Four Books

On the left there is one thing I try to do a little bit a day. Whip out these four books and read just a section. I find it interesting but it also gives me a headache. I am at a different level in each of the languages - good at English, ok at French, rusty at Arabic, and almost illiterate in Hebrew. It is sometimes a real struggle to care about keeping up competency in the two languages with non-western scripts, Hebrew and Arabic, but those are the ones I forget the fastest.

The Hebrew of course is only necessary because we are going to translate the Bible. But the others are necessary for everyday life in Chad. People on the street in the capital are just as likely to speak Arabic or French, and practically no one speaks English. Then there is the tribal language, which no one on our team knows yet, but which is the most essential of all to master. The sharing about Jesus will take place in that tribal language.

With all the language learning and stuff, it is easy sometimes to think that the work depends on how well we speak or listen...or in our case, translate. Granted, there is a definite importance to communication ability when you are doing cross-cultural work. But at the end of the day, two passages in the Bible remind me that 1) God is the one who is doing the work with or without me, and 2) the messages coming out of my mouth don't speak as loud as the ones coming out of my life. Here they are:


"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."

Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:1


" Moses said to the LORD, 'O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.'

The LORD said to him, 'Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.'"

Exodus 4:10-12