Christmas with Lutheran Bible Translators

00:00
Michael Ersland
One of the pastors likes to preach on Isaiah, chapter 60, verse one. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. God loves us, interacts with us, and sent Jesus to provide this hope, this light into our lives. 

00:26
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the essentially translatable podcast brought. 

00:29
Rich Rudowske
To you by Lutheran Bible translators. I’m rich Redowski. 

00:31
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:33
Rich Rudowske
And it is that time of year. 

00:35
Rich Rudowske
That we all love so much. 

00:37
Rich Rudowske
Christmas time. 

00:38
Speaker 5
Yes. 

00:39
Emily Wilson
Merry Christmas, everyone. 

00:40
Rich Rudowske
Merry Christmas. So glad you’re spending some of it with us here on essentially translatable. 

00:45
Emily Wilson
And today we have a very special episode. Many of you have heard these stories before, but we just love having those reflections of Christmas time from around the world and just how that rich and deep perspective of different language communities celebrating and bringing scripture in a new light and being able to enrich the church. 

01:10
Speaker 5
Global. 

01:11
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, it’s really wonderful. The stories of Jesus birth and incarnation, there’s so many different angles that you can take on them if you really stop and think about what the magnitude of Christmas is. And so then you start to put that in other cultural frames of reference and different things come out. It’s so amazing, just the richness of who God is and what happened at Christmas time. I think that’s one of the things. 

01:37
Rich Rudowske
I love so much about this episode. 

01:39
Rich Rudowske
Every year when it comes out. 

01:41
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

01:41
Emily Wilson
So we do hope that you enjoy our Christmas tradition here at Lutheran Bible translators and have a very merry Christmas. 

01:50
Speaker 5
Listen. 

01:55
Rich Rudowske
There was nothing around that could prepare me for Christmas. I mean, she was thinking of decoration wise, environment wise, weather wise. Those are the same experiences that my family and I had when went to Botswana more than ten years ago now. 

02:13
Speaker 6
And also went in July. We already knew this is going to be different. 

02:18
Rich Rudowske
We had two winters because we had the regular winter in Michigan. And then when we got to Botswana, it was winter again, which is not nearly as bad, but it was cold. And then we came to summer in November and December. And at that time I actually wrote a reflection that was published, and I’m just going to read some of that, of what were experiencing. 

02:44
Speaker 6
So what is Christmas to you? 

02:47
Rich Rudowske
Probably most of you listening will know. 

02:49
Speaker 6
That the correct answer is supposed to. 

02:52
Rich Rudowske
Be things like, it’s the day we. 

02:54
Speaker 6
Remember the birth of Jesus. It’s the Jesus is the reason for the season. 

02:58
Rich Rudowske
You might even use theological words like. 

03:00
Speaker 6
Incarnation or talk of the wonder of God becoming flesh. 

03:04
Rich Rudowske
And of course, you’re right, it is all those things. 

03:07
Speaker 6
But the reality is that for all of us, lots of other things have. 

03:10
Rich Rudowske
Gotten wrapped up with Christmas and they’re very much a part of it for us as well. Things like family church celebrations by candlelight, Advent services, Christmas trees and tons of lights. 

03:21
Speaker 6
And if you live far enough north. 

03:22
Rich Rudowske
Snow is a part of Christmas. 

03:24
Speaker 6
Retail shopping madness and grabbing a cup of Starbucks while making the frosty rounds are part of Christmas. Turkey and mashed potatoes and watching bowl. 

03:32
Rich Rudowske
Games are part of it. 

03:33
Speaker 6
We don’t say or act like these things are necessary, but for many of. 

03:36
Rich Rudowske
Us, these are important aspects of Christmas. 

03:40
Speaker 6
So in 2009, my wife, my five children and I moved to the rural. 

03:43
Rich Rudowske
Kalahari desert village of Kang in the. 

03:46
Speaker 6
Southern african nation of Botswana. 

03:49
Rich Rudowske
And were there to help translate. 

03:50
Speaker 6
The Bible into Shikalahari, a minority language spoken by over 200,000 people. 

03:55
Rich Rudowske
And a few months after we arrived. 

03:56
Speaker 6
There, our first celebration of Christmas came and we experienced all those familiar things being stripped away from our celebration of Christmas advent services. 

04:06
Rich Rudowske
Not there. Christmas lights. 

04:09
Speaker 6
We did see a few in the city, but electricity is like a prepaid. 

