Eternity in Their Hearts

00:01
David Federwitz
But when God’s word is translated into another language, it enhances the whole christian church’s understanding of God’s love in a whole different way, in a whole different meaning. 

00:22
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m rich Rudowski. 

00:27
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:29
Rich Rudowske
Today we have a great interview with our good friend, the West Africa regional director from Lutheran Bible translators, the Reverend David Federwitz. But before we jump into that, we want to tell you about some other stuff going on with essentially translatable. 

00:42
Emily Wilson
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00:57
Rich Rudowske
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00:59
Emily Wilson
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01:09
Rich Rudowske
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Emily Wilson
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Rich Rudowske
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Emily Wilson
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01:59
Rich Rudowske
Yep. We are everywhere. Just find us. That’d be awesome. Okay, so we got the chance to talk to David Federowitz, and David is our West Africa regional director. He walks alongside our partners, our missionaries, and interfaces with a pretty wide portfolio of Lutheran Bible translators work in West Africa, which is where our organization really has a lot of roots at. And he’s passionate about the work, I think that comes through some in the interview, and really passionate about walking with others. He’s been with LBT his whole life in one sense, as he’ll say, but as a missionary and the regional director now altogether for close to 20 years. 

02:39
Emily Wilson
So enjoy this conversation with David Federowitz. 

02:46
Rich Rudowske
We are here in the studio today with the Reverend David Federwitz, West Africa regional director for Lutheran Bible translators. Good to have you with us. 

02:53
Emily Wilson
Welcome. 

02:54
David Federwitz
Thank you. Good to be here. 

02:57
Speaker 4
So, David, can you share a little bit about your background? Because maybe some of our listeners know your family because know second generation with Lutheran Bible translators, but can you share a little bit of your background with people who may not know your family? 

03:12
David Federwitz
Sure. Yeah. I was born and raised in Liberia, West Africa, and my parents were served with Lutheran Bible translators Dale and Alvina Federowitz. And I have three siblings, Jonathan, Rebecca and Paul. After living growing up in know all the way through, well, junior high and high school. I say sort of because I went to boarding school also in West Africa, but not in Liberia, and it was during a period of the liberian civil war. So I wasn’t always in Liberia during high school. But anyway, after a period of time of being in Liberia, then I spent some time in the United States and met my wife Valerie, and she and I and our family served with Lutheran Bible translators in Ghana for quite a while. 

04:00
Emily Wilson
That’s awesome. 

04:01
Speaker 4
So what is it that drew your heart into serving in missions? Because sometimes you think about pastor’s kids or missionary kids will go in the exact opposite direction of what their parents did. So what drew you in to decide that this is the direction you wanted to go in as well? 

04:17
David Federwitz
Yeah, I think it. Okay, it’s a long answer, but a lot of it starts from the way mom and dad raised us. Just with just a heart for reaching people with God’s word. As a kid, I was always somebody who was very kind of practical. I spent a lot of time outside spending time with my friends. I did not like school, but I actually spent a lot of time helping my liberian friends with their homework and just being with people. That was a lot of fun, but kind of wanting to do things practically. I became a mechanic. I went to school and became a mechanic. And I thought, that’s what I’m going to do. It was when I was in mechanic school. 

05:02
David Federwitz
I remember very clearly the first semester in mechanic school, having my morning devotions and really feeling, I don’t know what scripture I was reading, but really feeling impacted that I want to have a more personal interaction with people and helping them grow in their, either come to faith or grow in their faith. And the only thing I could think about after that was what I had witnessed growing up, witness from my parents interacting with people. But more importantly, just that when you are involved in Bible translation, and scripture engagement, letting people have God’s word in their own language, then there’s no barrier to the gospel. The gospel can meet people right where they are, in their own culture, in their own language. And that was really important to me. And so I decided that’s what I want to get involved in. 

06:00
David Federwitz
And then from there it sort of set the course I would say for my life in. I knew right away that I wasn’t cut out for Bible translation. I had watched my dad, I knew that I did not have the sit in my pants to sit at a table with other Bible translators, working on the text day in and day out, doing the revision, all that stuff. But this scripture engagement piece was really, I felt was really important and specifically literacy, giving people the tools that they need to access scripture in their own language, being able to read and write in their own language. And so then that set me off to going to four year college, little plug for Concordia University of Wisconsin. I got my teaching degree. 

