The Chuch In Which She Peed

Of the many things that we learned from our church in Dallas, one lesson that we will never forget is the joy and blessing of being a blessing to others. Granted we don't follow their example nearly enough, but occasionally, the Lord allows us to be his arms in a special delivery of his blessing to others. Such was the case last Friday afternoon.

Having had enough for one day, I snapped my laptop closed at 4:58pm, two minutes before quitting-time. The Gmz translators, Work'u, Thomas, and Janey, were equally ready to start their weekends and so we rose from our chairs in unison and began to pack up. As Janey led the way in making their exit, I called them back, "Hey, I have one more thing, do you have a minute?" They all stopped and turned back and so I continued. "Well, you all know how Andrea and I receive our salary. People and churches back in the US give money toward our ministry as the Lord leads them. And so some months, like October are less than our budget, but other months, like November are over our budget. God has always provided for us. Well, we just received our December statement, and with many people giving year-end gifts, we were richly blessed. Among that blessing, we found a 13^th month gift from one particular church in Michigan. By that I mean, when this church noticed a surplus in their budget at the end of the year, they decided to use it to bless their overseas servants with an extra month's donation. What a blessing and how appropriate since we actually did serve 13 full months this past year (there are 13 months in the Ethiopian calendar)! Then again, as we thought about it, we weren't the only ones who worked those 13 months in bringing Scripture into the Gmz language. Andrea and I thought of you guys and wished that you could also be blessed with an extra month's salary – and that's when the thought came (yea, for some of us it takes just a bit longer). When I roughly translated the extra $300 US dollars into 5700 Ethiopian birr, I realized that that was just slightly more than enough to cover that 13^th month for all three of you! And so we would like to take that extra gift from the church and pass it on to you. Is that a good idea?"

All the translators had listened intently to my soliloquy in a broken mix of Amharic and Gmz, but now, hearing the ridiculous question with which I ended, they burst into smiles and laughter. "Of course, that's a good idea! May God bless you! May god bless Andrea! May god bless Micah and Grace too!..." Not wanting them to move on to calling down blessings on our chickens as well, I threw in the blessing that was missing "May God bless the church in which Andrea…" and I paused. I always pause when I say this word, for I am well aware of the terrible miscommunication that can take place if I don't. You see, I could correctly say, alafagan, which means "in which she grew up." Or, on the contrary, I could accidently speak the third syllable with high tone, alafágan, which means "in which she peed." It no doubt would have ruined the moment to have me blurt out, "May God bless the church in which Andrea peed!" - especially in a cultural context where church buildings don't have bathrooms. "She peed in the church" would mean just that…IN THE CHURCH! (as bare-bottomed Grace did last week) Then again, knowing the guys and all the good laughs we've shared over the last two years, it would have been par for the course. I praise God for these three, confident that God was preparing them long ago for such a time as this!