Post 85 / The Next Language

Oh, for a Thousand Tongues

As a boy I remember thinking how amazing that there could be a thousand languages in the world. Little did I know how insufficient that number was. I couldn’t have imagined that in the country of Nigeria alone there are close to a thousand languages.

For two weeks we have been going through the different data-bases with Nigerian staff who know the country and have been working for generations to accumulate the 528 languages that are on our free 5fish.mobi app.

What we did not know until now was the number of languages that are missing from 5fish that were recorded and have masters here in Jos. We did a complete inventory of the master cassettes and CD discs and found that over 50 languages have never gotten in the system. It is possible that some of those originals were lost in the mail. Most recordists elsewhere in the world today are able to upload edited recording programs easily, but the Nigerian internet does not support that luxury.

I will be taking many of those masters to Australia with me to get them ingested. I double-checked this afternoon to make sure none of those were old material that should be dropped but the response was an emphatic affirmation: all of that is useful and valuable.

As we pray and plan how to work to get to those thousand languages in a very hostile environment, we are trusting the Lord for men and for even less conspicuous recording equipment. Everything is on the table. White faces will need to stay in the shadows — even in town.

I am thankful that neither Mexico nor Nigeria joined the western mission flight of nearly every Christian mission I know of, away from Christian sounding names. Gospel Recordings became Global Recordings. Our Mexicans stuck with the Gospel- (Buenas Nuevas) and Nigeria stayed with Gospel Recordings. I was met at the airport in Jos with a van that said boldly on each side, “Telling the Story of Jesus in Every Language.” Just as prominently on both the front and the back was the word, “Missionary.” There will be no hiding and it is a pleasure to work with those who are not ashamed of the Gospel.

In that posture we can ask for wisdom with confidence. The work is the Lord’s. We are not ashamed of Him and He is not ashamed of us. How to find and walk in those works that are His should be a lot less cluttered than it might be in the West. We ask you to pray with us to that end.

We can pray and sing with a lot more specificity when we ask for one thousand languages from Nigeria. In fact, on our final day of this reconnaissance trip we joined in singing all the verses of the familiar hymn, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing.”

Our draft goal is to start with ten new men that are willing to be missionaries to the unreached languages. They will start as language investigators, probably going out on the back of hired motorcycles to get word lists and make first contact. If language helpers are identified they will be encouraged to come in where we can record in makeshift studios here in town. The target will be that some of those investigators will want to go on to become recordists. As our reach from the central part of Nigeria grows longer, some of those investigators may actually become field recordists to multiply the recording capacity of Joshua and Solomon and Nathan and myself.

At this point the team is serious enough to begin to pencil it out to see who will go and what that will cost. Kish says this is very daring in a political environment where the audacious impunity of bandits is in the news every day, raiding military establishments and even kidnapping kings in a couple of places. Most mission outreaches are drawing back.

Is there any good reason why only the enemies of God should be audacious as we follow the King of Kings and assume His authority which is over both heaven and earth?

God Bless,

Larry DeVilbiss | Executive Director

Global Recordings Network USA

If you are interested in learning how to share links on social media that will promote use of our recordings and the Gospel in general, please contact RolandHeck@GlobalRecordings.Net

Previous “The Next Language” posts
Voices in the Wilderness – Post 84
Nigeria – First Impressions – Post 83
From the Land of Nod – Post 82
Tribute to Mexico – 1967 – 2022 – Post 81
Miniaturization – Post 80
Knowing The Times – Post 79
God Comes to a Dirty World – Post 78
Corn in Mexico – Post 77
When the Church Says No – Post 76
War – Post 75
Theirs Is the Kingdom – Post 74
The Hippie Era Lives On – Post 73
Genesis of a Recording Set – Post 72
Back Tracking – Post 71
Witnesses- Post 70
Who Is Your Owner? – Post 69
An Unsolicited Endorsement – Post 68
Oral Tradition – Post 67
Works of  Man – Post 66
Deliverance – Post 65
New Discoveries – Post 64
The Wall of Pain – Post 63
Is There a Place for the Gospel in Your Story – Post 62
The Love Pyramid – Post 61
Obsession – Post 60
Verb Tenses in Hebrews – Post 59
The Unseen Weapon – Post 58
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
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