Words of Light and Hope from Muriel Rogers

Words of Light and Hope by Muriel Rogers

‘They were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in foreign languages as the spirit gave them the gift of speech.’

‘We hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’ Acts 2

I had arrived at Talua Theological College with my co-presenter, Andrew who was from Australia. I had been asked to help him present a workshop on writing skills at the college on Espirito Santo Island in Vanuatu. We were warmly welcomed, a flower garland hung around our necks and then we were absorbed into a dancing, singing snake of people heading for the church for a very special service.

Students usually enter the theological college as adults so the whole family moves there and lives in a small village. Everyone speaks a different language depending on which village or island they have come from so they all speak Bislama, a form of pidgin English, in order to overcome the language difficulties. All the college work, studying and essay writing, is done in English, their THIRD language!! Three of the lecturers attending our workshop were from New Caledonia and so spoke Kanaky. The lingua franca of New Caledonia is French so we had a French interpreter help us.

But what about this very special service? For the previous two weeks a team had been helping eight of the students translate one of the gospels, for the first time, into their own language. Two of the languages were oral languages, they had never been written down, and so before they could begin to translate they had to create alphabets. At this very special service, each of the students was going to read from their gospel translation.

As I listened to these readings and saw the expressions on the readers’ faces I felt for the first time that I could truly understand the joy experienced by the crowd hearing the wonders of God in their own language.