- San Scripture Engagement 3rd workshop Khwe
Participants: Anton Paulus and Petrus Bower from Chetto in Namibia, Mokoja Jame (Esia), Michael Kativa, and Annah Tendere Kanapo from Kaputura (Botswana), James Kongwa, Mohembu Ururu (Martin), Anita Pove (Kiang) and John Mbango (wife and husband), and Josifine Fahm from Shakarawe (Botswana), Vasco Serneo (who is !Kung), Johanne Bergho, Moyo Viljoen Derenge, Rawe Kakawu, and Billies Difanno Pamo from Platfontein (South Africa), Khwe Bible translators Hepuru Splash Moronga and Moses Johane, Jerry (a local missionary serving Botwana people in Shakawe), Eben Le Roux (serving the Khwe and The Seed Company San Partnership Coordinator), and Lucas van Vuuren (serving the Khwe through the Dutch Reformed Church of Namibia), Ruben Dubei (Wycliffe RTS Scripture Engagement Specialist in mentoring position).
Topics to be covered in this workshop:
- Which scripture portions to start with (door openers and bridges)
- Relevance of sharing a clear and basic understanding about God and Bible
- Considerations for going chronological
- Value of story sets
- Value of panoramic cycles
- Integrating oral Scriptures and relevant engagement strategies into overall ministry work
- Practicing oral Scripture telling en engaging with the Scripture passages
- The importance of addressing the key principle issues Scripture addresses
- The importance of repetition
- Evaluate the storying venues and various communication art forms used in practice
- Hone scripture telling skills and do community testing
- Improve the process of internalizing (discover and own) the truths communicated in the Oral Scripture
May 10:
Eben has to rescue the men coming from Platfontein, South Africa, who are stranded with four flat tires. I end up having the privilege of facilitating the Sunday morning community gathering in Shakarawe. After sharing the last part of the story that the group was processing the previous week, I lead the group in a review of the creation and fall stories. Most people remember it very well, especially considering that most of them don’t have access to it in any way and they processed the story about four months ago. We had a great session that lasted for three hours and even then they would have continued eagerly, but I saw that they were getting tired.
May 11:
Unity in diversity
How does one facilitate a workshop with 18 people attending as diverse as this:
- One !Kung, one Afrikaans missionary and 16 Khwe that have been separated for many years spread out over and with backgrounds from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, yet are mostly somehow related to each other.
- Some having advanced academic training, while others are primary oral communicators only knowing their own language without the ability to read or write.
- A group that includes a blind person, a mostly deaf person, as well as a physically challenged person that cannot use his legs because of having Polio as a child.
- Denominationally ranging from Holy Ghost International Ministries to 7th Day Adventists, Catholics, and Dutch Reformed.
- People that live in nice houses with electricity, running water, indoor facilities, internet access, and a local community radio station that broadcasts in Khwedam to others that only have huts and not even mobile access and have to walk to fetch water.
- 16 men and only 2 women.
- Old, wise and respected people as well as young, ambitious and confrontational.
- A married couple, other married people, others single and some in a relationship of some kind.
- Most of them speaking Khwedam, one !Kung, some bi-lingual also knowing English and/or Afrikaans.
- Four people that have been part of the previous workshops for the Khwe and 14 first timers.
- A highly trained and experienced Pastor, a cross cultural missionary, to a few recently reborn lay Christians
Since our love for Jesus and God’s Word are our common denominators, it is amazing how united our focus is. Also by engaging in God’s Word by learning narratives together and internalizing the truths of the stories in detail, everybody seems to be at the same level and starting point.
In the morning I bring the Namibians and South Africans up to speed about some of the oral communication principles, how stories belong together ultimately making one overarching story, and how oral Scripture engagement can work.
In the afternoon when everybody has arrived, we first get to know each other and I find out what the people are expecting from the workshop. Next, I model storying Genesis 4:1-16 and connect the story to a basic set that can help people get a good first picture of who God is and what the Bible is about. Eben shares about how the different stories of the Bible are like the different parts of a tree... one tree with lots of roots, branches, and leaves all connected together through a trunk.
May 12:
Hands that see
The Khwe workshop attendees ended May 11 with being led to a plant or tree blindfolded and then trying to describe what they discovered only using their hands. When we reflect on this today it brings out many lessons. Some find it very difficult to recognize what they saw with their hands, while another person speaks even about the fear to take steps, not knowing if he would fall into a hole. Others did well because what they felt with their hands they put together with the knowledge they already had from seeing it before. The blind man then shares that he knows what he sees with his hands is because he trusted his father and his father taught him well as a small boy by not only telling him about everything, but also by letting him experience (touch, smell, taste, etc.) the things he taught him about. Another person then responds that in a real way, we all need to learn that way about God too by knowing and engaging with the Bible stories, believing them and applying their truths to our lives.
