November news from the Hattinghs in Mozambique
We returned to the village after two weeks away for meetings and some rest. It was a refreshing and very blessed time away!
Now we are in our LAST month of preparation before the Bible teaching to the unreached Mwinika will finally start! Imagine: for the FIRST time ever the Mwinika will hear the truth about God, themselves (their fallen nature) and God’s plan to save man…
This is why we came…
This is it!! The final count down!
Francois and his team of helpers are working flat out to develop and translate the lessons (70+ of them!) into the eMwinika language. They are working at a tremendous rate to try and finish this as soon as possible so that the teaching to the big group of Mwinika can start a.s.a.p.
Developing the Bible lessons involves: * working through the Chronological teaching lessons in English, deciding what to emphasise to speak directly to the heart of the Mwinika; how to approach to teaching from a point of view that they will understand from their world view… * Francois and Phil are meeting one afternoon a week (and even over lunch at other times!) to discuss which themes to add or emphasise – since we want to speak directly to the Mwinika’s hearts, we need to address those things that are the closest to them; their fears and unknowns. This is where our years of Mwinika culture study is coming in… * The next phase is to actually teach the lessons to our team of Mwinika helpers! Francois loves this part… and what a wonder to see the Truth opening up to our friends! * They have to give back what they have heard, and if there is no misunderstanding or anything left out, it is recorded for transcription. * The transcription of the Mwinika takes time – Salimo however is typing faster than we can and doing a great job in getting this done! * This raw transcription material needs a lot of work in editing and formatting before it can be printed out. * Then we need to do a content check to make sure nothing has been left out… * More tweaking, going back and re-teaching some things and adding others… * More editing and finally the Back to English Translation (BTE) that will be send off to a consultant to give his input. Again here is where we see what has been taught and what needs to change. * Only THEN is the material ready for finally printing and teaching!
All this for ONE lesson – working through his process 70+ times for all 70+ lessons. Pray for this whole process, for energy and enthusiasm. Health!
Francois is trying to finish about 45 lessons before the actual teaching to the Mwinika as a whole will start. He hopes to finish around Christmas time, working on recording 2 lessons a day!
And then, Lord willing, WE WILL START the teaching soon after Christmas!
We are aware of the battle in the spiritual realm around us. It is clear as we teach that the enemy is disturbed. He will do anything to prevent our friends from hearing the Truth and Good News of Jesus Christ. Therefore pray for our protection and that of our children, our co-workers the Hendersons, the Mwinika helpers working on both the Bible lesson development and Bible translation, and finally all the people who must still hear…
Thank to each one of you have been part of this incredible journey from the start… Soon we will welcome Mwinika brothers and sisters into our Church family!