The Bible

Let me just tell you the way that God works is absolutely amazing! Our crew of five plus a couple others (Juan and Ciro) returned from San Pedro Yaneri, Oaxaca (wa-HAkah), Mexico in March. The purpose of our trip was to buy green coffee beans for Gospel Coffee. You can learn more about this trip, the Dove Blend, and our connection here in our other blogs.

Before we went to Oaxaca, our crew shared a brief testimony of how God is working in our lives at a local church. Because we had this trip coming up and God had been moving in amazing ways, we shared a 5-minute story of how God provides when we are walking in obedience. Britnee shared about the Lord’s financial provision and the way that God had opened doors for us continually. She talked about us going on a trip with two translators to bring back coffee beans. After the service, a woman filled with excitement came up to Britnee. She told Britnee that she and her husband want to donate for Bible translating and she wanted to know if the people we were going to visit had Bibles in their language. She and her husband were discussing on the way to church THAT MORNING an amount that they are wanting to donate.

To make it clear, we didn’t share where we were going or what we were doing. Britnee only mentioned that we were bringing with us two translators and getting coffee. Our minds were not thinking about the people having Bibles; we had no idea, we were going for coffee. Ha, well that's what we thought.

The village is called San Pedro Yaneri and it is nestled in the mountains of the southern state of Mexico called Oaxaca. The language of the region is Zapotec, however, there are over 50 different dialects of Zapotec. Each village speaks its own dialect and while they may overlap, they are different languages. Within San Pedro Yaneri, according to a local, around 30% of the people know Spanish and even fewer have a true comprehension of the Spanish language. But the majority of their Bibles are in Spanish. Our connection to this little mountain village is through Ciro, who is a pastor at a small church in the border town of Piedras Negras. He is originally from this little village but moved away for seminary and ministry.

Ciro speculated there might be a couple of Bibles in their native tongue in the whole town and that a man he knew had one. Come to find out, there were a couple of Bibles in Zapotec, but only one in the true native tongue of San Pedro Yaneri. After we told Ciro our plan to replicate the Bible in their native language, he was thrilled. One comment he made stuck with me. He said, “My language will be preserved”.

That is something I’ve never experienced before. I’ve never had to search for a Bible I understand or think that English will go extinct because not enough people speak it. My heart and mind have been impacted greatly by this. It’s given me an understanding of the importance of having access to the Word of God. Not everyone has access. As we go about our travels now, we are much more aware of the need for Bibles and have started to seek out if the people we are visiting have Bibles. If they don’t have many, we try to bring them some or raise money to buy them some. This is what we are doing for our upcoming trip to Africa.

Back to our trip. While on the mountain in San Pedro Yaneri, we began to pray. We needed the man to release his Bible to us so that we could bring it back with us and get it duplicated. We even decided that if he didn’t release it, we would stay up all night and take pictures of the Bible, because if it was my Bible, I’m not sure if I would release it to random strangers.

Praise the Lord, he gave it to us. We brought it back and are now in the process of replicating it. It hasn’t been a smooth process. There is not an easy-peasy way to do it. But holding the Bible in your hands, looking down at the type-written words, the dirty, worn-out pages, and the notes in the margins is something spectacular. Something that everyone should have for themselves. So we will press on. We will rely on God and we will do what we can to make as many Bibles in their heart language as possible. Then, prayerfully, we will get to return them and give them to the villagers. My heart is ready for that moment.

We learned the story of how this little village even has a Bible in its language.

In the late 60s, an American woman made the trek up the mountains in Oaxaca. Her name was Elvira. Her mission was to translate the Bible into the Zapotec language. The first village she came to was resistant to the gospel, so she walked on, and on, and on. She walked until she made it to a small village. It was there that she met Enes. This woman taught her Zapotec and together they translated the Bible.

We had the blessing of getting to meet Enes. To go into her home and hold her Bible. It is in Zapotec, but because she moved from a different village to San Pedro Yaneri, it’s not the dialect we needed. She sang hymns to us in Spanish and Zapotec and recounted to us this 50-year-old story as we sat around late in the evening in her home. What a special night. I can’t say I’ve experienced anything quite like it.

So, dear friends, this is a story to remind us all. Do not take the Word of God for granted. Hide it in your heart, treasure it like the love story it is, and believe it. And if you feel led, give Bibles away. Donate to us to give Bibles or give a Bible to someone you know. Spread the message of the Gospel.

Shalom, from the Gospel Coffee Crew.