The real author of this article has been ministering among the diasporas of indigenous people groups in northwest Mexico for over three decades.
Over the last two years, during my visits to California, I began noticing a change in the ethnic mix of men gathering every morning at a Home Depot parking lot to find work. Typically, the men were Mexican, but I noticed newcomers whom I suspected were Haitians.
Five years ago, I tracked down the available Scripture resources in Haitian Creole and loaded them onto some “BibleBox” WiFi hotspot units. I was equipping Mexican believers reaching out among thousands of Haitians who end up stuck in Tijuana during their trek north to the U.S. border. Today, for people with smartphones, directing Creole speakers to the Haitian Creole page at ScriptureEarth.org seems to be the best option. They gain free access to six full-length Scripture movies*, multiple text translations of the New Testament, audio recordings of the NT in three Creole translations, and a variety of audio recordings produced by the Global Recordings Network.
On my trip to San Diego last week, I made two early-morning visits to the Home Depot parking lot with a supply of ScriptureEarth business cards in my pocket. I struck up brief conversations with Haitians, Mexicans, and even a Liberian, giving cards to most of them. Many of the Haitians speak very little or no English but, interestingly, DO speak some Spanish or Portuguese because they have lived briefly in Mexico or Brazil before coming to the U.S. The cellphone data connection at Home Depot was too weak for me to show a clip of a video, but it was fast enough for me to play a tiny clip of audio from the Gospel of Mark.
I was particularly blessed talking with Jefferson. He was the best English speaker among the Haitians I met ― and a joyous brother in Christ! Years ago, he was freed from the yoke of voodoo and became a child of God. In the aftermath of Haiti’s tragic 2010 earthquake, he partnered with Samaritan’s Purse. Join me in praying that Jefferson will be a bright, shining light for Jesus among Haitians living near him.
On my way north to California last week I passed through a permanent checkpoint of the Mexican Army (looking mainly for drugs). Usually I’m just asked a question or two and can keep moving. This time, I was asked to get out and open up the liftgate of my minivan.
The soldier asked me if I had shown movies in migrant farm worker camps years ago, and my answer was yes. I had shown open-air Christian movies in 4-5 migrant camps every week for five months during the late ’80s. Iꞌm surprised he recognized me after so many years (and additional pounds)! He mentioned that most of his family members are now attending evangelical churches, but he is the lone hold-out. I told him he still has time! In our brief conversation, I learned he was a speaker of Zapotec of Mixtepec of Miahuatlán. I gave him a Scripture Earth card and explained to him how to find his language on the site.
If you would like to share Bible resources with people you know or people God puts in your path who speak other languages, ScriptureEarth.org is a great place to start. Resources for thousands of languages, even minority languages spoken by a few thousand people or less, are available there.
* The Mark & Luke LUMO Gospel Films, The JESUS Film, Magdalena, The Story of Jesus for Children, and The Hope Video