I was speaking at a church in London on Sunday, about how God wants to communicate with people of every language and culture in a way that they can really relate to, and shared a bit about the work of Wycliffe in the afternoon.
Afterwards, a lady came up to me and said that she was originally from Cameroon and explained how she had become a Christian. She had heard the gospel message several times, but it didn’t really resonate with her until one day someone explained it to her in relation to the culture of her ethnic group.
In that particular group, if a child disobeys their parents and the parents are angry, the child runs away to a close relative – maybe an Uncle. The Uncle will receive the child, and then will take a gift – possibly a chicken – to the parents on behalf of the child, to make peace with them. The parents will then accept this peace gift, and forgive the child.
When someone explained to her that this was exactly what Jesus had done for her, she was amazed and grateful that there was someone she could run to who would make peace and allow her to be forgiven for the wrong things she had done.
This was a reminder to me of the importance of having the Bible available to all people in a language and culture that they can understand and identify with. It’s also amazing to see how God has put small glimpses of his kingdom into his creation and into diverse cultures around the world!
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[...] anyone wanting a more uplifting blog post take a look at The Chicken and the Uncle on the Wycliffe UK [...]