Workshop Scripture Use Korowai

It’s 2am and I’m sitting behind my laptop at the dining table in our living room, with a cup of coffee. Indonesian coffee, no less:). I don’t usually drink coffee, but tonight it’s really helping me stay awake. And I need to be alert, because I’m helping Suluh in Indonesia with a workshop in Papua. It’s 9am in Sentani.
The participants in this workshop are representatives from the four churches active in the Korowai region, and this is the first time they’re officially meeting to discuss the challenges they face. The biggest challenges they mention are: the lack of evangelists, the lack of financial support, and the nomadic lifestyle of the Korowai.

After everyone has shared their story, I lead a workshop on the differences between an oral culture and a literate culture, their strengths and weaknesses, and how best to utilize them for evangelism. The churches primarily focus on the written word in their approach, and my goal is to show participants the power of a more oral approach. They are open to this idea. The following materials are already available in Korowai: the Gospel of Mark (in book and audio format), chronological Bible stories (in audio format), a small songbook (in book format), the GEM evangelism method (in book and audio format), and a reading and writing method. The challenge the churches face is how best to utilize these resources to reach the Korowai with the Gospel.

At the end of the workshop, the participants express their desire to follow a GEM course in order to make effective use of all the available materials. I am very happy that we were able to give this workshop and with it's outcome. Not only did the churches get a chance to talk to one another and share their burdens, but they chose to continue with the GEM method. Through this method, they can learn to use the available materials very efficiently and reach many more Korowai people with the Gospel.