‘After the Tapes Came...’
Morgan
Jackson, International Director of Hosanna
Ministries, recently visited countries in Central and South America where
he heard stories of the impact of the Scripture cassette program Faith
Comes By Hearing. In his first two stories, he reports the effects the
program is having in Guatemala.
GUATEMALA — We arrived at an Assembly of God church to find a group of women sitting outside waiting to go in for prayer. They were initially very shy, but when asked about the effect the Word of God has had on their lives, they became very animated.
“Everyone here speaks Cakchiquel,” said one young woman. “Before, when the Scripture was read in Spanish, there were many words we did not understand. When the tapes came it was like a miracle. The meaning was clear and we understood everything. It was also like a video, because we could see the things in our minds.”
Adultery
At certain points, she said, they would stop the tape and discuss a point that the reading had raised. An example was where Jesus talks about adultery, in Matthew’s Gospel. “Adultery was a big problem in our village and was accepted as proper. But when Jesus said it was wrong, it had to be discussed. We no longer do this.”
Another woman said that because she didn’t speak Spanish, she could not understand anything in church.
Understood
“I thought Jesus couldn’t understand my language, Cakchiquel, since we did not pray or sing in Cakchiquel. After the tapes came and I heard Scripture in Cakchiquel, I understood perfectly and I learned how to live. Now we pray and sing in our language and this gives me great joy. The men who read the Bible in Spanish for worship had to look up the words in a dictionary and explain what they meant. Now there is no need for a dictionary: the pastor is preaching in Cakchiquel. There have been great changes in my husband because of the tapes,” she added. “He has accepted Christ.”
Mr Jackson also spoke to a man who had joined a Cakchiquel listening program at the Assembly of God church. “Things are much better for me since the tapes came,” he said. “I can read, but I had difficulty understanding the Spanish in church. Also, I did not believe what I could understand and I was sinning.
“When I heard the Scripture in Cakchiquel, it was unbelievably clear. Immediately after hearing Matthew chapter three, I knew I had to give my life fully to Christ and serve the church.” Both his spiritual life and his family life had changed as a result.
Harsh words
“Before, my wife and I said harsh words to each other and there was no peace in our home. After hearing the Scriptures, we learned this is wrong and have changed.
“Both my wife and my child were sick last year,” he added. “Although
we went to doctors, they were not getting better. When we heard the Scriptures
about how Jesus heals, we asked the church to pray. Both my wife and my child
were healed. In my church the preaching, singing and praying is now in Cakchiquel.”
(WR 355 /15 - 11.00)
How
Hearing the Word Changed the Whole Family
Mr Jackson met a church leader who was struggling
to repeat to his congregation, parrot-fashion, sermons he had heard on Spanish-language
radio. Then Scripture cassettes in his native tongue, Cakchiquel, arrived...
GUATEMALA
— The official pastor of the Iglesia Casa De Oración has so many
other churches to look after that he can only manage a visit once every few
months. That leaves the church leader, Domingo Zet Xep, to do most of the
preaching. Until recently, he had never heard or read the Bible in his native
language, Cakchiquel, and so did his best to preach in Spanish, a task for
which he was ill-equipped.
To prepare for the Sunday service, he would listen to sermons in Spanish on the radio and practise reciting what he heard. He also practised reading the Bible in Spanish. But he understood neither what he read nor what he preached. The people in the Iglesia Casa de Oración could not understand either. Even his wife, Cuza, attended and served in the church without realising it was possible to understand God’s message.
Understood
But when they obtained the Faith Comes By Hearing tapes of the dramatised New Testament readings in their native Cakchiquel, they both understood the Gospel clearly for the first time.
As long as Domingo had had to preach in Spanish, he gave much the same sermon week after week, and the ten or 15 people in the church did not come regularly. Since the listening sessions gave him access to the Bible in Cakchiquel, however, he has begun preaching in the language, too. Now he never has to repeat a message “because there is so much to talk about” and new people are coming to church. Two drunks who were listening outside accepted Christ and are now living Christian lives.
