Our mother tongue is the language we learned as kids from — you guessed it — our mamas. It is the language in which we think and pray and dream, and it is the language that touches our hearts and evokes emotions. It is the language in which the Word of God resonates most powerfully in our entire being.
Not everyone grasps how important it is for people to interact with the Bible in their mother tongue. Sadly, this is true even for spiritual leaders.
In our West African home, French is the language of wider communication. It is also the language in which local pastors and priests receive their religious training even though it is not their mother tongue. French holds prestige in religious circles as being the language of the theologically educated, and it is the language used in a majority of churches throughout the country.
The first missionaries to come among the Kawah people were French priests. Today most Kawah churches are Catholic, using French as their language. Even in the handful of evangelical churches here, pastors are hesitant to preach in Kawah.
Not everyone grasps how important it is for people to interact with the Bible in their mother tongue.
For years, our Kawah team has translated the Scriptures in the Palm Sunday liturgy and printed them as a gift to the local Catholic churches. The church in the village where we lived always loved them. The people proudly read them, partly because we were integrated into the community and partly because they were proud to have God’s Word in their own language. Yet even in this church the willingness to advocate for Kawah Scriptures changes as one priest leaves and another takes his place.
Palm Sunday 2018 was a remarkable turning point for the newest priest in our village. We gave him copies of the Palm Sunday Scripture texts for distribution, but he did nothing with them. He wasn’t open to partnering with us.
Kyle, the literacy specialist on our team, had been praying for God to change this priest’s heart. God answered in a powerful way that Sunday.
Our Kawah team had set up a table to sell Scripture portions and offer literacy and Scripture engagement courses. We had just finished printing Exodus, and we had taken boxes of copies to church that morning.
During mass an offering is collected, with members dancing their offerings up to the altar and handing them to the priest and his assistants. On this day the crowd was larger than usual, and the offering parade lasted at least 15 minutes. Village men presented chickens, goats, palm nuts, money, bottled water, and some cans of local beer. The women carried bags of rice and peanuts. Gifts of bananas, manioc, papaya, and coconuts abounded. All these gifts were intended to feed their clergy and be used for the church at large.
The people lifted the Word of God in their own language above their heads and danced forward with delight to present this gift to God.
The Spirit of God moved on Kyle that morning. He took some copies of Exodus from one of the boxes and joined the line to dance them up to the altar. At this, the people behind him in line started grabbing copies out of his hands so they could do the same. A dozen times Kyle went back to get more copies of Kawah Scripture from the boxes. Finally, he gave up and picked up an entire box and carried it to the back of the line. By then nearly half the procession had copies of Exodus. They lifted the Word of God in Kawah above their heads and danced forward with delight to present this gift to God.
Copy after copy of Exodus was laid at the altar before our new priest. By the time Kyle arrived, dancing with his box of Scripture, the priest was beaming with a warm smile. He embraced Kyle after he had laid his gift on the altar. The people had spoken. Through them God had spoken to the priest. Kawah Protestant and Catholic believers became more united that day.
