Sunday 28 April 2013

flamboyant

In dry season the ground is bare, but the flame trees get busy! They are called "flamboyant" in French, which is fitting.



In this final photo, taken of our compound from the path to the village, the flame trees are clearly visible, looking far closer than they actually are.



Thursday 25 April 2013

hard work or working hard

I thought I would show you an example of my translation notes, ie. my questions and comments to discuss with the team. I work from a draft in Monkolé and compare with the Hebrew, using a commentary and translators' tools. I have translated them from French/Monkolé into English where necessary.

Leviticus:
7:1 "This shall be a very holy thing" - this is the same expression as in 6:18 and 6:22 so needs to be revised either here or there
7:2 "kaakooò" - should this just have 2 "o"s ?
7:3 "the fat that covers the inner parts" - same expression as in 3:3 so probably needs to be revised either here or there
7:4 the whole verse is the same as 3:4 so probably needs to be revised either here or there
7:5 "before the LORD" - should be "to the LORD"
7:6 "Among the priests the males may eat..." - does this give the impression that there are female priests? if so we need to change it

Just an example of my work … not something that many people would find it interesting to read through for very long!

So … hard work or working hard? A friend of mine wrote a blog post on this subject last year (sorry no link, as my slow connection won't allow me to go looking for it). It was the title that impressed me. The difference he made between "hard work" and "working hard" was that it is fairly easy – especially as a pastor, or indeed a missionary – to have a full schedule and to give the impression that you are working hard. But that full schedule can become an excuse for not doing the hard (ie. difficult) work that God is actually calling you to.

What my friend identified as hard work were things like mending or working on relationships, or really examining your own habits and attitudes and rooting out those which don't please God. If you are working in a dysfunctional team, it might mean facing up to this and being ready to sit down with the team and talk things out. These are acts which traditionally would be seen as part of spiritual discipline or fighting against the flesh. We are all capable of filling up our time with activities that sound worthwhile to other people, but God knows which really necessary tasks we are avoiding. He can also help us to find the courage to get stuck into them!

What I find hardest in my own work is the daily grind. There are parts of my translation work which I love and find very motivating, particularly when we're working together as a team. But then there are the mornings in the office where not all the team is there, and so I have to push myself to spend hours working on my own, reading (sometimes rather dry) verses in Hebrew, looking at different translations/interpretations and comparing it with the way it's been drafted in Monkolé. Sometimes it is downright boring. I don't like to say that when I'm working with God's word, but I'm in Leviticus at the moment, and it is passage after passage of detailed prescriptions for different sacrifices … and I have to look into all the details, as you saw above! It is partly a personality thing – I'm good at managing several different things at once, and not so good with monotony.

But even in monotony I can be serving God. While an upfront Scripture-expounding, worship-leading, congregation-exhorting ministry might seem more rewarding (though of course there is a lot of background work to public ministry), God is just as interested in the way we continue to serve Him in the nitty-gritty boringness of day-to-day life. Whether I'm checking the exact meaning of the "guilt offering" or changing a baby's nappy, it's good to remember that if that's what God has got me doing, I can do it to His glory. And while that might sound like a cliché, it's also my reality! So … what is the hard work God might be asking you to do for Him?*

*This is not, of course, a question I'm expecting answers to in my comments section ;-)

Sunday 14 April 2013

vicki's visit

My friend Vicki and I met first at sixth form college, and then ended up together at Derwent College in York University. We were in the Christian Union together. We were facebook friends but not in touch very often when last year I saw I'd been "mentioned" in a facebook post. Vicki was looking for anyone with contacts in schools in francophone Africa, and another mutual friend had suggested she try me.

To cut a long story short, Vicki is now in Benin for three months working to support and train primary school teachers. She is based in Parakou, but we saw each other (for the first time in about fifteen years!) at Day of Prayer at the beginning of March, and then she came up to visit for a long weekend last weekend.

It was such fun to catch up with her and share lots of bits of the last fifteen years!! Here is a link to her blog - interesting to get the perspective of someone new to Benin! And here is a photo of Vicki and me:


A photo she took of me and Marc:


And a photo she took of me and the kids outside our church:


So ... does anyone else out there have skills they would like to use to help here in Benin?

Tuesday 9 April 2013

time out

I won't go on too much about the heat during hot season, but it is HOT. Night-times too, and it does get wearing to be waking up every morning feeling sticky and yuck! So even before hot season we had planned that we would have a long weekend at Bembéréké over Easter, and that was something to look forward to through the March heat. Not only do they have 24-hour electricity and therefore fans at night, they are in a completely different climate zone to us. So they are already having rains, which does mean mosquitoes, but also meant much fresher air!

Our friend Esther came up from Parakou to celebrate Easter with us. Here she is with Eve and her niece Ola (whose mother Jeanne-Mireille was my midwife).


Here is a close-up of the Easter cake I made (thanks to Stevie who brought the chocolate eggs back from Europe for us!). A friend said after tasting it that it was the nicest thing she'd put in her mouth for a long time! ("Favorite chocolate cake" from the "Wild Boar on the Kitchen Floor" cookbook, with lemon butter icing and Kinder praline-filled mini-eggs!)


I had hoped that it might be cooler here by now ... but no! We were welcomed back with temperatures of over 40°C again. We've had a couple of storms, but I don't think there'll be any real rain for quite some time.