Let me illustrate the usefulness of the chronological pictures by what I overheard one day (Thursday the 10th of March). I normally arrive at the teaching site early to set up. I got there that day and several women were sitting there waiting. I took out some books and the chronological pictures and handed them to the ladies while I went about setting up. The ladies started looking at the pictures and I managed to catch a few snippets of their conversation.
One lady was older and she said to the younger lady that this was only her second time to come to the teaching. They started by looking at a picture of Adam with all the animals in the garden. In the picture he is kneeling next to a leopard with his hand on a lion. The older lady was shocked. She asked: “Is he petting a leopard? Isn’t he scared?” For the Mwinika the leopard is one of the most feared animals. It isn’t just that it is dangerous in the way we think of it as dangerous. For us the danger has mostly to do with big teeth and long claws. For the Mwinika this is true too, but it is also a ritually ominous animal. It has all sorts of special powers. If a Mwinika person is killed by a leopard the people who help bury the body can’t go back into their own yards until a traditional healer comes and cleanses them from the dangerous energy they have been infected with. The leopard tops the list of dangerous animals with lions a close second. For a man to be kneeling next to one and touching another without fear is unheard of. The younger lady replied: “No, that is lion, this is a leopard. But he is not afraid of either the lion or leopard. You see, back then, everything was good. God didn’t make anything bad. There was nothing to be afraid of. The animals didn’t bite or anything back then.”
A little while later they were talking about a picture of Adam sleeping while God created Eve and brought her to him. The older lady asked: “Is he dead?” The younger lady responded: “No, he is sleeping. God put him to sleep so he could take a bone out and make Eve with it.” At this point more people arrived and I got distracted and didn’t hear any more of what was said as they worked their way through the pictures. What struck me, however, was the power of the picture to help recall important elements of the story. The older lady was clearly interested and wanted to know what the picture represented. The younger lady probably can’t read but she had heard the story and the picture could help her remember the key elements of what happened in order to pass them on. Clearly a lot of important truths would go missing for the older lady if all she had to rely on was a bunch of pictures and a brief oral synopsis. The pictures are an important supplement in a broader program that includes scripture translation (available in print and in oral recordings) along with a teaching program with lesson after lesson (also available on audio for constant review) to teach the significance of each story.
Pray that the Lord uses the pictures and the explanations that go with them to spark interest and help people to review important truths.