been supporting the work of a team of Christians working on the translation of the Old Testament into the Gonja language. This has the potential to not only impact the Damongo community but the entire Gonja region that spans Northern Ghana. Chief C. K. Adams (photo) of Buipe, a village a little over an hour’s drive from Damongo, has been our main contact for the translation team. The translation team has assistance from the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILBLBT). Financial support, however, has come predominantly from the translation teams own personal funding, contact with a group from Ireland, and the ALC.

Almost two thirds of the Old Testament has been translated into a draft form, ca. 12 percent of the drafted books has been checked, and recently the books of Genesis and Ruth have been printed for circulation. Lack of funding to hire translators has been the primary impairment in progress. in August of 2007 we were able to establish contact with Tom and Mary Holman, who are a Lutheran couple working at GILBLBT in Tamale, supported by Wycliff and living in the Northern region of Ghana for the past twenty five years. They are familiar with and supportive of the Gonja translation project. We would like to increase our support of this vital project, not only because it will help complete the translation of the Old Testament, but it will have an overall benefit for raising the literacy level of the people of Northern Ghana.