What do you spend your Monday mornings thinking about? Getting the kids ready for another week of school? Your morning commute? How awesome the pastor’s sermon was yesterday? Well, a few weeks ago I spent my Monday morning thinking about my yodel.
Out here in Pal country, we live right in the middle of some pretty incredible mountains. And since there isn’t room on one mountaintop for everyone to live, there are little villages scattered over several mountaintops, as well as countless gardens hidden in the valleys in between. And since only a few of the men have cell phones, they have a much more convenient way of getting in touch with each other: the yodel.
Want to let your wife know you’re coming home so she can get your dinner ready? Yodel. Want to find out what’s taking your kids so long getting water? Yodel. Want to let your brother-in-law know that his pig is tearing up your garden and that if he doesn’t come and get it, like, now you’re going to shoot it? Just yodel.
The thing is, in order for yodels to be effective, everyone listening has to be able to tell who is doing the yodeling. So everyone has to have their own unique sound. Including me.
I was out walking one morning and decided to try my hand at it. However, I had forgotten that it was only about 7 am and that my throat did not like the idea of having to yodel at that early hour. So the sounds that came out of my mouth were definitely not what I had in mind. I talked about it with Chris and thought that maybe it would be much more effective to just yell, “MAGGIE! MAGGIE IS COMING!!” No room for confusion, right?? But in the end, I decided on, “E I E I O!” Partly because I had never heard anyone else yodel anything like it, and partly because it makes my coworker, Elizabeth, laugh whenever she hears it.
So, there’s one method of communication down. The other method – actually learning how to talk in their language – is taking a little longer. But that is the method we will use to give them the most important information they will ever hear. Please pray that the hearts of the Pal people will be ready to hear the unique, life-changing voice of God – the yodel of the Creator of the universe!
