Up in the mountains, on the outer edge of an Asian country is a small tribe called the Alze*. Leo and Tori* came to this country with a calling to work with a Bibleless, unreached people group. They planned to create a set of Oral Bible narratives in the language of the Alze. Their hope was that soon God’s Spirit would speak to the people’s hearts, through His Word, in their own language.
No written language
The tribal language is spoken by thousands of people, but has never been written down. With no schooling in their own language, university students must go to the capital. There, some Alze students heard the Gospel and came to Christ.
One percent of the country has come to Christ already. New believers join local fellowships, read the Bible and pray. Yet it is all in the national language—not their own heart language.
Finding local help
The first thing Leo and Tori needed to do was to learn the national language of that country. Then they needed to learn the Alze language. They travelled out to a village where they found two 17-year-old Alze girls who were already believers. Their parents agreed that the girls could go and work for Leo and Tori, cooking and cleaning in the mornings. In the afternoons, they would teach Leo and Tori Alze, and help with the translation process.
After a while, Leo and Tori asked the girls to teach them how to pray in Alze, but they had never done it. They’d only prayed in the national language. They wondered how God could understand Alze, because no one else could.
So Leo and Tori helped them to translate eight simple prayers into Alze. They started giving the girls a turn to pray in Alze before lunch.
Later, the one girl went to Leo very distressed. She asked Leo not to be angry with her and not to fire her. She told him that when she came to work for them she wasn’t really a Christian, but her friend was. She told him that she thought they wouldn’t hire her if they knew she wasn’t a Christian.
God speaks her heart language!
But something happened. The previous week Tori told her that God speaks Alze. God longs to hear her talking to Him in her heart language. That very evening, she went home and asked Jesus into her heart. When she knew that God spoke her heart language, she wanted Him to live in her heart.
(*Name was changed)
(This story was shortened)
Source: YWAM
