What Comes Before Belief
This season in Kuyu has been marked by both loss and meaningful progress. The community has been struck by numerous deaths, including a heartbreaking case where a woman, medevac'd from Kuyu for urgent medical care, passed away in town. These losses leave the community scratching their heads for answers...answers that we aren't quite ready to give.
There's nothing we want more than to share truth with our Kuyu friends, but with each passing death, we are reminded that we have not come to make quick converts of the Kuyu people, but to uproot thousands of years worth of animistic roots with the hope of establishing a church that outlasts us.
A task that is not done in haste.
As a team, we have spent years immersing ourselves in Kuyu gardens, homes, and trails, learning their language and uncovering the inseparable connection between their words and cultural worldview.
And amidst the sorrow our community faces, our team celebrates a huge milestone: Jacob, Jonathan, and I have officially completed our culture and language study!
What comes next feels like a small spark turning into a wildfire of hope and optimism.
When we made initial contact with the Kuyu people in 2020, we told them we wanted to do four things:
Learn their language and culture
Teach them how to read and write in their own language
Translate God's talk
Teach them God's talk from beginning to end.
With the completion of the first item, literacy consultants flew into Kuyu and we kicked off the next initiative. For those two weeks, we developed literacy materials, starting with simple syllables and later writing stories to include in the Kuyu literacy curriculum. Over the coming months, we’ll develop a comprehensive teacher’s guide to empower the Kuyu to teach future generations. We'll also begin translating a library of post-literacy materials to encourage future literacy graduates to continue reading.
Prayer Requests
Pray for wisdom as we develop literacy materials
Pray that the Lord would sustain Morgan's health
Pray for the Lord to prepare hearts here in Kuyu