Five years ago, a translation of the New Testament into Keliko – a South Sudanese language – was ceremoniously and joyfully carried into a Ugandan refugee camp church.
Today, new missionaries are preparing to fly to Uganda later in the year to join the Bible translation team. Philip and Heidi Knight will be working with the Keliko people – an ethnic group who have never had the Bible in their own language.
The Keliko team finished the New Testament translation despite civil war interrupting their efforts – eventually having to flee for their lives. It was finally completed from a refugee camp in Uganda, the translators able to work in the local town (Koboko in North West Uganda) where internet and other facilities are available. The team remain refugees and are now working on translating the Old Testament.
Philip and Heidi plan to leave England to join the team in Uganda this autumn.
Until his retirement in March, Philip pastored Dunmow Baptist Church for 28 years. His late aunt Olive Knight was a missionary to the Tamil people in South India for 38 years until 1987.
In recent years, Heidi has suffered with chronic migraines so severe she had to withdraw both from her church work and the school where she taught. All she could do was ‘sit in a dimly lit room’ and read. As she read the Bible she grew to love it more and more.
When discussions were had about what to do once Phil retired – Heidi said she wanted to translate the Bible for people who did not have it in their mother tongue. She is due to complete her Masters in preparation for Bible translation this July.
Heidi will be preparing texts for the Keliko translators, using the original Old Testament Hebrew, as translator adviser; while Phil’s role will include helping the translators with IT, and Scripture engagement with the Keliko church to ensure the Bible is used.
Phil said: ‘Much prayer has gone into all of this and it’s a real joy and somewhat of a comfort when we see God’s hand in events when it doesn’t always make a lot of sense at the time. But looking back we can see it.’
The Keliko people are, he added, ‘a cheerful bunch … happy and welcoming and very humble’. But life is tough – they recently heard that some of the Keliko translators’ families living in the refugee camp have no food for three days at a time.
According to the Joshua Project, there are 60,000 Keliko (also known as Kaliko) across Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Approximately 5% are evangelical Christian. Three quarters of Keliko practice ethnic religions and the remainder are ‘Christian’.
Phil and Heidi are being sent to the mission field by Dunmow Baptist Church in conjunction with Grace Baptist Mission and Wycliffe Bible Translators. You can hear more from them at the annual GBM mission day on Saturday 28 October. To receive their newsletter, contact philip.knight@wycliffe.org.uk
