Sight to the Blind - Audio Bibles for the Kogui

Our Group!

We just returned from a 6 day trip to the Sierra Nevadas of Santa Marta, Colombia. It was a brief, but life changing experience-hopefully for the people there, as well as us. Our group of 12 people included: Bro. & Sis. Benner, seasoned Latin American missionaries, the Stewart family, whose ministry is to help the missionaries in Panama; an eye professional, Bro. Frank, and our own family of five.

Photo taken by David Gil

We arrived at the base of the mountains at the quaint and colorful Colombian town of Aracataca. The name is pronounced like a drum stick rebounding off of a taut drum head. Although, near the equator, and currently at sea-level, the mountains in the distance here reach an elevation of almost 19,000 ft in places, meaning that many mountain tops remain covered in snow year round.

Eye exam of a Kogui Mamo

The goal this week was to take glasses, and give eye exams to a Kogui tribe that lived a two hour drive up one of the nearest mountains. In doing so, we also would deliver a more precious gift, a recently translated and recorded audio New Testament Bible in the Kogui language.

The vision for reaching the Kogui people through these clinics, was initiated and funded by AGMA and Bro. Clayton Hutson, whose mission is to go to unreached people groups with the Gospel around the World. Ourselves, and many others, are eternally grateful for their commitment to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ!

On their first exploratory trip there, the Lord directed the steps of Bro. Benner, Bro. Stewart and Bro. Clayton Hutson; orchestrating a meeting with the very first Christian believer of the Kogui people, Juan Carlos Gil. Juan placed them in contact with some of his family, Vicente Gil, a linguist, whose family is currently involved with the language creation and translation of the Kogui Bible. The Kogui people had no written language, and most do not speak or understand Spanish. They are considered an “unreached” people group, according to the Joshua Project.

Our desire is to change those statistics with the Lord’s help!

The Gil family estimated that the Christian numbers have gone from 300 to 500 believers since the first delivery of audio bibles; and this time we were able to bring around 250 more.

Thursday morning we set out for the Kogui tribe!

The start of a two hour journey. It was at this point we thought the journey would be easy. Little did we know what was ahead...

A two-hour bumpy ride up the mountain in 4x4 vehicles, brought us to a village full of circular mud huts, with thatched grass roofs. Heavily worn and dusty foot trails wound between each hut and bright green cocaine bushes grew freely everywhere. The spectacular combination of looming, jagged peaks and vividly blue sky, looked like something straight out of National Geographic magazine.

A curious group watching on as we loaded up our equipment at the end of the day.

This wasn’t an occupied village, but meeting place with a “hotel” of sorts for several of the local tribes to convene together when necessary.

The team set up the eye clinic as our crowd of interested clients lined up.

Many times we were operating in 3 languages. From English, to Spanish and then into Kogui.

Our Kogui friends and translators Photo credit - David Gil

Our Kogui translators for the day were two of Vicente’s children, David and Lidia Gil. Talented kogui young people with a heart for evangelism and music ministry among their people. They had followed us up the mountain on motorcycles.

Our kids don’t seem to know a stranger and were soon running and playing in the dirt with the other children there. Lidia, saw little six month Avonlea staring around, wide eyed, and joked, “The baby is wondering why there are so many people in only white clothing everywhere!” Every Kogui person wears basic, white clothing, as a representation of purity and the connection they believe they have with Mother Earth. It also represents the white, snow-capped holy mountains they revere.

A Kogui "Mamo" with his pointy striped hat signaling his position among the people.

The only splash of color you might see was if their bag had a decorative stitching.

Kogui women and girls wear a colorful necklace and the men and boys carry bags. They all have shoulder length dark hair. Women are constantly weaving bags to sell. Their needle is whipping in and out of intricate stitches while somehow holding conversations and not even glancing at their work for long periods of time. The men of the village walk around carrying a hollowed out gourd on a stick. Inside the gourd are cocaine leaves and small pieces of limestone. They put this into their mouths and allow the limestone to create small lacerations so that the cocaine can enter the bloodstream when chewed. They remain in this intoxicated state most, if not all, of the day.

Bro. Frank, the eye professional, made note that the eyes of the men were dilated to tiny pin points because of the drugs that were in their system.

Soon after arriving, we saw three Mamo Spiritual leaders arrive with their villages. Their pointy, striped woven hats stood out above the heads in the crowd. These Mamos spend the first 4-7 years of their lives in a dark cave, never seeing the sun-light. They are essentially witch doctors and could decide to kick us out of the village if they didn’t like what we were doing.

Young Kogui man receiving his very own Audio Bible

We held our breath, wondering what they would do. They stood observing, chewing on the cocaine leaves, and then came forward for the eye exams. As they were handed their audio Bibles, they received them gladly. We felt like this was a miracle in itself, but later, David told us that he had spoken to the Mamos in advance and they had wanted to come specifically to receive the Bibles. What a huge answer to prayer!

We had been asking our supporters and prayer partners specifically to pray for open hearts to receive the Bibles for the past several months.

Bibles all the way on the other side of the mountain!

Because of this not being an official village but a place of reunion, we were able to get Audio Bibles into the hands of kogui men and women, including witch doctors from several tribes. Some of these tribes being upwards of a 5 hour hike further into the jungle covered mountain. Prasie God for this incredible impact. When we arrived we thought we would just be reaching one tribe!

New Glasses!

Lidia, told us that many of the Kogui people asked, “Where do these people come from? And why do they come here to our village to help us?” She told us later that they have no concept of any other country, so she simply told them, “They are from the other side.” And they assumed we were from the other side of the mountain where other tribes live. Lidia said that they told her they had never thought about leaving their tribes or their part of the mountain before and that it was a great act and demonstration of love to them that these people would come so far to help them. Even with small children.

We continued on to do more eye-clinics at the base of the mountain in the following days of our trip. It was touching to see the excitement come across a face, as they smiled and were now able to read the vision chart clearly.

God’s heart is to reach the Kogui and we want to be His hands and feet to show them the love of a Christ. Please continue to pray for abundant fruit to sprout forth from the seeds that were planted. Pray for growth in the Christian church spiritually. Prayers for the work of the Bible translation that is continuing. Prayers for open doors to reach the other tribes that speak different languages in these mountains as well. Some neighboring tribes like the Arhuaco (who speak a different language) are facing more severe persecution for becoming a Christian than what the Kogui people are facing.