MINISTRY//Translating Abram's call

Good translators are essential for our ministry. One of our professors learned to value our translators even more when he heard his students chuckling.

A translation glitch

Before his class on the Old Testament patriarchs -- you know, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- this professor discovered he needed to add a short phrase to his course notes. His notes had been duly translated. But when he came to teach the class on Genesis 12, he realized that his materials failed to mention God calling Abram to leave Haran and settle in Canaan.

"That's not a problem," he thought. "I don't have enough time for my translator to fix this, but Google Translate does a good job translating short English phrases."

In less than a minute, he had a Mandarin translation of "Abram's call." He pasted it into his PowerPoint slide.

A translation giggle

But when he began explaining to his class how God directed Abram to settle in Canaan, he wondered why his students were giggling. So he asked.

It's very hard for Chinese students to tell a professor he has made a mistake. But one brave student mustered all the respectful words he could to tell our professor his translation talked about Abram's phone call from God.

When the professor laughed, everyone joined him.

Without interpreters to enable professors and students to communicate in class and without translators to transform our English teaching notes into Mandarin, 316NOW's online Bible institute could not function. That would not be funny. That would be tragic.

What you can do: Take a moment to thank God for 316NOW's translators and interpreters. Ask him to help them help us share God's Word in China.