Categories
Do Not Use

How Languages Work

Some good thoughts from Josh, which apply to translators as well as preachers… A couple of friends of mine told the following story from an experience on the mission field in Mexico: As Samuel was preparing to set up a plastic table for the youth lunch we were hosting, I mentioned to him that the […]

Categories
Africa

Ivory Coast on Al Jazeera

This video is a good introduction to the situation in Ivory Coast. They make a couple of mistakes when referring to Ivorian Ethnic groups and some of the subtitles are a little less than accurate, but all in all it’s a good video.

Categories
Impact

Why I love Bible Translation

I rather enjoyed this post from Andy Cheung: … Every aspect of church life ought to be dominated by a sense and gladness for the divinely inspired Scripture. Biblical thinking and word-centred ministry should be at the heart of every church activity, whether children’s work or pulpit preaching. Therefore, accurate, usable translations that service the […]

Categories
Africa

How the Other Half Lives

Christi Byerly took part in the Kenyan census this week: Q – Is your husband married to one wife, or is he polygamous? A – Only me! Q – Where do you get your water? A – We were all set to complain about how you never know if city water is actually going to […]

Categories
Observations

Discipleship

Mark has just written a superb and very moving post about discipleship. You can (and should) read the whole thing here. He concludes with this excellent quote: To be a disciple or apprentice is to decide to be with another person in order to become capable of doing what that person does or to become […]

Categories
Mission

Two Ways To Talk About Mission

My colleague Mark has just posted a superb article on his blog about two different ways in which people present mission work. The first type of person realises that, in explaining his work with a language community, he is a bridge between you (the audience) and the community. But he doesn’t feel any connection with […]

Categories
Church: World

Mission or Business?

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the US gave an amazing lecture on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention last week. His words could apply to many churches, denominations and mission societies that I know. Southern Seminary’s president said the SBC in 2009 continues to operate largely out of a […]

Categories
Minority Language Translation

How Bible Translation Get’s Done …. or not.

David Ker has just started a live blog on a two week translation checking session in Mozambique. If you want an insider’s view of Bible translation you’ll enjoy what he has to say. Today the translation checking of John 13-21 was supposed to begin. Unfortunately, Pastor Bata got word that his son, a police officer […]

Categories
Observations

One Woman’s Story

One of the nice things about using social media such as Twitter, is that you come into contact with some fascinating and inspiring people. One of the people who has most impressed me is a woman who goes by the name of @stroopwaffle on Twitter (she has other names). Stroopwaffle is… well, let her tell […]

Categories
Mission

The Top Missional Passages in the Bible

If you were asked to give a list of the top ten Bible passages (with a missional twist) I wonder which ones you would choose. I suspect that most people would come up with John 3:16 or perhaps the Great Commission from Matthew 28:16-20. In a fascinating post, Brian chooses neither of these, but comes […]