Let the Written Word Speak!
It’s easy for us to see why Bible Translation and church planting among unreached people groups is important. People need God’s Word accessible to them! But why is literacy important?
There have been brave missionaries who labored for years to translate a Bible, but now it’s not even being used! Why? Because the people can’t read it! We love God’s Word and want to do everything we can so that others can have access to it as well. That’s why we’re passionate about literacy.
Reading and writing was God’s idea. This is not something man came up with. This is the way He chose to preserve His Word! Having the Word written down keeps it from changing like oral stories do. Have you ever heard multiple versions of the same happening? When a story is only passed orally it doesn’t stay the same. But if it’s written down somewhere you can go back to it and see the accurate story. That’s why the written Word is like an anchor for us.
Literacy is key for a strong, maturing church with local leaders. Otherwise how will they be able to feed themselves spiritually? How will the preachers be able to teach the Bible? If people can’t read, it’s very easy for them to revert to the old ways of thinking that they have grown up believing. They can’t go straight to the Bible for truth, and tend to put significance in their feelings and dreams.
About twelve years ago my aunt spent several months in a remote canyon teaching a group of new believers how to read. One of the students was Faustino, a thirteen-year-old boy. He learned the basics of reading. That was all the schooling he ever got. It wasn’t much, but he practiced and kept up what he had learned. Now he is grown up and leading his family in the ways of the Lord. God has given him the vision of reaching his own people. He leads out in a weekly Bible study. He has begun to write songs in his language and to translate Bible verses to teach his people. How would Faustino’s life be different if he had not had the opportunity of learning to read?
The goal of literacy is for any people group to have full access to the written Word of God in their heart language.
—JB, Tarahumara Project