Are you sitting comfortably..? Then I'll begin!

When in Sudan this summer, we're looking, amongst other things, to do a Bible overview day with the local church. That will have it's challenges, not only because most people there can't understand English, but also because most people there can't read or write!

The prospect is exciting and terrifying all at once!

Terrifying because I can't hide behind handouts - what I give personally from my mouth, through the (intermediary) interpreter, is the only thing they'll get.  What I forget, they will not be able to cover in a bit of personal study afterwards.

Exciting because it forces me to look at what's really real and where my confidence lies! It forces me to look to God and give of myself. It forces me to think in (truly triune) relational and personal terms and not just how I can vomit a load of facts and arguments over people.

All in all, this gives me a much heightened anticipation about the whole thing, more than I've had in a long time back here in the UK, where we've been robbed of in our sense of occasion by the endlessrepeats-recycledblogs-Facebookshare-podcast-always-on culture of life - hooked up to the matrix of Western capitalism.

When everything is available all the time - very little is really exciting anymore - except in the most superficial sense.

So I'm looking again, with renewed interest, at some stuff I came across about 10 years ago from New Tribes Mission!

Here's a video exemplifying what they do amongst the indigenous peoples of the world. I never tire of watching this! (2nd vid = 6mins not 10)





The credits at the end sum it up beautifully: Is God calling you to go to a people, just like them?

Meanwhile, I'm left thinking about how I can cram into one day with an interpreter, what Mark did personally twice a day for three months!

(Paul had two years; God had 4000! :-S)