Being the son of missionaries 

As a child, it was just life as usual. I didn’t know any better. Until I turned about thirteen. Then  I was like, “I would like to have a forever home. I would like to stop moving.”

 

I love both my passport country and the country I grew up in equally. 

 

I always wanted to blend in. I always wanted to be excepted by my pears. But I was always fiercely proud of what I had learned in the other country and I wasn’t afraid to mention it. 

 

I didn’t find out what a TCK was until I went to collage. 

 

The pressures on a MK

I remember growing up feeling like I had to be perfect. My dad made me feel like the families reputation rested on me. 

 

There is a great book called, “I have to perfect. And other parsonage heresies.”

One of the heresies is, “I can ruin my dad’s ministry by having hair that’s too long.”

 

It makes the kid feel like, I’m here for others. I have no rights for myself. I’m here to serve the world. Which is a lot of pressure. 

 

Becoming independent is an important part of growing up. A lot of ministry parents try to continue to control their kids past a certain age. 

 

Getting drawn into cross-cultural work 

I felt led towards the field, but I thought, “I’m not going to do what my parents did. I want to have a real job.” 

 

I had become agnostic and had no idea what truth was. I spent three years of that time seeking. 

 

I grew up in a Christian community. I was given all the answers. I thought I knew everything. But then my seiner year of high school, we moved to a new city; a large school. I became a small fish in a big pond. There was a lot of intellectual backlash against Christianity, Christian belief, and Christ thought. I began to feel like, “Oh, the only reason I believe this is because  my parents told me what to believe, and I don’t think that’s a good reason any more. 

 

After having tried to refute the bible, I feel in love with it. 

 

I choose what was familiar, but also what I had become convinced of intellectually. I say “intellectually,” because my actual faith didn’t begin until years later, when I was on the field. 

 

I was on the field, serving God, and I hated it. I thought I had ruined my life. I thought I had thrown it away, that I had made the wrong decision, that I had missed out on better opportunities. 

 

I took Daniel’s example and started praying three times a day. “God, if you’re there, please help me.” And that’s when God met me; he found me. 

 

I started off in the work thinking, I just need a task to fulfill. I don’t want to be a missionary, I just want a job. I want a task. So bible translation, that fits. But then I started caring about people, and it wasn’t about the job any more, it was about building community and spreading God’s love to people. It was a life-changer and a game-changer for the work. 

 

Rhythms of Spiritual health 

Getting into God’s word is part of my daily routine, but it’s not a legalistic thing, like, I have to to it today or my life is over. Making it part of my daily routine really sets the pace. It does make my day better, but if I miss it for a day, for some reason, I don’t feel awful. Like, oh no, I’m separated from God. 

 

I also need regular interaction with godly friends. 

 

Quiet time with God. Quality time with likeminded friends. Times of rest. Take a vacation.  

 

Beginning the process of bible translation 

What is their language attitude? The first question you have to ask is, Do they want this? If you go in as a foreigner and say, You need this. Let us give it to you. They will say, thank you, put it on a shelf and worship it. 

 

Once you know the people want a bible in their language, you have to look at language vitality; how many people speak the language? 

 

The reason we do bible translation is so the bible can be understood, because we believe in a God who wants a relationship with us, who communicated to us through this word, and he can be known. 

 

The language you grew up speaking to your mother is more likely to touch your heart than a language you studied in school. 

 

Translating for Oral cultures 

There is a scale between literacy and orality. Everywhere along that scale people do interact with text to some extent. 

 

When you translate the Bible, you ask, who is the audience and where are they on the literacy/orality scale? 

 

When you translate the first translation into a language that has never had it before, it’s best to go a little more literal, because they can take that then, and do a revision that is less literal and more meaning bast. But you can’t take a more meaning bast and take that and move into a more literally translation. 

 

What you look translator, you aim at being clear, accurate, nature, and acceptable. 

 

The goal has always been for people to understand.