The final day of our translation workshop in Botswana has come. It was great fun to see the participants gain skills in communicating Scripture in their languages and in ways that connect with their cultures. This may be the most interesting work on earth.
On the one hand, the people groups represented here need God's word expressed in a language they understand easily and like to use. This requires careful work on the micro level: "Which of the words in our language should we use for 'magician' in Acts 8? How can we say 'wine' in our language—we don't have wine? What does the text really mean in the first place?"
On the other hand, there is a huge amount of work to do on the macro level to help people see that Christ is the answer for the questions they and their cultures are asking. I scrapped my plans for class time yesterday as it became apparent we needed to discuss Christianity and culture. Many here perceive it to be white man's religion that has little to do with their reality.
Scripture Engagement and Bible translation. You can't have one without the other!
And by the way, traveling mercy miracles: On the 17 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg on the way here every seat on the huge plane was filled except two. And one of those was next to me! I could put my foot up and it didn't swell (as the doctor feared).
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