Integral Vision highly values translating the Scriptures into local languages and a literacy program is an integral part of reaching the goal of local people reading God’s Word. So, what does it take to develop a literacy program? To help answer this question let’s look at one of our village teams, which has been working together on literacy since 2015. This team has just received the green light to start selling their first Scripture booklet, The Creation of the World (Genesis 1-2).
In 2014, they started doing phonemic analysis to decide which sounds in the language have meaning and should become their own letters and which sounds are just slight differences in pronunciation. They then used this information to develop an alphabet. Then, in 2015, the team attended a literacy workshop where they started drafting literacy primers.
The team continued in language study and later, after reaching their goals, started working on the literacy program again. Since they were further along in the language, they were able to see mistakes they had made in the first literacy materials that were developed back in 2015. Two local people joined the team to help with editing the materials and helped draft the first translation of the Teachers’ Guide for the literacy classes.
The Teacher’s Guide has just gone through the checking process and the team finished comprehension and application questions for the five literacy primers. The application questions are to get readers to start to think about how what they are reading applies to their lives…so that it is a natural part of their approach to reading when they start reading the Bible.
The team also has several post-literacy books drafted, which still need to be checked. As they get more Scripture farther along in the checking process, they plan to make and print more Scripture booklets. Along with the basic literacy program, they are developing an accelerated program that will help bring people from a beginning reading and writing level to a more advanced level, similar to bringing them through an accelerated K-12. Next month, they hope to teach a first “trial” literacy class with a small group of people. Then, later this year, they plan to make the literacy classes available to everyone. The most rewarding thing is seeing how excited people are to read their language…and, especially, to read God’s Word.
Recently, one of the members of the team was printing the first of the Scripture booklets and had one in her hand when she went out to greet a young man who came to the house. He had read and seen the other books they have in the local language but had never bought any. When she told him what the Scripture booklet was and that they were selling them, he immediately said he wanted one and pulled money out of his pocket. It’s so exciting because this is why this team is there…to bring God’s Word to the local people!
The team has also started selling Scripture booklets and other books written in the local language in the central market of the village. The booklet Creation of the World (Genesis 1-2) is by far the book people are most eager to buy. Developing this literacy program has taken years but the most rewarding thing for the team is seeing how excited people are to read their language…and, especially to read God’s Word. As one local man who bought a Scripture booklet said, “Why would I buy a book about animals and such when I can buy the Word of God? What we really need is to know what He says to us!”