I've posted our latest newsletter on the lower left of this page.
We've finished up our time in the US and will be returning to Paraguay on August 4th. We're looking forward to getting back home!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Caleb and Ben Cameron at the World Cup
The Paraguayan soccer team is getting ready for its first game of this World Cup on Monday against Italy. They are staying in the beautiful city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
It happens that our friends, colleagues, and former students, SIM missionaries Greg and Vonni Cameron, have just returned to South Africa for furlough and are living in the city of Pietermaritzburg. They went to see the Paraguay team practice at the Harry Gwala stadium. The Camerons were sighted by reporters sitting in the stands with their Paraguayan jerseys on, drinking tereré and speaking in Guarani. They were asked down to the field and interviewed.
Since Greg and Vonnie speak Guarani but very little Spanish, they responded to Spanish questions in Guarani! They told the reporters they had studied the heart language of Paraguay in order to read the Bible in Guarani to people who speak Guarani but don't read it, and to serve the community. The interview was on national television in Paraguay and the photo of the boys turned up in the June 7th edition of the daily ABC Color.
It happens that our friends, colleagues, and former students, SIM missionaries Greg and Vonni Cameron, have just returned to South Africa for furlough and are living in the city of Pietermaritzburg. They went to see the Paraguay team practice at the Harry Gwala stadium. The Camerons were sighted by reporters sitting in the stands with their Paraguayan jerseys on, drinking tereré and speaking in Guarani. They were asked down to the field and interviewed.Since Greg and Vonnie speak Guarani but very little Spanish, they responded to Spanish questions in Guarani! They told the reporters they had studied the heart language of Paraguay in order to read the Bible in Guarani to people who speak Guarani but don't read it, and to serve the community. The interview was on national television in Paraguay and the photo of the boys turned up in the June 7th edition of the daily ABC Color.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Operation Py'aguapy on BBC
BBC has posted a news item about the search for members of the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, or Paraguayan People's Army, who are on the run in the north of the country, possibly in the Paraguayan Chaco. About 25 people are being pursued by the Paraguayan Military and Police in a massive operation being called Operación Py'aguapy, or Operation Tranquility in Guarani.
The BBC article cites the comparison Paraguayans are making between the EPP and Jasy Jatere (or as BBC calls him, Yasy-Yatere,) a spirit being familiar to all Paraguayans. This creature is a one of a number of spirits that are well known in Paraguayan culture and are usually referred to as "mythological" but which, to speak with rural Paraguayans, are not mythological in the sense of being fictional. Many people believe very firmly not only in the existence of these creatures but also in their regular interaction in their own lives.
Another example is Pombero, to whom some people leave offerings of cane alcohol, tobacco, or yerba mate in their tatakua, or brick oven. These offerings are said to appease Pombero, also known as karai pyhare, or "gentleman of the night," who might otherwise attack family members or wreak havoc with their livestock.
The BBC article cites the comparison Paraguayans are making between the EPP and Jasy Jatere (or as BBC calls him, Yasy-Yatere,) a spirit being familiar to all Paraguayans. This creature is a one of a number of spirits that are well known in Paraguayan culture and are usually referred to as "mythological" but which, to speak with rural Paraguayans, are not mythological in the sense of being fictional. Many people believe very firmly not only in the existence of these creatures but also in their regular interaction in their own lives.
Another example is Pombero, to whom some people leave offerings of cane alcohol, tobacco, or yerba mate in their tatakua, or brick oven. These offerings are said to appease Pombero, also known as karai pyhare, or "gentleman of the night," who might otherwise attack family members or wreak havoc with their livestock.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Google's Doodle Honors catorce de mayo (May 14).
Thursday, May 6, 2010
April Newsletter
I've posted a link to our April 2010 newsletter on the lower left of this page. For those of you who pray, thanks for praying for us!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Incarnation is Identification
I recently spoke with a man who had been a missionary in Brazil. While he was there he made a great effort to learn Portuguese well, taking as his models the Brazilian Portuguese speakers around him. His goal was to sound just like them them--or as much like them as possible--when he spoke.
