#7, Part Two, What the Recruiter Didn't Tell Me--the Upside

In the previous post I shared some “Unexpected Whoops!” experiences. This time it’s about the “Unexpected Wows!”


While my wife and I were translating Paul’s letters to Timothy, we got stuck at 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.” Since we had no single Canela word for the term mediator, we rewrote that whole sentence explaining what Jesus did, but as we read the sentence we weren’t satisfied with it. Our daily prayer was, “Lord, please keep our eyes and ears open to learn the terms we need to translate Your Word.” A few days later He did.


We were participating in a festival ceremony during which the Canelas dramatically reenacted an impending battle. At the height of the tension a specially decorated Canela man rushed between the two groups of warriors and with many gestures caused them to lower their weapons and make peace. Wow! A mediator in action! I could hardly wait for my study session with my Canela translation associate the next morning!


I asked him what that decorated peace-making person was called. “Ajpẽnna-mepa-jaxôr-catê,” he said. Hmm, I knew what each of those words meant: “each other-us-hang-person” In other words, “the one who hangs us together.” But what did that mean?


“It’s easy,” our associate said, “You know when you have picked some cobs of corn and you need to let them dry. You tie a string to each of them, then tie the ends of the strings together and hang them from a cross pole in your hut. There they hang as a bundle to swing to and fro as one even though they came from different plants.”


Wow! That’s perfect! This term will even work for the passages that tell of Jesus bringing people together!


What a feeling! The delight of discovery replaced the deskwork drudgery! My sticky, sweaty body was strengthened and refreshed. Instead of feeling that Jo and I were alone, plugging away at an overwhelming task, I again experienced that deep down joy of knowing we were working together with God Himself! Why hadn’t the recruiter told us that these foretastes of heavenly joy— unexpected Wows! — would be part of our missionary work?


Why hadn’t he told us about the incredible excitement we would feel when the first Canela declared himself a Christian? Wow! And what it would be like the first time I heard young men and women pray to their recently found Saviour and thank Him for us, and for our families, and our financial partners? My eyes tear up just writing about it.


And then there was that fierce joy that energized us when Satan caused all sorts of hardships and problems. The energy that flowed through us as we stood against him in the name of Jesus, praying for God to rescue the Canelas from Satan’s grasp. And the joy of working with likeminded colleagues! And the excitement as God built a partnership team to stand with us financially. Wow!


And, and, and, Wow! after Wow! Why didn’t he tell us about the Wows!?




If you get this post via email, please email your comments to me jack_popjes@wycliffe.ca

Mandate 1, God, Prayer, or Coincidence?

In 1983, a group of 40,000 Sudanese people called the Tira were listed on the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project as not having even a single word of the Bible translated into their language. Today, twenty-eight years later, many Tira are Christians and read the Bible in their own language.

Here’s what happened: 

• In November of 1983, David and Ray, two American students signed up to pray for the Tira with the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project.  
• In May of 1986, Jerry and Jan promised to pray for this group.  
• In March 1990, Jane and Margeanne committed themselves to pray.

In August 1990, a report came to the Prayer Project organizers that a young Tira man, Avajani, was studying linguistics and Bible translation techniques. The organizers wrote to encourage him with the news that three teams were praying for his people group. They gave the names and the dates when they began to pray. Avajani’s response was astonishing!

• Avajani told them he became a Christian in November 1983, the month David and Ray began to pray.  
• He was accepted for theological studies in May 1986, when Jerry and Jan started to pray. He heard about courses in Bible translation and was accepted as a student in March 1990, when Jane and Margeanne started to pray.  
• A number of portions of the Bible were published during 1999-2001.

An atheist reading this sort of astonishing coincidence might well mutter to himself, “Hmm, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think that God was involved.”

God is definitely at work on planet Earth, and He invites us to join Him. He moves some to pray, and some to do hands on service. He wants every person to hear about Him in the language they know best.

Here are some links to help us join God in His work:

http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=tic

http://www.wycliffe.org/Pray/BiblelessPeoplesPrayerProject.aspx

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5702833206

Blessings,

Jack


PS: DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE OR FOLLOW BY E-MAIL!

Brief Introduction to Jack's New Column, The Mandate.

Welcome to The Mandate! (Mandate son of Look)

This is the column where I will focus strongly on cross-cultural missions, Bible translation around the world, cultural anthropology, basic literacy in societies that have been illiterate for generations, and the beauty and intricacy of human language. 

In short, these columns will be like those I wrote in The Look when I was telling stories from our 22 years of living and working among the Canela people of Brazil. I will be writing about the biblical basis of cross-cultural missions, about how important it is that believers are mobilized to go to every part of the world and share the Good News with those who are not yet believers. 

The definition of “mandate” is “an official command or instruction from an authority” and obviously refers to what we know as “The Great Commission” from Jesus to evangelize the world and disciple the nations.

This columns, or posts will be shorter than The Look was, no more than half the length. They will be easier to read, absorb and put into practice. Although they are shorter, I expect their impact will be the same. 

So, what about all those neat stories from my personal life, and those incisive insights into current events that were not focused on missions? I will continue to write, bringing a biblical perspective to these things too, but not in The Mandate. I am starting another blog, where I will post about family life, marriage, education, history, current events, etc. 

It too will be shorter than The Look, but will make an impact. It won't be focused on missions but I fully expect there to be a missions flavour. 

I thought of calling it INsights and OUTflows, you know, the idea of reading, remembering or experiencing something that leads to a biblical insight which then flows from my mind into yours. But knowing me, I thought I would instead call it, INsights and OUTbursts. I think you will know why! 

I will, of course, continue to write stories and anecdotes. As a “doddering old dotard,” I have more anecdotes and stories than ever. I must be in my anecdotage.

Please go to the top of the column and click on Follow in the upper left part of your screen. You can all click on Share to send it to others. Or go to the side bar on the right and click on Subscribe, or Follow by e-mail. Eventually I will stop sending out this column directly to your email Inbox and instead rely on you signing up and getting it automatically. 


Let me know what you think of this new effort at communication. What you like, what you don't like, what your recommend. This development is still a work in progress.


By the way, remember that you can hold down the Control button on your keyboard and then roll the Scroll wheel on you mouse to increase or decrease the size of the font. Make it the size you like.


Blessings,


Jack "TheWordMan"