Friend and fellow Jinja mission team missionary, Ben Langford, did something that every missionary ought to do in order to endear themselves to their host culture, the families they will serve, and to learn language and life.
He went to a village and stayed a week, built a hut, spewed language like a baby–as I did–until he got one word then a phrase then connected phrases, then sentences and paragraphs of speech right.
I wanted to include something Ben said because I am working on similar thoughts for a Wineskins theme on the Gospel of Mark. One article I’m writing is about how Ugandans see Scripture so differently than Americans do. We shouldn’t have been shocked but we learned so much seeing the words of the Bible heard and understood through those living as subsistence farmers. In other words, they lived on their daily bread provided from the ground.
He wrote several thoughts when he returned, and here is one observation he made.
These agricultural and nature themes run threadlike through Jesus’ parables and teaching. I knew very well how argricultural themes in the Bible connected here but now it is like the door has been opened to a whole new world. One night I was telling Moses Mboizi about the moon and men traveling there. And out of all the questions he could have asked, his first one was, “Can they grow corn there?”
A very important question! (in oh, so many ways . . .)
One of our students here at Harding is an outstanding young lady named Janet Kogo from Kenya.
Her mother was recently in the States for the first time, and has since gone back. Janet called home to Kenya to make sure her mom had made it home safe, which she had. Janet then proceeded to ask what was the first story mom had told about America when she got back home. The first thing mom told them was about a place where you could go eat that was an acre in size and once inside you could eat ALL you wanted to eat. She was describing “New China Buffet” here in Searcy.
What a huge difference……living day to day on what you can grow, or going to a place where you can literally eat ALL your stomach can hold. And you can do that every day if you want to!
Thanks Greg!