I have been trying to remember where I read a story about Abraham Lincoln who, for the love of reading, walked miles to borrow a book from a distant neighbor (in the snow no doubt) and had it read by the time he returned home. There were few obstacles that could keep him from satisfying his desire for knowledge. It wasn’t a single experience that forged this passion in young Lincoln and we don’t assume that our twelve week literacy course will produce veracious readers of his ilk. What we are doing is simply setting the table so that our friends have something to eat with when it comes time to spread the table with all the good food from God’s Word.
Morale remains high among the Faithful Fourteen! Our Three Musketeers at the bottom of the stack are probably the happiest. They are moving pretty slow in comparison with the rest of the pack, but they are having a good time doing it! The Core, the students right in the middle of the road as far as ability, remain motivated and encouraged. Then there is the Elite. These are the few at the front of the pack who have yet to be challenged. They are there because of previous years in government school learning how to read and write in the trade language, Tok Pisin. They have quite an edge on our average students even though they too are learning to read and write in Amdu for the first time. We’re praying that they will see the value of becoming teachers themselves.
As we turn past the middle page of Primer One tomorrow continue to pray that enthusiasm remains high. Pray that we’ll have wisdom as a teaching team to know how to keep our students encouraged while we begin to divide our time with other things. Translation is going to be part of our lives for at least the next decade. How do you launch something this big? We feel like we need a large bottle of champagne and a speech from someone in the royal family. It is titanic!
Translation goes hand in hand with developing the Bible curriculum for the next few years of teaching and discipleship that we hope to formally begin late next year. Over the coming weeks we plan to get these efforts rolling. Admittedly, despite all there is to do, we don’t feel like we’ve found a good rhythm for this new phase of ministry just yet. Can you pray that we get some real wind in our sails this month?
Many of you responded to our last update and encouraged our hearts immensely with kind words. Thank you so much for those touches! We deeply appreciate the team that we are a part with you all. In two weeks’ time we’ll be out of the bush for seven days. Look for pictures and video of all that you have been praying with us about!
Benjamin and Missy