06:51
David Federwitz
I did get some experience teaching in a classroom at the high school level for a couple of years. And then Valerie and I went off to do our linguistic studies. And then after know going over to Ghana and working in literacy and scripture engagement among the comba people. That’s I guess the long answer to your question. I love it. 

07:12
Rich Rudowske
It’s good to talk about how you got there, that’s for sure. When you talk to people and try to explain to people on the US side, like some of what happens in this kind of ministry, you often talk about the passage from ecclesiastes, eternity in their hearts. And in there you talk about there’s a need for a relationship with God that’s in the human heart like dna. What do you mean by that? How does that play out? 

07:35
David Federwitz
This whole idea of eternity in their hearts? And even just the sermon I preached on it? I would say that sermon probably started forming 35, 40 years ago actually from the time I was a kid. And as a kid I didn’t realize this. But as an adult I guess I’ve come to realize this, that it is a relationship with God. But it’s more than that. I would say it goes beyond that. It’s a relationship in which God makes everything right, God makes everything perfect. And I believe that the gospel is for all people and the gospel can be applied in all situations. I don’t think there’s any people on earth where the gospel isn’t for them, right? At the same time, I also feel that God as the creator has prepared people for the gospel in their language in their culture. 

08:40
David Federwitz
And that’s something I saw as a kid growing up. I didn’t have words to describe it at that time, but I saw how things within their culture, things within their language, really set them up to understand the gospel message. And that’s where this idea of eternity in their hearts, I’ll be honest. As an adult, as a candidate to missionary service with Lutheran Bible translators, were asked to read a whole bunch of books, and I read Don Richardson’s peace, child and eternity in their hearts. And that’s kind of where I started getting the words to what I had been experiencing even as a very young person. And I believe that every culture and Language has what it’s called, redemptive Analogies, where there’s something. 

09:44
David Federwitz
There’s some things that God in his creation has sort of imprinted, like, DNA into that culture, into that language that allows people to understand the Gospel Message in a way that you can’t really teach. It’s something that people experience. 

10:04
Speaker 4
And you gave that illustration in your SerMon, eternity in their hearts, of the act 17 passage with Paul and speaking to the people of Athens. For those who don’t know acts 17 right off the top of your head, can you give that illustration and how it woven to your sermon? 

10:22
David Federwitz
Yeah. So Paul goes into Athens and he notices this altar to an unknown God. And then he says, let me declare to you what you see as an unknown God. I’m going to tell you who that God is. It reminds me of the people that my parents worked with or that I grew up with, actually, probably the most formative years of my life were SpEnt AMong the Kua people. And the KuA have a number of sacrifices in their traditional religious system, and they have TeN sacrifices, but they know that there’s an 11th sacrifice. They just don’t know how to perform it, what you need to do for that sacrifice. And it was actually years after the new testament was dedicated and was being used. 

11:21
David Federwitz
One of the translators, one of the Kua translators who worked with my dad, actually, in his PoSTgRAduatE Studies, he wrote a paper about this and talked about how the KuWaIT, actually, they do have that 11th sacrifice. That 11th sacrifice is nothing that the elders of the community can do. There’s nothing you can do. That 11th sacrifice was Jesus sacrifice on the cross. That 11th sacrifice is the sacrifice that God does for his peoPle. And that is what, in the koa system, the 11th is sort of like something beyond. You can have TeN, but the 11th sort of goes beyond. And the elders, every time they made a sacrifice, they always came to the end of after the 10th sacrifice, and they would always apologize to God and say, God, we know there’s an eleven sacrifice. We just don’t know how to do it. 

12:21
David Federwitz
Have mercy on us, basically, is what they would say. And then Reverend Chris Coola was, after really thinking about this and thinking through scripture and understanding his culture, said, guess what? The 11th sacrifice has already been done for you. 

12:39
Emily Wilson
That’s beautiful. 

12:42
Rich Rudowske
Talk about the example of love from Cameroon, another place where there’s already the idea of eternity in their hearts and the way that the language bears that out. 

