Learning to Read at 35
We were standing on the brow of the high hill upon which Buso’s village sat like a bird’s nest on high. She was eager to tell us about her culture’s practices of weddings (just pass an egg around the girl’s midriff, then into the hand of the man and do this in front of your families and you are married) and how they make their living. Then she reached into her bag and produced a notebook from which she took a piece of papers with English characters spelling her language phonetically. I am learning to read! This is my first page of words. In my heart I already knew who to thank for this but through the interpreter I asked anyway, “Who gave your tribal language these words and who taught you to read them?” ”The missionary!” she replied with a smile. ”And is this a page from the Bible?” She smiled and nodded yes. Giving their language a written form would not be important to anyone else but someone who wanted them to be able to read God’s Word in their own tongue. Usually a translation takes a dozen years of someone’s life to produce. The gift is doubled. First, the people have God’s message of love and his offer of adoption in their own heart language. Secondly, they can now record thoughts, culture, history and feelings in their language for the first time. Buso, at 35 had been given the gift of written language and she was visibly excited at this new discovery. Praise the Lord for the sacrificial servant who labored at this obscure task for so many years…and for those who continued to support him/her financially through all those years of slow work.
