Standing in the aisle at Obi (eastern Europe’s version of “Home Depot”) I examined the 10 foot long, telescoping pole among the swimming pool cleaning items. No, we don’t own a pool, but the house we rent has 20 foot ceilings which are quite prone to attracting cobwebs and mold. Now, since I’m not 20 feet tall (last I checked, I’m 5′ 5″), I have been trying to find a way to clean those 20 foot high corners. This trip to Obi was in search of just the right tool. So I bought the telescoping pole, as well as a set of pool cleaning brushes and sponges which attach to the head of the pole and stuck them in the back of the van on the way to picking up Kirsten. When she got in the car, she asked, “Where’s the pool?”. Well, we are not the proud owners of a pool…just the implements to clean a pool. 🙂
But the question is, will it reach? I have yet to put the contraption together, but I still wonder if it will reach.
This is a good question, not just for cleaning cob webs, but for reaching Roma. Why not just give them the Bible in English and teach them English? Or why not just have them use the Bible in the “language of wider communication”, i.e., the national language of the country in which they live? Well, we could. And perhaps that would reach them, but perhaps not.
In my opinion, nothing reaches the heart like the Bible in the heart language–the language, as one translator put it, in which we argue, cry, joke and make love. Remember the time I read a Bible story in the Lovari Romani dialect to the lady who begs at our door, instead of speaking Hungarian as I did before, and her eyes lit up to hear it in “her language.” This why we are committed to Roma Bible translation. This is why we are committed to Bible translation in the mother tongue or heart language of all Gypsies. We are convinced that the Sword of the Spirit, in the language of the heart, will do that for the 12 million Roma of Europe. It will reach.
