mmm-BELLY-may Days

Pieces

2011-12-05T15:08:00+01:00

About a week after Mom died last August, we got this picture in the mail. It's Mom and two of her friends on the Andrea Doria. Not the trip where it sank. Mom's on the left.

A story I heard on NPR really resonated, especially this part:

"With the death, I'd become accustomed to seeing pieces of my father being taken away. But now, with a doorknob and a hand on my dad's shoulder, I had what I never thought I'd have again: a new piece of my father being given to me. ...

Those pieces are precious. Especially when you don't see them coming."

You can click the gray bar to hear the whole story.

A Bolt Out Of The Blue: Mourning A Man And A Myth

In completely unrelated news, can someone tell me if the rules have changed for capitalizing letters in a title? I copied the above caps straight from the NPR website.

Don't misrepresent Africa

2011-12-03T20:41:04+01:00

I just watched a pretty interesting TED talk about the pictures we take and show back in the States of Africa.

I like the concept she brings up of an ethics of seeing.

The good stuff starts at about 8:24.

I have no words

2011-03-31T03:37:13+01:00

Mary had a whole cabinet full of silk blouses that she'd bought at the market. She used to cut them up and use the cloth to make really beautiful things. She lived near mmmBELLYmay land, and was a friend.

Blogging about nothing and dogs and stuff is easy. The hard stuff, however, is not.

The end of this part of Mary's story is below.

Jerusalem bomb victim was British bible translator studying Hebrew

Mary Gardner, the British woman killed in the Jerusalem bus bombing, was an evangelical Christian who had been living in Togo, west Africa, translating the New Testament into the local Ifé language.

She was on a six-month course in Jerusalem studying ancient and modern Hebrew at the Hebrew University prior to returning to Togo to begin work on a translation of the Old Testament.

The 55-year-old had been staying in a dormitory in Yad Hasmona village, about six miles from Jerusalem, but had gone into the city on Wednesday to meet her oldest friend. She was fatally injured. Thirty others were wounded when a device weighing up to 2kg exploded near the busy central bus station.

The eldest of five children, Gardner was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but moved to Aberdeenshire when she was 15. Her parents Jean, 81 and Tony, 82, who live there, said they were "devastated by the sudden loss of our daughter in this tragic and unexpected way".

In a statement they said: "Mary was a very special person and we thought the world of her. She was devoted to her work and was well liked wherever she went. We are proud of her and all that she has achieved in her life and feel truly blessed to have had her in our lives."

She had been working for Wycliffe Bible Translators in Togo, living among the Ifé people for the past 20 years, learning the language, translating the bible ...

you can read the rest of the article here.

Bye Buddy.

2011-03-30T16:08:57+01:00

This is Buddy, who just died in mmmBELLYmay land, probably of old age. He was a good boy.

#5 C'est ça !

2011-03-10T22:27:53+01:00

I love knowing exactly where I stand in mmmBELLYmay land-when I goof it up, when I get it right. That's the great thing about my mmmBELLY-friends, like Leon in the picture. He's so patient while I try and try again, and then when I finally get it, he doesn't leave me guessing. He gives me a big smile, and tells me "That's it!" It's great to have honest, instant feedback. I have a thing or two or a thousand to learn from my friends in Africa.

#4 Where the streets have no name

2011-03-10T07:28:58+01:00

My friend Coleen calls me St. Nora the Perpeptually Lost.

She's right.

So of course my GPS is my most prized possession. But, it doesn't work in mmmBELLYmay land. We don't really have addresses there. Or street names. Stuff like that.

One day I was out running errands with a friend. We didn't know the way back to where we were staying, so we asked someone for directions. I promptly goofed them up. We didn't realize it at first, just kept driving, the road getting rougher and rougher. I finally stopped when the road ended in a pile of rubble that even 4wd couldn't handle. I'd just started to turn the truck around, when the guy who'd given us the directions rode up on his bike, all out of breath. He'd been chasing us the whole time, but we didn't see him. He was so sorry we'd gotten lost (my fault, not his directions). After he'd apologized over and over, he led us all the way out to the main road.

I love living in Africa.

