On Christmas morning, Dad surprised us with a powerful series of testimonies from around the world as told by Morgan Jackson, International Director of a ministry called, “Faith Comes by Hearing.” This ministry has as its primary goal to record the Bible in an audio format for people of varying languages so that, regardless of whether they can read or not, the powerful truths of God’s Word may be heard. The following testimony set the tone for our Christmas day as we saw what Christmas truly is all about: the love of Jesus.

Years ago, Faith Comes by Hearing took the opportunity to do a dramatized recording of the Bible into the Ketchua language. Working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, ‘Faith Comes by Hearing’ completed and distributed the recordings throughout Bolivia.

Some time later, Morgan Jackson traveled down to visit some of the churches where the recordings had been given. He questioned the Pastors on what the response of the people had been. One pastor shared with him how the people were being drawn to tears through listening to the Bible. Morgan asked which particular stories or passages were causing this response. It was the story of the woman with an issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34). He visited another church and once again heard the impact the audio Bible was having and how the congregation was drawn to tears. Which story? The healing of the woman with an issue of blood. While Morgan recognized the amazing miracle Christ did in this story, he couldn’t quite figure out why the natives were drawn to tears. After hearing several more similar accounts across the countryside, Morgan sought to find out why.

The answer came through understanding the history of the Ketchuas. In years prior, the Shining Path guerilla group had murdered a majority of the pastors in Bolivia. With a desire to not forsake the assembling of the body of Christ, the Ketchua believers approached Spanish churches in the area and requested the use of the Spanish church for a Tuesday or Wednesday service. However, for some 500 years the Spanish have had grave prejudice against the Ketchuas. The Spanish reviled the Ketchuas, stating that God does not speak the Ketchua language and that the Ketchuas are animals and bugs. The Ketchuas request was disdainfully denied.

Because the Ketchuas are an oral based people, when a story is heard they will relate to the characters in a story and actually hear the story as if they were the very characters being described. Upon hearing the story of the woman with an issue of blood, the indigenous people quickly associated with the woman. When she reached out and touched the garment of Jesus, shouts of fear echoed throughout the church as the congregation braced for rejection. After all, this is all they knew.

But with love and kindness, Jesus turns to the woman and says, “Thy Faith hath made thee whole.” Tears would begin pouring down the faces of the congregation as they realized Jesus turns none away and that Jesus, the Son of God, did indeed speak their language. The people would begin sobbing and saying how much their heart hurt. The pastors opened up the church altar and lovingly invited the weeping natives to come give their life to Jesus. Many came to Christ – the One who speaks their language and loves each one.

If you would like your own CD from which we heard this powerful testimony along with many other similar ones, you can obtain a copy through “Sonlight Curriculum.” It is entitled, “God speaks my language.”

This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under HIS-story, Ministry Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.