I had arrived in the office at 10am where I found out the one who was supposed to present that same Monday afternoon with John was sick with fever. I spent a few hours before the presentation pulling together answers to the questions he was going to fire at me during the skit including, "The people can't read, how will Bible translation help them." and "Using different languages in the church divides the church!" and "English is the most powerful language, if you say "In Jesus name" in English, the Devil really is scared." The next hour was spent unfolding the case for Bible tranlation and it's impact on the church. We revealed the history of ancient churches that stood firm in the face of Islam because they had Scripture in their language. We discussed how Christianity teaches people to respond in love, to give grace, and to pray for your enemies...to understand this message, is to becomes strong in Christ. We reminded the believers that Christianity is a translated religion and how God wanted people to understand and know him, so he translated himself, in the person of Christ Jesus.
I felt totally ill-equipped to present that evening, but God did a wonderful thing. One man stood up and testified, "I have been in church my whole life. Then I heard Ephesians from the audio Bible in Mwaghavul, my language. I had never understood it like that. The Bible talks about God's people, the Jew, but I knew I was not Jew. I heard that because of Jesus, the the Mwaghavul man and the Jew have become one. That never made sense to me before as it did in my language." Praise God.
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