Mixteco de Mechoacán
- Punctuation: [MIX – TEC’ – OH DEH MEH – CHOAH’ – CAN]
- Location: Mexico
- Population: 8,500
- Dedication: May 25, 2019
The Living Water of Scripture
For days, the people of Santa Catarina Mechoacán prepared to celebrate. Women made hundreds of tortillas. Children gathered firewood. Men delivered a cow and a truckload of pineapples.
“What if it rains?” someone asked. Rain wasn’t likely; it was still dry season and hadn’t rained in months. But lead translator Arnulfo said with certainty, “It will rain when the dedication is over.” Considering this, someone volunteered to put up a large tent to protect the boxes of New Testaments, the display table, and the 500 chairs set up for guests. Some locals, who pride themselves on predicting the weather, laughed when they saw the tent go up. “Why put up a tent?” they scoffed. “It’s not going to rain.”
The celebration began on May 25, 2019. Men hefted boxes of New Testaments onto their shoulders. Smiling broadly, Arnulfo carried a basket of fresh tortillas symbolizing the Bread of Life.
“We paraded through the streets of Mechoacán until we reached the municipal esplanade,” UNTI (Union of National Indigenous Translators) representative Mirel writes. “More than 500 people participated in the arrival of the New Testament, which was received in a moving way with songs, music, tears, applause, and cries of joy.”
As evening came, everyone gathered up their belongings to go home. Suddenly, with no warning, rain poured down “like a blessing,” Arnulfo says. People ran out to celebrate the first rain of the year. Those who had scoffed were amazed. “How did they know it was going to rain?” they asked. “They must truly know God!” The boxes of New Testaments stayed dry.
“Just as the rain came at the right time to satisfy and give life to the land of Mechoacán,” Mirel writes, “so did the Word of God come to sustain, heal, restore, and give life to the soul and heart of all people who are now satisfied, for the Word of Life remains forever.”
Translation Sample
Kua’an ndo nikaka’nu nu ñu’un ñayɨvɨ, ta ka’an ndo tu’un Nyoo tsi’in tandɨ’ɨ ñayɨvɨ. —Mark 16:15 (Mixteco de Mechoacán)
And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” —Mark 16:15 (NLT)
