Take their HEADS out!

One
year ago today, I arrived back in the States after saying Hello and Goodbye in
11 languages, ministering to the widows, orphans, poor, foreigners and
incarcerated of 11 different people groups over the course of 11 different
months. 

I
was finally in the arms of my family and at peace but still my heart longed for
my daughters in Kenya.

Last
week as I sat in Basic Christian Doctrine my professor used a photo and story
to illustrate to us the importance of contextualizing the gospel.

He
told the story of a missionary who was sent out by Wyliffe to translate the
Bible into the language of a tribe in West Africa. As he was translating he ran into one word
that he couldn’t figure out how to effectively translate. That word was Redemption. 

After
asking several elders the word for redemption in their language, he was still
at a loss. He finally realized that he
needed to explain what exactly redemption meant in context of what Jesus did
for us – that He repurchased us.

One
of the elders could now comprehend, “Oh. Every time you see Christ Redeemed just say ‘Christ took our heads out’.” The missionary was so confused. The elder went on to say, “When slave holders
would come, after much bartering we were given chance to repurchase our family
members. After paying for them, the
slave holders would yell, ‘Take their heads out.’ See, our family members would be in chains
even around their necks.