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Prayer Partner Letter

May 2014

Dear Prayer Partners,

Samantha Mero is a Bible translator in West Africa. She is very concerned that the people she serves become able to read the Scripture she is translating into their language. Earlier this year she wrote about an experience she had that greatly encouraged her.

I sat with one of the national translators in the back of a gigantic structure made of bamboo and palm leaves. The 2013 Christian Conference was underway, and the two of us were in charge of selling our newly published books to this gathering of believers. Though, in truth, my colleague did the vast majority of the work while I made friends with some adorable little girls who came over to greet me.

On the second day, the conference broke early for lunch, before the rice and sauce were ready. Most of my new friends went off to find their families, but one stayed behind with me. Having nothing else to do, I asked her if she would like for me to read to her. She nodded, and I picked her up onto my lap and grabbed a copy of Genesis 1-3. “At the time of the world’s beginning, God made the sky and the ground,” I read in her language. “At the time of the world’s beginning, God made the sky and the ground,” my little friend repeated. This is how an oral culture passes on stories to the next generation.

We continued on for a paragraph or so with her repeating every phrase. Then, I suddenly became aware of two more voices at my right elbow. They were reading along, not after me, but WITH me. I turned to find two young boys had joined us. Obviously literate in French [the trade language], they were trying to make out the words in the little girl’s language themselves (it’s a very similar alphabet). So, I stopped reading and just let them continue. I moved my finger along the text and helped them out whenever we came across a letter that doesn’t exist in French. They quickly picked it up and started reading faster and faster. As other kids saw what was going on, we started to draw a small crowd. And these two boys were reading the creation story to that crowd!

We got all the way through the seven days of creation before we were interrupted with the announcement that lunch was ready. I had completely forgotten that I was even hungry. Truly, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!”

Thank God that those who knew how to read the West African trade language could begin reading the minority language so quickly.

Pray that the many who don’t know the trade language will have someone to teach them how to read the Scripture in their language.

Pray that God will bring the right person to work alongside Samantha Mero as a literacy specialist.

Pray that God will provide literacy specialists for Pioneer Bible Translators in all of the language groups that still need them.

Thanks for your prayers,

Gerald Denny
Care Department Director
Pioneer Bible Translators