"Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble."
1 Peter 3:8 (NIV)
David realized, as he recalled his recent trip for a Wycliffe Associates’ MAST workshop, that “God sent me to a place I had never been, with people I had never met, to do something I had never done, for the benefit of people I may never see!”
He was talking about the Taveta people who live near Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya.
This MAST workshop was held in Ruiru at the Christian Conference Center that Wycliffe Associates construction teams built years ago for the Bible Translation and Literacy organization to accelerate Bible translation. Facilitators gathered there from the US, UK, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Sudan. All the translators were local mother-tongue speakers from two language groups.
Each morning began with an hour of prayer, dancing, Bible reading, and singing. The days developed a routine of working on translations, problem solving, and accuracy checking.
“Our lives are so different in many respects, particularly materially. However, we enjoyed being brothers and sisters in Christ, celebrating what holds us together as children of God,” David wrote.
“One treasured memory was sitting under a tree with the Taveta banana farmers laughing and enjoying each other’s company as we checked translations! It was so encouraging and challenging to make new friends, share lives for a short time, and re-evaluate what is important and necessary.”
David concluded, “I did so many new things. I pray that there will be streams of living water in Taveta because of the work God did through us.”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for accepting me and loving me as Your adopted child. Open the eyes of my heart to care about each of Your children, my brothers and sisters, with love, sympathy, and compassion. In Your Son’s name I pray. Amen.
