NTM

VERSES AS WORSHIP

Karija learned verses by singing them

October 30, 2008

by Jackie Fallis

When the Palaka believers in Ivory Coast met together for the first time, missionaries joined them on the outskirts of the village instead of in the center. The teaching was new, discipleship instead of chronological Bible lessons, and their lives were new as well.

The missionary team — Allan and Mandy Caley, Verne and Denny Johnson and Steve and Holly Robertson — decided to have an open time for sharing. They chose to go with a nonstructured event since they didn’t know how many, if any, believers would show up. The team wanted the people to feel free to talk about whatever was on their hearts. Then, when the Palaka believers arrived, "it was hard to convey in Palaka what an open sharing time was," Mandy said.

The missionaries were likely as nervous as the people. They didn’t want to burden the Palakas with cultural baggage, desiring for the Palakas to worship as God led.

Allan got up and opened in prayer. He was careful not to stand in an odd position or hold his head awkwardly; those working among the Palakas had once heard of a missionary who had rested one foot on a log and his forehead in his hand. It wasn’t until the fourth or fifth new believer in his village had taken that stance to pray that he realized they thought they needed to pray in that position.

At the end of that first Sunday meeting, the missionary team taught the Palakas a Bible verse to memorize. The following Wednesday the believers met and the verse was repeated. The missionaries were teaching orally since most of the Palakas still could not read their language; about 30 had finished Literacy classes.

The next Sunday, a believer named Karija stood up. She had learned the verse … by singing. She sang a line, and everyone repeated it. Never before had Palaka men and women sung together.

From that point on the Palaka worship services focused on the verses. Meetings opened with verse-singing, and people wanted to learn more verses, because it meant more songs. The believers enjoyed just saying the verses, too.

But beyond the singing and meeting times, there were more changes and distinctions growing among the Palakas. Before the evangelistic Bible lessons had been taught and there were believers, the Palakas had been very legalistic, looking for what they needed to do or not do to manipulate the spirits and each other. Because they blended animism with traditions they’d seen practiced by others, they considered faith and salvation a list of tasks to accomplish or things to avoid.

That list began to change during evangelistic Bible lessons when the story of the rich young ruler was taught. One Palaka man had an "aha" moment when he participated in presenting that story through drama. He asked if that was the way into Heaven, selling all of his stuff and giving to the poor. It made sense, according to their old way of thinking. Upon hearing that wasn’t the path, the listening Palakas started putting the pieces together. "Unless somebody went in our place …" was followed by "Jesus did it, didn’t He?"

In 2002, the missionaries had to evacuate Ivory Coast because of civil war, leaving the translation work in progress but not complete. Currently there is a famine in the Palakas’ area, but the work has not ceased. The Book of Ruth is ready to be checked by missionaries who are skilled in translation to see if it conveys the message correctly. The Palakas currently have 1,000 checked verses of the Old Testament and 800 checked from the New Testament, as well as unchecked portions of Acts, Romans and Ephesians and the tentative translation of Ruth.

Amid the changes and progress the Palakas still sing.

We spoke in Doncaster at Bessacarr Evangelical Church on 27th of January. It was a great time, what a lovely group of people we met there. Then on Saturday February 7th we took the youth meeting that they have at Whitby Evangelical church- another great time. It was an ‘African Evening’.

It is a great privilege to have a part in preparing these young people here at NTM UK for tribal ministries.

We spent a couple of hours last Saturday morning with a young man from the Missions study course who is researching tribal cultures and studying the Palaka in particular as he prepares to serve overseas somewhere with NTM, I think he is going to North Asia. I felt like I had been to visit the village as we talked about it so much! Actually we do hope to go out there to the Ivory Coast in the summer for 3-4 weeks- with Andrew too, to encourage the believers and see what we can do to help (in that short time).

We will be taking a meeting at Garforth Evangelical Church on November 16th 2008. They are providing a lunch too- we’d love to see you there. Their Sunday morning service starts at 11 am.

We are now here in the UK. Relearning how to be real Brits and appreciating your PRAYERS.