smoking the gospels

Gambarambi sat on the roadside near his home in Zimbabwe, talking with friends and smoking his hand-rolled cigarettes.  A Bible translator wanted to give a copy of the New Testament in the local language to Gamabarmbi.  Gambarambi just laughed and said it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to give him a Bible.  He would just tear the perfectly thin pages out and use them to roll more cigarettes.

This presented a quandary for the translator. He knew Gambarambi needed to read about Jesus, but he didn’t want the New Testament turned into cigarettes. As he prayed about it, he came up with an idea.

The translator told Gambarambi that he could use the pages of the New Testament for cigarettes, but only after reading each page.  Recognizing a free source for quality cigarette paper, Gambarambi readily agreed.

Fifteen years later, at a United Bible Society Meeting in Zimbabwe, Gambarmabi stood up to speak.  As he looked over the audience, he spotted the translator who had given him free cigarette paper. 

Gambarambi told the audience about the agreement he had made with the translator. He said, 

“I smoked Matthew, 

I smoked Mark, 

I smoked Luke, 

and I smoked John 

until I got to John 3:16 

and then I could smoke no more!”

Now, instead of smoking the Gospel, 

Gambarambi is preaching the Gospel.

*Taken from a story at https://www.facebook.com/WycliffeDiscover?fref=nf 

The unfolding of Your words gives light; 

Psalm 119:130

this sacred loan

Elisabeth Elliot and Charleston Christians Respond to Sorrow

Last Monday, a hero of the faith went home. Elisabeth Elliot had fought the good fight and finished the race.  Almost 60 years earlier, she and her husband Jim, together with 4 other couples, devoted themselves to bring the good news of Christ to a remote people group in Ecuador. The Waoroni (or Auca) people solved disputes by savagely spearing one another.  They abandoned inconvenient babies, and strangled children to bury with their fathers who were dying of spear wounds. “In fact, outsiders were not their greatest concern; killing within the tribe was so rampant that they were on the verge of annihilating themselves.”  (Steve Saint)  In the process of getting to know the Waoroni, there was a disastrous misunderstanding, and Jim and the four other missionary men were violently speared to death by Auca warriors.

How could God have allowed such a massive, tragic slaying of His people?  Elisabeth’s response to this devastating loss was to go, by faith, along with Rachel Saint, the sister of another martyr, to live with the Waoroni, to learn their language, and to share the hope of forgiveness and reconciliation through Christ.  Now, 59 years later, the Waoroni tribe has grown to 8 times the size it was in 1956, and about 1/3 of them are Christians.  They are sharing the gospel of Christ through a clinic, pharmacy and school for their own people and as they host tourist groups in their region. (see this article on the Waoroni.)  

“Cruelty and wrong are not the greatest forces in the world.

There is nothing eternal in them. Only love is eternal.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth spent seven more years in Ecuador, and then continued to share the gospel right here in the US for the remainder of her life.  She immersed herself in God’s Word, and shared it with us through her writing and speaking.  Her calm, quiet faith will continue to bolster the faith of believers into the future. 

Last Monday Elisabeth realized the fulfillment of her faith, as she went home to be with her Savior.  And just two days later, a gunman sat through a Bible study in Charleston, SC, listened without hearing the Word of God, and in an unexpected way, eerily similar to the Waoroni savagery, opened fire in a violent killing of nine worshipers.  

How could God have allowed such a massive, tragic slaying of His people?  Yet the response of the church to this devastating loss was, by faith, to extend the hope of forgiveness, and to urge a repentant response to the gospel of Christ. 

“Sorrow is lent to us for just a little while,

that we may use it for eternal purposes. 

Then it will be taken away

and everlasting joy will be our Father’s gift to us,

 and the Lord God will wipe away all tears off all faces.”

 – Amy Carmichael (one of Elisabeth’s heroes).

What impact might it have on our nation, and even on our world, to see this kind of response from the church to the senseless violence and destruction that evil imposes on us?   This sorrow is a sacred loan, entrusted to us that we might use it for eternal blessing.  We wonder how God can allow such tragedy.  But perhaps the better question is, how can God use this tragedy for the eternal, long-term blessing of His people, and for His eternal glory?

God's timing of the events of our world

is engineered from the eternal silence ...

it is faith he is looking for,

a quiet confidence that whatever it is he is up to,

it will be a wonderful thing,

never mind whether it is what we have been asking for.

- Elisabeth Elliot

A wonderful thing?  We cannot in anyway describe last Wednesday’s shooting in those words.  But "Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves." (Joni Eareckson Tada) He hates the evil. But He’s at work redeeming what seems like unmitigated wrong to accomplish everlasting good.  He desires in His people a trusting confidence in Him, though His ways are not according to our agenda.

“Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love

that does not show itself in protection from suffering....

The love of God did not protect His own Son....

 He will not necessarily protect us –

not from anything it takes to make us like His Son.

