By Anna Keller
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
Ken and Kathy Satorius have dedicated the last three decades to serving the Budik population in Senegal, West Africa, through New Tribes Mission. They’ve lived among this people group and learned about their culture and their language, and knew a big need was a Bible translation in their native Budik language. The interesting challenge, though, was that this group of people didn’t have a written language.
“There are steps we needed to do before we could do translations,” Ken Satorius said. “We had to teach literacy because we needed people literate in order to read the translation we were going to be doing. It takes several years to take care of that part of the process.”
And before the literacy teaching could begin, of course, the couple had to spend time truly immersing themselves in the culture and the language to make sure their understanding of both was crystal clear.
Once some of this initial literacy groundwork had been laid, Ken and Kathy Satorius set to work translating, eventually completing all of the New Testament and some of the Old Testament into Budik. They’re currently working on translating 1 Samuel and hope to be done with that endeavor by early 2017.
Literacy barrier
To help overcome the literacy barrier, they also started providing evangelistic lessons on MP3 players so people could hear the Scriptures even when they weren’t at a church service or Bible study session.
“We have one man who builds homes, and he would plug in and listen to these lessons all day,” Ken Satorius said.
This people group’s native tradition is animism — the belief that the natural world is controlled by a collection of spirits, and that those spirits can be controlled by performing certain ceremonies or practices.
Kathy Satorius said, “The women used to run with their babies when they were sick because they felt they could run to another compound to get away from the spirits trying to kill their babies. That’s been a huge change for the women who are believers now. They know that running doesn’t take them away from any bad spirits, and God is greater than any spirits that could be ‘eating’ their children.”
Ken and Kathy Satorius have seen as many as 50 Budiks convert to Christianity during their years in West Africa, and since Bible translations have become available they say it’s so rewarding to witness groups of converts sitting together after working in a field, surrounding the Budik Bible teacher among them who has prepared a lesson to share.
Now the Satoriuses are based in the United States and make about two trips (about six to seven weeks per trip) each year back to Senegal. While there, they do translation checking, discipleship and help in any other ways they can. Though they have a home church in Florida, they spend much of their time in Pell City (where Kathy Satorius’ family is from and near where their grandchildren are), and attend Cropwell Baptist Church, Pell City.
At Cropwell Baptist, their Sunday School teacher is Wayne Sherbet, who has immense respect for the couple’s total obedience to Christ.
“When you think of all they deal with in Senegal, most would throw in the towel and give up,” Sherbet said. “The language barrier, living conditions … yet you never hear them complain. Being able to produce a New Testament in their native tongue, so now the people can share the love of Christ with others — how awesome that had to be to see it happen.”
Prayers from US
Because the group of Budik Christians is such a small one, the Satoriuses say it’s so encouraging to know that fellow Christians in the U.S. know about them and pray for them regularly.
Looking toward the future, the Satoriuses said they want to finish 1 Samuel and other projects for the Budik believers.
“Because this is an isolated group that doesn’t have Bible aides available, we also provide resources that help them understand the Scriptures as they’re reading them,” Ken Satorius said.
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