As Part of the Whole

The purpose of our trip down country was so that we could gain a first experience with the Gmz region and people. However, the trip itself was not designed with us in mind, rather we were piggy backing onto a trip that was scheduled for a completely different purpose – the supervision of mother tongue education in the public schools. One of our colleagues is helping to set up a mother tongue literacy component in many schools spread out over the region (not just Gmz, but other minority languages in the area as well). This was the first year that the program was introduced, so we joined our co-worker and one other man from the regional education bureau in a supervision trip, to observe how well these first graders are learning to read in their own mother tongues.

Of the eight schools that we visited, four were Gmz, which was particularly exciting for us. We were able to sit in classes and see the progress that some of the students had made in just one year. Some schools were definitely disappointing as even the bright students struggled to read the words written on the board, but others were very encouraging with many quick and correct responses (which is exceptional considering none of these 8 schools have any textbooks for the children, only one teacher’s guide was provided for the teacher). As we sat in the back of the room (impossibly trying not to be a distraction), internally we were cheering these children on and the smiles on our faces with each right answer gave away our biased opinions. As we watched these little Gmz children learn, we couldn’t help but think that these are the future readers of the Gmz Scripture. The task of translation is so much wider than merely producing a book in their language, it begins years, or decades before the official publication date as linguistic research is done, school primers are developed, mother tongue literacy is taught, and the church as a whole is discipled in preparation. We are just one part of the whole. We are thankful to see the mother tongue literacy work in progress in these four schools.

In all of our traveling last week, we did accomplish part of our down country goal – to get to see the region in which the Gmz live. Because of our trips secular focus on schools, we were unable to connect with the church in this area. We did however, stop at the station of another agency in this area where two North American families are currently working with the Gmz people. They are heavily involved in running their own school in which they too are teaching mother tongue literacy. We look forward to coming alongside these programs to assist by the translation and production of more reading materials - including Gmz Scripture.