Language

One can listen to “Teach Yourself Indonesian” cd’s. One can read introductory books. One can try and memorize “survival phrases”. And none of this is bad or wrong or useless. It is all woefully inadequate until you hear real people using the real language. When a man offers you ayam in the market or when you need to pay for kope at the hypermart one needs to be able to understand and speak on a basic level. There isn’t time to flip through a phrase book or ones notebook when the taksi is making a wrong turn or the motor mini is speeding past your stop. And while we do not (yet) need to master the language, we do need to get by. Not because it is practical, though it is, but because it is respectful of guests to learn the ways of their hosts. But it is hard. Not just the memorization of words and meanings, but the training of oneself to reply in another tongue with out thinking first. And it is hard to know you speak and act as a child (at best) or a fool (at worst). Pride must be swallowed. Humility has to be embraced. For we could bulldoze on in English. This, though, would not respect them or glorify God. So we learn. Slowly. Tediously. Maybe painfully. But we must learn if we are to interact with the people here in any kind of meaningful way. So pray for us please. That we are able to remember and to understand what we are attempting to learn. And that we learn it quickly, so we can be better of God. Once again, thank you all.