Sunday
May132007
Tradition, Good News and Verbs Again
Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 8:05PM
When Jonathan was one year old, Bernie and I started a Christmas tradition that has been a part of every Christmas Eve, no matter where we were or with whom we were celebrating. Every year we pull out the book “A Tale of Three Trees� and Bernie reads it to the children. If you have been with us on Christmas Eve, you have heard the story. It is a favorite because it is a beautiful link between the manger and the cross, reminding us always that Jesus was “Born to Die.�
This past November as Cori and I were shopping for a birthday present for Bernie, we heard about a little “Bible store.� We went off in search of it – search being the very literal word as is often the case when you are trying to find something new. They don’t use addresses here in Mongolia. This time we were successful relatively quickly. Almost as soon as we walked in, Cori found the perfect gift. It was our Christmas story translated in Mongolian. It was even the same version with the identical pictures that we had always used. This was a small miracle in and of itself. The number of Christian books that have been published in Mongolian would fit in any pastor’s library with room left on the shelves. We were able to share it with our teachers at our Christmas Open House for our classmates and teachers.
You may be wondering what that has to do with verbs. I’m getting there. Our language study is divided into cycles and at the end of each cycle we are tested on what we have learned. One part of that testing is we have to speak on 2-3 topics with the school principal for about 5-10 minutes each. This previous cycle we studied a verb tense that is used in story telling. Interestingly enough, it is also a special past tense form used to indicate “I just found out� or “I just heard.� Key words to indicate this tense should be used are media words: television, radio and newspaper. I’m not sure why a story that begins with “Once upon a time…� needs the same tense as “Breaking news from Western Mongolia� but it does.
When I was choosing from a list of topics, I immediately knew that I was supposed to choose the topic that required us to tell “a short story.� And the story of the “Three Trees� met every criteria, so there wasn’t any real doubt in my mind I was supposed to do that. It wasn’t easy, but with Undraa’s help I was able to pronounce most of the words. There were several difficult new vocabulary words, some of which my teachers didn’t even agree on which word should be used. However, I knew this was the right choice when I pulled out the book to show it to my teacher, Tuul, because as soon as she saw it her face lit up. “I’m so glad you are doing that. I love that story.� My other teacher, Oyuna, was pleased as well.
This story has always been something God has used to allow us to share the gospel in a non-threatening way. The day before the test I realized I would be sharing the gospel for the first time in Mongolian, and doing it in a way that is culturally relevant. They love a good folk tale, especially those involving nature. I often think of the tower of Babel when I’m studying Mongolian and think what a good job God did of total confusion among languages. He didn’t just change a few words. He rearranged everything. But from that incident there came a language where I would one day share the Best News ever with three Mongolian women because the verb tense about news and the verb tense for story telling are one and the same. To quote the story “She knew in that moment that God’s love changes everything.�
This past November as Cori and I were shopping for a birthday present for Bernie, we heard about a little “Bible store.� We went off in search of it – search being the very literal word as is often the case when you are trying to find something new. They don’t use addresses here in Mongolia. This time we were successful relatively quickly. Almost as soon as we walked in, Cori found the perfect gift. It was our Christmas story translated in Mongolian. It was even the same version with the identical pictures that we had always used. This was a small miracle in and of itself. The number of Christian books that have been published in Mongolian would fit in any pastor’s library with room left on the shelves. We were able to share it with our teachers at our Christmas Open House for our classmates and teachers.
You may be wondering what that has to do with verbs. I’m getting there. Our language study is divided into cycles and at the end of each cycle we are tested on what we have learned. One part of that testing is we have to speak on 2-3 topics with the school principal for about 5-10 minutes each. This previous cycle we studied a verb tense that is used in story telling. Interestingly enough, it is also a special past tense form used to indicate “I just found out� or “I just heard.� Key words to indicate this tense should be used are media words: television, radio and newspaper. I’m not sure why a story that begins with “Once upon a time…� needs the same tense as “Breaking news from Western Mongolia� but it does.
When I was choosing from a list of topics, I immediately knew that I was supposed to choose the topic that required us to tell “a short story.� And the story of the “Three Trees� met every criteria, so there wasn’t any real doubt in my mind I was supposed to do that. It wasn’t easy, but with Undraa’s help I was able to pronounce most of the words. There were several difficult new vocabulary words, some of which my teachers didn’t even agree on which word should be used. However, I knew this was the right choice when I pulled out the book to show it to my teacher, Tuul, because as soon as she saw it her face lit up. “I’m so glad you are doing that. I love that story.� My other teacher, Oyuna, was pleased as well.
This story has always been something God has used to allow us to share the gospel in a non-threatening way. The day before the test I realized I would be sharing the gospel for the first time in Mongolian, and doing it in a way that is culturally relevant. They love a good folk tale, especially those involving nature. I often think of the tower of Babel when I’m studying Mongolian and think what a good job God did of total confusion among languages. He didn’t just change a few words. He rearranged everything. But from that incident there came a language where I would one day share the Best News ever with three Mongolian women because the verb tense about news and the verb tense for story telling are one and the same. To quote the story “She knew in that moment that God’s love changes everything.�
Reader Comments (2)
very cool. Thanks for sharing.
This is so beautiful!!!