Faith Comes By Hearing helps struggling pastors in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — “The Word of God itself speaks to their hearts.” This is how the pastor of a Baptist church in Cobán, northwestern Guatemala, sums up the impact of audio Scriptures supplied under the Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) program.

He describes how he takes audio cassettes of the New Testament in Kekchí, which is spoken by 400,000 people in Guatemala, to every church he visits. “In almost every new place that I play it,” he says, “several people accept Christ.” But “most beautiful of all,” he adds, is that the FCBH program gives people access to the Scriptures presented in their own language in a very powerful way.

“Thanks to FCBH,” he says, “I almost don’t preach any more!”

Had two women

His experience is mirrored by that of the pastor at the Iglesia del Nazareno church, also in Cobán. He had been finding it very difficult to convince people of the truth of God’s Word because, as he admits, and as they well knew, “before I met the Lord I drank a lot and had two women.”

The task was made more challenging by the fact that people did not trust his interpretation of the Scriptures: as he was preaching from a Spanish Bible which they could not read for themselves, they suspected that he might not be presenting them with the truth. This all changed when he received a set of audio cassettes of the New Testament in Kekchí from FCBH. Now that people can hear the Word of God in their own language, they no longer doubt him.

“On Sunday mornings the church is full,” he says, “and the people value the ministry that I am doing even more.”

Stumbling block

In El Quiché, located in western Guatemala, 135kms (81 miles) from Guatemala City, Pastor Juan Pu Castro was also struggling before receiving FCBH material. For him, the main stumbling blocks were his lack of formal biblical education and the fact that he could not understand some passages of Scripture in Spanish.

Gaining access to the New Testament in Quiché on audio cassette has greatly enhanced his understanding and means that “with this new knowledge, telling others about Christ has a new value and importance for me.” He rejoices that he is now able to present God’s Word very effectively within his own community.

The first pastor reflects their enthusiasm for FCBH when he says, “Thanks to God and to the brothers from Faith Comes By Hearing for giving us this excellent material! I don’t have the words with which to express my deepest appreciation.” (WR 372/13 - 11.02)