Theologian Gustavo Gutierrez challenges us: “So you say you love the poor. Name them.” A name is a good place to start, a meal is better, and life together is even better than that. Real love requires knowing, listening, understanding. It cannot be foisted on people from a distance. —Jennifer...
Blog
Blog
"Jesus did not say that the whole world should go to church. Essentially He said that the church should go to the whole world.” —Greg Laurie
“Why don’t you just teach the people Spanish rather than trying to learn their language?” This question is a common one when people hear that we are spending so much time learning the indigenous language. So why would my team spend 3+ years to learn the Tarahumara language? The main reason is...
I often hear an objection: “Wait a second. Are you saying missionaries shouldn’t try to share the good news about Jesus until they reach a high level of language ability?” No, I’m not saying that. In fact, I’m actually making a more startling claim: for all practical purposes, we simply ...
We welcomed Jonatan into our family on February 23. A week after returning home, we had a traditional baby-naming ceremony. Some people showed up for the early morning pronouncement of the baby’s name. My husband talked briefly about the meaning of the name Jonatan (gift of God), and one of the...
Spiritual Survival Handbook for Cross-Cultural Workers, by Dr. Robert S. Miller was published in 2011 by the BottomLine Media. This book is a concise guide to the essentials of spiritual survival for those working in cross-cultural situations.
"Mission flows from fullness, not emptiness. We seek not so much to draw in as to give out. We don’t ‘gain converts’, we offer Christ." —Glen Scrivener
Join me up here on the hill behind our little adobe house, and we’ll look out over the bowl that is our village. The sun is just about to set, and the mountains have an orange, hazy glow about them, which mixes with the smoke from dozens of evening cooking fires. I call it the Golden Hour. In...
“There is not something called Christianity and then missionaries who spread it. Christianity is in its very essence a mission to the world. If it is not reaching, teaching, baptizing, and multiplying disciples it is not Christianity." —Michael Horton
(The Importance of Using Familiar Language)
At All-Nations, one of our translation values is accessibility: translating into familiar, present-day language. This goes beyond the obvious choice to translate into the Mixtec language for Mixtec-speaking...