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| ‘‘During rainy season they feed our elderly people. Some of them wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for them’ |
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One year, in the middle of our Bible translation work, the famine was especially bad. Because we had been living and working in the village for a number of years, and knew the locals, we began getting more and more requests for grain from the elderly widows. We managed to help a handful of them through the rainy season.
By the next year, we were better prepared. Our supporters helped us financially so we could buy grain when it was plentiful and cheap. We asked one of the local men to build us a granary – an art form in itself – and we filled it to the brim. Once a week, the elderly came to get their food.
It was humbling to see the happiness in their faces. They didn’t simply send someone to get the grain for them; they each came with a bowl, a bag or just a scarf. Even a blind lady came – guided by a little girl who walked ahead holding one end of the stick while the widow held the other. The girl would then carry the grain home on her head. A disabled man also came. He didn’t have a bag to put his grain in, so we gave him a sturdy rice bag with plastic handles. He told everyone he met on the way, every week, that he had not only been given grain, but a strong bag as well.
A couple of years later, our Bible translation project was being evaluated in order to renew our government permit. The delegation that visited our area gathered all the chiefs and representatives of the Mukulu villages. They wanted to know what difference we had made to the community. People from all sections of the community stood up and told what we’d done for them. ‘During rainy season they feed our elderly people. Some of them wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for them’.
Elly and David Sharp lived in Chad for almost 12 years. They continue to work on the language project while based at the Wycliffe National Centre, Kangaroo Ground. |
