Jam Ma Cluster

New Testament

Country

Cameroon

Language(s)

Gamata, Kwanay, Parak

Speakers

20,000

Access to the Gospel grows steadily as translated Scripture in print and audio reaches three rural communities—even broadcast on local radio.

Thank you! This project has been fully funded for the year!

Funds to meet this year's goals

the Need

Situated in northern Cameroon, the Jam Ma Cluster project serves three unique but closely related language groups. The Gamata, Kwanay, and Parak people live in remote villages at the base of Cameroonian highlands. Using only hand tools, families struggle to grow crops from the limited arable land. During the brief wet season, they must plant, cultivate, and harvest enough food to sustain them for the rest of the year. In addition to their staple foods, many farmers grow cotton and sell it to a government cotton company. Although heavily influenced by Judeo-Christian and Muslim values, most Gamata, Kwanay, and Parak people follow a traditional African religion. Random attacks by religious extremists in this region and a belief in vengeful spirits lead to a pervasive sense of insecurity and fear. The oral-tradition language communities need the power of God’s Word in their mother tongue to comfort them, strengthen them, and give them hope. Local church leaders want to provide the people in these three language groups with life-giving Scripture they can understand and the opportunity to read and write their own language.

The Project

Jam Ma Cluster project team members, trained by staff from our national partner in Cameroon, have made a commitment to:

Develop an alphabet and produce a dictionary.
Translate the New Testament and make it available in print, audio, and digital formats.
Provide mother-tongue literacy materials.
Hold literacy classes in the community.
Promote engagement with and ownership of translated Scripture among Jam Ma churches and communities.
Produce mother-tongue Scripture-based materials like the "JESUS" film, songbooks, and verse posters.

Translation Progress

Drafted

100

Community-Checked

100

Quality-Checked

100

New! (2024-2025)

Preserving History

Growing up, Bernard was not proud of his Gamata language and culture. Surrounded by much larger and more respected communities, he had learned to blend in. However, taking a mother-tongue literacy class in his local church sparked an interest in the history of his people. He worked hard to learn to read and write the Gamata language and came out of the classes equipped to connect with village elders in their mother tongue. The ambitious 24-year-old began interviewing the seniors in his community. As he gathered their stories, he began to see how their lives wove together in a beautiful tapestry of language and culture. Bernard explains, “Thanks to the literacy course, I’ve been able to write in my language the history of my people and our culture, interviewing the elders. I want these texts to be read to everyone in the community so future generations will remember who we are.”

Cut to the Heart

Gabriel was often overcome with worry. Drinking quieted his anxiety for a while, but it always came back. There were so many unknowns. So much he wasn’t sure of. When the Jam Ma project team came to his village looking for people to help with community-checking the gospel of Luke, Gabriel was happy to help. As they started reading Luke 21:34, Gabriel could not believe what he was hearing: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, what you will eat and drink, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.” He could understand Jesus’ warning clearly, and it cut him right to the heart. Gabriel talked with the project team after the checking was finished, saying “Now, I will take my worries to Jesus.”

Order and Harmony

Living in the Parak community, Mr. Kamel grew up well-acquainted with conflict and crisis. He knew well the comfort Scripture can provide a person in the midst of struggle. The experience of translating 1 & 2 Corinthians into his heart language, however, inspired him to dig even deeper. He examined the text with new eyes: perhaps Scripture could impact his world on an even larger scale. Kamel read 1 Corinthians, Paul’s letter to early Christians who were endowed with spiritual gifts but living in disorder, and he was reminded of his own fellowship of believers in the Parak community. He was struck by the teaching on spiritual gifts, and how it “restores order and shows in this how any Christian community must function.” Kamel now prays for the Parak believers to obediently exercise their spiritual gifts to bring order and harmony to the wider community.

“I hope these types of studies continue because when we read and hear the Bible in our heart language, we understand the message and we are corrected and protected from false doctrines that can so easily take us away from God.”

A woman from the Parak community

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