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In this Holy Week, when we remember the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we wanted to share a letter* from Pastor Domingo Palomeque that really touched our hearts and encouraged us in this ministry of providing Spanish-language tools for church planters. [*our edited translation from Spanish] ____________________  “Years ago, I saw [the Ee-Taow video] and it really moved me, but I didn’t really understand how it worked until recently, when we started sharing the Gospel every Saturday in “La Casa del Inmigrante” [an immigrant shelter] here in the city of Tenosique [near the Guatemalan border]. “We didn’t have any literature to give these people, but then a church sent us a box of two thousand tracts. Among them there were some very interesting Bible story posters and a brochure explaining how they could be used – God really spoke to me through them! “They were Firm Foundations pictures, but it wasn’t a full set, so I started to investigate on the internet and that led me to you. We have ordered some materials [from your online bookstore] which I have been using with my own children for over a week.  “I have also decided to use them in our small church. Every Sunday, we receive between 70 and 80 migrants in the service – people who are coming up from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Now I’m planning to share the Firm Foundations lessons in my Sunday morning messages. The brothers and sisters of our fellowship who are evangelizing will also be using them and teaching them to their children.”  ____________________ Pastor Domingo had first contacted Ethnos360 via our website contact page asking about our Firm Foundations: Creation to Christ material, which presents the whole story of redemption from Genesis 1:1 through Jesus’ ascension. This series of lessons was originally developed for use in tribal church-planting settings, then adapted for people who live in towns and cities. Since Domingo’s note was in Spanish, the bookstore referred him to me, and in the process of helping him to get the materials he needed, he told me his story. I was very happy to send him all the lessons in PDF format right away! Thinking of how these materials came to be available in Spanish takes us back to the 1980’s when we were on training staff in Colombia and first began the work of translating these books – ultimately nine printed volumes, as well as a children’s edition and other supplemental materials. These were HUGE projects, but we didn’t do all the work ourselves. One of the translators we hired to help us in the early days was Martha Torres. After a couple of years, she left her job teaching high school English in Bogotá and enrolled in our missionary training program, then she served as a missionary in Africa. She’s part of our SLR team now. Israel Gualtero, a gifted linguist who graduated from our training center and served for years in a tribal ministry, did much of the work on the second revision of the book series. Others of the most able students in our training program in Colombia helped out as well, in fulfillment of their student work assignment. You can imagine the joy it gives us to receive letters like this! It’s so great to know that these materials are being used in the jungles and the cities of Latin America to share the foundational truths of God’s Word with people who have never before heard the entire story of redemption, from Creation to Christ. And what better time than this Easter season, when we commemorate Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His triumphant victory over death and offering eternal life to all of those who believe in Him? Christ is Risen! Steve & Eida Irwin Ethnos360 Spanish Language Resources |
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