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A Regular Family Makes an Eternal Difference With Chichewa Good and Evil

June 15, 2010

We are the Felmley family from the Pacific Northwest. During a recent conversation with Debi, I shared about our involvement with the Good and Evil project, translating it into the Chichewa language of Malawi, Africa. She asked me to share it with you.

My husband Kyle and I used to travel to Malawi together doing mission work, but since we started a family, he has traveled with our friend Dave. On one particular visit in October 2006, six months before the first Good and Evil printing, my husband and Dave found themselves staying in an army barracks; you find yourself in a lot of odd places when working in the Third World. A story developed in the barracks that one of the soldiers was getting paid by the azungus (white guys) in return for a place to stay. So, in the wee hours one morning, without warning, they got the boot.

After a few hours of searching around town, a Christian national named Biswick opened up his home to these strangers. Kyle and Dave enjoyed their first running water of the trip there. Biswick mentioned that he was working with the International Bible Society as a translator. Kyle and Dave thanked him for his hospitality and began their journey back to the United States, little suspecting that this meeting had a purpose beyond rest and security, a divine purpose that would culminate in the months ahead.

As June 2007 rolled around, our family was enjoying our first copy of Good and Evil. At about the same time we read in the NGJ magazine of the vision to translate Good and Evil into 100 languages in the first year. Praise God that he pays attention to detail in His orchestration of our comings and goings.

Dave takes meticulous notes of each trip; he had Biswick’s contact information, and we got hold of him to see if he’d be willing to translate the book into Chichewa. He enthusiastically agreed. With funds from donors we were able to send Biswick a laptop and the work commenced. We agreed to pay Biswick a set amount per page; Biswick requested that we not send any money until he had finished the complete first draft. He wanted to be free from the temptations of wealth. He worked diligently alongside his family and career, and in the end he used the money to build his aged parents their first house that could withstand the Malawi rainy season.

The NGJ staff helped us tirelessly along the way. After all, we weren’t translators, printers, or even comic buffs (until Good and Evil came out). And now, after almost three years of translating and revising, we are ready to print 5,000 copies.

The inconvenience of getting kicked out of the barracks was a divine appointment. We have seen all things working together for good because of our love for God. Wow!

We are excited about this project and hope that this testimony will encourage you to see where you can get involved in the Good and Evil vision, whether it be translating, coordinating, donating or just being “middlemen” like us.

Finally, if you personally work in Malawi, or know of a ministry or missionary there who would be interested in distributing Good and Evil in Chichewa, please contact us at [email protected]. We may never know until the other side of glory just how much the Lord uses this book to bring lost souls to him, nevertheless how exciting it is in this life to see the Gospel message go out!

 

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