Reading Contest at the Protestant Church

Recently at the church we had a “reading in Toussian” contest. There were 24 people who competed. We had 3 different groups. Men, women and young people.

Here are our judges; Joseph and Soungalo are 2 of our translators. Awa is the literacy supervisor. Two older lades in the church who can’t read acted as comprehension testers. Pastor Pierre, another of our translators helped our two senior judges.

The prizes awarded were two different kind of T-shirts. Here are some of the winners. We had a tie in the mens group for 2nd place.

The two older judges were also given T-shirts as a “thank you” for helping out. Don’t ask why mama Pan (right) is wearing two scarves like that, one is usually enough. She and I are fairly good friends despite my lack of Toussian and her lack of French.

Teacher Training 2002
	Yes it’s that time of year again. Leave the house every day around 8 am and come back for lunch. Then again around !:30 pm for an afternoon session. The office is about 2 mi. away and I take my trusty steed.

This year we have 9 teachers participating. Three of them have already taught and are reviewing. Three of them have been through the training but didn’t get to teach. Three of them are brand new. We were going to have diffierent sessions for each group but decided it was best to have them all together. They can all use the review. Classes will begin the first part of January and run through mid-March

Once again Awa has been my mainstay in leading the teacher training. She has been through some supervisor training herself which has really helped and given us both some good ideas how to improve our training. We are also adding a second level to our reading program. For those who have gone through the primer and can read the basic alphabet we will offer a second class with 40 lessons of just reading and writing and arithmetic. They need at this point just lots of practice in reading.

While the teacher training is going on the translators are still busy with first draft and revision of the Gospel of Luke. They have a consultant checking session the beginning of January.

Wherever there are computers there are problems. Wilhelm took time out to help Madeleine with a problem. Madeleine is our typist and also does what we call a back translation. After a chapter has been translated and revised Madeleine then translates it back into French. This is for the consultant to have an idea of how it was translated. It can not be word for word or it would not make sense in Toussian. Our English Bible was translated the same way. You do know that the Bible was not originally written in English don’t you?

We have a church in a neighboring village of Sanglagnon. They have gotten big enough where they could use their own church. We took a group picture to give to some people who are interested in providing funds to help build the church. Of course once they have a church they will then need a pastor. Pray for them as they go through this growth process.

Happy Thanksgiving from Wilhelm andTrudi Pleis and all the gang

Orygun and her babies (like a duck takes to water)		Princes Leah & Luke. Skywalker (Agatha in the back)		chickens eating the duck's food

Actually there are 8 baby chicks, but they like hiding under her wings. They are only 1 (one) day old yet.				Mietzi (Meetsy) goes roaming around all night, so during the day there is hardly a moment when he is not sleeping.

• July 2002, Toussian Translators
• March 2002 Literacy classes
• Jan 2002 Bissa New Testament dedication
• January 15, 2002
• Nov 2002  Language learning, Translation, Revision, Ladies day at church
• Oct 2001  Sunday school outing, Fonio harvest
• Aug 2001  Cobly Reunion
• May 31, 2001  Return to Burkina Faso
• May 5, 2001  Germany, Az, Oregon office work
• Jan 2001  Our time in Germany

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