Coming to you live from El Tablón ...

SOLOLÁ — Isidro could have warned me! Perhaps then I could have composed my thoughts, but with scant moments to prepare I found myself speaking live over the radio airwaves here on Saturday afternoon.

Thus, God answered prayer beyond my expectations, granting favor with three rural Kaqchikel radio stations, who agreed to play the dramatized audio New Testaments in the local Mayan language, Western Kaqchikel, on a regular basis.

Last month, church teams delivered 60 copies of the audio Scriptures on MP3 CDs from the Albuquerque, N.M.-based ministry, Faith Comes By Hearing.

Isidro, a Viña Studios co-worker, and I had talked and prayed about distributing the CDs, but we had no appointments, just trusting God to open doors for us. Fortunately, Isidro knew the people and the Mayan way is spur-of-the-moment and God used it.

We got a late start, but Isidro assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. I met Isidro and his daughter just before 5 p.m. at a soccer field, after a 10-minute bus ride from Sololá up the hill to an agricultural area, “El Tablón,” (the flat planting area). We headed out in his rickety pickup, first stopping to gas up, purchasing about a gallon and a half of gasoline. (Gas is about $5 a gallon here so people buy small quantities when they can afford it.)

At the first radio station, situated at the back of a metal-working shop / family home we found a young Kaqchikel woman running the radio control board, and a Kaqchikel man preaching and teaching live from the Spanish Bible, giving explanation in the Mayan language.

The station, “El Verbo,” (“The Word”), airs primarily evangelical preaching and Christian music. The station owner wasn’t home, but his wife welcomed us. Isidro explained to her the purpose of the audio Scriptures, recorded by Viña Studios and sponsored by Faith Comes By Hearing. Bible translators have found audio Scriptures are a vital media for oral learners who use their language exclusively for oral communication. Translated, printed New Testaments are available in most of Guatemala’s Mayan languages, but SIL International estimates just 5 percent can read or write their own language.

Viña recorded the Western Kaqchikel audio Scriptures some 10 years ago, but the recordings have not been widely distributed and many people are ignorant of their existence. (To hear a sample, visit this page and select the Cakchiquel Occidental language, then push the Play Sample button.) Newly available MP3 CDs are much more compact – just two discs — than the older multi-cassette versions, but not all CD players will play the digitally compressed media.

The radio station’s CD player failed to play the MP3 CDs, but the station owner’s wife succeeded in playing them on an upstairs computer connected to the station. We explained the CDs are worth about 200 quetzales ($15), asking her if they could play the Scriptures on a regular basis. She agreed to play them for 15 minutes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays sometime between noon and 1 p.m. We prayed for the station and left praising God for the woman’s willingness to help out.

Next, we drove to “Radio Sol” (which means “Radio Sun”), an evangelical Christian radio station, a short distance up the road. A young woman, the station owner’s sister, was running the control board and quickly agreed to our proposal, promising to play the Kaqchikel audio Scriptures on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for a half hour at 6 p.m. Then, she shocked me by asking us to go into the next booth, adjacent to the control room, and explain our program to the live radio audience. I was not expecting that at all and after figuring out that the microphone wasn’t switched on, I opened my mouth and out came some words — not well composed but well intended. Isidro followed me, explaining the program in Kaqchikel.

Later, when I expressed my surprise at the turn of events, Isidro said he fully expected she would invite us on the air. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” I asked him, jokingly. Oh, well, the surprise made the experience more memorable.

Lastly, we visited “Radio Tablón,” the most popular station in the region. We had to hike up a dirt road, then through narrow paths snaking through cornfields to reach a small housing complex on a hill where the radio station is situated. At this station, the owners play popular and Christian music, evangelical and Catholic religious programming, educational programs and news. One program about farming, sponsored by a local business, explains how to feed and care for animals. When we arrived, I could hear the popular song, “Amor Prohibido” (“Forbidden Love”), being played.

After waiting a few minutes in a small office, the station owner, a young Kaqchikel farmer, joined us and listened to our proposal. This fellow took a bit more convincing. After Isidro spoke for a while, he asked me if I would talk. So I did, unsure what exactly Isidro had communicated in his language. Thanks be to God, the man told Isidro that he would play the Scriptures for 5 minutes every day at 8 p.m!

We left giving thanks to God for opening doors for his Word. Lord willing, these radio stations will help reach the rural Kaqchikel community in the language of their heart.

Please pray these stations will follow through on their promises to play the audio Scriptures, and please pray also for the word to be a blessing to the Kaqchikel Mayans who hear them that they may grow in the knowledge and grace of God through Jesus Christ.