Game makes a point
Last week the Akolet people in Papua New Guinea played the "telephone game."
Missionaries asked for volunteers to form two lines. One line was literacy class graduates.
Instructions were given so everyone understood. To one line, Adam whispered Genesis 1:1 in Akolet to the first person: "Long ago, at the start, the Creator created the sky and the ground." They were to pass the message along the line by speaking it to the next person.
The same message was given to the second line. The difference -- it was written on a piece of paper and simply passed along.
As the oral message was passed, looks of confusion were exchanged as it traveled. One man, reading the looks on their faces, said, "The message is already hidden. It’s already wrong. How will we know what it was supposed to be?"
At the end, the last man was asked to tell the message. He paused and then said, "Long ago our canoe was on the ground."
The group with the written message erupted into laughter, and then Gili, the final person in that line, read very clearly Genesis 1:1.
"We saw a lot of animated discussion as the one group blamed each other and tried to figure out where and how things went wrong," wrote Adam and Julie Martin. "The point, which Adam then made, was that people’s stories change through misunderstandings and through continued repeating over time.
"That’s the problem with the spoken word. But God’s message was so important for us to understand that He wrote it down, ensuring that its meaning would be preserved over thousands of years for us today to still know it, understand it, and know Him.
"This was our next-to-last Monday morning demonstration. Stay tuned for what we’ll do next week with a bunch of computer parts."
Evangelistic Bible lessons will begin for the Akolets on Tuesday, January 4.
Please pray that the Akolet people will be faithful to attend the teaching and have good ears to hear the message of salvation.
Missionaries asked for volunteers to form two lines. One line was literacy class graduates.
Instructions were given so everyone understood. To one line, Adam whispered Genesis 1:1 in Akolet to the first person: "Long ago, at the start, the Creator created the sky and the ground." They were to pass the message along the line by speaking it to the next person.
The same message was given to the second line. The difference -- it was written on a piece of paper and simply passed along.
As the oral message was passed, looks of confusion were exchanged as it traveled. One man, reading the looks on their faces, said, "The message is already hidden. It’s already wrong. How will we know what it was supposed to be?"
At the end, the last man was asked to tell the message. He paused and then said, "Long ago our canoe was on the ground."
The group with the written message erupted into laughter, and then Gili, the final person in that line, read very clearly Genesis 1:1.
"We saw a lot of animated discussion as the one group blamed each other and tried to figure out where and how things went wrong," wrote Adam and Julie Martin. "The point, which Adam then made, was that people’s stories change through misunderstandings and through continued repeating over time.
"That’s the problem with the spoken word. But God’s message was so important for us to understand that He wrote it down, ensuring that its meaning would be preserved over thousands of years for us today to still know it, understand it, and know Him.
"This was our next-to-last Monday morning demonstration. Stay tuned for what we’ll do next week with a bunch of computer parts."
Evangelistic Bible lessons will begin for the Akolets on Tuesday, January 4.
Please pray that the Akolet people will be faithful to attend the teaching and have good ears to hear the message of salvation.