– Elna

One of the benefits of joining a team who’ve already been in the village for years, is that we are seeing fruit of the ministry here much faster than we would if we came from the beginning. The Canns have been living in working in Mawerero from 2017. They completed their CLA phase (Culture and Language Acquisition) just after our arrival here. At that point, Cassidy was already hard at work preparing for the Literacy Program. She joyfully put in hours and hours of work, and the end product was astounding. Amelia and I were amazed as we watched her teach – we were encouraged to press on in our own language learning so that we can also communicate clearly with our friends. We were also encouraged to keep growing in our love for our friends in the village. And above all, to love our Lord and serve Him faithfully. We were included as ‘teachers’ in the celebration of the first literacy class graduation, even though we only assisted Cassidy in small ways, like marking homework books and helping students during reading times. In the end, all the glory belongs to the Lord, but today I want to thank Him for my friend Cassidy. She faithfully carries this part of the work here in Mawerero.

The very first Do Literacy Class had 15 graduates. They completed their basic Literacy class in January 2020. Since then, they have been meeting weekly for Post Literacy reading practice. At first, Ryan and Elna were tasked with the Post Literacy program. This included development of Do reading books, and meeting weekly for reading class. In July, Amelia shifted her focus (she’s almost done with her CLA) and is now heading up Post Literacy. Elna still helps her, but Ryan is focussing completely on CLA.

Our plan is that Literacy will be taken over and run independently by local teachers. To this end, Cassidy identified men in the first class who might become teachers. She did teacher training with them, and gave them opportunities to lead parts of the class. So when the second group started Literacy, Maikepe was ready! He taught a big part of the second literacy class. The eight students graduated on 15 August and joined the Post Literacy class last Saturday. Maikepe has proven himself to be a faithful teacher, and he is excited to start a third class soon.

God chose to reveal himself to humanity in the Word. If we want to know God, we need to read the Word. This is why we are so excited about the growing number of Do people who will be able to read the Bible in their own heart language.