Elijah and Moira Hall TRIBAL MISSIONS - Reaching the unreached “…One man gave clear testimony. His name is Itiringke, and God is doing a work in his heart. He is one of the leaders in the village, so his words carry weight. (Last) Friday the people held a graduation service for 30 graduates of the literacy class (Praise God!) and after the ceremony he got up and shared something with tears in his eyes.
“He told everyone that God has displayed His power in (Itiringke’s) life, because now not only can he read but is also a teacher in literacy as well. He said that he was not able to read before… but now God has given him the strength and ability to finish the course and to be a teacher. He kept saying that God is true. Then he encouraged the older people not to give up.To know that they too can learn how to read…” From a letter by Gary Smith, teaching the Dinangat in Papua New Guinea.
This week we began our course in Phonemics – learning how to interpret a language from an insider’s perspective in order to develop an alphabet for the native speakers to use.
For example, in English we use the letter combination “th” to write words like “thigh” and “thy”. To us as English speakers, context determines which sound we give the symbol. Other languages might need two separate symbols in place of our one…or not! Some language groups do not hear the difference between “b” and “v” and it would confuse them to try to learn two symbols to write them.
So far, so good. But how do we actually decide how insiders hear something when we’re actually outsiders?
Suffice to say it’s a long process of collecting data, charting, proofing, etc (this sounds too much like our homework so I’ll stop now). But the end result is people like Itiringke who are now able to read and write their own language!
This week also for the first time, Itiringke and the rest of the Dinangat will hear of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. Lord willing, a church will be born in Dinangat! Pray for them!
“…Itiringke was telling everyone that he knows God is true because of what He’s done in his own life. Itiringke is choosing to believe and as a result is seeing the glory of God in his life. And praise God, so are we!”
