September 12

 We have a fascinating group visiting Western Indian Ministries and the Navajo Nation this month. They represent UniSkript – a way of picturing any language without using a Latin or symbolic alphabet. Their goal is teaching literacy very quickly, so illiterate peoples can read a Bible (written in UniSkript) in their mother tongue. (Uniskript.org)

In an initial meeting with the team we were discussing the conundrum of the Navajos having to reject most of their culture when they become Christians because the traditions are shaded with demonic meanings.

Suzuki (YWAM linguist from Brazil) told us this most remarkable story. Suzuki and his wife, Marcia, had worked for 20 years with a tiny tribe in the interior. This tribe was controlled by the witch doctor who went off periodically to commune with the spirits. The people lived in fear of displeasing the deities. Suzuki and Marcia learned the language and preached the gospel faithfully to the tribe, but their simple, direct words of God’s love did not touch the hearts of the people.

Many years later, they returned to the tribe after having been in the city for a break. The witch doctor was singing and chanting a song about eating cashews, and he seemed like a different person. Suzuki and Marcia couldn’t make heads or tails of the cashews or why the man was so changed on the inside – full of peace. They probed and questioned until they figured it out.

The witch doctor said that Jesus had met him as he was seeking the spirits and contemplating taking his own life. He said that Jesus had met him and had eaten the cashews for him. Understand that green cashews are very bitter and when someone eats them, it is believed that they not only poison the person’s stomach, but they poison the person’s soul. The witch doctor had been given the key to the gospel in a vision that he understood. Jesus takes away the sin—the bitterness that poisons your heart—and He eats it for you, so you are clean!

Partner Reading

To that tribe, Spiritual truth is not supposed to be plain and simple. It is best understood in a metaphorical way. To them, the words “Jesus Loves You” is too simple to be a spiritual truth! Salvation has come to that tribe. And the remarkable thing is that they had not really changed on the outside. They still did the same rituals, but the people are more kind and peaceful and not fearful. When the government officials came through inspecting to make sure that YWAM was not changing the culture of the tribe, they could not tell any outward difference. (In Brazil, Christians are persecuted if they try to change the culture of an indigenous tribe.)

Beautiful Children

Perhaps we should worry less about what the saved Navajos will do with their culture and pray for the Key so they understand Redemption.  What helps them to truly take in God’s gracious gospel?  Then let God direct them in the cultural things.

I hope to write more on UniSkript later. There has been a book written about the Suzukis and the daughter they rescued and adopted. It is called A Way Beyond Death: A Brazilian Couple’s Fight Against Fear, Suffering, and Infanticide, by Jemimah Wright.

Please pray for one of our faithful construction volunteer families – Keith and Denise. They lost their home and their cats in a California wildfire this week.

Thank you for your prayers, love, and gifts,

Learning number words and order