It’s no real surprise that the floodgates of joy should burst open at the sight of the Scriptures coming to life in the Gmz language literally at my fingertips. However, in the midst of what felt like already overflowing joy, God had another unexpected blessing up his sleeve.
After three mornings in the translation office, the six of us had finished drafting all but the last three verses of Luke 15, with the first two stories (the lost sheep and lost coin) already recorded and edited into an audio version. As the clock struck noon that first Wednesday, I thanked them again for their hard work adding “See you all again at 10 o’clock (that’s 4pm for us) for the teaching class.” You see, along with the excitement of translation beginning, a major change was happening within the church. Up until this time, the sermon had always been given by one of the non-Gmz men who work in Larry’s education project. Now, seven years after the original church plant, it was decided that it was time for the young Gmz men to step up into this teaching role. With fear and trembling, they agreed and Larry and I scheduled our first training that Wednesday afternoon.
Like many things, planning for that meeting unfortunately didn’t happen much in advance. By that I mean, I wandered over to Larry’s house after lunch and casually asked, “So what do you have planned for today’s training?” His response was confident and totally serious, “Well, I am going to welcome everyone and then turn it over to you.” Woah horsey! I’m leading the whole thing? I was surprised because for the last 6-7 months, Larry had been leading Wednesday afternoon meetings for this same group of Gmz guys who had requested training in how to share their faith. And now, just like that, he was handing the reigns over to me? Then again, it made sense. I have the education credentials for it, while Larry is a veterinarian, yet very capable in handling the Scriptures. I have the language training to better communicate in (it’s a long story, but Larry and his wife studied another Ethiopian language instead of Amharic before coming to Gesas.). And lastly, I had been spending the last three mornings wrestling with the Gmz translation and was therefore best prepared to lead an exegetical discussion on the chosen passage. With renewed excitement, I ran home to print off Luke 15:1-7 - the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
As if it was Satan’s last lame attempt to delay the inevitable, a HUGE thunderstorm rolled in right at 4pm as I was printing off my final materials. Wind-whipped sheets of rain soon made the path between my house and the church building into a river so I decided to wait – knowing that no teaching could be done under the deafening sound of rain pounding on the church’s tin roof. At 4:15, the rain still hadn’t let up, but I was too excited to stay home any longer. I ran for it, soon busting through the door of the church, wet to the skin but grinning from ear to ear! When the rain finally slowed enough to allow voices to be heard within the church, we began the meeting.
Now, what took place over the next hour was nothing short of a blessing from God. Larry fulfilled his role beautifully and soon I was in the driver’s seat. A few of the non-Gmz preachers had come to the meeting and so I started by asking them how they prepare for giving messages. Each of them mentioned the two most important things I wanted to hear: prayer and study of the Word. This lead into me hammering the point that preaching cannot be done without praying for the Holy Spirit’s help. And second, preaching cannot be done without knowing the Scripture to be preached, and knowing it well!
From there, we transitioned into the text I had chosen and together listened to the recorded version of Luke 15:1-7. Then I asked a few questions and we listened again. From that point on, things went really, really well. As we discussed the story, we discovered some excellent Truths about God and about ourselves, both of which we could apply to our lives - in other words, an exegetically-based lesson for one of the young men to preach that coming Sunday. And that is what happened. Not only do I have joy in the privilege of seeing the text of Gmz Scripture born at my fingertips, but I also have amazing joy in the privilege of seeing that same Scripture come alive in the minds of the Gmz believers as together we unpack its Truths to be taught each Sunday.
My favorite linguistic class at the graduate level was a class called “Scripture Use Methods.” This class opened up my mind to the fact that Bible translation is far more than writing words on a page. It also includes breaking down the many potential barriers that stand between these life-giving words and the minds of the people who need them. Well, in this case, slightly damped by the rain, yet still literally hot-off-the-press of my inkjet printer, Scripture Use was happening in the Gesas church. And I praise God for giving me the enormous privilege of being a part of it. My joy, again, is made complete!
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