In an excellent talk for ministers, Dr. Ben Witherington III explores the impact of orality and rhetoric in the time of
Jesus. While the US culture enjoys and assumes a high rate of literacy, Witherington says that the literacy rate in 1st Century Palestine was
probably only 10-15%. So, it is significant that Jesus did not say,
'let he who has two good eyes read,' instead he said 'he who has ears, let him
hear.' The letters of Paul, for example, were
intended to be read aloud in the churches.
The Bible was written to be heard - it is to be an oral text.
While many today equate the 'word of God' with the written
text of the Bible, Witherington says that is not the way the phrase was used in
the New Testament. The phrase 'word of
God' refers to either Jesus Christ (John 1) or it refers to the oral
proclamation of the good news about Jesus (1 Thess. 2:13). The 'word of God' didn't refer to a static written
text, it referenced the proclaimed message - the heard Word.
The Makua-Metto people also have an oral
culture. Low levels of literacy create significant challenges. From a census of the
Churches of Christ in Cabo Delgado conducted last year, we found that out of
the over 1100 members, less than a third of them can read at all (that
percentage follows pretty closely the literacy rate for the population as a
whole). Out of that group though, only 16% said
that they could read well.
One way that we are trying to address this problem is to use
audio players so that church members can listen to God's word with their families
and neighbors. With contributions from a
few of our friends (thank you so much - you rock!), our team was able to
purchase 100 DAVAR players. They are
solar powered and easy to use. We were
able to put recordings of 125 songs in Makua-Metto (thank you Chad), recordings
of the books of Mark and James (thank you SIL), the 'Look, Listen and Live'
series of Bible stories (again thanks SIL), and a bunch of sermons and lessons
for adults and children in Makua-Metto (thank you Aguas Vivas Ministry, Balama).
In the Makua-Metto language, the word for 'hear' or 'understand' is 'wiiwa,'
while the word for 'obey' is 'wiiwelela.'
These two words are connected linguistically, as the word for hearing or
understanding serves as the base word for the concept of obedience. This language connects these two actions in
our friends' minds.
It has been fun distributing these audio players to our friends here in Cabo Delgado. Our hope is that through the church and these audio players,
more and more people will encounter the heard word of God - that they would
both 'wiiwa' and 'wiiwelela.'
May the Makua-Metto people hear, understand... and obey
God's word!
Grace and Peace,
Alan
Where should monetary donations be sent? Perhaps you could add this somewhere on your page. Just a thought. I really enjoy reading your entries and learning about your adventures there. We military often hear "Thank you for your service" but I salute you in your service to the greatest cause of all!
ReplyDeleteGeraldine
Hi Geraldine, thanks for your comment and encouragement too! Our sponsoring church collects our work funds and sends them to us here, the address is the Donelson Church of Christ, 2706 Old Lebanon Rd., Nashville, TN 37214. I usually tell people to include a note saying the funds are "for Mozambique."
DeleteHope you guys are doing really well!
Rachel