| There are two men without whom the Kwong
translation could never happen. They are Joseph Demander and Francois
Kinamati. Together with Mark and Diane, they painstakingly render the
Sacred Text in Kwong for generations of Kwong to come. Let us introduce
them to you.
 Joseph
was involved with the Kwong translation project even before
Mark arrived in '91. He is a man like Nathanial "in whom there is no
guile" - utterly sincere, humble, and dedicated. He never lies, and is
scrupulously honest in all his dealings. Mark and Diane entrust him with their
home when they are absent from Chageen. Very
un-Chadian-like, he not only owns a watch, but is punctual in using it.
Unfortunately his schooling was interrupted by the Chadian civil war ('79-82)
and as a consequence he is a bit slow on the uptake of intellectual things like
translation. Nevertheless, he has over these 20 years spent with Mark learned to
render the Scriptures in a very natural, idiomatic Kwong style. His specialty is
thinking of very difficult ideas in Scripture and coming up with elegant Kwong
ways to translate them. His wife's name is Josephine and they have upwards of a
dozen children.
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 Francois
is considerably younger than Joseph, and much better educated. He
finished lycee, which is the French equivalent of High School, and then
went on to the evangelical seminary in the capital N'Djamena where he
finished the equivalent of a college degree. Unlike most graduates of
that seminary who pursue employment with a wealthy church in the big
city, Francois returned to his native village of Chageen to toil away in
relative obscurity on the translation of the Scriptures into Kwong. He
is adept at taking Joseph's somewhat scatter-brained but brilliant ideas
and making them into coherent smooth Kwong. He ministers as the pastor
of a little church in Koumpa, a mile or so from Chageen, and also works
as the assistant engineer at FM 95.2 where he gives timely spiritual
counsel over the airwaves. His wife's name is Sidoni and they have
5 children.
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