Conversations about the "Greek Book" (Part Two)

Part two: "But can they use their Greek?

In part one, we talked about why country pastors want Greek.

Mike was talking to yet another missionary.

We were at another church with the Greek team. This guy was involved in theological education. He was of course another bald fifty or sixty-something. It’s really the style in missionaries these days. He also asked about what we were working on.

“But why do you think they need that?”

“Because I get so frustrated teaching Greek in two weeks! They come out unable to use Greek for anything.”

The two week block class is an extremely popular way to teach pastors here in Peru, because the pastors are bi-vocational. A lot of them are farmers. They can take off for two weeks at certain times of the year. But a month would be too long. And a semester would be impossible.

It works for a lot of courses, but doesn’t work for Greek or Hebrew.

"I have no problem. They study their two weeks and then they have their Greek."

"Can they use it?"

"No, but they have it. It's not a problem."

Okay, maybe not if all you want is to check a box so that you can say that they have studied Greek.

That will satisfy the law of religious equality that allows evangelical pastors to be chaplains, etc. as long as they are as educated as a Catholic priest. This thinking is a mark of the type of theological education that views pastor as a professional career like doctor or lawyer or dentist.

But one of our goals at RCP is to make sure every course that we teach is applicable to ministry.

And that the students understand how they can use the course in their ministry.

"I wish there was a book that they could use."

This is actually the conversation that started the whole project.

Mike was talking to our longtime US team member, Nathan Ingram..

We view all our US supporters and resources as team members, so if you are reading this, odds are that I would describe you as a team member. Of course you could be a casual lurker...but if you are, I invite you to contact us, so I can call you a team member, too.

Mike was sharing his frustration and wishing that he had some kind of reference help that would make two weeks of Greek useful.

"Hey, let me show you something that I've used."

It was a Greek English Bible with the grammar analyzed so you could understand the form of the Greek word and the number for looking it up in Strong's Dictionary.

Sort of a Greek New Testament for Dummies. Kind of like following a YouTube video to repair your car, not the best option, but certainly better than just abandoning your car!

“This is perfect! But I don’t think that I could find one in Spanish.”

Nathan pointed out that it would be hard, but not impossible, to create one.

And an idea was born.

"I would say, give me a copy!"

Mike couldn’t get the book idea out of his mind.

He decided to ask our Peruvian coordinator, Paco Laos, what he thought about it.

"What would you think if I had a book that had the grammatical forms laid out, along with the definitions? And the Spanish translation.

"I would say, give me a copy!"

Paco came back a few weeks later to tell us the response he had gotten to the idea.

"I've been asking around, and everyone I have asked said, Wow, when you're done I want one!"

"Is there anything I can do?"

Yeah, this is a hypothetical conversation. You are supposed to be the one asking that question.

And here are some answers.

You can pray for this work.

It's big. It has a lot of phases and will involve permissions and publishers.

And we have to keep up with the other work that we are doing.

You can volunteer.

That's especially great if you have knowledge of Greek and Spanish. But you don't have to.

Hannah Mcduffee actually asked that question and that’s how our college team that I’ve mentioned several times arrived here.

That team just copied the codes from the Greek text into the interlinear Spanish Bible. They didn’t know Greek. It just took a lot of concentration.

But it is a geeky kind of opportunity, It’s nothing like building an orphanage or passing out tracts. If this interests you, talk to us.

You can give for this specific work.

There are costs involved.

For example, we bought a laser printer because it was the cheapest way to print out the 1000 some pages of the Greek Spanish New Testament.

If you give online you can put Greek Book in the Gift notes section.

You can support Karina Loayza, and we can get the Old Testament done, too.

Karina studied in the US at Gordon Conwell.

She is a Peruvian and an Old Testament scholar, who wants to teach the Bible to the people who need it out in the country.

When she heard about this, her first thought was to do the Old Testament too.

Now she is in the process of joining the mission.

To support her, donate just as you would for us, and put Karina Loayza in the Gift notes.