Tamie Davis is an Aussie living in Tanzania, writing at meetjesusatuni.com.
Recently I blogged on how language is about rhythm and flow, not just words and grammar. Another aspect of language learning, and one which seems so distant at the moment, is expression and nuance. When someone raises their voice, are they angry or excited? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. We […]
In the previous two posts, I’ve raised some issues to do with dependence. In an attempt to avoid fostering dependence, we may too easily become task focused, treating people as projects rather than, well, people. But avoiding dependence is motivated by recognising the full dignity of other believers. So where […]
Australia has such a rich variety of cuisine and we especially miss the fresh Asian foods, so I undertook to learn how to make my own Chinese noodles. As it turns out, it is super easy and ‘egg noodles’ contain no egg! They get their yellow colour from a chemical […]
Yesterday, I observed that the opposite of dependence is not isolation but having something to offer. In our case, that means recognising that national church leaders are often far more effective in mission and ministry in their national context than missionaries. (We are expensive, for a start, and often have […]
The question of dependence is a critical one for engaging in any sort of cross-cultural partnership. In the nineteenth century, CMS’s Henry Venn came up with three marks of a mature church: self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing. Though he planted churches in west Africa, he believed that autonomy was key to treating […]
Going into town for us is a matter of negotiating cars, 4WDs, carts, bikes, motorbikes and pedestrians where there are no traffic lights, zebra crossings are nominal and there aren’t really any footpaths. You can’t use a stroller and Elliot won’t tolerate being on my back anymore so there have […]
When I’m having a conversation with someone and I say something, if they understand, most of the time they repeat it. Often if I’ve made a mistake, they correct it which is really useful for me, but I don’t think they’re doing it just to correct me. I think it’s […]
Meet Jesus at uni 