Team to promote audio Bible for Chuj Mayans

Beginning Monday, David and Helen Ekstrom, along with several able assistants, will return to the Cuchumatanes Mountains for five days, offering audio Bibles to the Chuj Mayan people among whom they lived and translated for 16 years.

They will be offering “MegaVoice” digital audio players of the Chuj Scriptures for sale to those who attend a 2-hour class on how to make the most of the audio Bible through listening groups, asking questions and applying the Word.

The team, which includes Mayan co-workers, will visit five different areas, one each day; each one centrally located among other villages as it was not practical to travel to every village in the steep, rugged mountain range.

The Ekstroms, missionaries with CAM International, are legendary figures in Guatemala, having spent the majority of their lives here. They now live north of here in Huehuetenango. In February, Guatemala’s respected Mariano Galvez University awarded them honorary doctorate degrees in linguistics, recognizing their service the Mayan peoples; among other things, the Ekstroms translated the Old Testament into at least three Mayan languages.

I was privileged to meet them and their co-workers earlier this year during an ethnomusicology seminar, even staying a few nights in their former Sebeb home with a team from Viña (and nearly being blown off the mountain by the winds).

Last July, the Ekstroms finished the Old Testament in the Chuj language of the San Mateo Ixtatán region near the Mexican border. Recording technicians from Viña Studios spent about two months in Sebeb recording the New Testament. Later, several Chuj Mayan believers — in cooperation with the Ekstroms — recorded Psalms, Proverbs and Genesis.

The resulting recordings have been electronically loaded onto hand-held MegaVoice digital players for Mayans to buy at a discounted price of 300 quetzales, about $40 (roughly a week’s wages).

“If we can sell them all, great,” Ekstrom said. “If we can sell 150, I will be very happy. Three hundred quetzales is a pretty good piece of cash for a lot of these people.” A Chuj believer told Ekstrom 300 won’t be enough, insisting they will need 500.

Jeff Nelson, a missionary with SEPAL (OC International), will join the Ekstroms for next week’s project. Nelson said they introduced the dramatized recording on May 21 to the actors who played various voices needed for the audio Scriptures; it was well-received.

“This is the first real availability to the public,” Nelson said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re educated or uneducated; there’s something about listening to the message of the God of the universe that divides between the joints and the marrow.”

“I’m especially interested in the mentoring of leaders to help other people use the Scriptures,” Nelson said, noting small listening groups in homes or elsewhere could help transform people’s lives. “Once it’s out there we want to help people appreciate it and respond in light of what God’s doing.”

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If you’re interested in helping promote the audio Scriptures project to Chuj Mayan believers, you can donate through this link to CAM International, designating Project # 62820 “audio scriptures.”