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Column > The Vegetable Garden
by Ethel Wallis
 Wycliffe's
founder, Cameron Townsend first pulled into the cobblestone streets of
the adobe Mexican Aztec village of Tetelcingo in 1935. He and his wife
drove a huge old Buick, pulling a trailer house followed by a cloud of
dust. The entire village turned out to marvel at the strange sight.
Townsend sought out the mayor and asked his permission to live there,
so he could learn their language, put it into writing, and grow a garden
in the square. No one had ever shown interest in their little town or
their language. The mayor invited them to stay.
In the months to come, Cameron Townsend began to learn Aztec, develop
an alphabet, and produce a reading primer. He organized reading classes
for the townspeople. True to his promise to the mayor, he also planted
carrots, lettuce, radishes, beans, celery, flowers and fruit trees in
the village square.
Eventually the town mayor, previously an alcoholic, became a Christian
through a Spanish Bible Cameron Townsend had given him. One day as Townsend
was suggesting some practical social reforms for the town the mayor said,
"No, Professor, that won't work. My people can only change through God's
Word, and they need it in their own language."
One day, while Townsend was cleaning a chicken for dinner, he heard a
commotion outside. He went out, dressed in his grubbies, and met face
to face with the president of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas! The President had
heard of this American who had set up housekeeping in Tetelcingo and was
writing the language and growing vegetables. He had come to meet him.
The President stayed for over an hour, fascinated with Townsend's work.
Townsend told him his dream of training people to give literacy and the
Bible to every Indian village of Mexico. Cardenas asked if they all would
help in practical ways like planting gardens. Townsend assured him they
would.
"That is just what Mexico needs," the president said, "Bring all you can
get to come." That began a partnership between Townsend and Mexico's federal
government that resulted in the transformation of hundreds of thousands
of tribe peoples in Mexico through the translated Word of God.
-from Two Thousand Toungues to Go
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