04:14
Rich Rudowske
Commodity and a luxury, so nobody wasted on things like Christmas lights, starbucks and making the frosty rounds? No way. I mean, nest cafe is too hot anyways and more like ice water and. 

04:28
Speaker 6
100 degree temperatures in the southern african summer. Christmas Eve celebrations by candlelight, the candles. 

04:35
Rich Rudowske
Would have melted in that church. It was a midnight service in a. 

04:39
Speaker 6
Stifling tin building and I actually got sick and we had to leave early. 

04:42
Rich Rudowske
On that first Christmas Eve. And the next morning we didn’t wake up early to go to grandma’s. Instead, my kids and I got up early on Christmas morning. We went with our neighbors from the. 

04:51
Speaker 6
Village to their cattle post and there. 

04:54
Rich Rudowske
We helped them slaughter a goat for Christmas dinner. That’s right, our Christmas dinner was alive on Christmas morning. And instead of a pine Christmas tree filling the living room with that wonderful aroma, we made our Christmas tree by. 

05:07
Speaker 6
Tracing our hands on green paper. 

05:09
Rich Rudowske
We cut those out and taped them to the wall. We waited till almost 04:00 in the. 

05:13
Speaker 6
Afternoon to let the heat of the. 

05:14
Rich Rudowske
Day pass, and then we gathered for Christmas dinner with our neighbors. We ate outside in a shady, sandy area of our yard and we had potato salad and watermelon complementing that main course of goat. 

05:26
Speaker 6
Many people here spend Christmas at their. 

05:28
Rich Rudowske
Home village and they go to the. 

05:30
Speaker 6
Village gathering spot to watch traditional dance and choir competitions. 

05:34
Rich Rudowske
There was no football. 

05:35
Speaker 6
There was no pie. 

05:36
Rich Rudowske
There was no Christmas bargain shopping or after Christmas bargain shopping. It was so different. And I never realized how much being. 

05:44
Speaker 6
A northern hemisphere Christian had influenced my feelings. 

05:47
Rich Rudowske
Of Christmas. I never realized how much I expected. 

05:49
Speaker 6
Santa and snowmen as much as Jesus and a manger. 

05:54
Rich Rudowske
And incidentally, I was in Ethiopia around Christmas time a few years ago. And the missionaries I was with, we visited anglican church while were there and they had a Christmas service and it made me laugh inside all. 

06:07
Speaker 6
The carols we sang that had to. 

06:08
Rich Rudowske
Do with snow and starry nights and all this stuff. I mean, that’s just what we have really wrapped that all together. And so I never realized how much that was affecting my view of Christmas. I never expected that the sun staying. 

06:21
Speaker 6
Up till 930 on Christmas Eve would. 

06:23
Rich Rudowske
Take some of that holiness out of the silent night. 

06:26
Speaker 6
But in all of it, one thing really came through to me. You strip all that other stuff away. 

06:31
Rich Rudowske
And the historical fact remains, God became man. 

06:35
Speaker 6
Jesus was born of a virgin in a small middle eastern village some 2000. 

06:39
Rich Rudowske
Years ago in a place that was actually quite a bit like the village I was living in at that time. 

06:43
Speaker 6
And his arrival in world history irrevocably altered the course of the universe and everything within it. 

06:49
Rich Rudowske
He made it possible for all of us to be reconciled to God. 

06:53
Speaker 6
And with so many things different and so many things missing from our celebration of Christmas, that fact just became more prominent and clearer to me. 

07:00
Rich Rudowske
You can take away all the stuff. 

07:01
Speaker 6
Of Christmas, which is good and it’s great for celebrating. You take them all away and you still have Jesus, you still have the incarnation. 

07:10
Rich Rudowske
He came to walk among the human. 

07:12
Speaker 6
Race in a very different place than. 

07:14
Rich Rudowske
The glory of heaven. He gave up his glory to lead us to God. 

07:17
Speaker 6
And only in being completely removed from. 

07:19
Rich Rudowske
All that I had come to find familiar and myself striving to become incarnate in another place and another culture could I really focus on the real gift of Christmas. God became man in Jesus Christ and we had the privilege to share that good news. And that is the greatest gift of all. 

07:36
Speaker 5
That’s so awesome, that perspective. Right? And that posturing. I wonder how many of us, during this pandemic and this unusual season of where the traditions are no longer quite as present, right? How many of us will be similarly reflecting what is really the heart of the season and how is it that I have filled it up? Right? 

