Check out my bread, The Makhua video and a thank you.
WHY IS THERE A HOUSE ON THE SAND?
As a Christian Westerner, you might click on this picture, watch the YouTube video and be like YES! I understand the story. I understand the figures.
This was the initial reaction with the liaison team too! They cannot wait for a wooden box to be created, shipped and then used by the tribe we are trying to reach... Not so fast!
As you know from last month's newsletter, I was about to finish the video and then send it off for field testing. It was tedious work because I had to read the Makua language and English together to understand where I was in the story. Every time I heard ABRAHAMA, I knew where I was!
Last week it all came together.
The Liaison that took the video to the tribe came back with quite the unexpected feedback. For a moment it felt like I was back in Thailand where the one word "ma" meant six different things depending which tone was used. I was bad at tones. When I used the word "ma" I assumed a good understanding would simply read between the lines and understand it in the context of the conversation.
Not so with this video!
When there is no context, there is little understanding. Context here means, one grew up with symbols and Bible stories. Many of us had this as default on Sunday during Sunday school.
Visual symbols are something you and I grew up with. We know how to interpret it. For a person growing up in the bush-bush, this might not be the case.
The next obvious (painful) step is for the field testing team to sit with the people and line by line stop and ask - what do you see, and what does it mean to you? This is the good old Create International school to pass if one creates resources for the un-reached.
Then, I heard yesterday that the key Liaison has tested positive for Covid and sick in bed. Please pray for her because she is KEY in the communication!
A small memory of a field test long ago:
I will not forget when my friend worked on the God's Way project for Muslims. They painted away and when the feedback (field testing) came, the response was; "Why is there a house on the sand?" All of us in the office knew Nathan drew a boat... Noah's massive ark on water and not sand. Not so with the people we made it for. It was back to the drawing board.
You can click on this picture and watch some of the videos.
It still is one of my favourite projects that took place in the Create Office while I was living in Perth Australia.
Please keep praying over this Makhua project.
SPOT THE DOG... that grew way too big!
always on my head,
always on my pillow.
Picture below:
1. When I work for too many hours in a row - DOG ATTACK. It is as if they decided to attack me so that I would stop.