00:00:01 Meet Juan Cayul from Chile.
00:00:04 He’s of the Mapuche tribe
00:00:06 —a tribe which has faced discrimination over the years.
00:00:10 Because of the discrimination,
00:00:12 some may be reluctant to use their language,
00:00:15 Mapudungún, in public.
00:00:18 This became a challenge for Juan,
00:00:20 since he wanted to give his best in the ministry for Jehovah.
00:00:25 Mapudungún means ‘the speech of my land.’
00:00:28 It’s a beautiful and expressive language,
00:00:32 and it’s the language of my heart.
00:00:34 When I was 12 years old, I went to live
00:00:38 with my grandfather and my uncle’s family
00:00:40 so that I could study at a nearby school.
00:00:42 My cousins spoke Mapudungún a lot,
00:00:45 which made me really happy.
00:00:51 When I saw that some of my classmates didn’t understand their schoolwork,
00:00:54 especially in math class, I would try to help them out.
00:00:59 That’s when I started to think about becoming
00:01:01 a math teacher so that I could really help others.
00:01:07 But the head teacher told me that because I was speaking
00:01:09 Mapudungún and because I was helping my classmates,
00:01:12 she was going to lower my grades.
00:01:16 When my father saw my grades, he was furious.
00:01:19 He accused me of being lazy and not studying.
00:01:24 He withdrew me from school, and I went back home to Tromén.
00:01:28 My dream of becoming a teacher
00:01:31 was shattered.
00:01:35 Because my dad had suffered so much as a victim of discrimination,
00:01:39 he told us that we were not to speak Mapudungún.
00:01:46 When I think about everything that happened,
00:01:51 it makes me very sad.
00:01:56 Years later, I met Sylvia
00:02:00 who was Mapuche like me.
00:02:01 She proved to be a sensitive and loving person.
00:02:03 We spoke Mapudungún together,
00:02:05 and that helped to relieve the bitterness
00:02:08 I felt in my heart.
00:02:12 Some time later, I learned about someone else
00:02:14 who made me feel loved and valued—Jehovah.
00:02:17 That changed my life.
00:02:20 All my pain disappeared
00:02:22 once I got to know Jehovah.
00:02:25 My wife and I studied the Bible
00:02:28 with the Witnesses in Spanish.
00:02:30 And so when I started to preach and teach,
00:02:33 I used Spanish too.
00:02:36 One day, I was out in service, and as we approached a house
00:02:40 an elderly Mapuche woman came to the door.
00:02:43 She was scared.
00:02:46 So straight away I greeted her in Mapudungún.
00:02:50 She invited us inside and spoke with us.
00:02:56 That was the first time
00:02:58 I had spoken about Jehovah in my mother tongue.
00:03:05 On our way back, I was deep in thought,
00:03:08 praying to Jehovah about how to help the Mapuche people.
00:03:13 Many years passed
00:03:15 before I saw an answer to my prayers.
00:03:19 Then one day after the meeting, I received
00:03:22 an invitation to be a speaker at the first assembly
00:03:24 to include talks in Mapudungún.
00:03:29 But I didn’t want to accept the assignment.
00:03:31 I felt worthless because of all the discrimination I had endured.
00:03:36 So
00:03:38 I prayed again and again to Jehovah
00:03:41 and began to meditate a lot.
00:03:46 Jehovah was now giving me an answer to my prayers.
00:03:51 He sees our true value.
00:04:19 I was so happy, so very happy.
00:04:21 I understood that Jehovah loved me
00:04:23 and cared for me and that he would continue to help me.
00:04:27 In just a few years, not one,
00:04:30 but several Mapudungún congregations were formed.
00:04:32 And now my wife and I, as well as our two children,
00:04:37 serve in Mapudungún-language congregations.
00:04:41 I’ve been assisting with Mapudungún translation
00:04:44 for more than seven years now.
00:04:48 When I tell the brothers and sisters who work with me at the translation office
00:04:51 about my childhood dream of becoming a teacher,
00:04:54 they tell me, “You’re our teacher now.”
00:04:59 I want to say to my brothers and sisters around the world:
00:05:02 “Don’t put yourselves down.
00:05:04 “You are precious; you are precious to Jehovah.
00:05:08 He will always help you.”
