World's Toughest Languages

Below is a fascinating infographic I came across dealing with language learning.  To me, language acquisition is one of the biggest parts of preparing to work cross-culturally, as communicating truth in the "mother tongue" is so much more effective.  These findings match up pretty well with what I've heard/experienced. I have heard that Indonesian is one of the easier languages to learn as most people are proficient within 6-9 months.  In my opinion Tibetan languages should be added to the hardest list.  There is an alphabet so you can read it quickly, but the grammar is very different, it is written and spoken differently, and there are endless dialects which vary greatly from each other.

Info graphic from Voxy

Reviewing the SOFM: Week 9

Two of the main focuses of the SOFM, which go hand in hand, are language and culture acquisition.  One reason they go hand in hand is that you can learn so much about a culture in the process of learning it's language.  I find it amazing how much of a culture's mindset and history can be picked up in the process of learning to communicate.  As the vast majority of cross-cultural workers will be learning either a trade or heart language to better communicate,  we always try to include solid teaching on the topic.  This year we had some great teachers come from MTI to impart some principles from their PILAT program.  It was a great time combining traditional linguistic exercises, such as learning to make sounds not used in english by adjusting the position of the tongue, and hands on practice with techniques based on how a child of that culture would learn the language. Obviously there isn't one magic method that will work with all languages since some have an alphabet while others are character based, etc.  That is why one of our goals in all of the SOFM teachings is to adopt principles and adapt methods.

Quote of the Week

Our quote this week comes not from a missionary or theologian, but rather, a politician.  This quote represents a decision many cross-cultural workers face: should they focus on communicating in their native tongue (especially if English), use a trade language, or take the time to learn a people group specific language?  To me it comes down to the question of which option removes the most barriers to someone accepting the gospel?  In that regard I think Mr. Mandela hits the nail right on the head.

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to 

him in his own language, that goes to his heart." - Nelson Mandela

The Herrema's Cross-Country Adventures

This summer our family will be visiting many sites while seeing family and supporters.  Our first stop was Washington DC, which Lyla was very excited about as she had been learning about it in school.

What parents look like after a day exploring DC

SOFM Testimony

Today I want to share a testimony with you from Nat, a girl who participated in one of our most recent School of Frontier Missions (SOFM).  She is currently doing the internship portion of her school in a closed nation.

"I came into my SOFM with little expectation for gained knowledge or growth, because I thought I knew enough about long-term work.  After my first week in the school with Brian Hogan, I gained more insight that I thought I would the entire three months.  The school helped me to think more strategically, without forgetting God's mandate for missions from Genesis to Revelation.  This mandate that flows seamlessly from the old to new testament encouraged me to seek out more of God's heart for the unreached, more of His character, and more of my part in his will.  After three months, I exited with more passion, more drive, and more determination to go and tell the world.  I have been on the field now for only a month, but I am seeing teachings and information I thought to be irrelevant during the school come to life and they have proven to be extremely important.  I have already found myself digging through old notes and searching for language materials.  To me, it has affirmed that the teachings are applicable and the resources are useful."

A Little Fun to Start the Week

I'm somewhere between Florida and Michigan today, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to repost the second video from the Cross-Cultural Misadventures series I did a few years back. 

The What and Why of People Groups

I realized the other day that I throw the term people group around quite a bit, but have never defined what one is or why we focus on them so much.   While there are different opinions of what exactly a people group is, the best definition I've found was crafted by a group of mission leaders in 1982.  They said that a people group is; "a significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc., or combinations of these."  For evangelistic purposes it is:

"The largest group within which the gospel can spread as a 

church planting movement without encountering 

barriers of understanding or acceptance."

The "why" of people groups is twofold, having both a biblical and strategic aspect to why we focus on them.  In the great commission (Matt 28: 18-20) Jesus commands us to make disciples of all "nations."  The word used for nations in this passage is "ethne" which has a meaning closer to families than nations.  We have an English word that is very similar: Ethnic. It is the same idea we see in Genesis 12: 1-4 when God tells Abram that through him "all the families of the earth will be blessed."  As an example, let's look at India and China.  Each one is considered a single nation, but how many families, or ethne, are there in each?  China has 56 recognized ethnic groups, but Joshua Project lists over 500 distinct people groups in the country ranging in size from around 1,000 - 840 million (Han).  India on the other hand has over 1,800 unique people groups with the largest being 77 million (Shaikh).  So the task is much more complex than just reaching a politically defined nation.

