My Home is in Heaven

   There is an old joke which goes something like this: Did you hear about the optimist who fell off the roof of a tall building? As he passed the eighth story he called out: ‘I’m all right so far!’ As he passed the fifth story he cried out again: ‘I’m all right so far!’ and as he flew past the second story the same cheerful cry was heard. Then he landed headfirst and hadn’t a word more to say.  How’s Wycliffe Associates’ Bible translation experiment going? So far, so goooooood. Wycliffe Associates seems to believe that faster is better, no matter the cost, when it comes to Bible translation. But this is the Word of God we’re talking about here, not the Harry Potter books. This is the Bible , the love letter from the Lord, the scriptures that were given to us over a period of centuries . Jesus Himself, God incarnate, walked the Earth for three full years, taking the time to make sure he got it right. If God’s reason for giving us the Bible was simply to...

Way back in the 1880's, Lutheran missionaries from Germany came to Papua Ne w Guinea to save souls, build roads, and teach literacy. In the early 20th century, some of the local Kâte [KAW-tay] people who had converted to Christianity wanted to travel inland and spread the Good News to their fellow islanders. They were committed to their work, but they quickly faced a truly staggering problem: the people that they met when they left their coastal villages spoke different languages – many, many different languages. In fact, we now know that Papua New Guinea has 840 distinct language groups, making it the most linguistically diverse nation on the planet. They really had no idea what they were getting into. After a strenuous three-day hike, the missionaries arrived at a settlement of Nabak people. They were not welcomed warmly, but at least these Kâte foreigners from the coast had the same skin color...