Launching Lambya!
From Steve Lancaster, UK Director - June 2025
It was my privilege, back in mid-April, to attend the launch of the Lambyan full Bible in the far north of Malawi – and what an event it was! Despite the fact that the trip meant four days of road travel (much of it bumpy!), and the best part of two flying days covering 13,000 miles, it was well worth the effort! Although there is much more to tell, this is my account of a very African Bible launch - the culmination of many years of hard translating work done by a few dedicated Malawian translators, and supported by countless people around the world.
The event started with a procession through the dusty red streets of Chitipa, music blaring from the portable speakers stacked up on a slow-moving truck. T-shirts were adorned with TWFTW logos and a banner proudly proclaimed that it was time for the Lambya Bible to be dedicated. We arrived at the ‘venue’ which turned out to be an open area of land with a few old Unicef tents, pitched to shelter people from the sun; there certainly wasn’t room in the church for the two and half thousand people who gathered to witness the event. The organisers had even arranged for a couple of armed guards to be present to prevent the inevitable crowd surge! Having been shown to our seats we perused the printed programme which had 27 items on the schedule! And with every speaker having to begin by thanking the chief, the headmen, the chairman, the board, the organisers etc, it was no surprise that it turned into a five hour event!
The speeches and the dedication ceremony were punctuated by various choirs, cultural dancing, a gospel singer called Miracle…and a bunch of boys doing random acrobatics! As the ceremony drew to a close, the bandana-wearing Lambyan chief, who had been waiting patiently for five hours, stood to address the crowd. His first act of gratitude was to present the organising committee with a cow, which was led into the ‘arena’ to the sound of much applause; who doesn’t appreciate a live cow?! But as he came to the end of his speech the chief gave a very solemn warning to those who had received Bibles: “Do not sell them, because if you do, God will curse you”! Hmmm....?! We appreciated his fervour in encouraging people to keep hold of their Bibles and not to seek financial gain from them, but we’re not quite sure which version of the Bible he was quoting from here!
The main item on the agenda was of course the dedication of the Bible, which was accompanied by a choir and a Bible-carrying procession. It was great to see the translators of the Lambya Bible honoured and thanked for their labours, and it must have been incredibly satisfying for them to see the outcome of their work, especially so for one particular translator - John Sikwese (pictured below). John has been involved from the very start of the project. He started translating in Oct 2004 and the New Testament was completed 12 years later in 2016. This was followed 7 years later with the Old Testament translation in June 2023. Add to that a period of 22 months for typesetting, publication and printing, and you have a project that took 21 years in total! But here’s the thing: when John began his work he was 69 years of age, which means that as he witnessed the launch of the full Bible, he was 90 years old! What a man! We praise God for people like John who dedicated a large chunk of his life so that the Lambya people could read God’s Word in their heart language.
Psalm 119:48: “I reach out for your commands, which I love, that I may meditate on your decrees”. Following the dedication came the part that everyone was looking forward to – and the reason the armed guards had been brought in: the handing out of the new Bibles! We were invited to help out in the distribution of 1000 Bibles, which enabled me to get some ‘front-row’ views of people’s reactions; views that will live long in the memory. It was great to see people joyously receiving Bibles as if it was the greatest gift they’ve ever received, and also encouraging to see people ‘reaching out for God’s Word’, desperate to get their hands on a copy. Just look at the expression on the face of the man on the right of this photo (above) – talk about eager!! Whilst it was great to see such eagerness, the fact that we didn’t have enough Bibles to go round on the day meant that some went away very disappointed, whilst others went away jostled and bruised from trying to get hold of one! As people realised that there wouldn’t be enough to go round, the crowd became ever more eager, with a lot of pushing and shoving happening in some quarters, and it was at this point that the three armed guards gingerly stepped in to quell the developing crush, thankfully without using their arms!
All in all, it was an awesome event. It was also a bonus for us to visit some of the churches in the Chitipa area the following day to help distribute some of the remaining 5,000 Bibles. We pray on for the church amongst the Lambya people, and that these Bibles will be well used and applied, so that the ‘glory of God may be seen in transformed lives’ as people draw nearer and nearer to God. This is what TWFTW is all about! Thank you to all who prayed for this event.
The Challenge: As mentioned above I was struck by the eagerness of people to get their hands on God’s Word – and that of course led to me consider my eagerness to get my hands on God’s Word! For many of us, it is an ongoing challenge to regularly ‘reach out’ for God’s Word, despite the fact that we probably have many copies/versions on our bookshelves and by our bedsides. As I look at some of these photos, I ask myself these questions: do I delight to receive God’s Word? Is the “law from God’s mouth more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold” (Psalm 119:72)? Does it thrill my soul to read it or have I become bored with it? And even though I have plenty of Bibles in a language that I understand, do I find myself reaching out for it on a daily basis - or am I simply too busy to grab hold of it and read it? Maybe something to ponder?
Last year we produced a ‘Bible in a Year’ plan. If you feel this might be helpful in putting some structure into your Bible reading, please get in touch at admin-uk@twftw.org – we’ll be glad to post one out to you!
Out & About Diary Dates for June:
Thur 4thJune: Onboarding our new Finance Officer in Bedford
6-8th June: Bible teaching at Oak Hall Word Weekend in Otford
13-21 June: Annual Leave - Scotland
21-29 June: TWFTW Leadership Conference in Hermanus, South Africa
Sun 6 July: Preaching at Strete Chapel, Devon (am)
Praise & Prayer Points:
South Africa. The annual TWFTW leadership conference takes place in Hermanus towards the end of June. Please pray for our leaders as they meet with our major partner, the Seed Company, that God would bless the connections and outcomes of this gathering.
DR Congo. “We praise the Lord for ongoing protection and for empowering us with the strength to continue our work in Bible translation during this extremely trying time” (Jean Pierre, Team Leader). Pray for our Congolese translators as they continue their work in tough circumstances, and especially as they carry out the exegetical checking of Romans & 1 Cor.
Malawi. Give thanks to God for the launch of the Lambya Bible, and for the faithful translators who have worked on this project.
Asia R1. Please pray for one of our teams in a high risk country, where a number of our translators have been detained by the government. Though unrelated to their newly received New Testament the situation is concerning.
UK: Praise God that our first Vision event in the SW of England in mid-April went very well - more info next month.
UK: We’re praising God for our soon-to-be appointed Finance Officer! Again, more info next month!