There’s an old saying that says that we are to “make hay while the sun shines.” It reminds me of the verse that says, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4). Since in all things a time comes when we can no longer work, in the meantime we’ve been making our hay as the sun shines. And in the picture above, you can see some of that hay. Yes, each book is different! (And don’t you love the snazzy matching shirts I got for us all that say, “Come and learn to read in My Language?” Yes, I picked the color. No, they didn’t mind at all!)
The last three weeks have been a marathon, making 6 primers (learn-to-read books), each with its accompanying reader, and two pre-literacy books (one for reading and one for writing). Whew! I’m so grateful for the local team here who worked so hard, and also for the tireless work and help and guidance of our consultant who came in for it!
Now, in case you’re wondering why we need 6 different learn-to-read books (primers), let me explain as best I understand it. Using the super helpful software we had, most languages can teach everything they need to in 5 primers. But, yeah, as I’ve been saying, My Language is complicated. Hence the extra one.
By needing to spend time making an extra primer, it meant that we didn’t have time to finish our teachers’ guides. The fancy software helps a lot with it, but we still have a good amount of work ahead of us before those will be done. Can you pray that we’ll all have time (except for the consultant, who went back to her ministry now in another country) to get that finished soon?
It’s exciting how much interest there has already been in these learn-to-read materials! Can you pray that God will raise up people with time, ability, and desire to be able to teach My People how to read their language? And that somehow it will be able to be funded in a sustainable way, so that even if I leave, it will still be able to continue?
This morning I dropped off all of our hard work at the printer’s, so hopefully we’ll have copies for all those involved, as well as the chief of the whole people group, in a few days. Until then, it’s off to try to catch up on some of the things that I’ve fallen behind on these last few marathon weeks…