Learning to Talk Algonquin

Monday, May 3, 2021

John Eliot had just graduated from Cambridge University and had arrived in Boston. The year was 1631. He immediately noticed that the English so-called Christians were treating the Indians in a less than Christian way. They probably viewed the Algonquins as savages. But it disturbed him. 'With God's help, I must do something' he said. And he did. He converted the Algonquin language to writing, taught it to his Indian disciples, and then translated the entire Bible into the Algonquin tongue. John Eliot's Algonquin Bible was the first Bible ever printed in the New World and the first to be published for a people who had neither alphabet nor written language. And so, how do you treat people? You treat them as John Eliot treated the Algonquins. You give them the Word of God; you love them. But they don't understand it? Well... learn their language and translate God's Word and love into the language they can understand. It may be hard, but it'll be worth it when they get saved. They might be savages. It's o.k. Translate His love. Translate His word. And that's how to treat the Algonquins.

From Message #259 - The Master Secret of Evangelism