My father-in-law was an MD. He went to med school later than most. Upon completion he began private practice, before deciding to leave what would have become a lucrative career and invest in something that would mean more than financial gain. He and his family took their 4 children to Mexico, then Peru, to provide medical care to a missionary base and the local people surrounding the base. Having married his eldest daughter, I can tell you his investment paid off in ways he could have never imagined...The organization he worked with until the day he died is called Wycliffe Bible Translators. Wycliffe has a goal of translating Scripture into every language group's own language. I've been thinking about this work of translation lately. I believe that it is also my life's calling - not in the Wycliffe way - but translation nonetheless. What I am to do is to take God's words and "translate" them into the "language" of the people in my "world". So many "religious words" - words like faith, church, even God - today raise people's walls and barriers. When those words are used, dialog ends. So, translation is the work of explaining ("fleshing out") ideas and words in a way that barriers are torn down and not built up or reinforced. For I believe God is a God who pursues us. We too often run from an image of God that is inaccurate; an image that has been erected by misinformation, misrepresentation or even deceit. God aches over that misrepresentation. He longs for people to know him as he really is. We need more translators...
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