I've had the privilege of hosting a missionary family in my home this past weekend. They live and work in Cameroon, associated with Wycliffe, an organizaiton whose goal is to see the Word of God translated into the language of the people. Mindy went to Cameroon as a young, single woman and worked for many years when she met Efi, a Cameroon gentleman who was also working with a group involved with translation.
Efi shared with us how there are 280 languages in Cameroon. Seventeen of the language groups have a complete Bible; fifty-eight have a New Testament.
He shared with us what joy the people feel when they hear the Word of God in their very own language. He also said that people used to think that pastors made up the Bible, but when they heard it being read from the Book, they knew differently. He also stated that people listening to a preacher in another language and having it translated for them makes them feel inferior. When they hear God speaking to them in their own language, they feel like they matter.
How many Bibles do you have in your home? More than one, I can imagine. Think of having none. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." .
Scripture says that some from every tribe and nation will gather around the throne of heaven. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and languages tanding before the throne and before the Lamb."
7 comments:
Wonderful post, Bev. It sounds like you had a very special time.
we have 7 bibles, 5 different translations. this reminded me of Don and Barb, the missionary's that were at Bethel when we were there, i can't quite remember their last name yet. are they still at Bethel? they were translators of the bible also.
borgman is the last name, of coures it came to me when I clicked publish
Its so important to look at cultures from their point of view. Most of the world doesn't think as we do in the U.S.
I wonder how many times we have offended while thinking we were doing it the "corret" way.
I guess that's why our actions need to be bathed in prayer all the time.
Yaounde, Cameroon is forever etched into my memory bank as that is where I was on 9/11/01. I'm glad you had those missionaries and that Efi was able to share his personal views about the importance of the people having the Bible in their own language. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Good post and food for thought. Nice of you to host those missionaries and post about their views.
Great words - I had never really thought about how lucky we are to have many Bibles
Post a Comment