Translating the Bible and planting a church among the Landuma people of West Africa, has been Kirk and Yolanda’s ministry for many years. Currently the Bible translation in John and Proverbs continues.
Thank you for praying for the man who heard God’s Word during an earlier recording check as he considers the things he heard. Kirk is currently processing hundreds of notes on various verses, made some time ago by a former coworker in the village. He had made many suggestions regarding the wording, the best understanding of the Greek, etc. Reviewing those notes again is helping Kirk and his team improve the translation. Bible translation is a team effort! And your part on the team is important. Thank you for praying as this project moves forward!
It has been several weeks since they have taught in K village. Most of the people there have been busy with their fields. Pray that they would be able to return to K village soon to continue teaching God’s Word.
Thank you for praying for the three-week linguistics workshop in late May-early June. It went very well. As they analyzed discourse patterns in the language, Kirk was able to help the missionary team better understand several linguistic features, as they function in a similar way to Landuma, which is closely related. Pray for the team as they apply what they learned during the workshop to their language learning, and to the translation of the Scriptures, which they are preparing to begin.
Yolanda continues to teach literacy, but the planting season is in full swing, so her current students have to help in the fields, and so don’t attend to study as often as normal. However, some of the literacy programme graduates from past years attend from time to time to read which is an encouragement to Yolanda.
Ever since they first began teaching the Landumas the Word, they have tried to make audio recordings of Scripture and Bible teaching available. They wanted the Word of God to have the widest reach possible
But most Landumas are reluctant to sit under the teaching of a Bible teacher. Some of the men have been students of a religious teacher in their youth. They are supposed to remain loyal to their teacher, not following some other teachers. Social pressure mounted from family and neighbours will keep most of those with any interest in God’s message from hearing it. This has proven to be a formidable barrier to the spread of the Gospel.
However, listening to religious teaching on an audio device does not carry the same stigma. Usually, a person is not looked down upon for listening to our Bible lessons. In fact, others often beg them to give or loan them their player so they can listen too.
For most of those with whom Kirk and Yolanda shared the audio teaching, they have no idea how much they heard and understood, and how many may have believed.
Recently they were excited by a visit from a Landuma friend whom they have known since their arrival in 1992, and who now lives in another village. A couple of months ago she had borrowed an audio player with the Landuma Bible lessons on it. During their conversation, she enthusiastically told Kirk she wanted more Bible lessons, because she had listened to all of the ones she had (70 of them), and wanted to hear more.
Kirk asked her what she understood from what she had heard. “Who is Jesus,” he asked. She hardly hesitated. “He’s God,” she said. In the ensuing conversation it became clear that she had understood well much of what she had heard in the lessons, and apparently, she believes it.
Pray that her understanding of God’s Good News grows as she reviews the lessons and comes to understand faith in Jesus in a deeper way, and that she would have opportunities to share the teaching with others. Pray for God’s protection on this lady and that would visit them again soon, so that they can further encourage her faith in Jesus as the Lord and as her Saviour.
Some ministries claim dramatic spiritual breakthroughs on a regular basis. In this context, however, such events are few and far between. The believers continue to grow steadily in their faith, and seeing that is always encouraging. But when they see someone’s thinking transformed for the first time regarding God and their relationship to Him, it is truly a rare and precious gift. It reminds them that their efforts to spread God’s powerful Word to a lost and resistant people are not in vain.
Thank you for praying.