KISWAHILI BIBLE TRANSLATION DEDICATED IN KENYA

Kenya― Millions of people will be able to understand God's Word thanks to the work of Biblica, formerly International Bible Society/Send the Light. Friday September 4, Biblica dedicated a new translation of God's Word in Kenya.
The group's Vice President Benedict Omollo says, "We launched the Kiswahili Bible. The Kiswahili Bible is not just relevant to the Kenyan market. This is a language that is spoken in eastern and central Africa. We're talking about eight nations that use Kiswahili as a language. So right there we have a target of about 60 million speakers."
While Kiswahili speakers had a Bible, Omollo says, "It's pretty old. It was translated in kind of the context of the King James Version, so it's very, very, difficult Kiswahili."
According to Omollo, "The advantage of the Bible that we dedicated Friday is that it is NIV-like. It is contemporary Kiswahili. It is very, very simple to read and to understand."
Omollo believes it will affect the average Kiswahili speaker. "This is one of the Bibles that you can give to your neighbor; you can give to the people especially in the rural community. It is the language the simplest people can read and understand."
This translation will help with evangelism and discipleship all across the region both rural and urban.
Omollo is asking people to pray. "Let's pray that God opens doors and uses this Bible. Pray that for every person who gets to read this Bible, the Word of God will come alive and would transform their lives."

MISSIONARIES HELP AIDS ORPHANS IN KENYA

United Methodist missionary Jerri Savuto wishes she could somehow transport one typical North Texas grocery store to Kenya.
"One grocery store from here would feed a million people in Kenya," Mrs. Savuto told a gathering of about 70 United Methodists Sept. 4. "Thousands and thousands of people in Kenya are hungry, and America is full of food.
"And Kenya could use it, because Kenya is dying," she said.
Prolonged drought has reduced the ability of Kenyan farmers – most of whom are women – to grow crops to feed their families, said Mrs. Savuto, who serves as the quality improvement officer for Maua Methodist Hospital. The North Texas Annual Conference, the regional United Methodist unit, sponsors Mrs. Savuto and her husband, Bill. The Methodist Church of Kenya and The United Methodist Church support the hospital jointly.
The Savutos explained that the town of Maua sits at a mile above sea level, almost in the exact center of Kenya, an East African country about the size of Texas. One million people live within a 30-mile radius of Maua. Most of them live on one-acre farms that grow barely enough food to feed them in good times, and the drought has severely reduced their food output.
The lack of food has exacerbated Kenya's public health problems, where thousands of people die daily of malaria, HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, malnutrition, typhoid, and cholera, Mrs. Savuto said. Christian hospitals are providing 30 to 40 percent of the health care in Kenya, where corruption runs rampant through public medical facilities, said her husband.
Overall, the continent of Africa suffered 1.8 million deaths from malaria alone last year, Mr. Savuto said during a luncheon program at the North Texas Ministry Center in Plano.

