Blessing in Disguise (Intern Insights)
I’ve mentioned West Africa’s illiteracy problem on a few different occasions, and you may be thinking, Morgan, its only day 10 and you’re already talking about this for the third time? Yes. The answer to that question is a resounding yes. It’s an important issue and one I’m especially passionate about. I have loved words for as long as I can remember. I wouldn’t be surprised if I came out of the womb reading a book or writing my first infant thoughts in a diary! From the time I learned to read and write in Kindergarten I was totally hooked, and that love has yet to fade years later. These abilities fill my personal time, they permeate my schoolwork as a Publishing major, and my countless journals over the years are a testament to my preferred mode of expression through the written word.
I say all this because it breaks my heart to know that so many have never even had the opportunity to discover a joy of reading or felt the freedom of uninhibited writing. That fact pains me, and it would be all too easy to get caught up in sadness and pity over the two-thirds of the Sierra Leone adult population who are illiterate. But let me offer a different point of view, a silver lining if you will to shed a new light on that statistic. Radio is the most trusted source of information in the country. 68% of women there tune in to some sort of broadcast almost every day of the week. And what’s more, females are especially apt to remember and discuss with others audio programs that were either catered specifically to them, their children, or contained religious content.
If that isn’t the perfect field for God to sow seeds in people’s hearts, I don’t know where is. The Lord is taking this culture’s illiteracy and replacing that hole, that longing for knowledge, with radio! They are so receptive to it and already carry the belief that information found through the medium is credible and trustworthy. Isn’t our God magnificent? Isn’t it wonderful that He can find ways to touch people’s hearts no matter what their situation may be? Let’s pray today that Women of Hope programs would be aired on as many stations in Sierra Leone as possible. Hearts there are primed and ready to hear the Good News. And despite their inability to comprehend written language, their ability to tune a radio dial has never been better.