Sunday 29 September 2013

back to my back (problems)

I have had problems with my back since I was about twelve. The doctor said something along the lines of “ah yes, classic problem for tall teenage girls”, which didn't help much!

In 2002 when I came to Benin for the first time I suffered my first slipped disk, not helped by backless benches in churches, hundreds of miles in an old minibus and bush taxis, and then – the straw that broke the camel's back – slipping in the shower. My doctor back in France prescribed x-rays, a scan, strong anti-inflammatories and physio-therapy. She said the problem might well re-absorb back into my body and she'd rather it went that way than have to operate.

In 2004 my doctor said she found it strange that my back was still hurting me so much, and sent me for another scan … which showed that I had a new slipped disk one vertabrae higher up. I had an MRI which didn't seem to do much other than to give me a nice picture of it. A month off work, more anti-inflammatories and a new (and better) physiotherapist, and gradually I got back to my normal.

Marc and I got married in August 2004, when I was still having to be very careful with my back, and our pastor in France said that if we were thinking of overseas mission, perhaps we should pray that part of the guidance would be for my back to be significantly better.

In 2006 when I was pregnant and had no more back problems than your average pregnant woman, that was a huge answer to prayer. Of course I have had to carry on being careful, and I am aware of my limits. And of course there are times I do something despite the little voice inside me saying "are you sure that's a good idea?" … and I regret it later, but overall my back problems are not something which affect my life significantly as they did in 2002-2005. The climate here is generally good for my back – in dry season I rarely even have any twinges (cold and wet was always the worst for it).

I was thinking about this recently though, as I woke up on Thursday last week with my back completely blocked. I couldn't actually stand up completely straight that morning, and I certainly couldn't lift up Eve. I think it probably happened because the night started out hot, I had trouble getting to sleep but then slept like a log, and in the morning a chilly breeze was blowing through our bedroom but didn't wake me just froze up my back.

Being handicapped by my back again for a couple of days actually made me even more grateful for the amazing improvement I have experienced. It is so hard to look after a baby with a bad back, yet as a mother it is difficult to have to ask other people to do it all!


Tuesday 24 September 2013

a text taken out of context is a pretext*

The translation team is currently working through Amos. I work ahead of the team, firstly re-formating the Monkolé text where the prophecies need to be in poetic form, and then reading and analysing the text and the translation.

So my first stage is just re-jigging the text, before having really read it through. As I was doing this, I noticed a few key words in a verse, and thought that it sounded like a good quote for a verse for our ministry. In English it reads,

“'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord,
'when I will send a famine through the land –
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'” (Amos 8:11)

Well, this is what we want among the Monkolé people, isn't it? Er, except that if you read the following verse it says,

“Men will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:12)

Ah. Because in fact in this context the “famine” is a punishment. God's people have rejected Him and so He has finally lost patience with them and given them what they wanted. These verses come in a sequence of verses about the judgement of God. There is also the question of whether God's word in this case was the Scriptures existing at that time or, more probably, the prophetic word Amos and others were bringing. So not really all that relevant to our ministry here at all.

In any case, it was a good reminder of the dangers of pulling a verse out of context. Let's be responsible in the way we treat God's Word, especially if we are teaching others! And we can still be praying that there will be a hunger and a thirst for the Bible among the Monkolé people, even if we can't use this verse to encourage you to!

* This is a quote from one of our lecturers at Bible College who himself was quoting someone else ... my point is that I can't take credit for this catchy expression!

Tuesday 10 September 2013

trying another language!

Although only in his third year of primary school, Simon has to begin learning a new modern language this year. We had the choice between English, German and Spanish. It seemed a bit silly to choose English, and a waste of an opportunity to learn a new language, so we didn't consider that for long. Neither Marc nor I had done any German since secondary school, so we didn't feel capable of helping Simon much with that. But since I studied Spanish for three years at university, and felt it would probably come back to me quickly, we signed him up for Spanish.

I was also confident that the resources provided would be comprehensive ... and they are! We have to cover sixty lessons (of about an hour) this year, which means trying to do two a week when we are at home. We got started last week, so have already done two lessons, and it is fun! To be honest, I don't think their method is the absolute best (that's the problem with having a doctorate in linguistics, three teaching qualifications and a lot of experience learning and teaching languages!) but there is a lot of listening to "real" Spanish speakers, which is great.

The only problem really is that the majority of the sound files are only available on-line ... which means that if we have a day like yesterday where the internet connection was flat-lining in the afternoon, we either have to scrape by with me doing the talking (not at all ideal!) or wait for another day (let's hope it works better this afternoon!).

It is also very different for Simon to learn a language academically rather than just picking it up orally and on a need-to-know basis. But at least I don't have the problem of a child who doesn't even understand the concept of a foreign language ... I know some small children think foreigners must have to translate from English in their heads before saying anything in their own language!