I have begun to see our work here as support staff in yet another
light. After having gone
to church yesterday I realized that the pastor never opened a Bible, no
one was reading
from the Word. They were giving testimonies and one lady told of a
dream she had. They
seem to be putting a lot of emphasis on experience, dreams, prophecies,
and not much in
reading the Word. If I had spent 26 years in this country trying to
give people a Bible, I
would hope they would use it. Maybe one new light to see support work
is... simply reducing the amount of
discouragements that a translator has to face. Offloading the
exasperating details of
computer work, recording, electrical, so that they can focus on
overcoming the
discouragements that come from their work, in order to continue on.
The translators here are very thankful for CTS and other such support
departments.
On a related note:
I actually got applauded that first day of recording. The men saw a
scene where we had
recorded two people talking, and so they saw a completed scene for the
first time, and were
astounded. They applauded... I suppose me.
It strikes me, that even if this video never leaves the dusty shelf,
that the process of
making it, and showing it at least once, has affected these 17 lives
profoundly. Or at
least I hope it will. Already I'm hearing that this process has
increased the interest in literacy, and we're looking at a possible
revival going on.
What I would love to see happen, is that this video and audio
discipleship series we're making can be used evangelistically as well as
to disciple people (which is it's intention) and that the fact they know
people who were involved in making it, will want to watch it, over and over.
I know it would be discouraging for me to finish this huge project and
then the dvd in the end is never used, and that is only about 3 months
of my life.
What about a translator who spends over 20 years of their life making
something that rarely gets used?
THIS is why our strategy we've adopted in country over the past 5 years
is ENGAGEMENT. Teaching the church leaders how to move from testimonies
and dreams to scripture based teaching. My daughter's ministry 'the
puppet team' has a part in that, in that pastors can see kids hearing
the Word of God through puppet skits.
Our main goal here, is to start at the very beginning. Give the
resource of a Bible. The leaders in the country need to take that and
run with it. But because we have seen a huge need for USING the tool
given to them, a lot of support people have teamed up with translators
to create tools to help.
This Luke video is one such tool. It presents an audio/oral....
version, which is culturally appropriate since it's an oral culture.
But also because not everyone reads. And it presents a video version,
which they can see and hear.
It is a spiritual experience to see someone look at the face of Jesus on
a screen, and hear him speak in their language for the first time.
Observing them perceive truth in a way that is completely understandable
moves you deeply.
I wish that to happen on a huge scale. The potential is there. I pray
it grabs on.
In other news.
Please pray because one of the chief actors in this video sent 2
children to the local hospital. They have malaria which is not
responding to treatment and have fevers of 103.2 now for 2 days.
Please pray against the enemy harming those children, that family, and
this project.
Thank you
