The opening lessons of the book are answering basic questions about “What is Prayer?” The answer in the book is that prayer means “Talking with God” which is different than asking for things, or talking TO God, or even talking to other perceived spiritual beings which depend on the culture. As I was preparing this lesson, I was reflecting on some insights I’ve gained from language-learning, primarily that all of the words used for prayer in Lopit churches come from the word for asking, begging, a beggar on the street, etc. I wanted to ask Paul about this without being too direct. It’s not my job to say “You should change what you’re doing” if there’s a way for him to see that’s happening and decide it for himself. During our meeting I just asked Paul, “How does this lesson relate to the words we use for prayer in our church?”
When I asked that question, Paul immediately lit up and said “Yes! I was going to ask you the same thing!” The next day, Sunday, Paul told the story of creation all the way up to Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden. He asked the people what Adam and God were doing at the beginning when God was bringing him the animals to name and walking with them in the garden, and then He asked them what it was that caused Adam and Eve to be afraid of God and hide from Him rather than enjoying their fellowship (the answer is sin). Paul then asked the church what they call it when they need to travel for an emergency and have to call an uncle or relative and beg for money to help, and they gave him the word “Amoju” which sounds like the word for prayer “emojo.” He gave a few more examples, and then he asked “What should we call it when we’re telling God our problems, praising him, repenting, etc.” and everyone was quiet. As a group they eventually decided that instead of using the normally-accepted words for prayer, they were going to start saying things like “Erara iyohoi iko Hollum” (Let us talk with God). It’s a small change, but huge in a culture where dependency is so widespread and new believers are learning what a relationship with God looks like.
Will you pray with us for the church here as they grow in their understanding of basic Christian truths? The small group of ladies who meet with Paul still struggle with traditional religion and syncretism, pray that as Paul grows in his study of scripture and theology that the church would grow in their passion for the gospel!
We are all doing fine as I’m writing this. We’ve had a bit of a break from everyone being sick, helping team members evacuate because of sickness, fixing internet and car issues that never end, and now that the holidays are almost over it’s time to buckle down on language learning again. Pray for joy and perseverance as we struggle to learn the language well to effectively communicate the gospel with people, and pray that God would guard us from more spiritual warfare as things seem to constantly come up.
Thanks as always for your prayer and support!
Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb
We celebrated Teresa’s birthday this month. She was pretty happy to get an onion chopper like the one Amy uses at our house.
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