From Jill's Journal Winter 2009
Teaching at Gandep is nothing like teaching at the university. For the last two weeks, I worked with a couple of other PBT missionaries to teach a class consisting of 6 different language groups. In order to communicate effectively, we used the trade language, Melanesian Pidgin. I was a little concerned about teaching in Pidgin, but I think it worked out ok despite my fumbling efforts. The students were all very enthusiastic in their work. Each day, we began the class with prayer, devotions, and singing worship songs. Prayer and the worship songs were done in the various languages. When it was the Ap Ma group’s turn to lead the morning worship, I stood in the front and sang with them. I was encouraged that I could actually understand most of what they were singing and saying when they lead.
The main purpose of this two week class was to teach the students how to teach a Scripture in Use (SIU) course in their own language. For the first week, we translated materials for them to use as a guide when they go back to their villages and run a course. We created a teacher’s book with an outline of the course and directions for each portion of the text. We also created study guide books based on which books they already have translated into their language. Some of the language groups only had Luke, some only had Mark, and there were a couple with the entire New Testament. Each teacher’s guide and study guide had to reflect what the language group actually had translated. It would be too confusing to just leave everything in the book. The students would work on the translation of the material all day during the class. Then they would go home and continue to translate, edit and revise. It was amazing to see their willingness and excitement.
The second week, we began to demonstrate the course and ask the students to practice teaching the course. We would show what should happen during day 1 of the course. Each day followed a basic pattern with lots of Scripture reading, information about their alphabet, answering basic comprehension questions, and lessons on how to use the basic tools in the Bible (like footnotes, maps, and parallel references). To help them find Scripture verses with more ease, we taught them how to do “Sword Drills” (I remember playing this in Jr. church). If you’ve never done a Sword Drill, here is what happens: you make sure all the students have their Bibles closed and then you call out a verse. The first person to find it stands up and reads it. It was a little more complicated since we had different Scripture portions for different language groups. We had to give verses from both Mark and Luke and then have one from each read. We also taught games to help with Scripture memorization. In one game, we would write the memory verse on the board and then slowly erase words as we continued to read it over and over until all the words were gone. In another game, we used a ball made out of a coconut leaf. We passed the ball around and said the memory verse. By the end of the second week, the students had demonstrated all five days of the course. Many indicated a desire to do this course in their village. Please pray that they will be able to remember all that they have learned and that God will provide them wisdom and skills to help their people read and study God’s word in their own language.
In the same way, when we are exposed to various trails we develop a stronger faith. Isaiah 48:10 says, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” In Romans 5:3-5, we find that “we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
