Post 58 / The Next Language

The Unseen Weapon

Prayer has always been a major factor in the practices of Global Recordings.  Harnessing that practice through social media is relatively new. Attached you will see two of our first efforts to solicit prayer for our direct and immediate recording projects in unreached languages. These two incidents in just the last few days have convinced me that God is using social media to help enable us to do our job.

The first language was the Zapoteco, Guelavia, San Lucas Quiavini. Our first invitation to record was turned down. Then our Mexico office sent out a prayer card. Almost immediately a pastor in a neighboring Zapoteco town of San Bartolome Quialana contacted us and connected us to a sister fellowship in San Lucas. Turns out he was a former language helper for the original recordings in San Bartolome. He had been converted while working in Los Angeles and still has two daughters living there.

Our contact man in San Lucas was Nepolotano. We were welcomed into the fellowship hall there. During the get-acquainted time, unbeknownst to us, he was trying to figure out if we were a cult or greedy and trying to make money off the culture and language of the Zapoteco. We, on the other hand, were trying to figure out if he was a legitimate Pentecostal, a Jesus Only, or a Jehovah Witness — and whether he was truly capable in the language.

He shared the following, “I had a dream just recently that this church was going to be full of Jesus followers.” He agreed that what we were trying to prepare in his language might be part of fulfilling that dream. We had a rough time getting started with the translation process – completing the second of the Look Listen and Live series of 50 minutes about mighty men of God. By the time our Brazilian/Colombian trainee Ezeqiuas had finished, we had three translators involved and they were pushing us to do the seventh book in the series, which was a summary of the seven miracles of Jesus and associated teaching in the book of John.

Now, the afore-mentioned dream happened right when the Mexico office’s prayer card went out and people on facebook and elsewhere, in both Spanish and English, were asked to pray. You can’t convince me that this was other than a direct answer to prayer.

The second incident involved a cluster of Zapoteco languages in the villages of Yalina and Tavehua on either side of the village of Zoogoche. Our pescadores had word lists for Zapeteco: Santa Maria Yalina. but none for Tavehua. A second survey trip found Yalina locked up and confirmed that there were no evangelical fellowships in any of them though the neighboring village of San Baltazar Yatzachi el Bajo had a group of believers that said a single believer had recently come from Tavehua but had been forced to leave.

That is when the prayer call went out for Yalina and Tevehua. Within a day Ariadna – our trainee assigned to that language – got a call from a friend of Bible school days saying her husband was from Tavehua! We visited this lovely Christian couple who share our love and vision for those villages, and got a word list. As it “happened,” they knew the lady in the photo on the prayer card. It also “happened” that the husband, Andres Dominguez Garcia, was superintendant of the schools in that area! They gladly took scripts and promised to translate them. We hope to record around the 20th of September.

Keep praying for Yalina village. All three villages are very closed to the Gospel with a history of persecution against not only the Good News but against anyone in those cultures who wants to rise above average. The village of Zoogoche has a New Testament and has some older recordings – so far to no avail. Because of economics the last census documented more Zapoteco: Tavehua living in Los Angeles than in Tevehua.

I was going to apologize for all the unfamiliar names in this discourse but I thought it would add specificity to your prayers and also give you some sympathy for language helpers to whom Bible names and places and history are just as confusing.  Pray that the light of God’s truth will break through into every language here in Mexico.

If you are interested in sharing links on social media that will promote use of our recordings and the Gospel in general, please phone Roland Heck at 951-216-9985.

God Bless,

Larry DeVilbiss | Executive Director

Global Recordings Network USA

 

Previous “The Next Language” posts
The Gospel Arrives in Zapoteco:Elotepec – Post 57
Fishing – GRN Style – Post 56
A New Day in Mexico – Post 55
Seeking – Post 54
Pick Your Battles – Post 53
How Big Is Your God? – Post 52
A Muted Gospel? – Post 51
Dedication Service for Marcos – Post 50
Two Weeks, Two Months, Two Years – Post 49
What Will You Give to Jesus – Post 48
Special Assignment – Post 47
The Good and the Best – Post 46
How Many Languages Are There? – Post 45
Verifying Speech Varieties – Post 44
Those God Things – Post 43
Meet Notch, the Desert Cottontail – Post 42
The Lost Languages – Post 41
The Rest of the Yoke – Post 40
What About Those Last Languages – Post 39
A Yoke That Fits – Post 38
The Other Side – Post 37
It Is Finished – Post 36
On the Ground in Culiacan – Post 35
I Will Go With Thee – Post 34
Unseen Warfare – Post 33
God of the Gaps – Post 32
The Father of Faith Missions – Post 31
WAIT – Post 30
Our Ultimate Weapon – Post 29
What Are You Doing Here – Post 28
Recordist Training Course Update – Post 27
Still Shameful – Post 26
Numbers Update – Post 25
The Gospel and Idolatry – Post 24
Could Ye Not Pray – Post 23
John the Baptist and the New Normal – Post 22
Genesis of a Script – Post 21
Embena Experiences – Post 20
An Easter Like No Other – Post 19
Go Or Stay Home – Post 18
The Next Language – Post 17
The Next Language – Post 16
The Next Language – Post 15
The Next Language – Post 14
The Next Language – Post 13
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