Testimony of a Bible Translator in Togo (Urbana 87)
Missions Testimonyby Pat Devine
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DURING THE CONVENTION SEVERAL PEOPLE TOLD HOW GOD CALLED THEM TO SERVE HIM ABROAD.
Dwight Nordstrom, tentmaker
in China
Karen Purcell, music teacher preparing
to go to China
___, Pastor in Thailand (currently unavailable)
Pat Devine, Bible translator in Togo
Hey-Jin Kong, medical student preparing
to go to Nigeria
Eric Popp, student preparing to go to Japan
Pat Devine
If you had asked me seven years ago if I ever thought I'd be a missionary, I
would have laughed and said, "No way!" Seven years ago I wasn't even
a Christian. I was a freshman music major, and I had my own plans for my life.
I was going to be a classical percussionist and play in a symphony orchestra.
But God had other plans for my life. He put in my path a freshman roommate who
was a Christian She lived the Christian life before me and, by God's grace,
halfway through my sophomore year I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus.
At that time, I told the Lord that I was willing to do anything, be anything or go anywhere that he wanted. Frankly, I had no idea what I was in for when I prayed that prayer. Less than a month later I was at a missions conference. In fact, it was an Urbana Onward Conference. That same roommate that had led me to the Lord had been at Urbana 81, and so I accompanied her to the follow-up conference. There I began to hear about unreached peoples and the estimate that 2.7 billion people are beyond the reach of the gospel. So I began to ask myself, "I have the Good News of Jesus, but what am I doing with it?" Well, as I began to consider my involvement, I faced a really tough question: What does a classical percussionist do overseas in missions? It has been lightly suggested that I could "drum for Jesus" but that didn't seem likely. So how did I choose Bible translation?
More than anything else my choice of Bible translation was influenced by a cassette tape my friend brought home from Urbana 81. It was a talk given by Marilyn Laszlo. She's been a member with Wycliffe Bible Translators for a number of years working in Papua New Guinea. Her message was very powerful, and the Lord really used her to speak to me. For the first time I realized that the world has approximately 5,000 languages, 3,000 of which still do not have the Bible.
How many Bibles do you own or have access to? Do you realize that there are millions of people who not only don't own a Bible, but don't have access to even one word of Scripture in their own mother tongue? Imagine never being able to read God's Word for yourself. "Well," I said after hearing that tape, "maybe I could be a Bible translator."
The Lord has indeed graciously guided me and opened the doors before me. After becoming part of a rather missions-minded InterVarsity chapter, I learned of InterVarsitys STIM program (Student Training in Missions). Through it I received some excellent crosscultural training, and then I went overseas and had a marvelous time in the Philippines. I had the privilege of working with Wycliffe Bible Translators and came home saying, "I think I'd like working with those people." Sure enough, here I am! Now I'm a member with Wycliffe, and I've been assigned to work in a little country in West Africa called Togo. I'm excited about the opportunity I'll have of learning another language, reducing it to writing, teaching the people how to read and write their own language, and then giving them God's precious Word for the first time in their own language. What a privilege!
There's just one other thing I'd like to say, because I'm afraid of something. I'm afraid you're going to think I'm someone special or somehow unique or specially gifted - not like you. After all, you could never speak before all these people, right? The fact is that I am not anybody special. I feel very inadequate for the tasks that God is putting before me - including speaking before all of you. There have been many times in the last year when I have said to him, "Surely, Lord, you can find someone better able to do this work than me. It's not that I don't want the work done. I do. It's just that I don't know if I can do the job as well as I'd like to see it done." But as I raise these objections, do you know what his response seems to be? "Pat, I didn't call you to Bible translation because I needed you. And I didn't call you because you're particularly useful or worthy of the task But I have called you that in my mysterious way I might glorify myself through your weakness."
What he desires from each of us is that we be willing to lay everything - our strengths and our weaknesses - on the altar before him and say, "Lord, whatever you want to do with me, I'm willing."
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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