As we consider our long-term goal of planting a church and giving them God’s Word in their own language, it is in our best interest to teach them how to read. So when they kept asking for literacy classes, Ed and I decided to try to teach some of the men first. We are fortunate that the missionaries who went before us put the language into writing and made literacy primers. All we have to do is teach.
We only had a few days of classes and then everyone left to go hunting, but they seem pretty excited about it so far. It is fun to see them starting to recognize syllables and words. One day, as I was walking around in the village, I could hear them talking about letters in one of the houses. When I stopped there, three of the guys were inside trying to remember the letters, syllables, and words on their homework sheets, so I reviewed it with them.
We hope they will stay motivated and become good readers so that one day we can give them a translation of the bestselling book of all time, which also happens to be inspired by God Himself. Alternate title: Eternal Life for Dummies. Main message: We’re all dummies; Jesus gives eternal life. That is something worth reading about.