When the translation project coordinator and I arrived at the Church in Agato, Ecuador, we saw a group of women led by one other woman. All were wearing their traditional blue clothes and golden necklaces. I have seen some of the women at the morning market.

We went down the stairs to a small room. One of the translators was using a small Radio Shack Tandy 100, powered by a solar panel and a battery, to enter text in one of the Quichua languages. A small matrix printer was next to the computer.

We talked about his progress. When I was just starting to work on some computer problems he was having, one of the women came running into the room. She made a timid gesture toward us bending her knees in greeting. Then she proceeded to speak to the translator very fast in her language. He answered and made a gesture with his hands meaning “wait”. He asked us to please wait. He searched for a text on the computer and then the printer produced a couple of pages.

He cut the pages and gave them to the woman. She checked the printed words and gave him and us a smile.

She bent her knees again and ran back to the upper floor.

The translator tried to restart our previous conversation but I was too curious about what just happened. “No es nada”, he said, “it is just that the women are learning how to read and write using the translation of the Book of Luke that I’m revising.”

A strange sensation filled my throat. I needed more information! The translator explained: “Women were not allowed to read and write. Women were supposed to provide children and food and work at home. Now we men having read the translation, have learned that women were following Jesus too and were members of their churches. So now we men having come to know Christ and wanting to be like Him we allow women to read and learn what Jesus teaches through His Word. “

The text that he had just printed was Luke Chapter 8, verses 1 to 3:

1 * Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Jo-anna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

For a long while the translation project coordinator and I could not continue speaking or working. We were both crying. The translator watched us with a big smile in his face while praising the Lord in his language. We went to minister but we were ministered to. His power changes the hearts of men (and women).