12:51
David Federwitz
So with the hadith people of Cameroon in Africa, almost every verb in the hadith language had vowel forms ending in the sounds e and ooh. But when it came to the word for love, the translation advisor could only find two e and . He asked the members of the translation committee, could you v your wife? Yes. They said that would mean that the wife had been loved, but the love was gone. Could you va your wife? Yes. They said that kind of love depended on the wife’s actions. She would be loved as long as she remained faithful and cared for her husband. Well, could you voo your wife? Everyone started laughing. Of course not. 

13:40
David Federwitz
If you said that you would have to keep loving your wife no matter what she did, even if she never went to the river to get you water for your bath, never made your meals, even if she committed adultery, you would be compelled to keep on loving her. No, we would never say voo. It just doesn’t exist. Then, thinking about John 316, he asked, could God voo people? There was complete silence, and then tears began to flow down the faces of these elderly men. Finally, they responded, this would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected his great love, he is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than every other people. This is just one of those really cool things. 

14:41
David Federwitz
Those of us who, I would say, geek out over linguistics and stuff and language, this gets us all excited. But as you do language analysis, especially in preparation for doing translation, you just gather all kinds of data and you’re looking at stuff and you’re parsing words and you’re looking at vowels and consonants and all this stuff, and to realize that all these verbs had three vowel endings, but the vowel ending for love in their language, they never used that third vowel. And then to say, well, why not? What’s behind that? And then for any of us who have done sort of linguistic work at the field level, you get a theory going and you try to kind of do match pairs and sets, and you’re trying to see what works and what doesn’t. 

15:40
David Federwitz
And so coming up and figuring out that, ooh, vu is this word for love that just. It compels you towards something. It compels you to love. And as we use, sometimes, we just use language, and we just use it. Most of the time, we don’t even think about how we use language. But there are sometimes, in some conversations, just in your normal, everyday speech life, there are some words you just never use in conversation because you know the weight of those words, right? You know that the meaning of those words, because that’s the beauty of language, is that words have meanings, right? And so this word vu, love, compels a husband to love his wife regardless of what she does. Even if she had prostituted herself or whatever, even if she had been rude and just completely terrible to him. 

16:52
David Federwitz
That word compels him to love his wife. And that’s the same thing that it compels God to do, is. It compels God to love us in our sinful state. It compels God to love. And as I heard that, it made me realize how much it compels God to the point that he had to send his own son. He had to do something about this. And that’s the thing that just kind of fascinates me. And I think about what it must have been, okay, what it must have been like to be God at creation and not only creating the world, but at the same time thinking through how to save the world and how he drops in these. Obviously, I’m not God. I don’t know how this all works, but how he sort of drops in these redemptive analogies in different cultures, in different languages. 

17:47
David Federwitz
And that’s something, I guess, another takeaway in my life with Lutheran Bible translators and just kind of recognizing this, is that as more and more people have God’s word in their language, as God’s word is translated in their language, it enhances our understanding of God and his love for us. And what I mean by that is those of us who’ve had God’s word for a long time, like in English, sometimes we figure, look, I mean, there’s shelves of commentaries out there, libraries of commentaries, and we think that we’ve got it all figured out right with using English. But when God’s word is translated into another language, it enhances the whole christian church’s understanding of God’s love in a whole different way, in a whole different meaning. 

18:43
David Federwitz
And that’s probably, to me, one of the most exciting things about my job in Lutheran Bible translators is that I get to see how the message of salvation is enhanced as others access God’s word. For the first. 

19:00
Rich Rudowske
I mean, this example you’re giving is a perfect example, because to talk about love the way that you’ve just talked about it in Cameroon and the different kinds of love, I mean, in English, the word love is you can say God loves me, and I can say I love my wife, and I can also say I love tacos, and all those things are true, but they’re not the same kind of love. At least you hope not, right? Yeah. This idea of hearing in this language different words for different kinds of love and deliberately choosing, like, when we talk about God’s love, we’ve got to say it’s this kind, and that means God’s compelled to do. It’s very powerful. 

19:36
Speaker 4
So you really have a heart for literacy. As you were talking about Bible translation, that’s not what you were called towards, but literacy and scripture engagement. And for the listeners who aren’t as familiar with it, can you share a little bit of your background with scripture engagement? 