In addition to these public health issues, Maua Methodist Hospital has begun a program of care for AIDS orphans, he added.
"In Africa, 30,000 people die every day from AIDS," he said while showing a series of photos about the hospital programs. "AIDS orphans are often sent to live with their grandmothers, but the grandmothers don't have enough food to feed them. Kenya law prohibits women from owning land, so when the grandmothers are too old to work, they have no way to feed their grandchildren."
The "Giving Hope" AIDS orphans program at Maua Methodist Hospital now has 1,750 families enrolled. Each month the families are given sacks of beans and cornmeal along with other staples. In addition, the program pays for the children's school uniforms so they can gain the primary-school education that will help lift them out of poverty, Mr. Savuto said. (At left, Mr. Savuto plays with a child during a picnic for AIDS orphans).
As the children become teen-agers, they often assume responsibility for their younger, orphaned siblings, the missionary added. Because of this, Maua Methodist Hospital also has begun a program for orphaned teen-agers, to give them spiritual training in personal responsibility and ethics, along with business skills and a small start-up grant so they can begin their own businesses.
Some become tailors, truck farmers or small merchants, but the most successful student of the teens' program is a young man named Dickens, said Mr. Savuto.
"All along the roads in Kenya you see small piles of stones known as 'cocoto'," Mr. Savuto explained. "These stones are used to make concrete for buildings."
After completing his training, Dickens decided he wanted to break up rocks to make cocoto, the missionary continued. Although others didn't see much future in breaking rocks, Dickens began to sell his cocoto to local builders and contractors. Then he realized he could make more money if he hired an employee to help him. Soon, Dickens had a thriving business employing several local workers who make the cocoto that Dickens sells to builders and contractors in the Maua region.
"Dickens has become a very successful businessman by breaking up rocks," Mr. Savuto said, laughing along with his audience.
Mr. Savuto started out as the hospital's computer systems administrator, a job that became unnecessary as the Kenyan staff learned computer skills and networked the hospital's 70 donated computers. Today he serves as the liaison for volunteer mission teams and supervises hospital construction projects. He and his wife have worked at Maua Methodist Hospital for 10 years, assigned there by the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, the denomination's missions agency based in New York City.
The Methodist Hospital at which the Savutos work has 280 beds, with a staff of 350 people, on a 19-acre compound. Each day at the hospital begins with worship services in every ward to give the patients spiritual encouragement. The Kenya National Hospital Insurance Fund recently honored the hospital as the country's number-one facility for patient care and cleanliness – an achievement that came primarily because of Mrs. Savuto and her co-workers.
Despite being officially supported by the North Texas Annual Conference, Mr. and Mrs. Savuto have welcomed only one volunteer mission team from this area. A team from Grace Avenue United Methodist Church in Frisco went to Maua in June this year and helped construct housing for the hospital staff.
United Methodists from North Texas who go to Maua also would help build staff apartments and perform building maintenance such as painting for the hospital, which must direct all its funds to staff salaries and medical supplies and equipment.
"On-site housing for hospital staff is crucial in Kenya," Mr. Savuto said. "Housing is part of their pay."
North Texas United Methodists unable to travel to Kenya can help Maua Methodist Hospital through The Advance mission giving program, the missionaries said. One hundred percent of every contribution to The Advance goes to the chosen mission project, because the Global Ministries board pays for the program's administration.
"We've seen the face of suffering in Maua, but among the faces of suffering there's always hope," Mrs. Savuto said. "We need your help to help the children who have no one else to help them."

CHRISTIAN COUPLES STAYING FAITHFUL ONLINE

Lance Maggiacomo was out of work, bored and lonely when he started hiding his online relationships from his wife.
There was no affair, only chatting through e-mail, yet it felt like cheating just the same.
A few years later, a reformed Maggiacomo has an in-house check on his impulses. He and his wife Lori, like other Christian couples around the country, share one e-mail account as a safeguard against the ever-expanding temptations of the Internet.
"There's not a Gestapo, KGB quality to it, like I have to check in with mother before I do anything," said Lance Maggiacomo, a 40-year-old surgical nurse from Beverly, Mass. "It's what we believe as Christians: We are our brothers' keepers. It's about biblical accountability."
The e-mail addresses — "tim_shawna" and "christyandbrian" — broadcast the couples' commitment to all correspondents. If one spouse has a Twitter or Facebook account, the other is usually given the password. Often, spouses have separate work accounts where bad behavior could go undetected. However, the goal isn't policing each other every minute, they say. Instead, they are doing whatever is possible to avoid keeping secrets.
"It's not a matter of distrust," said Ronda Hodge, 53, of Amesbury, Mass., an ice-cream maker who shares an e-mail address with her husband Tom, 60, a landscaper. "We really don't have anything to hide from one another. We were friends first before we even dated so we've got that level of openness there."
It's impossible to know how widespread the practice has become.
Couples with a joint account said they never heard preaching about it and didn't read it in an advice book. Some said they initially created their account for bills and other household business then later realized the personal benefits. A 2003 article published by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family urged husbands and wives to share one e-mail address, but it was one of many suggestions on preventing infidelity.
Still, the phenomenon has become common enough to merit a post on "Stuff Christians Like," a popular blog in which creator Jonathan Acuff, an evangelical and son of a pastor, good-naturedly mocks Christian culture and himself.
Acuff shares one account with his wife of eight years, Jenny, and estimates that one-third of their married friends also use one e-mail address. He joked on the blog that he and his wife "cleaved our separate e-mail addresses and lit a unity candle on Yahoo! that burns brightly throughout the virtual landscape."
"We offset the whole thing by not dressing alike," he wrote.
In a recent phone interview from his home in Alpharetta, Ga., Acuff said he and Jenny started their account while planning their wedding, then noticed that it helped their communication, even in small ways, such as keeping track of each others' schedules.
He said he is grateful that his marital status is clear on his e-mail because he is in touch with so many strangers through his blog.
"It's so easy to make dumb mistakes online. We don't have this precedent for how these online friendships work," said Acuff, 33, whose posts will be released as a book by Zondervan next year. "For me, it's just a safety measure. I don't want to be just floating out there."
James Furrow, a professor of marital and family therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary, an evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., said sharing an account can be helpful if the goal is promoting openness. But he said the practice can hurt a relationship if it's meant "as an act of deterrence."
"We can take steps to manage our behavior, but then the problem with that is it begins to become the emphasis rather than the trust of giving the other the benefit of the doubt," Furrow said. "What you end up with is the doubt."
Tim and Shawna Rollins of North Richland Hills, Texas, said they consider their shared account — "tim_shawna" — a sign of trust, not suspicion. Both were divorced and their first spouses had been unfaithful. The pair had been friends in high school, then began dating as adults, and entered their marriage pledging to share everything, no matter how uncomfortable.
"I'm just a real open book with him and likewise he is with me," said Shawna, 42, an administrator for a prison literacy ministry. "The trust is there. If he really wanted to do something he'd just do it. For us, it's just such a non-issue."
None of the couples could recall receiving an e-mail that was upsetting or started a fight. They said e-mail addresses with a husband's and wife's name can discourage old flames from trying to renew a connection. The couples said the only trouble they had was developing a system so that e-mails reached the right person or weren't accidentally deleted.
The Rev. Monica Mowdy, 48, and her husband Joe can't share one account because she is a pastor at the Friendship United Methodist Church in Cookeville, Tenn., and needs privacy for working with congregants. However, they know each other's passwords for e-mail and Facebook.
Mowdy, who has counseled many couples, said if the goal of sharing an e-mail is to check up on someone it's "inherently unhealthy." She and her husband decided to share their online lives because they believe too much privacy can build barriers.
This is the second marriage for both, and they wanted to share as much as possible so they could avoid bringing any distrust from their first marriages into their relationship.
"You get to the point where openness and daylight in a union becomes more critical than having your corner of privacy," Monica Mowdy said. "Whenever you have a place where you can keep secrets, the tendency is to keep secrets."