08:11
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, it’s true. I read in the news recently, I forget who, and I don’t want to be political, but some government officials saying, well, Christmas may not be possible. And I think what that person meant to say is the type of celebrations you’re used to celebrating. But Christmas is so much more than that. And like you said, there is nothing that can come, pandemic or otherwise, that will prevent Christmas from actually coming. The celebration because Jesus has come. 

08:43
Speaker 5
Absolutely. So, wanting to share from a different region in Africa, Michael Ursland, who recently spent his first term in Ghana, West Africa, and his experience a little bit from a similar perspective, but also completely unique. And all of the celebration leading up to so wanting to share Michael’s story. 

09:14
Michael Ersland
Hello, I’m Michael Ersland, working with the Combo Old Testament translation project in Ghana. And when I think about Christmas in Combaland, I think of churches from the area all gathering together for several days for Christmas convention. And it’s just an exciting time, a high adrenaline worship services starting in the morning, going to the afternoon, and then starting in the evening and going to midnight. Just awesome to be together with fellow believers, combo brothers and sisters in Christ. And something that one of the pastors likes to preach on isaiah, chapter 60, verse one, that is, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. And just this joy that we have as people, that knowing that God loves us, interacts with us and sent Jesus to provide this hope, this light into our lives. 

10:20
Michael Ersland
And as we’re gathering together at night for evening worship for Christmas convention, and it’s dark with some lights shining people’s flashlights, or maybe a generator powered light, and as the pastor is preaching and saying, rise, shine, for your light has come, it’s just exciting to get to experience that also of being in this darkness and realizing what a gift light is. And that Christ is the light for our lives. And we have this light during Christmas that we remember, and he comes and dwells among us. So that’s a memory, something from Combaland that I’ve learned from my brothers and sisters in Christ in Ventiri, Ghana, and hope to share with you, and I hope that you have light filled, Christ filled, joyous Christmas. And so for my wife Naomi and I, we wish you a merry Christmas. 

11:25
Rich Rudowske
It’s so true how being in a different place highlights different parts of scripture. And there the darkness and the light really coming through in those old Testament texts, those prophecies pointing to, and that’s in southern Africa, we look at advent and really focus on the darkness and light. And of course there’s all kinds of prophecy that does that. But there are a whole bunch of other prophecies about the messiah that talk about water and deserts turning into places of growth. And one year at one of the churches there for advent, instead of having candles, they had four glasses, three of them purple and one of them pink. And each Sunday they filled one of them up with water and had texts to do with the prophecies of Christ coming. And that fit the context because weatherwise. 

12:17
Speaker 6
The dry season has been dragging on. 

12:19
Rich Rudowske
And when you get to the time of advent, you’re also hoping for those first rains. And so it’s just really, in the northern hemisphere, it’s that time of darkness. And you go to some of the historical development of Christmas. It does have to do with like, it just keeps getting dark earlier and earlier, and is it ever going to be light again? The way that scripture connects to life, regardless of where you are and what you’re experiencing, the Holy Spirit has masterfully woven together this scripture that will touch you one way or another. Yeah. 

12:50
Speaker 5
And just thinking about the imagery, how scripture is so alive with that imagery of essential. Right. Thinking about the original context where light was, we didn’t have light pollution. Right? And thinking about when it was dark, it was utterly dark. And what was out beyond the fringes of your settlement might hurt you. Right. And how light brings life, it brings protection. And thinking about the messiah as that life and protection, thinking about water in the desert being life and protection of your surviving. Right. It’s beyond just and then beyond just surviving, but thriving. And how powerful that imagery is. And like you said, the spirit is at work, that this is relevant for any context wherever and how people have adapted accordingly within. Right. Southern Africa. It keeps getting lighter in those evenings, but water is that commodity, that scarcity. 

14:08
Speaker 5
And so, drawing in, it’s amazing how the church can sharpen one another in different regions. And Jim Kaiser has a story too, about maybe it’s not the elements per se, but a common life experience of travel and how that has impacted his understanding of the nativity story, of thinking about the travel of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem and how much that has really changed his understanding over the years from his own personal experiences. 

14:55
Speaker 7
It was my first Christmas Eve in Africa. Susan and I were bumping along a rural dirt road in northern Sierra Leone. It was getting late in the day, so I was trying to hurry as much as possible so that we would reach our destination before dark. But Susan, who was expecting our first son in two weeks, kept begging me to slow down so that she wouldn’t get shaken around so much. My mind went to another man who also had to travel on rough roads with his pregnant wife. Did Joseph sometimes have to hurry so that they would reach their lodging by nightfall? Did Mary sometimes beg him to slow down so that her stomach didn’t bounce so much on the back of the donkey. Those are answers that we will never know here on earth. 

