One of the great blessings Steph and I have had recently is starting a Bible study at our church in Najile. For many, it is not only the first time they've ever studied the Bible, but their first structured educational experience. We're studying the book of John and its been a learning experience for us all.
Our first week, we met with about fifty people, of whom maybe fifteen spoke any English. We worked through an interpretor and tried to talk about who Jesus was. Week two started with just a few people, (as we wanted to start "on time") but soon it built up to around 25. The biggest realization was that people just have never critically read anything....well most have never read period, but those who have never have critically analyzed what they hear. We'd read a verse, "and John was questioned by the pharasees...." and we'd ask, "so who was asking John about who he was" and we'd just get blank stares. Maybe somebody might speak about how John did many miracles, and Steph and I are thinking...uhhhhh......
Some things we just take for granted. We take for granted that people have went to school, and even more so, that analyzing literature just comes with being born. Not true. We've now adjusted our teaching style to do more role-plays, skits reinacting the scene, and also tying in what our group-members know (like....cows, goats and sheep) into the passage (lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth makes a lot more sense here than the States).
It also reinforces, to us, the idea that people aren't just magically able to succeed from birth. In today's world, you need a lot of help, a lot of advantages to have the tools (like critical thinking) that are necessary to make an honest living. Picking yourself up from your bootstraps is really a distortion of reality, a vast majority of people need to have access to some advantages before they'll be able to succeed. I think this is important to remember as we think of the poor (people who have created their own fate, versus those who were never blessed with the advantages to succeed).
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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3 comments:
Matt and Steph, I'm enjoying reading the blogs, they are really well written, I just did a little catching up for the last few. Sounds like life is an adventure, keep it up!
I am finding some similar things where I am working. Some of the girls have never been to school or have limited school experience. I was quite surprised how much schooling is necessary to understand basic math skills. I thought everybody knew that stuff. It has really shown me just how blessed we are who have been able to go to school and that I can be a blessing to others by teaching them those basic skills.
Cynthia Moeller
I'm really glad that I checked out particularly this post from y'all. Have you heard of "storying"? It's something that one of my friends from the church I went to while at UD has been doing for the past few years. It's where she leads teams (typically from India) to share accurate Bible stories in the native language through the use of telling stories. Anyhow, it sounds awesome and like it works great to relay the message to people in a culture not necessarily familiar with Bible stories, critical thinking, etc. Her website is www.elizabethstories.blogspot.com - she'd be such a great contact for you guys to have with trying to figure out how to do the Bible studies.
Debbie Wiedeman
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