Domingo said that until he heard the Scriptures in Cakchiquel, it never occurred to him to pray for healing. “We went to doctors we could see with our eyes,” he says. “Then Cuza, my wife, had serious stomach pain, but the doctors could not help. After hearing the Word of God, we understood that Jesus could heal. So we went to him in faith and she was completely healed.”
Because
of occurrences like that, he adds, many people come to the church seeking
prayer for healing and a team is being trained to pray for the sick. Cuza
confesses that before she heard the Word of God in Cakchiquel, she went to
church merely as a ritual. “Afterwards, I was captivated and my heart
was full of joy and excitement. I never miss a listening session. I understand
everything I hear and try to memorise it to teach others.”
She quotes the Bible from her memory of the FCBH tapes and challenges her children to look it up.“They will check and learn what I said is true,” she says. “And they are amazed – because I cannot read.”
“When I meet women on the path talking about their troubles, I quote Scripture and tell them that Jesus is the answer. I also tell them Jesus speaks Cakchiquel and to come and listen to him. Some are coming. Since receiving the Scripture in Cakchiquel, I am full of hope, peace and faith. It is life to me. Thirty minutes of listening is too short!”
One of the greatest blessings to Domingo and Cuza is that the tapes have had a tremendous positive effect on their eldest son, aged 15. He was spending a lot of time hanging around the streets with other rebellious teenagers and getting into trouble. He refused to do what his parents told him or to help at home.
But after coming to church and hearing the cassettes of the New Testament in Cakchiquel, he changed. It happened without any persuasion from his parents; only their prayers and the Word of God. He left his friends, got a job and offered some of his earnings to help the family.
Domingo and Cuza say that the Word of God has completely changed their family, their own lives and their church. Before they began listening to Scripture, when people asked what they got out of being Christians, they had no answer. Now they have answers: joy, hope, healing and faith. Their lives, they say, are full. (WR 355 /16 -11.00) [PHOTOS]
l The Faith Comes By Hearing program is
operated by local churches and funded under the terms of a partnership between
Hosanna Ministries, the UBS and national Bible Societies.
‘Listening
to God’s Word Gave Me Peace,
Hope and Faith’
Mr Jackson gathered the following two stories
in Peru, from people who have not only been deeply affected by hearing the
Gospel themselves, but whose transformation has wrought changes on others
around them.
COLLIQUE,
Peru — When Marie’s husband left her she was so angry that she began
to drink heavily, neglecting her six children. Filled with pain and bitterness,
she had little hope for the future. Although she had heard of the Bible and
wanted to find out more about it, she was unable to read and so had never
been able to pursue this interest.
Opportunity
When her church joined the FCBH program, however, holding weekly listening sessions, Marie felt this was the opportunity she had been waiting for. As she listened to God’s Word, she felt a sense of peace return to her. She stopped drinking and became a Christian. “Before I began to listen I had no peace, hope or faith,” she said. “Although I cannot read, I have come to know God’s Word and this has changed my life.”
Marie also believes that her new-found faith has healed her of asthma. Unable to afford medicine, Marie was inspired by hearing a passage in Revelation, saying that all those who have need should go to Jesus. She went to her pastor, who prayed for her, and Marie noticed a tremendous improvement in her health.
When her granddaughter became ill with asthma shortly after this, Marie persuaded her daughter to bring the child to church for prayer. She too was healed, claims Marie, and through this, her daughter and two of her other children became interested in the Bible and started attending FCBH sessions.
According to Marie, the sessions have had a positive effect on their lives. Her son, who had behavioural problems and was always nervous, is now a committed Christian, totally at peace with himself. (WR 355/17 -11.00) [PHOTOS]
Blind Men Lead People to Christ Through FCBH
LIMA,
Peru — Cesar Augusto Ricra was working as a police officer when he lost
his sight, hearing and all his teeth in a terrorist bomb attack. Devastated
and angry, he tried to kill himself, and when this failed he prayed in desperation,
asking God why he had to suffer so much.
