But...?!

Two good examples of how your cultural background can both help and hinder your reading of the Bible came up this week.

On Tuesday we were reading the passage in Mark where Jesus sends some disciples to prepare the Passover meal. He tells them to go into town, and when they see a man carrying a water jar, to follow him.

In discussions in Europe, I've heard comments like, “But that's so random! How could they tell whether it was the right man?” Yet here in Benin it is very rare to see a man carrying water – he would stick out like a sore thumb. So no one here is surprised to hear that the disciples had no trouble finding the right man.

This morning, however, we were talking about the story of Jacob stealing the birthright from his older twin, Esau. The pastor said that Monkolé people may well be confused when they hear this story, since in Monkolé tradition the twin who is born in second place is considered the elder twin – and the text clearly states that Jacob was born after Esau. In Monkolé understanding he would have no need to steal the birthright as it would be his already!

Which all goes to underline the importance of understanding the historical context when you read a text … and why you might not understand what you read if you don't!

harvest-time

The harvest continues here in Pèdè. Here are Simon and his friend Benja collecting the last corn cobs (to be dried ready to make flour):

Hard at work harvesting peanuts in the field next to our house:



Papa working hard while Benjy supervises(?):


Hélène carrying another sac of peanuts into our compound:




All the peanuts that have been harvested so far:

conference

After ten days away and then a visitor, it is reassuring to get back to blogging! We went down to Parakou at the beginning of the month for the SIM Benin-Togo Spiritual Life Conference. We were half looking forward to it, half apprehensive. We only managed two days of last year's conference, as Benjy decided to go on sleep strike! But he is a year older now, and the conference was being held in Parakou, which meant we were sleeping in our “usual” Guesthouse room, so we thought we could count on it being a bit better than last year.

And it was! Another bonus this year was that we had Esther looking after the boys for us again. Not only do they like her, but we know she won't let them get away with too much, so we really can concentrate on the meetings we go to. The boys came with us to the worship meetings, and then stayed with Esther during the teaching and report sessions. They did go to a couple of the kids' meetings, but are still a bit young for group stuff, especially organised games.

There were 72 of us at the conference, including 22 kids. It's actually SIM plus other smaller missions, giving us a chance to catch up with far-flung missionaries we wouldn't otherwise see very much of. The teaching was challenging, refreshing and very honest. Our speaker was the brother-in-law of our director, and he came from Canada with his wife, cousin and cousin's wife, the three of whom led the children's work together. We even had a guest worship leader, the sister of a TWR missionary, and she came all the way from the USA to bless us!

All the missionaries present gave short reports of their work. It is easy to give in to the temptation to compare one's own work unfavourably with all that others are doing … but it is far better to rejoice that we are all serving one God together in many ways with our diverse gifts! And it was encouraging to hear other language-learning missionaries who have been going through similar experiences to our own.

We also had fun times – games and a barbecue one afternoon, a Fun Night with sketches, and a bonfire on the final evening, which just happened to be November 5th (remember, remember!). It's the first Nov 5th bonfire I've been at for years!!

Of course, as parents of small children, we don't quite manage to talk at length to everyone we'd like to, but there are other blessings. When we arrived on the Monday the boys were quite shy and avoided talking to people. By the Friday they were even playing with other kids and holding long conversations with some of the adults.

So all in all, it was a week of blessing and growth!