19:54
David Federwitz
Well, I think everything we do as Lucifer and Bible translators is about scripture engagement. It’s for scripture engagement. Even doing translation is so that people can engage in scripture. And so I think, of course, literacy is for scripture engagement as well. The whole reason that Lutheran Bible translators is working with communities in different parts of the world with literacy is so that they can be able to access the scripture, the translated word of God, in their language. And so that’s what I really like. 

20:28
Speaker 4
So, like this idea of eternity in their hearts. And then scripture engagement, weaving in and how literacy can almost be the vehicle by which people are able to access God’s word, but also having this need filled. Like, I know that some theologians, it’s like the God shaped hole kind of. Of like what is missing. So have you seen that kind of play out for christians, but also non christians, as they access literacy materials and scripture engagement materials? 

21:00
David Federwitz
Yeah, I’ve seen over and over again, even from the time I was a kid, all the way now through adulthood, I’ve seen over and over how literacy, when people are able to read and write in their own language, it gives them value, it enhances their self worth, their self esteem, if you will. Literacy is one of those things. This is just an aside. Literacy is one of those things where it’s like riding a bike. You only learn how to ride a bike once, right? And then you can ride any bike, for the most part, even a motorcycle. And literacy is one of those things where if you can learn how to read once, then you can read other languages. I can read a lot of languages. I don’t understand them. All right? 

21:42
David Federwitz
But literacy is a skill, a very foundational skill that allows you to build on it. So it’s not uncommon for when people learn how to read and write in their own language than to move into a language of wider communication, maybe the official language of their country or the other way around. Sometimes people who already know how to read in the official language, they can easily pick up learning how to read in their own language. It’s more about language, but it also has to do with literacy. The thing is that language allows, or literacy, I would say, allows, the message of the gospel to be much more incarnational in the sense that when people are learning how to read and write their own language, there is a sense of, this is my own, this is me. 

22:37
David Federwitz
And when the message of the gospel is coupled with that this is me kind of a thing, this is my identity, it’s not foreign anymore. Now it’s like, this is mine. And so what I have seen time and time again is that as people are able to read their language, they want more of their language. And so I see this with non Christians, okay, a different major world religion, where we normally think, oh, this person’s going to be antagonistic towards the gospel, but when it’s in their language, it’s like there’s this identity, there’s this affinity that comes with it that you can’t separate. Think about this, okay? I travel a lot. I go through a lot of airports. So any of you who travel, just travel internationally. Specifically. 

23:37
David Federwitz
If you’re going through an airport and you’re hearing all kinds of noise and conversations happening, and all of a sudden you hear your language, you hear English, all of a sudden it’s like that conversation has just been amplified for you, and you tune in a way that you don’t tune into other things that are happening. And language has that effect. It’s an identifier, it’s something that is you. And so it’s the same kind of thing for people when they hear God’s word in their language, even if they are not a Christian, even if they are from a different religion completely, that is against Christianity, it’s like they perk up and they listen. And I have heard stories of people that have heard God’s word and want more of it and have asked for more of it. And they shouldn’t be the ones doing. 

24:44
David Federwitz
They are. They’re a leader of a different religion and they should not be asking for that. They should not be asking for God’s word. In fact, probably one of my favorite stories comes from Cameroon, where this leader of a different religion asked for scripture. And the Christian who had the scripture, who was being asked, actually kind of hesitated and said, are you sure? Okay. And the person said, what I just heard is truth. I need that. And so that’s the thing, is when God’s word is truth, right? And so when that truth goes out, you can’t deny it and it invites you to want more. And even in the context where I worked for a lot of years in Ghana, I remember there was a really important leader of another religion, and he was so involved in the literacy effort among the comba. 

25:52
David Federwitz
And it surprised me at one level. Like, why should he be so interested to the point where he was using his own money, using his own funding to make it possible for literacy supervisors and teachers to get to villages far out so that they could teach their classes? And one day I asked him, I said, what’s your motivation? And he said, this is really good. This is our language. We need to be about reading and writing our language. And so his motivation wasn’t scripture per se, but his motivation was because of that identity, that language. 

