{"id":183,"date":"2015-05-01T00:09:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T05:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bill-davis\/?p=183"},"modified":"2016-04-15T15:47:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T20:47:16","slug":"over-the-border-and-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/bill-davis\/over-the-border-and-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Over the Border and Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Training in Tijuana<\/h2>\n

Last week we once again had the privilege of teaching at Radius International in Tijuana. There are 11 students there this year, all being trained to go to the hard places of the world, and take the name of Christ to Unreached People Groups.<\/p>\n

They are also being taught\u00a0how learn the Heart Language of the people to whom they will minister, and that\u2019s where we come in. This semester Bill taught a 10-hour course called Form and Meaning<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Form & Meaning? What does THAT mean? Glad you asked\u2026<\/p>\n

Form & Meaning<\/h2>\n

Missionaries have the most important message<\/em> in the world (that\u2019s the \u201cmeaning<\/em>\u201d part.) They want to communicate that message clearly. But that\u2019s not so easy. To have effective cross-cultural ministry, they need to be trained about what to say<\/em> and do<\/em> (that\u2019s the \u201cform<\/em>\u201c)\u00a0that will clearly get that message across.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, people around the world communicate meaning in different ways.\u00a0Each language and culture has\u00a0unique forms to share a particular message. Sounds, words, letters, grammar, gestures, even acts of friendship\u2026 all are forms that communicate very different meanings.<\/p>\n

THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL WAY TO COMMUNICATE\u00a0<\/strong>A PARTICULAR MEANING<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bill<\/p>\n

It\u2019s All About That Meaning<\/h2>\n

Here are some fun examples of form\/meaning differences:<\/p>\n

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  • Letters<\/strong>: The letter j represents\u00a0one sound in English (as in \u201cjump\u201d), but a different sound in other languages:\u00a0h as in\u00a0Juan<\/em>\u00a0in Spanish, y as in\u00a0Bjorn<\/em> in Swedish, etc. \u201cWhat a j sounds like\u201d is completely arbitrary.<\/li>\n
  • Words:<\/strong> \u201cCat\u201d in English is\u00a0gato<\/em> in Spanish, right? Well, kinda.\u00a0Gato<\/em>\u00a0also means a car jack, a person from Madrid, and many other things. Words don\u2019t have one-to-one correspondence.<\/li>\n
  • Metaphors<\/strong>: In our English Bibles, we have \u201cedge\u201d of a sword; but in the Hebrew and Greek it is actually\u00a0the \u201cmouth\u201d of the sword (yes, it\u2019s a double-mouthed sword in Hebrews and Revelation!) In Palawano, the \u201cmouth\u201d of the sword is its tip;<\/em> the blade or edge is called the \u201ceye\u201d of the sword.<\/li>\n
  • Grammar<\/strong>: English has the single word \u201cus.\u201d Palawano has three<\/em> different words, meaning: \u201cus, but not you,\u201d \u201cjust you and me\u201d and \u201cyou, me and all of us.\u201d Three forms. English has one form, and lumps all three meanings together.<\/li>\n
  • Little Things<\/strong>: English has about 150 prepositions and some of them, like \u201cof,\u201d for example, have a dozen or so meanings! Some languages have ONE preposition. Meaning gets communicated with very different forms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    And those are just the easy<\/em> kinds of differences!<\/p>\n

    Expect the Unexpected<\/h2>\n
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    • Turning verbs into nouns:<\/strong> Some languages don\u2019t make nouns (repentance, baptism) out of verbs (repenting, getting baptized) the way English and Greek love to do.<\/li>\n
    • Making friends:\u00a0<\/strong>What if saying \u201cI just got you a little something\u201d was an insult? What if saying that a baby was beautiful made the mother frightened (because you just alerted the evil spirits to where a cute victim was)?\u00a0What if you were supposed to change the\u00a0form<\/em> and say that the baby was \u201cugly\u201d and mother (but not the spirits) would understand the\u00a0meaning<\/em> to be, \u201cOh, what a cute baby!\u201d?\u00a0What if you gave a friend a dozen roses and they understood you to mean, \u201cDrop dead!\u201d because it was an even number?<\/li>\n
    • Asking questions: <\/strong>And what if Jesus\u2019 rhetorical question, \u201cTo what shall I liken the Kingdom of God?\u201d meant that he really didn\u2019t have a clue and was asking the disciples to explain it to him?!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      In each case, you would have to make some big changes to communicate what you meant to say.<\/p>\n

      THE FORM MUST CHANGE\u00a0<\/strong>FOR THE MEANING TO REMAIN THE SAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

      That is the lesson Bill was teaching the students. They cannot afford to \u201cthink English and translate.\u201d They must learn to think about the\u00a0meaning<\/em> and communicate that in the best form.<\/i> In the fall semester, Bill will teach them more about\u00a0how<\/em> to discover the underlying meaning.<\/p>\n

      It\u2019s a joy and a privilege to teach these eager missionaries and to get to know them. Both of us enjoyed chatting with them over lunch and answering their questions about missionary life.<\/p>\n

      Oh, and by the way, lunch at Radius is always awesome:<\/p>\n

      \"IMG_1139\"<\/p>\n

      Thank God with us\u2026<\/h2>\n
        \n
      • a good week of teaching<\/li>\n
      • no hassles driving in and out of Mexico 5 days in a row<\/li>\n
      • safety in spite of a flat tire on the interstate (after leaving Mexico on Friday)<\/li>\n
      • the privilege of training others to reach the Unreached<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
        <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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