To this day, twenty years after leaving Brazil, he speaks excellent, idiomatic Brazilian Portuguese. The hard work that he did many years ago continues to yield dividends in the way he speaks the language.
He told me about a time he traveled with a fellow missionary in Brazil. After an interaction with a Brazilian man, his colleague turned to him and asked in an annoyed way, "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" my friend replied.
"Why do you try talk like the Brazilians, instead of like an American?"
"Because they talk right, and I want to talk right."
"Well," his friend concluded, "don't do it around me."
I thought about that story again a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to a radio program about language learning. The man being interviewed said something to the effect that the greatest compliment you can pay a language learner is to mistake him/her for a native speaker.
I realized that this was exactly what my friend's colleague had wanted to avoid. There was something in his self-identity that resisted identifying with Brazilians and he didn't want to risk ever being taken for anything but an American.
Now I realize that for most of us it is very unlikely that we would ever learn a language so well as an adult that we would be taken for a native speaker. But putting that aside for the moment, one of the reasons that my language students tend to be the most motivated language learners in the world is that they don't only want to communicate information with Paraguayans; they want to identify with them in the language that defines them as Paraguayans--Guarani. By learning Guarani, we affirm, value, and make part of us something that most Paraguayans hold in very high esteem--the language that is uniquely theirs.
Dr. Gailyn Van Rheenen, in his book Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies, talks about this identification: "Such identification is not an external façade designed to create some kind of artificial congeniality; it is the heart of God incarnate in the missionary." (p. 66) The heart of God was demonstrated in Jesus, the Word who took on human form and had to learn words--human language--as a baby. His identification with us, his creation, sets the pattern for missionary identification.
That's why language learning for missionaries is not an onerous task to be endured so that the real missions work can begin. It is an indispensable step in the process of incarnation that every missionary must engage in completely in order to be effective ministers in the context they've been called to. For this reason, people who go to minister in contexts where they "don't need to learn the language" find themselves at a distinct disadvantage, because they lack one of the most fundamental tools of identification.
To this day, twenty years after leaving Brazil, he speaks excellent, idiomatic Brazilian Portuguese. The hard work that he did many years ago continues to yield dividends in the way he speaks the language.
He told me about a time he traveled with a fellow missionary in Brazil. After an interaction with a Brazilian man, his colleague turned to him and asked in an annoyed way, "Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" my friend replied.
"Why do you try talk like the Brazilians, instead of like an American?"
"Because they talk right, and I want to talk right."
"Well," his friend concluded, "don't do it around me."
I thought about that story again a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to a radio program about language learning. The man being interviewed said something to the effect that the greatest compliment you can pay a language learner is to mistake him/her for a native speaker.
I realized that this was exactly what my friend's colleague had wanted to avoid. There was something in his self-identity that resisted identifying with Brazilians and he didn't want to risk ever being taken for anything but an American.
Now I realize that for most of us it is very unlikely that we would ever learn a language so well as an adult that we would be taken for a native speaker. But putting that aside for the moment, one of the reasons that my language students tend to be the most motivated language learners in the world is that they don't only want to communicate information with Paraguayans; they want to identify with them in the language that defines them as Paraguayans--Guarani. By learning Guarani, we affirm, value, and make part of us something that most Paraguayans hold in very high esteem--the language that is uniquely theirs.
Dr. Gailyn Van Rheenen, in his book Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies, talks about this identification: "Such identification is not an external façade designed to create some kind of artificial congeniality; it is the heart of God incarnate in the missionary." (p. 66) The heart of God was demonstrated in Jesus, the Word who took on human form and had to learn words--human language--as a baby. His identification with us, his creation, sets the pattern for missionary identification.
That's why language learning for missionaries is not an onerous task to be endured so that the real missions work can begin. It is an indispensable step in the process of incarnation that every missionary must engage in completely in order to be effective ministers in the context they've been called to. For this reason, people who go to minister in contexts where they "don't need to learn the language" find themselves at a distinct disadvantage, because they lack one of the most fundamental tools of identification.
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