Some of this blog is 'life here' and some of it is 'What God is doing Here'.
This is a 'What God is doing here' post.
The child above is holding a megavoice player. The Megavoice is an affordable, long battery life, simple to use digital audio player. We use it to put audio Bible's on and give to people who are illiterate.
The Pinai-Hagahai people aren't a huge people group, it has around 1000 people in it. Several years ago a couple moved here to translate the Bible into their language. They were met with all kinds of trouble and hardship. Their house was moved several times, then burned down. They were held up by gunpoint, and many other crimes and troubles. Their furloughs were difficult, their time in country was difficult, and if not for the prayer and support of others, they would have never made it through those tough years.
When they completed some of the books of the New Testament, they had them recorded into audio format. One of the biggest criticisms that we get is 'well great you translated the Bible but how are they going to understand it if they can not read?'
We handle that in 3 ways:
1 - we teach literacy. But this often excludes the elderly who most likely will never learn to rean
2 - we partner with audio based organizations
3 - we have our own recording specialists who go into the village and record mother tongue speakers reading the Bible that has been translated.
These translators, had rough times, and in a fit of creativity, bought 70 megavoice players, put the four Gospels and Acts on it and GAVE it to the nationals in the village. They gave it, because they had funding. It's a bit of a taboo to 'give' because it means that there is little value on the item. If they were charging for the item then perhaps the people would take care of it, and not abuse or lose the player. But, because of how remote the village was, they had no cash economy whatsoever.
So according to 'how we do things'... giving the megavoice players was not a wise move. It wasn't technically 'the right thing' to do. But they were finding the elderly and also young men were being excluded. The church was full of women and children.... and they wanted to do something.
So they distributed the 70 megavoices, not hoping for much and went on furlough.
Markus (the ex-pat translator) tells people that joining the goal of Bible translation is like joining the marines. It's hard work, lots of training involved, you're on the front line, and you may be in danger... but when you're ordered to go,... you go.
When they came back from furlough the results were beyond their wildest dreams. People had taken to listening to the devices as their daily devotions, as their bible study.
young men were turning to Christ
the elderly said 'we finally understand God's Word, it didn't make sense until we heard it in our language.'
They interviewed 100 people, which is 10% of the people group and every single one of them had changed their lives to Christ. The revival had begun.
And it was no act of man.
Since then the people have asked for more, and they have distributed 400 more megavoices (with funding from people back home).
God is great.
Right now, there is a two man team in a village far into the Sepik doing audio recordings so that we can reach more people who can not read.... in a different language group.
But it's a very hard location to get to, and they've been stuck there for much longer than they expected to be because of the road conditions and inability to fly in or out. They are separated from their families, while doing this work.
They could use prayer.
God's word endures. We're trying to get it to people in a way they will understand it. Through all the work, and hardship that happens, we know, because we've seen it so many times... that once people get the Gospel in their heart language, it changes their lives, and the enter into a meaningful relationship with Christ.
We pray for good discipleship of these people.