26:37
Rich Rudowske
Right. And then, of course, we just know that God’s word is living and active and powerful, and it accomplishes the purpose for which he sends it and just pray for those situations that, my goodness, what just an amazing thing it does go to show, right to your point, that part of the way that God’s put eternity in people’s hearts is through their language, that their language is so strong and powerful that God’s word being in the language, because it’s in their language, will overcome other barriers that may exist. As you think about this concept of the God shaped whole or eternity in their hearts, how do you see that applying to Christians and non Christians in our own culture? Where do you see people sort of dealing with this or struggling with this, or how does the concept apply from your point of view? 

27:22
David Federwitz
It’s a great question. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know if I really understand american culture well enough to know how this all applies. Okay. But one thing that I do see is I see that there’s like a big divide, it seems, between Christians and non Christians. Too often I see that it’s almost like it’s become a political thing where Christians are one side of the political spectrum and non Christians are on another side. I mean, that’s not always the case, but increasingly it seems like that’s the case, and then it seems like that’s even creating a bigger wedge. I think it’s really important for us as Christians to realize that people are people. We all have anxiety and we all have fears, and we all have hurts. We’re all beaten up by circumstances of life, but you just take people as people. 

28:21
David Federwitz
And I think sometimes if we kind of get off our soapbox, maybe get off of social media, just sort of the one liners that happen on social media, and we just listen, take time to listen to people’s stories, listen to people’s hurts, take people as people. Just like I think God has put these redemptive analogies into each and every culture. I actually think God has put redemptive analogies into each and every person’s life. And if you take time to listen to someone’s story, to just take them at face value, I believe that as a Christian, you will be able to find redemptive analogies in someone’s life that will help point them to Jesus. And it’s not that you have to be like, oh, I found it. 

29:21
David Federwitz
But in the course of just interacting with people and taking the time to love them for who they are as created beings by God, and if we look at people and not say, okay, well, they’re a non Christian. No, they’re a future Christian. They are God’s created beings who he loves as much as he loves us. And we get the chance to be a part of their life, to interact with them and to be a witness to them of God’s love. 

29:57
Rich Rudowske
Right? Yeah. And when you stop looking for the like, I know the problem that you have, and I’ve got your answer already, and instead, listen for that entry point, right, to go right back to your original point, that maybe some of that anxiety and longing and fear is also a reminder that deep down, even if it’s subconscious to all of us, we know that were made for something more than this. That is the eternity that’s in our hearts, and we’re looking to fill it with lots of other things that are not fulfilling, and ultimately, only Jesus is. But sometimes to get through all those layers and to have that conversation, to find that point, there’s a lot to go through, for sure. Yeah. We’ve been talking with Reverend David Federwitz, the West Africa regional director for Lutheran Bible translators. 

30:45
Rich Rudowske
Thanks so much for sharing with us. Today. 

30:47
Speaker 4
Thank you. 

30:51
Rich Rudowske
So eternity in their hearts, a great image for how God has created us for something more and is opening that space for his word to take root and have an impact. No matter what your cultural background is or where you come from, there’s a place where God can reach in there and speak to you. 

31:09
Emily Wilson
So I think that David’s passion comes through very nicely in the interview. 

31:13
Speaker 4
But I really wish that everybody who’s. 

31:16
Emily Wilson
Listening could also see just the energy and the excitement he has that God’s word belongs in every language community and how empowering it is to be able to access scripture without barriers and without having to worry about am I good enough from my language background, my cultural background, whatever the instance, is that really our hope? Our prayer at Lutheran Bible translators is for more people to engage with God’s word in natural ways. 

31:53
Rich Rudowske
Right? Because God’s word brings the light of Christ into the dark places of our lives. And I think that’s know any of us are passionate, and certainly David is too. About when you’ve experienced that yourself in your own life, when you’ve seen other people who have the opportunity to do that maybe for the first time, it’s very impactful and moving. 

32:11
Speaker 5
Thank you for listening to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. Look for past episodes@lbt.org Slash podcast or on your favorite podcast platform. Follow Lutheran Bible translators social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Or go to lbt.org to find out how you can get involved in the Bible translation movement and put God’s word in their hands. The essentially translatable podcast was produced and edited by Andrew Olsen. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was created by Caleb Rotewald and Sarah Lyons. Music written and performed by Rob Weit I’m Rich Radowski. So long for now.