When a Midwest church youth leader contacted the Wycliffe Center director here in Catalina and told him that their summer youth group project was to travel around the West seeking to learn about various missions, he readily agreed to host them and then asked if they’d be interested in touring GRN as well. The leader had not heard of GRN before, so was curious to check us out. This group, writing back to their home church, later described our approach to missions as “unique.”

This leader reported:

Around the world they seek bi-lingual people who are willing to record Bible stories in their native tongue. The missionaries tell the stories, section by section, in a shared language and then the native speaker translates the stories into their own language. GRN recordists record it.

On our trip, after the folks at GRN office finished their presentation, they had snacks for us and spent time getting to know the high-school aged kids and  answering their questions. It was a neat, personal touch.

Here’s a picture of the kids using something called Card Talk – it’s an ingeniously simple piece of corrugated cardboard, a metal grommet with needle, and a vinyl record which allows people to hear Bible stories in their own heart language. The kids loved it!

We add to his report: in this picture, Diane is demonstrating how tools change over time—from our original, creative hand-wound record players to later hand-wound   cassette players. She went on to demonstrate a newer “tool” — 5fish, which is accessible to anyone with a phone, and doesn’t need to be mailed in heavy  parcels around the world as the records and cassettes used to be.

We would like to use Skip’s analogy (“Director’s Desk”) of living tools for the Lord’s use and apply it to our hopes for many young people like this group who came to visit us this summer. Their eager minds were intrigued to realize how many different kinds of work go into what is called “missions.”  We’re not all preachers!

We pray that the Lord will lay it on the heart of many young people to be willing instruments in His hands, for His honor and glory as the word about Jesus is spread to every last people group on this globe. Pray with us! And, if you’re young and seeking adventure, ask the Lord where He could use you.