READING THE FUTURE
January 19, 2007
At age 8, learning to read changed Imelda's life forever.
The Northern Tepehuan girl was crippled with an extreme arthritic condition, bedridden in her little house in Mexico. Then missionary Shirley Bauman started teaching her to read.
"Imelda's world exploded as lines and squiggles on paper became letters and letters became words," wrote Shirley's co-worker, Matt Arnold. "When she could read, her little room in their adobe house could not confine her imagination."
Imelda helped teach her dad to read, and today a dozen Northern Tepehuans can read their own language.
Irv Bauman, Shirley's husband, recalled one of their first students stringing together syllables he was learning, and exclaiming in wonder, "Hey, that says a word!"
Literate believers are growing faster than others.
"Before, when [Juan] couldn't read, he had a hard time remembering the teaching," Matt wrote. "But now after hearing the teaching, he reads the lesson at home and is beginning to teach those around him what he is learning."
But how do you help people go from learning that each squiggle and line on paper represents a sound, to seeing that together they form words and sentences, and even stories? That's one reason for NTM's Missionary Training Center. This and many other important skills are taught, so people like you and I can prepare to plant churches among tribal people.
Thank you for praying and giving! You are helping expand the reach of the Gospel, and you help expand the center that equips people to go to the ends of the earth with the Good News.
- Ice storms and resulting power outages delayed the beginning of the semester. Pray that teachers and students will be able to make up for lost time; the schedule is tight.
- Pray that the ongoing new campus expansion can continue, as new housing and more classroom space are urgently needed for the existing student body. The goal is to be able to equip students to go to unreached tribes with God's Word.
Find out how you can be equipped to take the Gospel to unreached people>>
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