Mid-month news February 2024
(For archive of Jim’s news, see www.jim-mission.org.uk )
Language learning conference
I am to be one of the presenters at an American-organised online conference focused on field-based language learning for missionaries. It is to look at best practices, coaching language learning, and connecting with experts in second language acquisition. It is to run from 22nd to 24th February. My own topic is: ‘The Importance of Pragmatics and Sociolinguistics in Language Use and Evaluation: An African Consideration’. (I interpret this a little liberally, as I think one must between the West and Africa!)
The event would be beneficial for those who are:
- Responsible for training and helping cross-cultural workers in language learning.
- Interested in becoming a language helper for cross-cultural workers.
- Leaders who want to understand the landscape of learning language in a cross-cultural context.
Details here: https://www.icllonline.org/
Tanzania Travels
Please pray for the firming up of, and then implementation of, plans to travel to Tanzania this year. I hope to be in Tanzania late April till late June 2024. Roughly speaking, the following is in prospect:
Week 1. Teaching at a seminar for leaders of the Mennonite Church in Mwanza.
Week 2. Teaching at a seminar for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Kigoma.
Weeks 3 to 7. Teaching at a pastoral training school in Babati, for the Kanisa la Mungu (Church of God) in Tanzania.
Weeks 8 to 9. Teaching at the pastoral training school in Musoma, for the Mennonite Church in Tanzania. (While doing ministry with the Coptic Church there.)
Price-differentials
Having recently been in the UK, I am often struck by price differentials between us here in Kenya and England. In England, it is hard to find a ‘snack’ one could eat, perhaps while walking through town, for less than about £2.50. Here in Kenya one can usually get a small wholesome snack for 5p (equivalent of UK currency). I can get a very basic but reasonably ‘balanced meal’ here for about 50p, which in England would cost £8.00 or more. A small bottle of coca cola here is about 20p, which in England would be (from memory!) around £3 or more (?) This will help you to understand, as someone who needs to get by on a very low budget, one reason why I am not rushing back to live in UK! (Price differentials are not all so stark. We pay only about half of the UK price for a loaf of bread, for example.)
The Most Difficult Work that a Missionary Does …
I often reflect on what is the most difficult work that I do. Perhaps my reader thinks it is my cycling – often long distances (50km the other day) or in the hot sun (as today)? Or perhaps being able to talk to people in their own language. (This becomes ‘easy’ once one knows a language!) Perhaps it is organising projects. (It may be – but I don’t do much of this.) The most-difficult task I find is: preparing a message for preaching or teaching in a church. Perhaps this is because everything else one can ‘just do’ in one’s own strength, but this latter requires close listening to God, which is hard.
Planthopper Nymphs
I asked people to identify what was in some pictures I included in my last news. The pictures were of planthopper nymphs, insects mostly found in the Amazon rainforest, that myself and my colleague saw as we were doing pastoral visiting. Here is a picture of some such nymphs I have got from the web:
Jim
In addition to these news reports, Jim also produces the Alliance for Vulnerable Mission Bulletin every month. Please ask him if you would like to be on the mailing list, or see here for the archive.