Author: Bill & Donna Davis

Over the Border and Around the World

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Training in Tijuana

Last week we once again had the privilege of teaching at Radius International in Tijuana. There are 11 students there this year, all being trained to go to the hard places of the world, and take the name of Christ to Unreached People Groups.

They are also being taught how learn the Heart Language of the people to whom they will minister, and that’s where we come in. This semester Bill taught a 10-hour course called Form and Meaning.

Form & Meaning? What does THAT mean? Glad you asked…

Form & Meaning

Missionaries have the most important message in the world (that’s the “meaning” part.) They want to communicate that message clearly. But that’s not so easy. To have effective cross-cultural ministry, they need to be trained about what to say and do (that’s the “form“) that will clearly get that message across.

The trouble is, people around the world communicate meaning in different ways. Each language and culture has unique forms to share a particular message. Sounds, words, letters, grammar, gestures, even acts of friendship… all are forms that communicate very different meanings.

THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL WAY TO COMMUNICATE A PARTICULAR MEANING

Bill teaching Form & Meaning at Radius

It’s All About That Meaning

Here are some fun examples of form/meaning differences:

  • Letters: The letter j represents one sound in English (as in “jump”), but a different sound in other languages: h as in Juan in Spanish, y as in Bjorn in Swedish, etc. “What a j sounds like” is completely arbitrary.
  • Words: “Cat” in English is gato in Spanish, right? Well, kinda. Gato also means a car jack, a person from Madrid, and many other things. Words don’t have one-to-one correspondence.
  • Metaphors: In our English Bibles, we have “edge” of a sword; but in the Hebrew and Greek it is actually the “mouth” of the sword (yes, it’s a double-mouthed sword in Hebrews and Revelation!) In Palawano, the “mouth” of the sword is its tip; the blade or edge is called the “eye” of the sword.
  • Grammar: English has the single word “us.” Palawano has three different words, meaning: “us, but not you,” “just you and me” and “you, me and all of us.” Three forms. English has one form, and lumps all three meanings together.
  • Little Things: English has about 150 prepositions and some of them, like “of,” for example, have a dozen or so meanings! Some languages have ONE preposition. Meaning gets communicated with very different forms.

And those are just the easy kinds of differences!

Expect the Unexpected

  • Turning verbs into nouns: Some languages don’t make nouns (repentance, baptism) out of verbs (repenting, getting baptized) the way English and Greek love to do.
  • Making friends: What if saying “I just got you a little something” was an insult? What if saying that a baby was beautiful made the mother frightened (because you just alerted the evil spirits to where a cute victim was)? What if you were supposed to change the form and say that the baby was “ugly” and mother (but not the spirits) would understand the meaning to be, “Oh, what a cute baby!”? What if you gave a friend a dozen roses and they understood you to mean, “Drop dead!” because it was an even number?
  • Asking questions: And what if Jesus’ rhetorical question, “To what shall I liken the Kingdom of God?” meant that he really didn’t have a clue and was asking the disciples to explain it to him?!

In each case, you would have to make some big changes to communicate what you meant to say.

THE FORM MUST CHANGE FOR THE MEANING TO REMAIN THE SAME

That is the lesson Bill was teaching the students. They cannot afford to “think English and translate.” They must learn to think about the meaning and communicate that in the best form. In the fall semester, Bill will teach them more about how to discover the underlying meaning.

It’s a joy and a privilege to teach these eager missionaries and to get to know them. Both of us enjoyed chatting with them over lunch and answering their questions about missionary life.

Oh, and by the way, lunch at Radius is always awesome:

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Thank God with us…

  • a good week of teaching
  • no hassles driving in and out of Mexico 5 days in a row
  • safety in spite of a flat tire on the interstate (after leaving Mexico on Friday)
  • the privilege of training others to reach the Unreached

Give us the Tools!

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e1 Group (crop)

Sharing a Passion for Equipping Missionaries

“Give us the Tools…

…and We Will Finish the Job!”

 

Sir Winston Churchill spoke those inspiring words in 1941 when England was under severe attack and needed help to survive, and to win the war. He boldly told the world that his country was ready and willing to fight.

They just needed the tools.

That is much like the situation we find around the world today. Missionaries from Asia, Latin America and Africa are ready and willing to join in the battle, to endure hardship and to labor to see every people group reached with the Gospel.

They are asking for the tools they need.

