You know how we lived among you for your sake. Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. —Paul, to the Thessalonian Christians Paul and […]
We’ve been talking about two global tensions, language and resources. Now, let’s look at one of Jim Harries’ case studies of how Western money and Western language conspire to prevent African realities from being addressed. Western Kenyan people are renowned for their love for funerals and their fear of the sick and dying. […]
‘Does it matter when we arrive?’ I ask. ‘Oh, be free, be free!’ ‘Is it OK?’ ‘Of course. Be free. We will enjoy.’ My friend and I are speaking in English. ‘Be free?’ It makes perfect sense to him, and it’s not hard for me to work out what he […]
‘Missionaries from the West like to hit the ground running to solve as many of other people’s problems as possible in the increasingly short term they have available for service…’ Uh oh. In this series we’ll explore the book Theory to Practice in Vulnerable Mission by Jim Harries. Vulnerable mission is a way […]
Every language has unique idiosyncrasies. One thing about Swahili that seems odd to English speakers is the complexity and breadth you can use when talking about location. Grammatically, there isn’t a simple answer to the question ‘where?’ You use different words to talk about locations that are general (e.g. in […]
This is what a conversation in Swahili sounds like to me at the moment (translated into English): … … BUT … … SO … … BECAUSE … …
At the end of our first week of language learning, there’s a lot to like about Swahili. It’s way more phonetic than English (goodbye diphthongs!) and the grammar structure is more like Hebrew, except the verb stems are long enough that they don’t disappear. Plus, there are no gendered pronouns […]
Meet Jesus at uni 