Thanks to a mission grant by the LMWL Northern Illinois District, Lutheran churches, pastors and seminary students in Swahili speaking areas of East Africa now have a new text to help them better understand God’s Word.
God’s No and God’s Yes was translated into the Swahili language and published this past summer by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation (LHF), a Lutheran mission organization dedicated to providing Lutheran books in the languages of people around the world.
“We continued to be impressed by dedication and ongoing support shown by the women of the LWML in the Northern Illinois District,” said Rev. Robert Rahn, who founded LHF in 1992. “For generations, the Holy Spirit has worked powerfully through their mites to bring the Good News to areas of the world where the light of the Gospel was previously unknown.”
The Swahili edition of God’s No and God’s Yes is a text that will help pastors in countries like Kenya and Tanzania sharpen their sermon writing skills, as well as heighten their sensitivity to sharing Law and Gospel. However, the book is written at a basic level that lay people can also easily understand.
The book is a student transcript of a series of lectures delivered by C.F.W. Walther (the first president of the LCMS) to seminary students in 1884. Although it was written over 100 years ago, the advice found in its pages still shapes Lutheran pastors’ sermons today, giving readers more insight into interpreting the Bible and listening to sermons more critically.
The LWML Northern Illinois District’s generous grant of $10,000 provided 10,000 copies of the Swahili God’s No and God’s Yes. Remaining funds from the grant will be used to print another requested Swahili title at a later date.