I (Nathan) have been doing personal visits to all kinds of interior Komba villages. I think I have been to 100 villages for meetings. We are going to these villages to tell them that we have come to help write the Komba language and to help any Komba person to learn to read and write his language. We are translating booklets and are working on primers. We also are requesting each village to gather support for the project to help us so we can train teachers for literacy classes and do all kinds of things for all of our benefit. You can only get to these places on foot, bicycle or motorcycle. We chose motorcycle.
What I am learning from going deep into the bush, crossing rivers, sleeping in people’s homes…
- the importance of gathering everyone for meetings. We gather family heads and all important people before beginning the meeting. That way everyone hears and everyone is involved.
- face to face meetings are crucial, it shows we are really interested and care enough to come.
- waiting and not rushing
- climb that extra riverbed and go the extra mile to make sure those people over there also hear
- lead by example
- God will take care of you even when the sun is about to set and you are knee deep in a river somewhere because we got out of it and arrived at a guy’s home after dark and had a great time that night, a warm (bucket) bath, and a comfortable sleep.
- Even I can learn to drive a motorcycle off road