Translating

The other night I had my first public translating experience. I think it's a pretty widely known fact that translating things from your second language into your first language is infinitely easier than translating things from your first language into your second language.

Anyways, there was a get-together at church the other night. An evengelist (and the spiritual mentor of my pastor) from America was here to share with us. She was an older lady, Christie Moore, from Idaho. But she'd brought a younger lady, Suzi, with her. At the beginning of the meeting, they asked Suzi to get up and share a little bit about herself. Suzi doesn't speak Indonesian. But the worship leader at my church, Kak Salim, is an English teacher and his English is really good. So Pastor Sam asked him to come translate for Suzi.

But Salim was like, "No, she should translate. Have her do it. She needs practice."

"She" being me, of course.

I tried to decline, telling Salim that he's the Indonesian so he should translate into Indonesian, not me. I had a lot of excuses, but it got to the point of where everyone there (about 40 people) were clapping and cheering my name. So I could either acquiesce or make a big refusal scene. So I walked to the front and grabbed the microphone and smiled wryly at Suzi.

As it turns out, she is everything I don't know how to translate - from the Pacific northwest, wants to get her doctorate in geology, specializing in volcanoes. If she'd been from the southeast, getting her masters in climatology, I could have translated it. But I made it through with a little "creative Indonesian". I just said she's from Washington State and she studies geology (which is geologi in Indonesian, so my creativity worked - just say it with an Indonesian accent!).

I did just fine until she got to the part about how after she arrived in Indonesia, she was just asking God why he sent her here. She didn't understand what her mission was, other than to accompany Christie, but she believed that God had a bigger purpose. I made it through all that...

THEN she went on to say, "But I've discovered that this trip isn't only about what I can do for you, it's also about what you all can do for me."

You could have heard a pin drop as everyone shifted their eyes to me, waiting with bated breath for the translation in a language they could understand. And I just stood there with my mouth open and no sound coming out as my mind raced to find SOME WAY to translate something that makes perfect sense in English to something that didn't sound condescending or imperialist in Indonesian.

Finally, all I could say was, "Uhmmmmmmm.... Salim?"

Everyone laughed as Salim came to translate this last line. I felt better though when he had to ask her to repeat what she'd said and even he had to think about it for a second. Once he translated it, it made perfect sense. He said something to the affect of, "God has shown me that this trip isn't just for me to serve you guys, He brought me here so that you all can minister to my heart as well."

I think in any other place I might have been embarrassed. But I wasn't, not in the slightest. And that's how I know that my church is more than just my church. It's my family. And I had honestly never thought about that before.