Prayer team,
We are so very grateful for all the prayers you offer on behalf of Twelve21.
The specific prayer requests:
- Ask God to put all the pieces together for a test project: an audio recording of 1 Peter – read in the Liberian dialect of English.
- Pray for Roland and Aaron as they work in Monrovia to research and lead in the project.
- Pray that God will supply all that is needed.
Background:
In 2013, as I was working in Liberia with Mike Foday (my 4th visit there), it became very clear to me that many Liberian Christians do not understand written English.
They speak their own dialect of English; it takes careful listening and experience for an American to understand a conversation. Liberians, at times, have difficulty understanding some foreigners.
If they can’t grasp written English, they can’t really understand the Bible as they read it. Mike agreed with me that this is a problem. I suggested to him that we try an experimental project: he would select preachers with good reading voices, they would read 1 Peter in a professional studio for recording to MP3.
I selected this book because it is written to Christians who are suffering. Liberians have suffered greatly.
We would then invite Liberian Christians from many places to listen to the recording of 1 Peter. That’s not hard – many cell phones there can play MP3 recordings. We would gauge their reactions to the reading. Does it make sense? Does it sound more like God is speaking to you personally? Does it help you to understand?
Having gathered insight from these groups, we would determine the next step.
Mike Foday was on board to move ahead with the project. Then ebola struck Liberia shutting down a lot of activity. Mike Foday died in 2014.
End of project? I just wrote to Mike’s son-in-law, Aaron, and another very faithful, competent brother, Roland, and explained the project to them. They have agreed to begin the groundwork for this experiment.
Thank you for making this project your prayer project.
for Jesus’ sake, Tom & Laura