(ANS – San Pedro Carchá) – During the Year of Faith at San Pedro Carcha Parish, and more specifically in the 250 villages that belong to it, a pilot project has been in place now for a month involving listening to the Word of God in Maya-Q’eqchi. Villagers have been using a tool called “Proclaimer”.

The “Proclaimer”, with a small solar panel and a dynamo which can be worked by hand to draw power at any time and in any situation, is really a small repeater, similar to a tiny radio, containing the New Testament in the local language. It helps people actually listen to the Word of God, helps bring people closer to it and therefore becomes a first step in their evangelisation.

“The faith must be heard” (Rom 10:7), explains Fr Vittorio Castagna, Salesian missionary in charge of the project, citing St Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles.

This initiative for spreading the Gospel, as well as succeeding amongst the indigenous people, has aroused interest in members of the Bible Society in Latin America and Guatemala, who have visited the Salesian mission to study the project and export it to indigenous people in Ecuador.

As well as classical translations in national languages the Bible Society in Guatemala is particularly involved in translations into Mayan indigenous languages. The version in Q’eqchi has been a publishing success, very much used and disseminated amongst this ethnic group    

Pubblicato il 15/02/2013