Saturday, August 28, 2010
The ministry is of course at all times and in all places difficult. It is hardly fair to say it is more difficult to be a missionary than say to deal with a married couple who simply don’t want to hear what you have to say to them. Different aspect of the ministry are simply difficult in different ways. Throughout this last week just as an example I have been attempting to teach in Togo. The people are not very well educated. They have difficulty with abstract thought. And most problematic of all I have to try to teach through a translator whose grasp of English is very limited. By no means am I a blaming Pastor Kossi, he knows far more English than I know French and works hard to learn more. But just as an example, I recently asked which of the four gospels was NOT written by the apostles? After ten minutes of getting strange looks and bizarre answers, I finally realized Pastor Kossi hadn’t heard the “apostles” part of the question correctly. Another time I spent a whole class, two hours, teaching just the starting basic idea of the difference between revealed knowledge and natural knowledge, after the class was all over I asked if there were any questions. One man raised his hand and asked, “What topic are we studying today?” But the Lord of course has a way of reminding us not only that there is hope, but Who is really the one doing the teaching.
Understand first that for two and half days I had been unable to get an answer for even the most basic questions. When I asked if John was one of the apostles all I got was silence. However, half way through class today we were going through 2 Corinthians 3:9, and all we were doing is looking for different names the Bible uses for the law and gospel, hence “ministry of condemnation” and “ministry of righteousness.” Although it wasn’t really particularly on point I could hardly pass up the opportunity, so I stopped and asked, “Whose righteousness?” One man didn’t even think about it, he immediately looked up and answered in French, “Christ!” Though I don’t know French some things don’t need translation. And even though when I asked, “When was the New Testament written?” This is after I had already told them three or four times. I got the answer 2,000 years after Christ’s birth, at least there is no hesitancy when it comes to the only source of righteousness. In confirmation class my Father would always tell us that “Christ” or “Christ’s Blood” although good answers for just about any question weren’t going to be enough. But over here I’m often glad just to know they know enough to make that their answer.
Pastor Matthew Ude