Shortly afterwards, to the surprise of his doctors, he regained his hearing and was able to fill the empty hours of his previously active life by listening to the radio. One day he heard a representative from the Peruvian Bible Society (PBS) speaking on the radio about the Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) program.
Badly injured
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Mr Ricra was immediately interested in participating in this program and phoned the Bible Society, who agreed to send him tapes if he formed a listening group. But, in Mr Ricra’s case, this was easier said than done – he lives in an apartment block provided by the government for victims of terrorist attacks, and many of the people are so badly injured that they are unable to leave their homes.
Amazed
However, realising that these people would find joy and comfort in hearing God’s Word, Mr Ricra started taking the tapes into their homes, listening and discussing with them every week. He was amazed at the response – he saw angry, suicidal men find peace again, and two of the five families he visits have become Christians.The tapes have had a profound impact on his life, too. Like the other men, he now feels at peace with himself, and he and his whole family have given their lives to Christ.
The tapes have also been a blessing because they are the only way that he has access to God’s Word – through playing the guitar, his fingers have become callused, making it almost impossible for him to read Braille.
Dramatised
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Another blind man, living on the other side of the city, has also started an FCBH listening group after receiving tapes of the dramatised Spanish New Testament from the PBS. Jose Grimalda is the only blind person in the group, and holds the sessions in his home. The 15 people in his group are all from different churches, but he says that there is complete unity among them when they gather around to hear God’s Word.
It was during one of these listening sessions that the woman who cleans
for him overheard what was being said on the tapes. When she later started
asking him questions about the sessions, he invited her to join in, and she
and her whole family have since become Christians. (WR 355/18 -11.00)
Great
Faith of Quechua Believers
is a ‘Light
to the Nation’
AYACUCHO, Peru — On a visit to churches in the mountains near Ayacucho, Morgan Jackson, International Director of Hosanna Ministries, found that the audio Scriptures in Quechua, provided by Hosanna and the UBS, are changing lives and planting churches.
“These Quechua believers are going to be a light to the nation of Peru and all of South America,” said Mr Jackson, who was deeply impressed by the people he met during his visit. “Their suffering, deep knowledge and attention to God’s Word has given them great faith.”
Hundreds
of people turned out for Mr Jackson’s arrival and treated it as a major
cause for celebration, greeting him with Quechua songs, flower garlands and
gifts of many kinds. They also shared with him how much the tapes had come
to mean to them.
“They said that the tapes had changed them and increased their faith and know-ledge of God’s Word,” said Mr Jackson, who also participated in listening sessions during his visit. “When they listened it was obvious that they had been immersed in God’s Word a long time, knew it well and loved it.”
Each
of the churches had used the tapes, some of which were more than 12 years
old, to plant sister churches in neighbouring villages. As many as 38 churches
had been planted by one church, which is also building a Christian training
centre.
“So in this rural mountain area of Peru, all this was being accomplished through the faith and courage produced by hearing God’s Word,” commented Mr Jackson.
Leader
One
of the voices on the tapes is that of Romulo Saune, a Quechua Christian leader
who helped to translate and record the Ayacucho Quechua New Testament. Mr
Saune, his uncle and a cousin were killed by Shining Path terrorists 10 years
ago, and some of the men who participate in the Faith
Comes By Hearing (FCBH) sessions were with him when he died. They shared
how much it meant to them to hear his voice on the tapes. Others said that
the tapes had helped them find strength in times of trouble.
“They told me how they had suffered during the time of the terrorists who took food and other things by force, including their young people,” said Mr Jackson. “Then soldiers would come to the village and accuse them of supporting the terrorists.
“The villagers could not sleep in their homes at night because of the danger of being burnt alive by terrorists or soldiers, so they slept in the hills and caves. Even so, many people were killed. Yet I found no anger in the people – they exhibited only forgiveness, great joy and a desire to spread the Gospel.” (WR 355/19 - 11.00) [PHOTOS]
“These Quechua believers are going to be a light to the nation of Peru and all of South America ... Their suffering, deep knowledge and attention to God’s Word has given them great faith.”