The strategic aspect of why we focus on people groups is mentioned in the definition above.  By focusing on individual people groups, the hope is to remove as many barriers as possible to a person accepting the truth of the gospel.  The same strategy and approach will not work in every group.  As an example, let's look at India again.  The Shaikh and the Brahman are the two largest people groups in India (77 million and 55 million respectively).  One is 100% muslim and speak Urdu, while the other is over 99% Hindu and speak Hindi.  Thus, these two groups need different teams working to reach them using their own language and culture.  In many instances there is also animosity between people groups that hinders the flow of the gospel between them.   This is why we focus our efforts on unreached people groups rather than a whole nation.  Today the waters are muddied even more by the mass urbanization we see around the world.  In many urban settings the worker needs to discern whether it is more efficient to work among an ethnolinguistic people group (one that shares a language and ethnic background) or a sociopeople group (one that sees each other as peers, regardless of background).  

The 56 recognized ethnic groups of China

Quote of the Week

Our quote this week comes from James Gilmour, a missionary to Mongolia and China in the 19th century.  I love this because, for me, it is so true.  All too often we follow common sense instead of kingdom sense.  We find ourselves pursuing the things this world finds important: comfort, security, financial stability, etc.  How different does this look from what Jesus told his followers to expect in Matthew 10?  This next week, try to view your actions through the lens of kingdom sense instead of common sense. 

"I go out as a missionary not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may 

obey that command of Christ." James Gilmour

Reviewing the SOFM: Week 8

One of the more difficult aspects of taking the gospel cross-culturally is discovering how people best learn.  One thing that makes it so difficult is that close to two-thirds of the world's population are oral preference learners, which differs extremely from our western learning style.  The majority of people in the remaining unreached people groups  are oral preference learners, many of whom have no written language.    One of the best ways to present the gospel to these people is in story form.  So, we had a week in the SOFM about oral Bible presentation.  We had a teacher come from the Onestory partnership to teach on crafting story sets and to impart principles to be a successful storyteller.  There are many organizations like New Tribes Mission, who I first heard of the concept from, using chronological Bible stories to present the gospel to unreached peoples.  Onestory is unique in the fact that it isn't a single organization, but rather a partnership between Wycliffe, Cru, YWAM, the IMB, and others.  I suggest you check them out, and see what cool things are happening in unreached people groups through storytelling.

They're Among Us - Students

A couple months ago I posted a challenge to look at the area you live and see if there are people from unreached people groups (UPGs) living nearby.  I want to dig into that and look at some specifics. This will be the first in a short series looking at some of the different demographics of people from UPGs living in the United States. 

The first group I want to explore is students.  At any given time there are close to half a million students from nations in the 10/40 window studying in the US. For the 2012-13 school year among the top 10 countries sending students to the US were: China (235k), India (96k), Saudi Arabia (44k), Japan (20k), Vietnam (16k), and Turkey (11k).  Other nations in the top 20 include Nepal, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia*.

Why is this important?  First, many of these students hail from unreached people groups, which gives us unprecedented access to people from nations where we often have difficult time getting to.  Second, 40% of the world's current 220 heads of state studied in the United States at some point.  Imagine how different our world could look if people had reached out to them during that time.  Finally, It's important because currently we're not doing a good job of even attempting to reach these students.  Of the nearly half million students here at any given time, 80% will return to their home country without ever having been invited into an American home.**  If you live anywhere near a state university, chances are good that you have an opportunity to help change this number. 

*Stats taken from The Institute of International Education
**Taken from The Traveling Team

Quote of the Week

Our quote this week come from Robert Moffat, a pioneer missionary to South Africa in the early 1800s and the father-in-law of David Livingstone.  This quote is a good reminder of the task remaining.  While progress has been made in the 200 years since Moffat went to Africa, there are still over 3,000 people groups that are considered both unreached and unengaged, meaning no one is even working towards bringing them the gospel.  It brings to mind the words of Jesus. "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

"In the vast plain to the north I have sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been - Villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without a hope in the world." Robert Moffat

Robert Moffat (1795-1883)