The Sabbath School Lesson, a daily Bible study guide on different topics renewed quarterly, is used worldwide by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In South America, it is published in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French. In addition to serving people in their native languages, it is a tool for accessibility and evangelism.

Despite the small-print run of these materials in languages that are not native to the continent, it is possible to perceive the difference they have made. Samuel Barbosa, who currently attends the Brasília International Church, a community that offers services and Sabbath School lesson study in English and Spanish, discovered there were many foreigners in the Adventist Church and he could improve his knowledge by studying this guide in another language and interacting with visiting members. "Having the presence of foreigners and having contact with the native language is something that doesn't happen every day," he exclaims.

Bill Quispe, director of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries for the South American Division, states, "The pioneers who would form the Adventist Church, in 1852, began a movement of Bible study through lessons. There was a double objective: to feed the church spiritually and also to train the members with the Bible to preach the Gospel.”

Study in Other Dialects

However, it is not only the learning factor that begs for more languages. Even with a wide variety of languages and dialects available, there are still groups that do not have access to the Sabbath School Lesson. This is the case of an indigenous community in Ecuador, whose main dialect is Quechua.

Pastor Franklin Aucancela is part of the indigenous group and decided to help his community. He invited a friend to work on a project to translate the Sabbath School Lesson into their native language.

At first, they translated an abridged version of the guide. Now they intend to do the same with the full content. "The idea is that the Sabbath School summary we send in Quechua will serve for pastors to share and strengthen Bible study," explains Aucancela. Currently, there are some Adventist communities in the country that only speak this dialect.

"The more the content is available in other languages, the more options we have to reach different native communities with different dialects. In this way, we are preaching the Gospel," Quispe emphasizes.

The original version of this story was posted on the South America Division Spanish-language news site.