There are material things in life that I have known for a while that I have taken for granted, like my house, running water, drinking water, food, toilets, shoes, clothes, electricity, and the list could go on and on. Growing up in America has been a privilege that many kids don’t even get to dream about, but one thing I never realized I took for granted is Spiritual tools.
In Cote d’Ivoire we got the privilege to spend half the month in a village, it was a village that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere but felt like home at the same time. In the whole country of Cote d’Ivoire there are over 70 languages (it is about the size of Colorado), so their native tongue is Palaka. They gave me a Palaka name, Síilifege, which means won’t forget God.
The way we got to serve there was by doing any project that was thrown in our lap. Our host there, Denny and Vern, lived there a long time before the war and had to leave because it was unsafe but have recently come back full time. They are awesome people! They raised their family there and have developed great relationships with the people in the village, those relationships provide such a great way to pour into them and share the love of Jesus with them.
We got to serve in many ways, from painting a house, to building the first Christian church, to playing with kids. But what my favorite thing that we got to do was print the Bible for the first time in their native tongue!
Denny’s mission there is to translate the Bible into Palaka! Like, what!?! I mean I have always known the Bible is in other languages but I didn’t really think of the process that it takes to translate it and how much work it is. Let me tell you it is not easy! But it is so worth it!
I won’t go into the whole, long process of what it takes to translate the Bible because one, it would take a long time, and two I don’t remember every step, but trust me when I tell you it is a lot of work. I will share with you the end of the process because that’s what I got to be a part of.
Once it is translated into Palaka it is time to read it to the public. This involves reading them the book that they translated and then having the people listening repeat back what they got out of it, so that they can see if the wording was right.
You may be thinking, it’s easy all you have to do is know the language and then translate it word for word, because that’s what I thought… nope. Not only do you have to know the language very well, you have to know the culture, the way they see things. A lot of languages don’t all have the same meaning for words, for instance, the word love, in Palaka, means, you please me. It is quite a challenge to say the least.
They do this check with three different groups, a mixture of different people, old, young, men, women. I was able to sit in on one of the checks. They were reading the book of Revelations, I hardly understand this book in English let alone another language but it was so incredible to be able to see these people be so enthralled with hearing this book for the first time, especially in their native tongue! I felt the Holy Spirit in the room and just kept thanking God for people willing to work so hard so people could get the Word of God in their native tongue.
Denny was so busy translating she hasn’t been able to print the books that they have completed so since we were there we got to chance to do that for them. I’m not a tech savvy kind of girl but God just kept giving me the knowledge of how to deal with all the problems that came up and it was so cool to see God’s hands in printing it out. The enemy was trying really hard to create ways and problems so that they would be printed but they didn’t work. We were able to print five books of the new testament, Ephesians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Titus, and 2 Timothy!
And in the end we were able to pass out five of the books of Romans to five women and see their reaction. As Denny read to them and followed along for the first time, us girls were tearing up as they responded by saying, “isn’t this so pleasing to your ears?” We couldn’t get over how grateful they were, it was so beautiful.
It made me think about how I just so easily pick up my Bible and read it whenever I want without even thinking about it. And it wasn’t condemning, but man I was convicted and so thankful! It brought me to a place where I had no words to express my gratitude for God’s favor and blessing on my life, all I could say was thank You, over and over again.
There over 2,500 languages that still don’t have the Bible in their native tongue, that number blows me away! It seems so daunting and impossible but to God it’s not and what I can do is start praying for people to be raised up to invest the time and to have the passion to reach the unreached and give them the word of God in their native tongue.
God has shown me so many more things to be thankful for recently and continues to show me how much He truly loves us. And it’s not like they are new things to be thankful for, but just things I never quite realized.
I challenge you to pray for God to show you things that He has done in your life, for Him to show you new ways to be thankful for all that He has done because He has done so much more than we can ever know.