What does it really say
Next I once more model Genesis 4:1-16 and most know about the story because they have had people teach them about the passage. It seems difficult for them to memorize the story and when we start to look at what the story tells us, I learn many of them interpret the story continually in light of the teaching they received. They say that Cain and Abel brought offerings because Adam and Eve taught them to do so or because Abraham offered the ram in place of his son or because the law tells them to do so because of their sinfulness. There isn’t any evidence that Adam and Eve taught them. Then it was some 2000 years later that Abraham offered the ram after a worldwide flood which only eight people survived and next God confusing all the languages at Babel. Many have learned in from teaching about the passage that the offering was a burned offering (which most pictures also portray), but why… God was right there with them and the Hebrew wording doesn’t even indicate specifically a burned offering… the word has a meaning as broad as that it could be a gift, a present, an offering, or a sacrifice. The truth is that the Bibloe doesn’t tell us. The offering is just a small part of the story. So, what is the story about? God not being fair with Cain or God rejecting Cain from the beginning or Cain being jealous of his brother or Cain wanting to be more important than his brother? It is difficult for the participants to let go of any prejudice. I finally change the story to saying that Cain felt sad about him and his offering not being accepted by God and that Cain asked God wanted to please God, so he asks God why he and his offering are not accepted. Everybody then right away tells me that I am not telling the story right, because Cain is angry instead. In the same way the story continues to show Cain’s heart choosing evil, despite God warning him and giving him opportunities to confess and turn away from his wrongdoing. People afterwards say that their eyes finally are opened to what the story really is saying. Next they continue to memorize the story and in preparation to tell it Wednesday back to the group as accurate, clear, and natural as possible in their own language… and on Thursday in one of the Khwe communities in the area.
May 13:
Left in the dust
Today we started our workshop with everybody on the ground and trying to get on our chairs without using our legs, just like Anton, our Khwe friend who had Polio as a child, showed us. For most of us the need for help was overwhelming. It taught all of us some good lessons about being considerate to others with special needs, how we adapt to our unique situations, to take nothing for granted, as well as that we need help with things that are new for us. We also discovered that the same applies in various ways when God’s Word is new for people.
Engaging sweets
Everybody learned to tell the narrative from Genesis 4:1-16 today and it was fun to see how the participants first practiced two by two and later five of them sharing the story with the group. We discussed the use of gestures, role play, intonation, as well as artwork about the story. They all need to reflect only what is in the story and we shouldn’t add anything or interpret anything beyond what is explicitly in the story. It is so easy to add our own twist to a story, especially when we have been taught a certain way. We also processed the importance of helping people engage with the story. Eben shared about God’s Word being like candy that is wrapped. We first need to bring it within reach of the person we want to give it to by sharing the narrative as it is in the Bible, then allow God’s Spirit to unwrap the message through engagement strategies that draw us into the message (questions, discussion, prayer). Eating the candy then pictures people engaging with the story and discovering its truths as they apply to their lives.
May 14:
Signing Khwe
Today we started our time greeting each other without words and trying to have a conversation that way too. I was amazed how well the Khwe did. Orally preferenced communicators use actually a lot of gestures and one of the people said that using gestures is actually the way people start to communicate when they don’t have a common spoken language. For another person ‘language’ suddenly became a completely different concept and if Scriptures can be signed then oral communication becomes for them suddenly an equal valid venue as written and an oral language not being any less when it has no orthography and is not written down. I was so blessed by their insights and felt humbled by their natural skills to sign simple conversations with ease.
Did you hear how well she retold the story?
After everybody had a chance to tell the story in the workshop, they also learned to help people engage with the story through reflective and discussion questions. When the participants reflected on the workshop, it was great to see that we did achieve the goals I felt that God had given to us. The Khwe pastor from the South African group said that he was blessed to have a new way of helping people engage with what the Bible passages really say. He said that it seemed at first like the story about Cain would never end, but then it was the first time he did it this way and he wants to use this way from now on in church too. Then one of the Khwe people who is a Bible translator through the Bible Society of Botswana said that this process is what translation is about and that by doing oral translation it becomes right away a part of the community and it has the best possible testing ground. He also said that it was wonderful to meet the Khwe from South Africa, because now they can see some of the differences that have come over the last twenty some years in their language and how they now can work together on getting the best translation possible. In the afternoon the participants shared Genesis 4:1-16 in three different locations and everywhere people responded enthusiastically.
11 went to Kaputura. When they arrived, there were already people at the community plaza working on a community dance program. They paused for the storying session and listened to the story. About 40 adults and 20 children listened, while Esia and Annah told story and Bower lead discussion questions. There was much response to the questions and the story seemed to be understood clearly.
The Khwe pastor from South Africa that participated in the session in Shakarawe was overwhelmed with how one girl just knew the whole story that she never had heard before just after it being told to her twice…
The people from Namibia did try to identify at least one person that could be trained to help with the oral scripture program (a local story teller and/or a person to help preparing oral scripture passages) and it resulted in having some newcomers in the workshop. Nobody learned four new stories that can work together, mostly because they were just about all first time participants. I did stress that we need to seek continuity among the people being trained, so they can potentially become the new trainers at the local level.
It was very special to have to five men from Platfontein join the workshop and through the fellowship and learning time together it set the stage for the people from Platfontein to be really become an integrated part of the project. Their Khwedam has some different vocabulary and it will take a bit more time to see if everybody can work with recording only one of the ways that Khwedam is spoken, but even then a lot of the work can be done together, benefitting from what each area can bring to the table. There were some lengthy discussion about the use of different words and while some of it had to do with preferences, there were a few instances where meaning was lost because of the difference.
The progress made is significant, especially considering the diversity of the group, but there is a great willingness to really want to work together. One of the things that needs to be processed is to see how this partnership between the different geographical locations of the Khwe can function best. We did process some ideas, but these were only preliminary discussions and they need to be followed through seriously.
Respectfully submitted,
Durk Meijer, Wycliffe RTS Ethno Communications Specialist
