What?

     Now that you know that we will be working with the Carib people of Guyana because God has called us and they need to know, another question remains, “What will we be doing?”  This is an interesting question seeing that Lindsey and I are sitting in Tyler, TX at OneStory training.  We are learning the “What?” first hand right now!

     When we get to Guyana, our first 6 months will be dedicated to the learning of the Carib language and culture.  We will be connecting with an individual there in Guyana who speaks both English and Carib.  He will be tutoring us and helping us learn the language.  We will also spend a lot of time in the village, getting to know the people and building relationships, with the hope of learning the Carib way of life inside and out.

     After this initial six months, we will start our actual OneStory project.  What is a OneStory project you ask?  Well, OneStory is a program used to share the Gospel with people around the world who do not have a written language or do not have the Bible translated into their language yet.  We will translate between 40-60 stories from the Bible into the Carib language.  If you think this sounds like a huge task, you are correct!  We will share the stories with a native, who will then tell it back to us in their language so that we can record and study their words.  We will be checking for Biblical accuracy, where as they will be checking for cultural understanding.  This is a very fine line to balance on.  We will be documenting these stories and testing them with other natives to make sure they can be retold without changes.  If there are changes then we have to go back to the drawing board and run more test on the words in the story, until the story can be told multiple times with accuracy and understanding.

     Finally, we will work on getting these 40-60 stories into the hands and hearts of the Carib people.  This will take place through a variety of means: 1. Church plants, 2. Audio, which we record and distribute, 3. Local radio stations, 4. Home meetings, where people come over and we share stories, or 5. Carib people being touched by the stories and going themselves and telling others what they have learned.

     Basically, the “What?” can be answered in the Bible: Eph. 5:1 says, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.”  Jesus was always telling stories to teach others, we want to imitate this method of teaching because for a culture who cannot read, they have to learn by hearing.  Our hope is that we will be able to imitate the love of God for the Carib people so they will know there is a God and He loves them enough to send His Son to the earth so they may be saved!  OneGod.OneWorld.OneStory!

     Check back next week to find out the “When?” of this adventure!

PS, look below to see these new pictures of Guyana, courtesy of a man we just met while in TX.  He was apart of the team that translated the "Jesus Video," into the Carib language!