This mythical place is where the magic happens. Sitting around a big table with Bibles everywhere and dictionaries and laptop computers. It’s fantastic. It’s here that you get to play with all these really interesting languages and try to get them to achieve some sort of consensus. As Luther said, “I thank God that he [...]

Returning to the subject of eating with Africans, in the beginning we tried to make ntsima and mutapa and all those things that Africans eat. Did I say “we?” Well, I am certainly not a cook. And Hilary does a miraculous job of turning loves and fishes into feasts. But for the African dishes she [...]

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain falls. The termites rise. The streets are empty except for thieves about to begin their nightly rounds. We were taught at Kenya Safari that the key to survival in Africa is contingency planning. Contingency planning means imagining all the really awful things that could happen to [...]

I was irresistibly drawn to the river in Tete. It was so beautiful. And there was almost always a nice breeze blowing up the river. Picturesque canoes worked up and down the river. They floated down to town with tomatoes and onions from the farms. And then poled the canoes back upstream. The physiques of [...]

It’s amazing how bad my memory is. Last time I told you about events that happened in three different years as if they were all in the same three month period. Maybe this really is a novel, a work of fiction based loosely on real events. I’m still gnawing on that last sentence of the [...]

As much as I whined about memorizing Greek paradigms (I just plain didn’t do it), I was loving getting to be a student again. Being a boss is the pits. Having people waiting on you for the next thing they’re supposed to do is really rotten. Especially in Mozambique where employers are tyrants and employees [...]

I can’t leave 2002 behind without telling you about 1992. I was a college student adrift. One of the great unemployable with a degree in my pocket and thousands of dollars owed in school loans. My degree at University of Oregon had prepared me for what? Cubicle wars, possibly. Or permanent underemployment. In South Africa, [...]

Note: This chapter originally appeared on my blog as Greek, Hebrew and the Joy of S-x and Freaks don’t want no Greek. I know that’s cheating but I need a day off.

If you listen to Suzanne, and Iyov and John, you might think studying Greek and Hebrew is an experience in mystic Bible bliss. It’s [...]

There’s really only one thing you have to do during your first four-year stint overseas: survive. And the way to know if you survived is whether or not you decide to go back for a second term. Despite the challenges and our slow adjustment to life in Africa we we’re definitely going back for a [...]

Forgive my megalomania. What I am about to say to you will sound like the grossest arrogance. I have known what it is to be Jesus Christ. I have left the glorious halls of heaven and stepped into the muck of humanity. Incarnation is the ultimate humiliation. Not simply to live fully within the flesh. [...]

The qualities of a good Bible translation form a four-sided triangle. The basic characteristics are accuracy, naturalness and clarity. This means accurately representing the meaning of the original text using natural language in a way that clearly communicates. The fourth side of the triangle is acceptability. If a translation is not acceptable then it doesn’t [...]

I failed to mention how we did on SOGI #4: “Don’t spend most of our time with non-Africans.” On one hand this was relatively easy to follow since in Tete there weren’t many estrangeiros. Tete is the real mission field. Not like those wimpy allocations like Harare or Chimoio where they have things like Italian [...]