The Need...
"Most people don't realize that over two thirds of the world are comprised of oral learners. Oral learners are found in cultural groups in villages and cities around the world. As such, over 60% of the world's population can't, won't, or don't hear the Gospel when we share it, simply because it is often coming to them through literate means they do not understand and to which they do not relate. They are visually impaired, illiterate, or functionally illiterate. Further, 29% of the world's population remains unreached and unengaged with the Gospel. One of the major factors causing this lack of engagement is because they are oral learners."
The above is an excerpt from Davar's Interactive Bible Discovery Course Manual and it paints a pretty clear picture of the challenges faced by those carrying the Gospel to the unreached. Of the world's roughly 7 billion people, nearly 4.35 billion are oral learners. That though is only part of the issue.
"Hundreds of millions live in two worlds. The first, of great importance to them, is that of intimates who speak the same language; the second, of relatively slight importance, is that world of a strange tongue in which we trade and work with outsiders. In the first, the medium of communication is the language of the heart, in the second, the language of confusion is a trade language or standard language, good enough for buying and selling, taking orders and finding one's own way, but pitifully inadequate for the things that really matter. People fight, make love and mourn in their mother tongue."(T.W.Dye)
This issue of language of the heart is of great importance when presenting the Word of God, regardless of whether you are dealing with an oral or literate learner. What we don't often realize is when we present the Word in a second language we are inadvertently telling the hearer that we are presenting a "foreign" God to them. And this is even if we present through a translator. I can speak from personal experience how many times we would try to present Biblical truths to someone, even those who call themselves "Christian", their response would be "you don't understand, this is our culture." or "no, no, that only applies to you because you are not from here."
Yet presenting the Word in their heart language breaks down those barriers. Suddenly you are not longer presenting a foreign God or some unknown religion you are presenting the Living Creator who has made them and knows them intimately. You are presenting the One who created their own culture and language and created them for His own glory and honor. Moreover they begin to realize their own sin and how the Bible isn't God's Word for the Jews or the Greeks or the "white" people, but it is His Word for them!
The point of what I am trying to say in all of the above is that if we truly want to see the task of "making disciples of all nations." completed in our lifetime then we must address these two great needs of first understanding how oral learners receive and process information, and second we must find ways to bring the Word to the many Unreached peoples in their own heart language. These are the two main things driving the work here at Davar, will you let it drive you too?
The above is an excerpt from Davar's Interactive Bible Discovery Course Manual and it paints a pretty clear picture of the challenges faced by those carrying the Gospel to the unreached. Of the world's roughly 7 billion people, nearly 4.35 billion are oral learners. That though is only part of the issue.
"Hundreds of millions live in two worlds. The first, of great importance to them, is that of intimates who speak the same language; the second, of relatively slight importance, is that world of a strange tongue in which we trade and work with outsiders. In the first, the medium of communication is the language of the heart, in the second, the language of confusion is a trade language or standard language, good enough for buying and selling, taking orders and finding one's own way, but pitifully inadequate for the things that really matter. People fight, make love and mourn in their mother tongue."(T.W.Dye)
This issue of language of the heart is of great importance when presenting the Word of God, regardless of whether you are dealing with an oral or literate learner. What we don't often realize is when we present the Word in a second language we are inadvertently telling the hearer that we are presenting a "foreign" God to them. And this is even if we present through a translator. I can speak from personal experience how many times we would try to present Biblical truths to someone, even those who call themselves "Christian", their response would be "you don't understand, this is our culture." or "no, no, that only applies to you because you are not from here."
Yet presenting the Word in their heart language breaks down those barriers. Suddenly you are not longer presenting a foreign God or some unknown religion you are presenting the Living Creator who has made them and knows them intimately. You are presenting the One who created their own culture and language and created them for His own glory and honor. Moreover they begin to realize their own sin and how the Bible isn't God's Word for the Jews or the Greeks or the "white" people, but it is His Word for them!
The point of what I am trying to say in all of the above is that if we truly want to see the task of "making disciples of all nations." completed in our lifetime then we must address these two great needs of first understanding how oral learners receive and process information, and second we must find ways to bring the Word to the many Unreached peoples in their own heart language. These are the two main things driving the work here at Davar, will you let it drive you too?
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