Lost in Translation?
A marvelous thing happened in Sunday evening Bible study this weekend. We had three new visitors. Four, if you count the gigantic beach-ball that was Yan’s belly. Peng and Wendy invited Yan, who is expecting her first child–a little boy. Yan brought her parents-in-law. Her mother-in-law, a beautiful, tiny Chinese woman, speaks good but somewhat broken English. Her husband speaks only Chinese. It was the first time that any of them had ever heard the Bible.
Peng and Wendy translated Pastor’s lesson into Mandarin for them. The five of them sat along one wall of the room, huddled together over this strange, new Book. It was easy to get lost in the melody of Wendy’s voice as it broke free of the chains of a second language and rode hushed and wild along the waves of its original tongue. (more…)