Training Forum in Manila

The Forum on Missionary Training in Manila was a huge success. 65 attendees came from 16 different countries to talk about training missionaries in many different contexts throughout Asia, Africa and Europe. NTM brought them all together to meet one another, to learn from one another, and to encourage and help one another. We were there to listen to them and see how they felt we might be of assistance to them.

We were blessed to learn more about the training programs that are already in place. At the same time, we were challenged by the tremendous needs and the many opportunities that remain.

There are large areas in Central Asia where help is needed in setting up training programs for missionaries. Existing programs are asking for Bill to teach modules or to help them further develop their course materials.

Our next several updates will feature different connections we made at the forum.

First up… THE PHILIPPINES

Bill & Joseph (crop)

Bill with longtime friend and coworker Joseph Lee

After 33 years in the Philippines, for us, attending the Forum in Manila was like going home. We enjoyed fellowshipping with many of our Filipino missionary coworkers and talking about their training program.

They have invited Bill to teach some courses on translation and language learning at their School of Missions. We’ll be working with them to figure out the best timing for this. Bill will also want one or more Filipinos to work alongside him that he can train to take over teaching those courses.

We want to give them the tools and see God use them to finish the job!

 

 

A World of Difference

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Luggage Loading on Plane

Packing our bags…

…Again.

Yep, we’re headed to Manila next week for a forum on developing and providing training for Asian missionaries.

This is exciting for us, as it is moving us toward our vision of seeing an army of well-trained, effective communicators taking the Gospel to Unreached Peoples throughout Asia and all the world!

Training many nations to reach all nationsBearded Nepalese man with red fez

There will be attendees from the Philippines (both Filipinos and expats). We’ll have people from Thailand, Singapore, and a few other Asian nations we can’t mention by name for security reasons. Some will be coming from Africa. And trainers and consultants will also be coming in from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Many nations and Unreached People Groups need to hear. It’s going to take missionaries from every part of the Globe to get the job done. And that means training. You cannot evangelize and disciple unreached people if you don’t know how to learn their language. Those language barriers are often the main reason they are still unreached.

Training, languages and writing systems

4Tbx4a48cWe’ll be talking about how to create the best training materials and contexts for missionaries coming from so many countries. Many of these missionaries don’t speak English. Most won’t have computers (*gasp* can you even be a missionary without a Macbook Pro?!)Indian scripts CROPPED copy

Knowing our ABCs is not enough.  Their languages may use a different script/alphabet.

They have different cultural styles of teaching and learning. Where should each training be based or conducted? How can we train teachers who will be able to conduct training in all these languages?

There are many challenges to work through.

Old friends and new generations

We’re looking forward to seeing old friends and coworkers. And we’re seeing how this kind of training passes from one generation to the next. A prefield trainer coming from England was our student in phonetics back in 1979 before we left for the Philippines; after serving in Africa, he and his wife teach missionary trainees in the UK.

A New Zealander that we trained in 2004 is coming; we had some input into his language-learning know-how, and now he’s training Asians to reach others.

We’ll be spending time with the director of training for the foreign missionaries who arrive in the Philippines; he was a grade schooler on Palawan when we met him in 1981.

And we’re looking forward to meeting others that God has raised up to be a part of seeing Asians become highly effective in reaching Unreached Peoples.

You…

Yes, you!

Each of you is a part of this and we appreciate your prayers as we work through all these challenges. Your partnership in this ministry makes a huge difference as we work together to see all peoples reached in their Heart Languages.

What Would You Do?!

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What would you do…

…if you found yourself in a remote village and had to learn the language?

…if no one there spoke any English? …or they spoke no English at all?

…if there were no CDs, books, teachers, schools or websites to help you?

…there were no dictionaries or published explanations of the grammar?

What would you do if you had to learn that language ALL BY YOURSELF?

This is the very situation in which missionaries who work with Unreached Peoples find themselves. They need to learn the people’s Heart Language. To do this they must succeed at do-it-yourself language learning (and no… sadly, there is no machine to instantly zap the language into your brain.)

Missionaries need help. Lots of help.

What we are doing…

New Tribes Mission provides that kind of help. Our training programs in the USA, Canada and Europe, etc., train missionaries how to learn unknown languages, to learn them well enough to minister effectively; to preach the gospel, to turn new believers into serious disciples, and to teach and counsel those disciples through life’s most difficult challenges.

But what about missionaries who do not speak English and cannot benefit from those training programs?

