“Then Peter began to speak up. ‘We’ve given up everything to follow you,’ he said. ‘Yes,’ Jesus replied, 'and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will receive now in return a …
What if it all burns up?
I sit in a room full of like-minded people as a like-minded senior missionary gets up and says, “There is absolutely no way you can do this without God’s help.” While heads nod around the room, my heart whispers, yes you can. Explorers have done it without Him (or rather, without acknowledging …
Build the Wall
Sometimes we envision faith and action as opposing weights on a scale. The trick is to get them in the right balance with one another. We don’t want to work too much because that tips the scale and we’re admonished for relying on our own strength. But we also don't want to work too little because …
Have your cake and eat it too
I miss being skinny. Three, four years ago while I was teaching I was a size 2, and occasionally I could squeeze into size 0 pants. I killed backpacking trips because I didn’t have a lot of resistance on me. But I was also sick and unhappy. My panic disorder had bested me as an adult, and my nonstop …
The Buddhists do it better
“‘Is he actually an expert in religion?’ the Japanese Buddhist asked. I tried to explain that in the West it is not always considered essential that missionaries be well trained in Christian theology. He replied, ‘I can only say that if we Buddhists send someone to another country to train the …
Inadequacy and Honesty
It doesn't matter who remembers your name a hundred years from now, because Christ will never forget it. _____ Your worth isn't found in how many people clap for you as you walk across the stage to graduate. Your worth isn't found in how many guys like you. Your worth isn't found in how easily …
I’m so over being a Proverbs 31 woman
I wouldn’t say training with New Tribes is difficult per se, but I would say it’s heavy. Nate and I and our team will learn a language that no outsider in the history of ______ tribe has ever learned. We’ll use our training to match sounds with symbols, put down their language in written form, teach …
God, make my feet beautiful
Before we came here, I thought the reason our training was two years was to teach us the ins and outs of phonetics, grammar and linguistics; how to learn an undocumented language from indigenous people; how to translate and all that jazz. One year in, and I’ve learned that’s the easy part, …
How Common Core Helped Prepare Me for Bible Translation
Several weeks ago, New Tribes' head translation consultant came to teach us a course about communication and identified ten reasons translations fail to communicate. Here's one of them. And it's a principle from 6th grade common core that we spent hours harping on - One of the most overlooked …
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Honor and shame, rape and conversion
To open up our class on honor and shame cultures, the professor told the story of an Asian woman who was being raped in a car by four men when she saw her uncle about to pass by in his vehicle. ...Pausing so we could contemplate what would happen next, he then continued… The woman buried her face …