Fiona Allan, a BMS worker in Bangladesh, discusses the intricacies of witnessing in another language, even when using visual aids…
I had finally finished it. You know, that small project that should have taken a few days but instead took months. The cover for our Bible was complete and looked good. Admittedly, I'd only cross-stitched five Christian motifs on a ready-made cloth, but it was exactly what we wanted.
We had spent a long time discussing how to show our faith to people who visit our house, in a way which would be understood and culturally appropriate.
So, we have one open Bible (now covered by this cloth) on a stand on a table in the lounge and the other Bibles are on a shelf which is the highest point in the room.
It was with a sense of pride that I showed the cover to Shima (a Hindu woman who helps in our home), knowing that she would praise it and me. She duly pronounced it both “shundor” (beautiful) and useful before saying that all the pictures were about Jesus. Satisfied, I walked away.
Before I knew it, I was back in front of her clutching the cloth having decided to launch into a more detailed explanation of the pictures. Knowing my limits, I decided to skip the two which represent the Trinity and Christianity spreading to the four corners of the world. So, I started with the alpha and omega symbol explaining that Jesus is our beginning and end – blank look!
Not to be beaten, I pressed on to the second motif before realising I had no idea what the word for anchor was. Having wittered something about boats not moving to an even more blank look, I grabbed a dictionary. Not helpful! While the word only had four letters, the middle one was a conjunct (a combination of several letters in one symbol that often looks nothing like the letters which make it up) and I couldn't remember which one it was. All was not lost, however, as I realised that I had the perfect visual aid in my hand. Waving it under Shima's nose, I asked her what the word was. Success! Although the word given was nothing like the one in the dictionary, I was able to state that Jesus is indeed our anchor.
The end of the ordeal was in sight. Only one more picture to go and it was an easy one. With a big smile and much relief, I looked at the oil lamp (light is “alo”) and boldly declared that Jesus is our potato (“alu”)!
Pride doth indeed come before a fall!
Fiona Allan works in the fields of nutrition and health promotion in Bangladesh.