' MASSIVE ' ANCIENT WALL UNCOVERED IN JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM -- An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a 3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of its kind found in the region, experts say.
Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut stones is a marvel to archaeologists.
"To build straight walls up 8 meters ... I don't know how to do it today without mechanical equipment," said the excavation's director, Ronny Reich. "I don't think that any engineer today without electrical power [could] do it."
Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority added, "You see all the big boulders -- all the boulders are 4 to 5 tons."
The discovered section is 24 meters (79 feet) long. "However, it is thought the fortification is much longer because it continues west beyond the part that was exposed," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a news release.
It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem on a slope of the Silwan Valley.
The wall is believed to have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan people who the Bible says inhabited Jerusalem and other parts of the Middle East before the advent of monotheism.
"This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David," Reich and Shukron said in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first time "that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem."
It appears to be part of a "protected, well-fortified passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort of fortress that stood at the top of the hill," according to the joint statement.
The spring "is located in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area. The construction of a protected passage, even though it involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from periods that are later than the remains described here."
Such walls were used primarily to defend against marauding desert nomads looking to rob the city, said Reich, a professor at the University of Haifa.
"We are dealing with a gigantic fortification, from the standpoint of the structure's dimensions, the thickness of its walls and the size of the stones that were incorporated in its construction," the joint statement said.
Water from the spring is used by modern inhabitants of Jerusalem.
"The new discovery shows that the picture regarding Jerusalem's eastern defenses and the ancient water system in the Middle Bronze Age 2 is still far from clear," Reich said. "Despite the fact that so many have excavated on this hill, there is a very good chance that extremely large and well-preserved architectural elements are still hidden in it and waiting to be uncovered."

GENDER-NEUTRAL BIBLE TO BE PUSHED OUT: A NEW NIV , DUE IN 2011, WILL REPLACE ONE THAT HAD RANKLED SOME EVANGELICALS

Chicago - When the new New International Version of the Bible is unveiled in 2011, don't look for androgynous vocabulary that had rankled some evangelicals. In fact, as soon as the latest version is published, the gender-neutral Today's New International Version will vanish.
"If we want to maintain the NIV as a Bible that English speakers around the world can understand, we have to listen to and respect the vocabulary they are using today," said Keith Danby, president of Biblica.
New Testament scholar and author Bart Ehrman doubts the revision has as much to do with the evolution of the English language as the orthodox trends in evangelical thought.
"They are changing the gender-neutral language, no doubt, because their 'base' is conservative evangelical Christians who are offended by anything that appears to have a feminist agenda behind it, not because the language has changed," Ehrman said. "If it has changed, of course, it has changed toward greater gender neutrality -- except in religiously and politically conservative circles."

