Category: Uncategorized

Sometimes expressions are funny across languages.  Yesterday I learned a new one here in My Language: “Ka ba ŋũɛ̃ ʼpee nĩĩgire.”  Literally, it means, “Donʼt say it a second time.”  And itʼs used to confirm that you are totally in agreement with what the other person just said, or that he said what you were […]

à ʼbɛɛ sa ʼpii Yesu tũrũ, yuwe yi ʼoo lɔɔlɔ yo,ã ʼbɛɛ sa ʼpii yi tũrũ, yuwe yi ʼoo lɔɔlɔ. Let’s follow Jesus, He’s the One who is the Savior, oh!Let’s follow Jesus, He’s the One who is the Savior. Imagine a group of My People, gathered under a big tree in one of their […]

How many of you enjoy sitting down and reading a dictionary?  Dictionaries aren’t usually considered especially exciting reading material.  But while I was traveling recently, the guys I often work with had worked a bit without me, and one of the things they had done was go through a list of potential new words for […]

A few weeks ago I was reading a biography of Mary Slessor, a pioneer missionary in what is now Nigeria, and came upon the following quotation:  So, she realized, it was not a case where one could say, “Let there be light,” and light would shine.  The work of the Mission was like building a […]

My next-door neighbor is a nice guy and a very nice neighbor.  We don’t have problems and he’s always very courteous.  Shortly after he moved in he introduced me to his girlfriend, and after a while I noticed that she seemed to be growing bigger in the mid-section.  (Here, sadly, that’s not uncommon before marriage.)  […]

The other day I went to a restaurant and ordered sausage pizza.  And guess what?  That’s what I got – some sausages on pizza, as you can see in the picture above.  Life here is different sometimes.  (And in case you’re curious, the sausages were a bit strong tasting to have on the pizza, so […]

On Sunday my friend asked me to help her with an illustration as she was teaching the Sunday school lesson to the kids about the flood and the ark that God had Noah build.  (Here in the city there are churches and a good number of believers, even though we are not far from where […]

Yes The end of April/beginning of May I was in the UK for some linguistics meetings with Ethnos360.  (While there I also got to get some rest and some quiet time to work.)  Also while there, I got to share with the students at Ethnos360’s training center in the UK about my ministry, what God is doing […]

Do you remember the messed-up English sentence that was the title of my last blog post?  It was to show you the challenge we were facing at our vowel party in Senegal and to ask for your prayers.  Now I am here to say thank you for your prayers and that Iʼm safely back home! […]

Can you read the messed-up English sentence above and understand it?  Do you know what I’m trying to say there?  I think we can all agree that it has problems.  Now imagine if your whole Bible was written like that – it would give very little motivation to try to decipher it, wouldn’t it? I’m […]