Jerry & Joyce McDaniels opening God's Word through literacy
for another adventure!This time we are returning to the lovely country of Colombia with its dramatic rainforests, mountains, and colorful cultures. We will need to pack warm clothes because temperatures in Bogotá will be cooler than most of the places we travel (44 – 65 F). But the delicious hot chocolate and Colombian coffee will warm us up! (more…)
So where in the world are we off to next? Well, it’s a country of 17,508 islands with a hot, tropical climate all year round. It is the world’s fourth most populous country, with over 850 different languages and dialects spoken among the various people groups. The country has at least 150 active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. As a matter of fact, every day this country experiences three vibrations and at least one small earthquake, with one volcanic eruption each year.
It is a location known for amazing diversity in wildlife, plants and scenery. There you will find the world’s largest lizard, the Komodo Dragon; the world’s largest snake, the Reticulated Python; the world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia; and the world’s largest bee, the Chalocodoma Pluto.
So…did you guess Indonesia? (more…)
preparing missionary candidates for literacy ministries
How exciting! A brand new year in which we will serve our Lord together. May many more tribal groups hear the Word of God for the first time in this coming year. We continue to do our little part in His big plan for the world. We have been working with Wendy Rees, helping to equip her for her new ministry as the literacy coordinator for Latin America. We were blessed to have some concentrated training on a computer program that helps missionaries organize all their tribal language and culture information and then uses that for literacy, as well as linguistics, Bible translation, Bible lesson writing, etc. This will enable us and Wendy to better help with some of the tedious language analysis necessary to develop literacy programs. (more…)
Ah, September! It’s one special month! Fall is in the air (well, here in FL this takes a little imagination). You’ve got to love the colors and scents! And it can’t get much better than pumpkin spice coffee! But it’s also been an awesome month for us of meeting with many, many missionary teams to pray together and set priorities. In the last month, we have had people into our home for meals from all over the world…86 extra plates were set at our table! It was such a joy to connect with these coworkers, especially looking at the literacy programs that are being developed so that tribal people around the world are able to read God’s Word in their own language.
So often as we travel we have to ask ourselves, “Were we as great a blessing as we were blessed?” This was the case again as we returned from a trip to Mexico! (more…)
How does one put together a literacy program for a tribal group? What syllables should be taught first? What can be done for groups that are already somewhat literate in Spanish, but not their own language? These are some of the topics covered in an upcoming literacy course in Mexico!
There are technical parts like analyzing the grammar and choosing the best syllables to introduce first in the primers. But we also desire to share with the students our passion for how important literacy is to the spiritual growth of tribal churches! (more…)
Joyce & I, along with our friend and co-worker Wendy Rees, are teaching classes on literacy programs to missionary candidates here in Bolivia.
These classes cover ways that literacy is an important part of our goal of seeing strong tribal churches, how missionary teams can be working towards literacy even in those first months of language study, how to motivate people to want to learn to read, how to analyze the language information to decide what order to introduce letters, etc. (more…)
Joyce and I are preparing to fly to Bolivia next week. We are so excited for the opportunity to teach a course on literacy to the missionary candidates, preparing them to work among tribal groups.
Our hearts’ desire is not only to cover the technical details of literacy programs, but to leave a passion for the important part literacy plays in strong, mature tribal churches. After the literacy course, we will have several days working with a missionary team in a tribal location on literacy and materials. (more…)
February will find me in the country of Bolivia. Our team will be meeting with missionaries at several different locations. (more…)
We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for a trip to Bolivia for the month of February. We have gotten all the necessary documents together and have submitted them for our visa. Please pray that the process will go smoothly.
Bolivia is the final country in our region that we have yet to visit! So this trip will be our introduction to the field and missionaries there. Pray that we will be a blessing and encouragement to all that we meet there.
