Bahasa (Language): the building block of life. As a communication major, and a conversationalist by nature, anything to add to my ability to communicate only made the Sea Tribe experience more enjoyable.
Logging around 18 hours of classroom time plus additional practice in the local mall equipped me with enough words to get from place to place, barter for a better price, and tell someone I had a cat. Pretty important subject matters, I'd say.
My language bridged cultural gaps and communicated to the natives that they are worth the effort to learn something new even though we had translators and guides. Over the period of the four islands I stayed on my vocabulary grew and I provided entertainment for the locals, mixing up my verbs and mispronouncing words.
My language grew in other ways too. My prayer language. We prayed out loud and in conversations. We prayed continually. We prayed for open hearts, guidance, protection from the enemy, for specific needs of the communities, for energy, for the strength to stomach the fried mystery fruit.
God answered. Not in english, not in bahasa, but with open hearts that listened to our stories and asked questions, by leading us to specific people and reminding us of specific parables, by keeping us unified and healthy, by giving us the strength to sing one more song and color one more picture with the kids. The answers go on and on.
Lydia, Alyssa, Leigh Ann, and I with our Bahasa cheat sheets right before we go to the local mall to practice!
Ryan, Ben, Lydia, and I on a city scavenger hunt. First stop, the BCS (Beh, Che, S). We meandered all over the city trying to find our final destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment