NEWS

 E-mail This Page 
 Printable Format 
 Feedback 

Daily Scripture
 
"And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long."

Psalm 35:28

GETTING THE WHOLE PICTURE

May 15, 2006

by David Bell

A recent incident gave missionary Rosemary Ulrich another lesson in understanding the culture and language of the people so that the Gospel can be presented in a culturally relevant way.

Preparing to go out for her early morning walk around the neighborhood, Rosemary stopped outside her front gate.

She saw a young man frantically waving his arms and weaving erratically from side to side. He seemed to stagger in the middle of the street and his face appeared contorted as he emitted loud grunting sounds. It looked to her like the man was recovering from a drunken fight or was on drugs.

Rosemary immediately retreated, shutting the gate behind her. After the man was well past, she ventured out. Entering the street she started to get the whole picture. The man was herding a dozen cows off the road and parking strips onto a grassy lane to some vacant pastures.

The Ulrichs live in the suburbs, and their neighborhood retains many remnants of the small farms that used to dominate the area. Several neighbors keep milk cows in their now shruken plots and take them out daily to feed them wherever they can find grass.

Rosemary could see that the young man had only been busy about his job, and even those weird noises held meaning for the cows.

When missionary Randy Steel heard this story he knew he had another illustration to pass on to his students.

Part of Randy's ministry is working with missionaries to learn the Paraguayan culture and language, giving them good learning tools, and helping them to develop habits that assist them in learning a tribal culture and language.