Pastor Bennett Marona has had countless reasons to mourn. As a South Sudanese man working in ministry, he knows what it means to persevere through trials and suffering.

“I was almost killed, but God saved my life,” he said. “I think it was God’s plan, not just that I remain alive, but that I complete this huge work that he set in front of me. Our people have been longing to see the Word of God in our language. We went through a lot of different challenges.”

Bennett speaks Baka, a minority language used by about 26,000 people. He got started in Bible translation in 1992, the same year Wycliffe linguists Doug and Anne Sampson joined the Baka New Testament translation project. The Baka project had actually begun years earlier but the project stalled due to increasing instability caused by South Sudan’s civil unrest. Thousands of South Sudanese, including Bennett’s family and the Baka community, were forced to evacuate to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

One night about halfway to the DRC, while they were sleeping, they heard gunshots. The crowds leapt up and ran, but Bennett heard a voice speak directly to him, telling him to take a different route. Later he learned that hundreds of those who’d gone the opposite way had run directly into an ambush and been killed. 

God led Bennett through the rest of the journey this way. “Whatever direction I thought of going, we’d go there safely,” he said.

His family eventually settled into a refugee camp in the DRC where the Sampsons were living. At one point when civil unrest made it impossible for the Sampsons to remain in the refugee camp, Bennett and a fellow Baka rode bicycles for 200 miles to meet with them at a safer location in Uganda. Still, they kept the project moving forward.

Finally Bennett’s prayer for the Bakas was answered: After more than 30 years of perseverance, thousands of Baka speakers came together to dance, sing and experience the Word of God in their language at the Baka New Testament dedication.

“Now that the whole New Testament is out, thousands of Bakas are going to say, ‘Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!’” Bennett said. “I see every Baka community member as my biological child. I love them.”

His favorite part of the day was when the boxes of New Testaments were opened, and hundreds of his fellow Bakas rushed forward to get their copies. “At that time, I forgot all the challenges I went through.”

Even though Bennett has experienced mourning, today he and the Bakas experience God’s comfort through the Scriptures in their language. Praise God for His faithfulness to His people!