By Malaina Yoder | Echo
"They love laughing." That's one of the first things that junior Jazmin Gomez said about the Aché tribe her family serves in Paraguay.
The Aché were certainly laughing and celebrating as a parade of children waving flags and singing songs lined the street. They greeted the missions team entering Chupa Pou, the largest of the Aché villages.
Seven Taylor representatives traveled as a part of OneVerse, a Bible translating organization at Taylor. They went to celebrate the dedication of the first Aché translation of the New Testament on Oct. 22-28.
Katie Rousopoulos, director of Lighthouse, said, "I was honored to represent Taylor, saying we partner with you, we celebrate with you, (and) we're going to continue to pray for you,"
Taylor partners with the missions organization LETRA (Latinos In Translation and Alphabetization) Paraguay. Victor Gomez, Jazmin Gomez's father, is the director of the program and Taylor's connection in Paraguay.
LETRA Paraguay ministers to several different tribes, with the Aché being the smallest. About 1,500 people are in the tribe, close to the size of the Taylor student body.
"We want to holistically partner with them," Rousopoulos said. "To send teams down there, to do work projects, to interact with the community . . . (and) to build a relationship with them so that missionaries there can continue that relationship with them and bring people to Christ."
"I think it's such a big deal that sometimes we're caught up in our little world and we don't really realize that people are impacted by Taylor supporting LETRA Paraguay . . . It wasn't a month of work. It was ten years," Jazmin Gomez said.
Over the last ten years, Taylor commissioned five separate Lighthouse teams to build relationships and serve the Aché with LETRA Paraguay. In addition, Taylor's OneVerse program has been raising funds through Skip-a-Meal, Empty Bowls and other creative means to fund translating the New Testament for the Aché.
Most of the Aché know Guaraní, one of the official languages of Paraguay, but it's different for them to read the Gospel in their own tongue. Jazmin Gomez loves being able see them actually understanding and being touched by God.
"It's a really powerful and meaningful thing," Gomez said.
Because of her firsthand experience with the Aché, Jazmin Gomez said that having the Bible in their language is incredibly important.
"It's just like us not having an English Bible," Gomez said. "We can learn . . . but it's never going to have the same impact as the language of our hearts."
OneVerse hopes to eventually fund a project to translate the Old Testament for the Aché. Rousopoulos, however, is excited to announce the next project.
"The direction we're headed now is a new people group within Paraguay called the Toba-Maskoy people," Rousopoulos said. "This January we're sending a team of about 16 students and two adult leaders to go down and serve and get to know the Toba-Maskoy people and to start the process all over again."
Students should expect to see fundraisers on Taylor's campus to support the Bible translation for the Toba-Maskoy. OneVerse is facing another 10-year journey, but as the Aché reap the rewards, it's obvious that the seeds are worth being planted.
