Man Taught by the Holy Spirit
From SPARK
Summary
Moving from illiteracy to literacy with God's help.
Not a fluent reader but....
God can get beyond any communication barrier. This is a story about the work of the Holy Spirit and how God can use very poor readers as pastors and translators. Mahniko was by far the best man on the translation team even though he wasn't a fluent reader.
What Was Done
I remembered one Easter Sunday church service. To say that he read the Scripture passage haltingly, was a compliment to him. He often paused for what was an embarrassing amount of time. He stumbled over words or read the wrong word. People prompted him and shouted out corrections. He took this audience participation with a humble spirit, especially since in his culture shame can sometimes cause a person to commit suicide. Finally he finished, looked up. “Now what that means is…”
“Oh, how can he know what it means?” I thought. But he went on to expound the passage thoroughly and correctly.
If I had harbored doubts that Mahniko was God’s man to pastor the village church, it was dispelled that day. Never mind that he’s not a good reader. This is a man from a group of people who were 100% illiterate until just a few short years ago. Now he’s reading portions of Scripture translated into his language. And the Holy Spirit is teaching him.
The Dobino people had never heard the name of Jesus until we went to live among them in the late 50s and learned enough of their language to tell them Bible stories. When we began translating the Gospel of Mark, we paid those who worked with us. We called them “translation helpers.”
Now after over twenty years, my husband and I were back helping the Dobino church revise the out-of-print New Testament. We wanted the people who worked with us on this revision to think of themselves as “translators” and us as their “helpers.”
Before coming back, we wrote, “We’ll do for you what we can do…” That meant working with them using our lap-top computers and other electronic equipment, and then facilitating the publishing of the revised product. It also meant we’d help them with health and educational needs.
After telling them that “We’ll do for you what we can do,” our letter continued, ”...but only if you do for us what you can do.” That meant, among other things, they would work on the revision of the New Testament without pay. If they were to see this New Testament as “theirs,” we felt they must take ownership of the revision work.
They agreed to our stipulations and had joyfully built us a pole and bamboo thatch house and were bringing us food, asking no payment.
Mahniko had remained a faithful pastor all those years we had been gone. He and others his age, along with a few second generation Christians, came to work with us. The men all seemed to enjoy our time working until… “What is Mahniko’s problem these days?” We wondered. He mumbled. At times he appeared bored or distracted, sometimes uncommunicative, even angry. In general it seemed that abiah tumpirire (“His nose is overrun with weeds” or as we’d say in English, “His nose is out of joint!”).
The next Sunday at church Ed confronted him in love as a Christian brother. “Mahniko, we aren’t fighting one another. We’re fighting evil powers that want to make us upset with one another. Please tell me what’s bothering you.”
The angry tirade began. “I’m just a poor pastor and you aren’t paying me for my work. I’m going to report you to your mission…”
Ed listened as he spilled out his bitterness, then invited him and his wife to “Come to our house Wednesday and we’ll talk and pray.”
The next day, Ed went through the Dobino New Testament and printed out verses that spoke about money. When Mahniko and his wife arrived, and we had served them cookies and tea, Ed suggested, “Let’s pray first.”
Mahniko began. “Oh, Creator-God, our Father, I have been wrong. I threatened to report my brother and sister and that was wrong. I have been concerned about money when you’ve given me so much – land, gardens, and a house?.” On and on he prayed, confessing to God in our presence.
Results
After prayer and reconciliation, together we studied what the New Testament says about money and prayed again. Ed gave the manuscript to Mahniko in case he wanted to preach a sermon on the love of money.
Once again, I knew Mahniko was God's man to pastor the Dobino church. He wasn’t perfect (but neither were his “translation helpers”). But he was a man taught by the Holy Spirit from God’s Word in his heart language.
- by Aretta Loving
