In an exercise at Camp Week 2020, Adam Boyd gave participants the opportunity to translate the Lord's Prayer in 15 minutes. Not from Greek. Just from the English we know into English without theological key terms. Now that's an exercise that would probably be good for you too!
Adam shared...
"The Bible addresses issues that missionaries don’t. People in different situations see things in the Bible that others miss. Missionaries come with a whole load of cultural baggage and they will never be able to see the Bible in the way that people from a very different culture will. By making...
MJM writes from Colombia—
Oh the joys of language and culture acquisition! What does it mean when someone sends a Whatsapp message and asks, “Hey, could I come and stay with your family for a couple days?” In light of the fact that the last “couple days” visit ended up lasting a...
"We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive. But we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed." —Elisabeth Elliot
Joseph* doesn’t care for desk work. He would much rather grow fruit than immerse himself in Hebrew. Instead of laboring over the translation of biblical terms, you are more likely to find him rounding up a swarm of bees with native friends.
How does Joseph fit on a Bible translation team...
"One of the great blessings of being involved in Bible translation is that you get to wrestle with expressing God’s word in other languages and as you do, you begin to see things clearly that were, up till that point, somewhat opaque." —Eddie Arthur
How did the kind efforts of a group of Americans to build a meetinghouse end up destroying a poor Mexican church? What is so radically different about the church "Hamid" is part of in Southeast Asia, and the blessing they receive from America? How was a chronically impoverished community...
"One of the abiding values of language acquisition is developing the capacity to listen well. Most missionary training programs focus almost entirely on teaching missionaries what to say with very little emphasis on learning to listen well. However, as anyone who has been a missionary knows,...
If you use electronics much, you have probably at some point come across a translation program. These are computer programs that take text (or voice) from one language and translate it into another. This is quite handy for someone who is traveling in a foreign country and can’t read the road...
"When we look at the New Testament in its entirety and especially when we start to get to grips with the Old Testament, we see that God’s people are called to serve and to advocate as well as to preach the Good News. Indeed, the whole modern concept of the separation of the physical and...