Original (NIV) and gender-neutral (TNIV) passages:
Psalm 8:4
NIV: What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
TNIV: What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

Matthew 7:4
NIV: How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
TNIV: How can you say, "Let me take the speck out of your eye," when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

1 Corinthians 15:21
NIV: For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
TNIV: For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a human being.

RETURN OF KENYA'S PIONEER TELEVANGELISTS ( DENIS WHITE )

There are two things mankind abhors — palling around with the devil and corruption. Yet, devil worshipping and being branded among the 10 most corrupt people in Kenya were the accusations levelled against Denis White, the former prelate at Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC), Valley Road.
"I was hurt deeply because people didn’t have the facts and they didn’t bother to seek my explanation. However, I gave it to God and chose to walk away from it," he says. "This was my lowest moment. It was a trying moment, too, for the family and the church, but through the grace of God we triumphed."
Pastor Denis White and wife, Esther.
This was in the 1990s, when White was at the apex of his ministry. Then, anything glitzy easily attracted a stabbing finger of association with devil.
NPC attracted the cream of the middle-class and ruling elite, who would appear for Sunday service with top of the range cars.
But that is in the past. White shrugged off the slander and gallantly soldiered on. Today, he is a contented man. The church he ministered for 14 years has blossomed to even greater heights — eight branches, interests in media, education, health and even hospitality.
"I’m impressed with NPC. I’m encouraged. I made some decisions that were implemented and it is good to see that the church is progressing," he told The Standard on Saturday at Valley Road church.
At NPC, White and his wife, Ester, are celebrities of sorts.
A week ago, they jetted into the country for NPC’s 50th anniversary.
During the golden jubilee celebrations at the church on Tuesday, he stole the show from Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who was the chief guest. People were elated to see their icon.
"He is our hero. He is our hope," said Mary Matheka, a member of NPC.

Local leadership
The attention and affection is understandable. White was the face of NPC. He gave the church a character such that former President Moi found its service irresistible. He steered the church from the backwaters of Christian ministry and placed it at par with the mainstream churches.
Importantly, he delivered the elixir – bestowed the church to a local leadership.
According to White, the decision to let an indigenous person run the church was the best he has ever made. His idea of establishing branches has also paid off. This is why NPC has managed to come this far, he argues.
"My high moments were passing the torch to Pastor (Bonifes) Adoyo and the dedication of the NPC South Karen," he says.
"When I came to Kenya as a pastor, I came feeling strongly that I should be the last expatriate on the pulpit. I felt it was high time Kenyans took over the stewardship of NPC. When the time came, I knew I had served the purpose," he says.

Televangelism
But many will remember White for pioneering radio evangelism and was easily the father of televangelism.
"I got into televangelism by default," he says. "Then the former President used to frequent my services and after that the same would be beamed on national television. That’s how it started," he explains.
"This exposure was good and bad. Good because I could reach the nation with the word; bad because society could think I was endorsing Moi," he explains.
"But I’m a strong believer of radio. It can reach the masses especially those who need the Good News most. The problem with TV is that it is not real, almost delusional. TV is instant. Life is not instant. On TV you condense time, that is not how life is," he observes.
According to White, there was an understanding that Moi attended the church purely for spiritual reasons and not because he would accrue political mileage from the association with the church.
"I’m not a politician, and my work was not to endorse politicians," White says.
"Moi told me ‘Denis, I’ve come for service, nothing else,’" he recalls.
He says being the face of NPC came accidentally.
"I even didn’t know that people strongly saw a manifestation of NPC through me. It is just the other day that people told me…I guess all this is because of the great love I have for the people and NPC. Worshipers knew that we are equal and that I didn’t come here to preside over them."
But white is also a disturbed man. While the church in Kenya is reporting numerical growth, he feels it lacks a corresponding spiritual growth.
"The growth seems to embrace numbers, not quality. If you got quantity without quality you are in trouble. This is why we are bedevilled by problems. Some of the issues could be solved if we were true Christians," he says.
The Kenyan church, he insists, needs to be holistic to address the diverse needs of the nation. He underscores the primacy of religion in societal development and calls upon the clergy to play a critical role in ensuring that "ours is a society on the straight and narrow."
After handing over to Bishop Adoyo, White travelled to Malawi briefly but he was quickly recalled to Canada because "the church there was in a crisis and our input was required."
Today, he ministers at Toronto Islington Evangelical Centre.