So why did we choose to serve in VMS and what is it anyway?

Vernacular is heart language. It is the language that speaks to your heart and how your heart expresses itself most naturally. Imagine your first language is English and you learn a second language, say, Spanish. You study in a school and are immersed in a Latin American country so you become extremely fluent in that language. When you are alone and want to spend time with the Lord would you reach for your Spanish or English Bible?

The Bible is so deep and cuts right to the inside of us. It’s important that everyone in the world has the opportunity for the Word of God to transform their lives. When the Word is presented to someone in a language they barely understand or one that is not natural to them, God remains a mystery. We want to get the Bible to people in a way they can understand it.

That’s why media is so important. Approximately 67% of the world lives in oral societies. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are illiterate although many are. Some people grew up with a strong oral tradition and this is how they choose to communicate and pass down important information. Still others simply learn better and are more impacted with different forms of media outside of reading. Many people can read and they do read for work or trade but the idea of reading on their own is outside of their realm of thinking entirely.

VMS uses various media including story telling, video, audio, drama, music, and still pictures. What is selected depends on that people group and their culture. For some, the Jesus video brings Him to life and many times tribal people have responded with awe that Jesus speaks their seemingly insignificant, minority language. If a culture is very musical, Scripture and other spiritual material would be set to their music.

The VMS staff doesn’t make these decisions or do this work alone. They work closely with the translator in that area and with the people in that group to determine what is best for them and how to meet their specific needs.

There are many benefits to providing the Word to people in a way that speaks to their hearts. The gospel is clearly presented and it gives people the chance to respond immediately. Some people will never read so they have the same opportunity to know God’s Word that the rest of us have. There are many people that hear the Scripture, see its truth, and want to know more about God. This motivates them to learn to read so they can study it for themselves. These new skills of reading and writing open doors for them in society and those opportunities pass from generation to generation helping the entire community and its future.

Now that you know what VMS is, it’s probably obvious why we decided to go this direction. God was instrumental in leading us here and we rely on Him to simply use us, as this is all His work. He knows His people and how to get them to respond to Him. He simply wants relationship with each and every one of us and is relating to each person exactly where they are with the use of VMS. We praise Him for this tremendous show of love He has for each individual and are honored to be apart of His work.