In 1990, when Jan and Annette Wols began church planting in a Lamogai village, in Papua New Guinea, there were only three people of the 300+ population, who were literate. Jan and Annett’s co-workers had only recently put together an alphabet for this unwritten language. Through evangelism, people in the village were coming to salvation, knowing nothing about the Bible other than what the missionaries told them in the Bible teaching.
Why a literacy programme:
1. To develop an independent church, the people would have to learn to read and study the Bible themselves.
2. God’s Word has been written for us to learn from, to see and understand our future, growing and following Christ. When people’s minds are opened through learning to read, they have personal access to the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word.
3. The third reason was that Jan and Annette had received so much help from reading God’s Word in their own lives, getting to know the Lord better and learning to walk with Him, that they did not want to keep this to themselves. They wanted to share this experience with people who had yet no access to the Word.
After the three literate people came to faith, Annette started to teach literacy and trained those three believers to become literacy teachers. This first course had 71 lessons and was taught daily for two hours.
Together with their co-workers Jan and Annette developed a second course with 15 reading books, to give the people more exposure and reading practise.
Today over 1500 Lamogai adults and children have learnt to read in classes of 12-15 students. The teachers are believers who give of their time and knowledge to the Lord to help their people. Motivated by the love of Christ they teach others to read and to write. Some of them have trained in discipleship and Bible teacher training, becoming involved in evangelism and church planting in other villages.
Jan and Annette share that they are very blessed to see firsthand that the Lord is building His church in Lamogai and that the work has carried over to the next generation. It is hard work for but with the help from His Word and the Holy Spirit they go on, also carried and supported by many. They have received funds to continue to print more sets of the first literacy course. And they trust the Lord for when the second course is ready to go to print.
Thank you for your part through prayer!