Missionaries by Rob Dufour

I went home last weekend to see the fam and just like most times I end up going home I usually stick around Sunday afternoon and attend Church with everyone and then I am usually on my way. During the weekends service the pastor recognized a few missionaries from our Church that have been doing the Lords work in remote villages in Africa for the past year. The pastor spoke of the hardships these missionaries have faced while witnessing to the village people and the determination it has taken on their part to break through the barriers that were presented. Communication was obviously one of the largest problems they faced, as many of the villages they frequented were primarily oral cultures. These missionaries undertook the task of learning their oral language so that they could translate scripture to them. First of all I was thinking how difficult it would be to attempt to learn an oral language after being surrounded by nothing but a literate culture while in America. It also got me to think about what would be gained or lost as a written language was translated to an oral language, and vice versa. I assume that this would be the epitome of “lost in translation” as their entire mind set of their language is different than ours. I have tried, but failed, to imagine myself communicating and thinking to myself without visualizing the written symbols that represent our language. Conversely I would assume that someone from an oral culture would have a hard time grasping the idea that an object such as a goat could be represented as a few straight and curved lines. When I think of objects in my head or speak words I generally visualize their written symbol, which is interesting because it’s almost as if we have this extra level as a buffer between our communication. Where we can go from seeing an object, to seeing it represented as a written word, then to speaking the name – an oral culture would see an object and only know the oral/auditory representation. While I’m wrapping up this thought I am thinking that both cultures have their positives and negatives – and they are both clearly effective as made evident by their success. True – oral cultures are terribly endangered today but when you consider how long they have been around it is easy to say that is clearly works. Who knows? Maybe someday a new form of culture/communication will push our written culture to become obsolete. I begin to think about possible new and awesome forms of communication, when I realize I’m missing the sermon. I say a quick prayer for the brave missionaries, and then try to catch up on what I have missed.