Kids!

I laugh a lot these days, thanks to these crazy kids. Zarya (3) and Jerod (1) are just plain funny. Here are a few recent moments that I actually managed to get a picture of. Some of them are a little blurry because, well, kids just don't freeze in place when they see the camera!

She loves burritos...

Curious George got his arm stuck in an elephant

He was dancing, something that I think he thought was a cowboy shuffle

Preschool fashion involves a lot of accessories

Zarya says really hilarious things. She's quite articulate, so it's an unusual window into the mind of a three-year-old that not everyone gets to enjoy with their preschooler. I've been reading her Bible stories recently and sometimes we act them out. She loves this activity, but sometimes a few facts get jumbled. Here are a few of her most recent Scripture-themed quotes:

Zarya: "Mama, you're Mary, I'm Joseph, and Jerod can be Baby Jesus." She then picks up a play phone and starts pushing buttons on it.

Me, confused: "What are you doing, Joseph?"

Zarya: "Texting the wise men about the gold."

Zarya and I were pretending to be Zacchaeus and Jesus eating lunch at his house. Zarya/Zacchaeus was giving me tons of pretend food to eat, but not eating any herself/himself. I asked, "Zacchaeus, aren't you hungry? Here, have some lunch," and handed her/him a few items. She/He shrugged and said, "No, I'm not hungry, I had a big breakfast with," and she pointed at Jerod, who was sitting  nearby, "this old woman who lost her coin."

While in the bathtub one evening, Zarya splashed around a bit and casually commented, "This water used to be wine."

Translating it is the easy part

"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God." - Rev. 3:12

Sometimes I talk about how difficult Bible translation is, and yes, it certainly is! But you know what's more difficult? Being a pastor. Take the sentence above, for example. It's actually pretty easy to translate. We've got words for everything in that sentence. But what on earth does it mean?! Hey, don't ask us, we just translate it; it's the pastor's job to explain it!

*Take this post with a few grains of salt. Yes, at times we do try to help readers by making some implicit things more clear and helping with unknown concepts. But when it comes down to it, we don't add to the Bible, and when a verse is clearly worded, there's not much which is appropriate to change.

Baked Sister

Jerod was recently browsing through my cookbooks and he must have found a recipe for Baked Sister. I think it probably promised the cook that while your sister is baking to a nice well-done crisp in the oven, an hour's peace of getting all of the toys to yourself is guaranteed. Jerod somehow talked Zarya into cramming herself into the (play kitchen's) oven, and was about to saunter away for his promised hour of alone time when I stumbled upon the scene...

Dumb boats

Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. (Acts 27:40, NIV)

Just about every verse has a difficult bit to translate - it might be a word, concept, or an idiom that made great sense to the original readers that is lost on those of us from another culture. But come on, let's face it, the entire chapter of Acts 27 (Paul's shipwreck) is just plain obnoxious agony to translate unless the people group happens to be a sea-faring one.

Take the above example for instance. It has a few problems for people who stay on dry land and grow corn and millet, and occasionally wander by a little stream or lake to get a bucketful of water. This verse assumes readers know the following:

• What an anchor is
• Anchors are tied to ships with ropes
• Sailors had a knife or something handy to cut the rope
• What a rudder is
• Why a rudder would be tied
• What happens when you untie the ropes holding the rudders
• What a sail is
• What it means to hoist a sail to the wind
• How one would head for the beach when in a boat

Shoot me now. I first worked through this chapter years ago, and am now going over it again for a spell-check. Just seeing it once more gives me the heeby jeebies!