Does “milky coffee” sound as cool as “Cafe Latte”? @kouya

The director of Wycliffe Bible Translators UK, Eddie Arthur, has a wonderful blog that I love to read frequently.  He often posts thoughts and comments on current issues and other concerns related to global missions and Bible translation.  And then he often writes just on Scripture, and shares some thoughts from his own heart.

I loved one of his most recent posts on the Tower of Babel, Pentecost and the Blessing on Diversity, and so I wanted to post it here and encourage you to read it.  There are LOTS of good things to consider in his post about the Tower of Babel as judgment, but also bringing in creative redemptive gifts showing how “remarkable” God is (gotta love that word!) and about the beauty and challenge of cultural diversity. (Check out his entire post at http://www.kouya.net/?p=2734)

But he talks about the blessing of the Pentacost in a beautiful way, and in one that I think we all need to think about as we consider the VALUE and IMPORTANCE of ethnolinguistic minority community’s voices in our world, and in our churches.

Each language is capable of expressing some things better than all other languages. Why else to coffee shops sell cafe latte rather than milky coffee? On a deeper note, each language has the ability to express itself in ways that other languages can’t quite manage. There are subtleties of meaning and inference that just can’t quite be transferred from one language to another without losing something. And this is really important, because that means that each language can say things about God and is capable of praising God in ways that other languages can’t quite reach.

How cool is that?  It’s true!  Not only does Cafe Latte sound way COOLER in French than the sort of disgusting sounding “milky coffee” in English, but truly, different languages express themselves in unique and beautiful ways.  God can be expressed and glorified in TOTALLY intimate and distinctly unique ways.  Should the entire world be unified into a few languages or should we focus on teaching minority communities to speak languages of wider communication like English, Mandarin, or Arabic? NO!!  One plain reason is because we do violence to the glory of God!

Even displayed in this comment on His glory, God has expressed His grace and extended value to those who have been overlooked by many in our world. In fact, ethnolinguistic minority communities comprise the most overlooked and under-resourced rural poor in the world.  Why, why is this?

Let’s tap into the heart of God, and work for the day when minority communities are leading our world.  That is truly Biblical!  Let’s not just advocate and speak for for those who can’t speak for themselves, although that is extremely important (Proverbs 31:9).  Let’s hear THEIR VOICE.

Wycliffe Bible Translators is working toward that kind of world.  Check it out!

www.wycliffe.ca