{"id":4076,"date":"2010-01-20T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T14:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2010-01-20T10:48:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T14:48:33","slug":"a-monumental-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2010\/01\/20\/a-monumental-task\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A monumental task’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Terry<\/a>
Terry Reed and Santos translate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Did you ever study Romans? I mean, really study it?<\/p>\n

If you have, you\u2019re just starting to understand the difficulty of the task before missionary Terry Reed and his co-worker Santos as they translate Romans into the language of the Guarijio people of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Romans is a complex book, presenting some heady ideas. But at least it\u2019s put together as a classical argument, with one fact building upon another. That\u2019s why you see the word \u201ctherefore\u201d a lot. Paul establishes one fact, then moves on to the next one.<\/p>\n

But I still find that I need to stop at every \u201ctherefore\u201d and think through, \u201cWhat exactly did Paul just establish?\u201d before I can move with him to the next point.<\/p>\n

Now imagine you\u2019re a tribal person, with no background in classical reasoning and Western logic. Your only background is in stories. Stories help you reason through the world around you.<\/p>\n

Take, for example, how people would react if the river washed out a bridge on the road to a village.<\/p>\n

The Westerner would probably decide that meant the bridge needed to be replaced, after considering whether changes needed to be made to keep the bridge from washing out again.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what a tribal person\u2019s reaction would be. His mind would go to stories about the way the river behaves and what those stories tell him about the spirits who live in the river. He might reason that since the young woman drowned in the river because the spirits were angry with her for committing adultery, then the river rose up in anger because of adultery in the village. And the reaction would not be to rebuild the bridge, but to try to find out who committed adultery and do what the spirits demanded in order to appease them.<\/p>\n

Or he might remember the story about the man\u2019s house burning down because he built it in a place the spirits didn\u2019t want him to build, and decide this meant the bridge should not be rebuilt.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s say people drown as they try to cross the river because the bridge is gone. You and I would probably say, \u201cLook, see, we need to rebuild the bridge!\u201d<\/p>\n

But the tribal person might say, \u201cLook, see, the spirits are still angry with us. We should never have built that bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now Terry and Santos are translating Romans, a great example of classical reasoning, for a people group who has no background in Western logic.<\/p>\n

“We covet your prayers as we begin this monumental task,” wrote Terry.<\/p>\n

Which is exactly the right move. Terry and Santos need to work carefully within well-established principles to translate the Bible, but it\u2019s really God who is going to make His Word clear to the Guarijio people.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your prayers and for the other ways you participate in our ministry. We have to work hard and work well, but the results \u2013 people getting involved with the great things God is doing among tribal people \u2013 are up to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you ever study Romans? I mean, really study it? If you have, you\u2019re just starting to understand the difficulty of the task before missionary Terry Reed and his co-worker Santos as they translate Romans into the language of the Guarijio people of Mexico. Romans is a complex book, presenting some heady ideas. But at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29],"class_list":{"0":"post-4076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"tag-bible","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}