With apologies to Eugene Peterson for stealing the title from one of his books, I couldn’t resist what feels like, at least at this moment, a fair description of the day. I was up before 6:00 AM to finish re-casting my sermon for ease of translation, followed by breakfast and a brief team time with Ron and Peggy, and further work on the sermon. We then attended the International Church worship service which began at 11:00 and concluded at 12:30. I spent the next half hour getting access to a printer to print out my sermon, and figuring out how to hook up my computer to the projector so I could show an image which was central to my sermon, which was then preached at the Turkish Church worship service that began at 1:00 PM, also lasting 1½ hours. By 3:00 we were off with members of the church for a time of fellowship and lunch at Paşa Bey restaurant. It’s a bit of a walk to the restaurant, and by the time we had eaten and walked back to our hotel, it was after 5:00. I plopped down on the bed and promptly feel asleep, waking up 30 minutes later to the alarm on my cell phone in order to set up and lead the 3-hour parenting class beginning at 6:00 in the Cultural Center. After cleaning up and a one-on-one parenting consultation, it was almost 10:00 before we were back to our hotel.
A long day…but a good one.
I was given the privilege to pray over the children during the International Service as they were dismissed to their class time, and I enjoyed that. Then I discovered that the guest speaker at that service was preaching on the same scripture passage as I was – Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. What are the chances of that? Clearly 'water' was the theme of the day for the congregations at the Cultural Center! The picture above at the left is actually of the children gathering to leave for "Sunday School" at the Turkish Church service.
My efforts to think through translation issues paid off in the Turkish service, as the give and take with my translator went smoothly, and even dynamically at points. Except when I said, “Then it hit me,” which meant that I received a burst of insight when I tossed a stick into a river. There's no such idiom in Turkish, so the translator gave me a “What?” look, knowing if he translated it literally it would mean the stick flew out of the water and whacked me. I quickly offered a synonymic phrase, and the point was made.
Tonight’s class (actually last night’s class at this point) was probably the best so far. It was the Teen class and the parent’s were very involved and motivated to learn. It was also a class in which I could tell that I’m becoming much more adept at managing the time and flow of the material in this cross-cultural context – knowing what to spend time on and what to skip. It felt good to finish a class knowing I made the right decisions along the way and we got the most out of the time we had together. Also, Ron and I have developed a good system of preparation ahead of time and communication during class time, so that the power point slides are right on the mark and keeping the class moving along well.
In many ways, this was a day in which God was in the details. So many positive things happened as a result of careful, lengthy preparation ahead of time. It wasn’t that our preparation caused the responses in the people that were there, but those responses would not have happened had we not prepared. We could have put all that preparation in…and given all kinds of things over which we have no control, nothing may have happened. We only have control over our part in what we do. What happens is a result of those things over which only God has control. So...harkening back to an earlier post, let me put it this way: We filled a couple of water pots today…and Jesus made some sweet wine.
Faithfully,
Charlie
No comments:
Post a Comment