A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire

will have to go into the process.”
― Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth’s hope was not that her life on earth would be right and just and safe.  Her hope was to be like Christ. She chose to respond to the sacred sorrow lent to her by God with words of praise and thanks, even through her tears, for His eternal, untouchable gifts.  God was honored, and the hope of the gospel was on display.

The Emanuel AME Church of Charleston has responded to their sacred sorrow, lent to them by God, with words of forgiveness and a call to repent, even through their tears. A fixed focus on the Father’s eternal, untouchable gifts will empower them to continue to honor Him in their response to this sacred sorrow, putting the hope of the gospel on display.

Elisabeth’s tears have been wiped away.  Her Father has replaced all the sorrow with everlasting joy.  She’s home.  "Last week," Goff (interim pastor of Emanuel AME) said, "dark powers came over Mother Emanuel. But, that's alright. God in his infinite wisdom said 'that's alright. I've got the nine.' "- CNN  Those who knew the Lord are home with Him, all tears erased.  

And the rest of us?  We have a little while longer to use this temporary scaffolding of sorrow well; to display the hope of the gospel, to be purified and chiseled, and made like His Son before the loan is recalled and replaced with everlasting joy.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain gladness and joy,

 and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 

Isaiah 51:11

pull up a chair

When our children were small, 

they loved to come into the kitchen to help me.

They'd drag a chair over to the counter,

and they'd dump in the ingredients I measured out,

stir for a few minutes until their little arms got tired,

and then hop down to go and play while the food simmered and cooked.

2002 - the 3 junior associates helping in the kitchen

God lets us do the same thing.

He's measuring, working, preparing the feast,

tirelessly providing the direction and the materials

and graciously allowing us to pull up a chair

and have a hand in what He's up to

as He makes His Word known throughout the world.

He summons us to cooperation.   
We are honored in being given the opportunity to participate in His good deeds.   
Remember how He asked for help in performing His miracles.   
Fill the water pots, stretch out your hand, distribute the loaves.  

-Elisabeth Elliot

...for it is GOD who works in you, 

both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Philippians 2:13

two worlds meet

 In 2010 we first began attending this little church under a mango tree

in Davao City.  

We never even dreamed that just 5 years later 

the pastor and his wife would be sponsored to join us in our home church 

here in Savannah for a missions conference!

Michael, Amy, Elise, Mark, Barbara, Cathy and Vic at the Missions Conference

 What a sweet week it was, having them in our home,

introducing our dear friends from the Philippines

to dear friends here.

 Cathy visited the girls at college, 

and we brought them home to share the joy for the weekend.

 We were so blessed to have you in our home, Vic and Cathy...

the meeting of our worlds.

God go with you as you continue to bring His Word to your people!

 

but not Isaiah

I opened my computer one morning and started up a translation program I use to produce Scripture resource materials for the *Na people, a minority language group in a South East Asian country.  I chose a familiar memory verse to go with the story of Christ’s birth from Isaiah’s 9^th chapter:

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder...

I typed in the reference, ready to copy the verse from the Na version into my document.   
Instead, four chilling words punctured an otherwise blank screen.   

Book does not exist.

I sat stunned as it sank in that the book of Isaiah does not exist in the Na language.   


In 2011 our family lived for a week in a Na village.  

 The Na people  shared their homes with us, cooked for us, worshiped together with us in their local church, produced their very first VBS with us, and laughed with us at our feeble attempts to speak their unfamiliar language.   

They have the entire New Testament,  the translation of Genesis is complete,

 and Exodus and Daniel are now being printed.   

But not Isaiah.   

And there’s still no Micah or Deuteronomy.  

 No Nehemiah or Kings.  

 Most of the Old Testament is still a closed book to them.  

The Na people do not know, they have not heard, that the Creator of the ends of the earth does not grow weary, or that to those who have no might He increases strength.  (Is 40:28-29) 

They’ve never heard the majestic Messianic prophecies from Isaiah 53, of the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, the one on whom was laid the iniquity of us all.   

Though their righteous deeds are like filthy rags (Is 64:6) they don’t know to ‘come now and reason together’ to be washed whiter than snow (Is 1:18).  

I’ve begun reading Isaiah again with deeper gratitude than ever before.   I’m also all the more thankful for the faithful partnership so many of you have shared with us as we, in our new roles in missions, support translators who work to erase those terrible words,  

Book does not exist.  

Together let’s make God’s Word known in every language so that every tribe, every tongue may know the One who came as ‘a light for the nations,’ that His salvation ‘may reach to the end of the earth!’  (Isaiah 49:6)

“The grass withers, the flower fades, 

but the word of our God will stand forever.” 

Isaiah 40:8

*Na is a pseudonym for security reasons.

**Note: Traditionally Bible translators have focused on translating the New Testament first, but there’s a growing appreciation for the importance of Old Testament Scripture in understanding the Gospel.