John Ortberg had a great GPS story in his book The Me I Want to Be. Totally speaking my language. He said:

"At one point while driving in this unfamiliar territory, I was quite sure the GPS voice was wrong. It said to go left, but I didn’t go left. I went right because I knew it was wrong. Then in a fascinating response, the GPS voice said, “Recalculating route. When safe to do so, execute a U-turn.” But I knew the voice was still wrong…so I unplugged the GPS. And – would you believe it? – I got crazy lost! …So we plugged the GPS back in, and do you know what the voice said?

I told you, you little idiot. You think I’m going to help you now? There’s no way. You rejected me. You just find your own way home!

Of course, the voice didn’t really say that.

And God isn’t like that either."

SingleStory

2011-03-03T06:11:44+01:00

I just love it when we singles take care of each other. There's just something so right about it. A few nights ago I got together with some friends that used to be part of a group called the, um, Plumbers. It was so refreshing to be with people who have been with me on this overseas adventure since it started, who actually read my emails, and who get the singleness piece of it. It was lIke coming home.

Singles that I've never met before can be just as great. A few years ago, I went to my friend's wedding. I was an out of towner, but not in the wedding, so it was a little weird at the rehearsal dinner-I didn't want to sit at the head table, since I wasn't part of the bridal party or family, but those were the only people I knew. I ended up sitting with the musician and the hair girl, and we had a great time. And some awesome chocolate dessert. But that's not the best part.

When I got to the reception, there was a table of singles strategically positioned at the entrance, and they snagged me right away to sit with them. I watched them grab other singles too. It was awesome-no awkwardness, no hesitating, no is this spot taken, just a seat and an instant welcome.

And when my friend tossed her bouquet, not one of us moved a muscle. We just all sat, together. Beats the heck out of hiding in the bathroom.

That day, even though it was a wedding, it was good to be single.

Map FAIL

2011-02-21T05:27:34+01:00

see more funny videos

Trader

2011-02-19T01:20:34+01:00

Great video. HT: almost an M.

The Bible and Disciple Making

2011-01-24T19:45:28+01:00

Here's the first part of Eddie Arthur's series on why we should give the Bible when people are in need. Great stuff.

This is the first part of my answer to the question of why we should bother translating the Bible people when there are many more, apparently more urgent, problems in the world.

In a sense, this answer is the most straight forward, but perhaps it is also the most contentious. To put it simply, I believe that we should make the Bible available to people, whoever and wherever they are, because it provides the answers to life’s most important questions.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I believe strongly in holistic mission. Proclamation of the Gospel and loving service go hand in hand and must never be separated. We must show compassion for the poor and needy, we must work for justice and peace and we must proclaim the Gospel of reconciliation through the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus’ greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) goes hand in hand with the ‘Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).

There was a time when Evangelical Christians would discount the value serving people’s needs; condemning it as ‘the social Gospel’. However, over the past few decades, compassionate service has regained its rightful place. The problem seems to me, that in the process we have lost a focus on the need to proclaim the Gospel.

To some extent, this is understandable. Day after day, our media show us dreadful images of people who are suffering from starvation, flooding, warefare and so the list goes on. Our hearts go out to our fellow human beings who face such unimaginable hardships, and we quite rightly want to do something about it. Different agencies, Christian and secular, use these images to encourage us to support their work and to make a contribution to alleviating human suffering.

But what we can never see on our televisions or in the media is the dreadful state of a human being who is not reconciled to God. Though we might believe in the need for people to come to faith in Christ and to grow as disciples, the urgency of that need has been lost somewhere along the way.

I believe that this is reflected in some research that was carried out for a number of Christian organisations recently. Focus groups of Evangelical Christians were asked to name some Christian charities. The answers were very revealing, people named a number of relief and development agencies, most of whom did not have a Christian basis, but they hardly mentioned any evangelisitic or discipleship ministries.

When people are suffering we must be concerned about meeting their needs and improving their living conditions – that is not negotiable. But we must also do our utmost to bring them to saving faith in Christ. After all, what good does it do if someone gains the whole world but loses their soul? (Mark 8:36).

I believe that Bible translation is absolutely essential for evangelism and disciple making. Because of this, I believe that the Church is obligated to translate the Scriptures in all situations. We must not and cannot ignore people’s spiritual needs just because they have physical needs, too. That being said, we must not ignore their physical needs either.

That being said, and somewhat counter-intuitively, I do believe that a Bible translation project can also make a significant contribution to dealing with people’s physical needs in the long term – but that is another post.