Rick – Page 13 – WALKER HOME SERVICES

Question from John

John Howard asked the question, “One part of the story that I haven’t heard is how the P’s learn to read. You say that you think thousands of them are reading their Bibles, so some method must have been used to teach them to read.”

Good question John. The vast majority of the P population between the ages of 10-40 are fairly literate. They all learn how to read in the government schools which are situated in their respective villages. However, the government schools only teach them how to read in Spanish, so this throws a bit of a curve ball at them when it comes to reading in their own language.

However, we are so grateful for the early missionaries, particularly Alli Findley and Mary Lou Yount, who developed readers and syllable charts in the P language and taught literacy before Robin and I ever arrived. This gave a large percentage of the nation the ability to read in their own language. Most can sound out words, but there is a lower percentage of readers that can read well with sight words. So, the majority of these “thousands” of P’s that are now reading their Bibles are also honing their reading skills as there are virtually no reading materials in their language other than the Bible.

This brings us to a great topic and that is the topic of literacy. The Silva brothers have adapted Mary Lou’s reading Primer and desire to have it printed as they desire to launch a reading program across the P nation. Nereo just sent me the final version of the Primer which he worked on for me to proof read it. Once it’s approved by me and Nereo, I will send it to the Print shop in Bogota for a quote to see how much per copy it would be to print 20,000 Primers. At that time, we will be raising the money for that project as well and Nereo wants to launch a nation wide reading program and train teachers to get out to all the villages and teach the children to read first in their own language. This is really exciting news as the better they can read, the better they will be able to read and study the Scriptures.

We are very grateful for Mary Lou’s wisdom in using as much of the Spanish orthography as possible (i.e. the ‘W’ sound she wrote with the Spanish ‘Hu’ so that the reader would not have to learn two symbols for the same sound).

Thanks for the question John. Let me know if you have any more.

“It is the Spirit who gives life” John 6:63

Getting over Covid took a bit of rest, but I’m happy to be back in the saddle and working again. Classes are daily and going well. I see that the well being of the class has more to do with the hunger in the student and the enlightenment which the Spirit gives them than it has to do with my ability to teach, though having ability to teach is greatly appreciated. There’s nothing worse than being in a teaching position, looking down at your notes and drawing a blank. On the flip side, there’s nothing better than being energized with the Spirit of Life in Christ and having your inner most being bubbling over with living water to share. So, it all comes down to the Spirit of Christ in all, both in the teacher and in the student. I wonder what God plans to do in and through each life represented in my class. In the near future, I hope to introduce you to them.

Which brings up the topic of my email updates. For some time, I’ve been realizing that email is not the only way to communicate and in today’s day and age, there are so many simple tools available to use in staying connected. So with Rick’s expertise and great help, I’ve started a blog page on my old work website. When you click on the link (as you have already), it will take you to a private and secure page on my website where you can view videos and photos much easier than by me trying to send them in an email. I also hope to include audio messages from time to time as well. Once on the page, we will likely open up commenting options for you too, if you would like to post a comment there, but you don’t have to and you can also continue to reply privately to this email address.

In summary, there’s tons going on with the P’s right now. The big news obviously being that they now have their own copies of their Bible in hand and it’s making it’s way all over the P world. E is currently transporting a pile of them to various villages. Pray for them now that they read their Bible and that the Spirit opens their understanding to His divine thought and truths. Robin and I wondered the other day, “How many of them are reading their Bible?” I bet you literally thousands of them are diligently reading. Just think of the Lord speaking to their hearts! May He use them to change their world. Russell says there is a major revival going on in Venezuela. I can’t help but wonder how the P’s are meant to be part of that. They have so much to share.

Other news from the P’s is that, just like that, they ran out of Bibles! E estimates the need for at least another 15,000 which could be used immediately. So, Rick will be updating the fund raising website soon at which time I’ll send out an email to raise awareness. If we have the funds, we can print more while we have the open door to transport with Russell’s people.

I’ve started cleaning up the recording studio and want to get it furnished and up and running soon so that I can get back to recording Bible teaching and music. I will keep you posted on that too.

We still are without internet, so I’m using my cell phone to create a mobile hotspot to write this email. Once we get internet, I will be able to keep you more updated.

In the meantime, check out the latest videos below.

Thank you for your prayers and all the encouraging notes. Much appreciated.