As mentioned in the previous post, our two months in Addis Ababa left my heart feeling quite detached from the passion and joy I know I ought to have working day in and day out deep in God's Word. And while the recording of Luke and Acts was a brush with this joy during an otherwise 7 weeks of battling discouragement - Consultant checks, administrative headaches, truck problems, and others - we looked forward to hitting a restart button with our move back down-country among the Gmz.
But not so fast, the day before our departure, while enjoying lunch with a friend at a restaurant, someone decided that their heavy duty wire cutters entitled them to "borrow" the spare tire we had locked underneath the truck. Grr… We have a second spare tire at our down-country home, but we'd have to drive the 11-hour journey without it, which is not recommended in a country whose gravel seems to have a 6-to-1 ratio of stones to nails! Do we delay our plans? Nah, tired of Addis, we decided to go for it.
Along the way in our newly fixed truck, we weren't very thrilled when we hit a bump and the engine cut. Turns out the negative battery lead jumped off the terminal - Apparently the mechanic had cleaned and scrubbed the battery terminals to the point that the clamps, though tightened all the way, no longer grip the terminals anymore...GRRR. Thankfully, it was an easy road-side fix allowing us to continue on our way, but now, likely as a result of the jolt to the engine, we have an electrical problem with our glow plug switch. Not exactly the breath of fresh air my already struggling attitude needed.
My symptoms? Well, there was the elevated temperature of negativity, sensitivity to annoyance, mild anxiety, with frequent spells of bad attitude, especially in the evenings. I went and saw the “Great Physician” and it seems he has since prescribed just the exact medicine I needed: Secomaidezole Corinthacilin, more commonly known on the street as Second Corinthians.
But, when the dust finally settled in our Gilgel home and I was able to return to the office with the translators, God's grace was renewed each morning by a truly refreshing look into his Word. Whereas the end of the translation process (the consultant check) is the most wearing on my passion, the first step (drafting new texts) is by far the most exciting! I get to look at these texts of Scripture for the first time through Gmz eyes! But, even more than that, we were drafting some of my favorite texts from one of my favorite books of the Bible. 2 Corinthians is the book where Paul bears his soul most openly: the hurt he feels at the Corinthians showing some measure of allegiance to false apostles who puff themselves up and peddle the Word of God for money; his enduring love he has for the Corinthians despite the conflict; a strong yet humble defense of his apostleship; and the foolishness of boasting in anything other than Christ. My hermeneutics class at Moody, focused entirely on unpacking this letter, helped me see the power of understanding Scripture in light of its historical context, and in doing so, drove this book, in particular, deep into my heart!
And now, 15 years later, in an office some 7,500 miles away, I have the privilege of re-experiencing Paul's heart with our Gmz friends and co-workers: Being led in Christ's triumphal procession, being the aroma of Christ, God's shocking grace shown in placing the treasure of the gospel in mere jars of clay, the anticipation of the judgment seat (bema) of Christ, and high calling as ambassadors of Christ to hold out the message of reconciliation, and on and on… There is so much gold to be panned out of this letter, it is my prayer that our translation has done it justice, and that the Holy Spirit equips the minds and hearts of Gmz pastors and evangelists to grasp and share its great wealth.
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