Not me, Kimberly. I’m still plodding away in Arabic, seeking to achieve a high level of competence before moving on. But Kimberly has decided to begin Maba now, because Maba will be even more important than Arabic. Many Maba women in villages don’t speak Arabic. So today was Kimberly’s first day of learning her 4th foreign language. Hopefully she can find some time to share about it here soon, I will encourage her to do so.
Language learning is, believe it or not, a bit of a controversial topic in missions today. Many people are satisfied to get enough language to live (i.e. buy things, catch a taxi, etc.) but for whatever reason not many people become truly competent. At the risk of stating the obvious, sharing the gospel, discipling, answering questions and objections – these things require more than a beginner or intermediate level of language. We have become more and more convinced of this. It may take 3-4 more years, a total of 7-8 years in Chad, to become competent in Arabic and Maba. But the importance of clarity and competence in proclaiming, teaching, correcting and exhorting a fledgling church requires a seriousness in language learning. A desire for deep relationships requires seriousness in language learning, otherwise relationships are necessarily shallow. To assume that somehow the Holy Spirit will overcome our lack of discipline and preparation is presumptuous and unbiblical. Enjoyed this quote I came across recently from William Cary:
That which, as a means, is to fit us for the discharge of these laborious and unutterable important labours, is the being instant in prayer, and the cultivation of personal religion. Let us ever have in remembrance the examples of those who have been most eminent in the work of God. Let us often look at Brainerd, in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen, without whose salvation nothing could make him happy. Prayer, secret, fervent, believing prayer, lies at the root of all personal godliness. A competent knowledge of the languages current where a missionary lives, a mild and winning temper, and a heart given up to God in closet religion, these, these are the attainments which, more than all knowledge, or all other gifts, will fit us to become the instruments of God in the great work of Human Redemption. Let us then ever be united in prayer at stated seasons whatever distance may separate us, and let each one of us lay it upon his heart that we will seek to be fervent in spirit, wrestling with God, till He famish these idols and cause the heathen to experience the blessedness that is in Christ.
Article X, The Serampore Form of Agreement