Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Charles, our Translator


An unknown before teaching in any country in Africa is the translator. Your translator may stumble over your words or he may teach as you teach. Some follow your gestures and tone of voice. You are hoping that they convey the same spiritual message your heart is teaching. In past conferences, we have had as many as four or five translators.


One of the great joys of this conference was Pastor Charles, our translator. He was not only a translator, he was a man of worship, a man of God, and a man of prayer. His voice was stronger than any of ours. We shared teaching duties among four of us.

After two days of lots of teaching, Ed was getting hoarse and a sore throat, but not Charles. He translated for all four of us, and he never used a microphone. He never got tired or hoarse and hardly ever even took a drink of water.

He had a smile that wouldn't end. He was a constant companion to every teacher. In most pictures of us teaching, the unnamed person in the picture is Charles. He was always encouraging to us and and talked to us personally about points of teaching. Thank you, Charles!