People way smarter than I am say a person needs 600 hours of reading practice before they are truly literate. Six hundred! Let’s say that person reads really, REALLY slowly. That means I would still need about 600 books available in Nahuatl for the students who will graduate out of Las Moras’s first literacy class.
And while there’s no way I can hit 600 before September, I am doing my best to supply practice materials for those who are learning to read. With my faithful sidekick Liesl (and the help of the entire team) we are plugging away at the task. Health booklets, books about science and nature, stories of when we first came to town, local legends, and Bible stories are now all available. More get created every day and soon the Nahuatl themselves will be able to write stories and create materials in their own language.
From 8-1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Liesl and I can be found down at the borrowed elementary school building, helping the Nahuatl learn to sound out words in their own language.
On the “library” shelf sits the book of Jonah, our team’s first translated book of the Bible into the Nahuatl language. And I know that while I’m there, teaching literacy, Genesis is being translated and lesson plans are being produced.
The people are, in general, excited to read. And we as a team are excited to be part of bringing them the Word of God in a language they can understand.
Katy @ Purposely Frugal says
Ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so exciting!!! Praying they catch on to reading fast so they can one day be reading God’s truths!!
Carrie Nowland says
Wonderful. Praying for you and your team. Keep up the good work.
Cindy Gooch says
This is so cool – thanks so much for posting these photos and your encouraging message!