A big part of our new ministry is to think about how to provide this kind of training for non-Western missionaries around the world. Next week we’re going to our mission headquarters so Bill can meet with other members of his team. We are working to collate the latest and best language learning helps, and to come up with easier ways for the average missionary to analyze a new language and figure out the grammar.

We are thinking especially of how to help those missionaries who are not already fluent in English. So on top of everything else, we will face the challenge of taking all those training materials and having them put into languages like Hindi and Tamil and Chinese and Vietnamese and Burmese so we can train missionaries coming out of Asian countries who want to work with Unreached People Groups.

We believe that the Heart Language is the best way to communicate with anyone. So that is why we want to help these non-Western missionaries to minister in the Heart Language of Unreached Peoples. Well, it also means we need to train these missionaries using their Heart Language!

What you can do…

Pray for us! Pray for wisdom and clear thinking, for open doors to develop training for missionaries from other nations. Pray as we face the challenge of translating these materials and equipping trainers who can teach them. Pray for God to richly provide for the needs of this ministry. Consider partnering with us financially. Pray that we remain healthy and have the strength we need.

We appreciate each one of you. You are making a difference in the world. You are investing in seeing the gospel clearly communicated to Unreached Peoples….

…Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

Sitting in Darkness

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Light of the WorldHere is a thought-provoking view of the world.

In Matthew 5:14 the Lord Jesus called us the light of the world. We are light bearers, commissioned to carry the message about Him, the true Light of the World.

The dots of light of this map show where Christians are…

…and where we are absent.

See how much of the world remains in darkness.

 

Image courtesy of The International Mission Board Global Research, January 2015,

Image source  http://public.imb.org/globalresearch/Pages/MapLight.aspx

A Joy: Teaching at Radius International

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Bill overlooking tijuana

Bill with the city of Tijuana spread out behind him, and San Diego in the distance

One of our joys during this season of ministry is Bill’s involvement at Radius International as part-time adjunct faculty, training young missionaries.

bill teaching radius

Radius equips cross-cultural workers to plant churches among unreached people groups. Bill teaches two courses. The first one is five days (10 hours) long, called Form & Meaning. It is part of the Culture Acquisition curriculum at Radius, and is presented during the students’ first semester. Here’s how the Radius website describes that course:

In all areas communication, the difference between “form” and “meaning” is hugely significant. When functioning in our own language and culture, we intuitively manage that difference, and we depend upon it constantly! But what we do intuitively in our own culture can really hinder clear communication across cultural and linguistic boundaries. We want you to avoid the common communication errors that take place when we assume that similar “forms” shared by two cultures have similar “meanings”. We’ll equip you to become aware of the form-meaning challenge and teach you how to successfully manage it.

Bill uses lots of examples from the Philippines and the Palawano people. It’s a fun, interesting module.

Tijuana street with church

Tijuana street scene

The Radius campus is in Tijuana, Mexico. Now that we are based in San Diego, we can drive across the border into Mexico. It takes us almost exactly 30 minutes to get from our house to the school.

Donna often accompanies Bill on the days he teaches, as she really enjoys interacting with the students and staff.

The second course he teaches is Semantics and Translation. It is two weeks long (20 hours), and a bit more intense and technical. It expands on the Form and Meaning course, and covers many of the areas involved in Bible translation with an emphasis on translating the original meaning.

bill teaching radius 2

The students are a committed bunch. They live in Tijuana for 10 months developing ministry skills and character to be effective, long-term cross-cultural workers.

“Radius is a serious, 10-month course,
designed for people who are planning to do serious, long-lasting church planting among unreached peoples.”

They inspire us! One young couple is headed to a war-torn Asian nation, another wants to work in South Asia, another couple is headed for Africa.

The Radius Kitchen

The Radius kitchen

The students live full-time in Tijuana, and eat at the school. We get to join them for lunches when we are down there. Wonderful, home-cooked Mexican food.

Great lunches!

Great lunches! This one was chile rellenos by Donna’s special request.

This past December, Radius’ second graduating class made its exit. And now, just this week, another group of students have started their year of studies.

The map below shows where they may end up in the years to come. Bill and I sincerely hope our relationships with these students will be long-term, and that we will be able to see some of them in their future places of ministry over the coming years, to encourage them, to help them in their language learning, and to see in person what God is doing among Unreached Peoples.

Unreached people group map 2014

For a close-up, interactive version of this map, go to this link.

We appreciate your partnership as we train these young people to effectively plant churches among Unreached People Groups by ministering in their Heart Languages.