15:40
Speaker 7
But that experience did give me more of a connection to the human part of the Christmas story of God actually becoming a baby in Mary’s womb. 

15:49
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. If you’ve ever ridden with Jim Kaiser, you know, Susan’s concerns are real. But I love that take on things that just the humanity of the story, because the Christmas story is, it’s very, in one way, sanitized. None of us have walked or ridden on donkeys for. This is like a 40 miles trip for Mary and Joseph. 

16:16
Speaker 6
I go 40 miles to just go. 

16:18
Rich Rudowske
To Walmart and I do it all in one day. But that’s a major undertaking for most. 

16:23
Speaker 6
Of human history, honestly. 

16:25
Rich Rudowske
And even in many parts of the world today, it still can be a major undertaking, even just to go that kind of distance. And I love that being in that. 

16:33
Speaker 6
Context, that, again, is probably more similar. 

16:36
Rich Rudowske
To the biblical context. It takes your mind to these relationships going on, Joseph and Mary and how are they interacting on this trip? 

16:46
Speaker 5
Absolutely. And human relationships, like, here’s a man and woman who really don’t necessarily know each other that well. And travel brings out the best and the worst of us. 

17:02
Rich Rudowske
That’s true. 

17:03
Speaker 5
But thinking about, like you said, how we sanitize it, certainly my nativity set that I have, mary is looking very sharp, very clean, and everyone is clean and pristine. And the hair is just so, just thinking about Jesus, the incarnation, God becoming man, that was a messy business. 

17:32
Speaker 6
It was. 

17:32
Rich Rudowske
If you think I wonder if the angels are in heaven saying, you want to send them at this time in this mean, you know it’s going to get better hospital wise and Columbia wise. 

17:49
Speaker 5
This is so true. 

17:52
Rich Rudowske
Martin Weber, a longtime missionary in Cameroon with his wife Joan, talks about the Kwanja world there. And the kwanja are some of the folks they’ve worked with over the years. 

18:03
Speaker 6
And how their world is much more. 

18:05
Rich Rudowske
Like Mary and Joseph’s world than our world, too. So he tells this story. 

18:09
Speaker 6
Our son Nathan has his birthday on December 23. 

18:13
Rich Rudowske
So one year we invited a few friends, he puts in quotes, and it. 

18:18
Speaker 6
Says more than 50 came. But that’s another story. 

18:20
Rich Rudowske
And I have been there, my friend. And so they came, and Martin says, I told them this Christmas story. As I did, it struck me that. 

18:28
Speaker 6
What happened to Jesus’parents could easily happen in Yinbury. Here in Cameroon, government orders a census, no questions asked. You go where they say. 

18:38
Rich Rudowske
When they say, no vehicles, you walk. 

18:41
Speaker 6
Maybe one donkey if you’re lucky. The distance Nazareth to Bethlehem is similar to the distance to the divisional headquarters north of Yimbury. A logical place to demand a census. Getting there requires some days on the road. 

18:54
Rich Rudowske
Mary is very pregnant. 

18:57
Speaker 6
Joseph is very concerned getting there. The town is full of people. No surprise Bethlehem would be the ancestral home for many people. Place to sleep? Nope. 

19:07
Rich Rudowske
Okay. You go in that cave. 

19:09
Speaker 6
Stable midwife maybe. But right there was born the only son of God. God chose that place, those circumstances, because incarnation had to have him come all the way down to the level of ordinary people. 

19:27
Speaker 5
I love that he has been able to draw so many connections and how powerful that is to the community because not everyone who showed up was probably Christian. Right? 

19:39
Speaker 6
Sure. 

19:39
Speaker 5
And being able to bring it into a. Wait, this is really relatable. 

19:44
Speaker 6
Yeah. 

19:45
Rich Rudowske
You know how this. 

19:46
Speaker 6
Yeah, yeah. 

19:47
Rich Rudowske
And just his mean Jesus was not born in a palace. 

19:53
Speaker 6
So somehow Joseph is related to David. 

19:56
Rich Rudowske
But I mean, he’s not the guy in that line somehow because he’s not powerful or reigning on anyone’s. He’s, he’s just a normal guy. And Jesus is just born in these really unusual but very humble and maybe even normal circumstances. I think we think of it as unusual, but maybe it’s not. For most of the world, in most of history, these are the ways things are. People who have power tell you to do something, you go and do it. And in the midst of that, here comes God to say the gospel is going to have the last word here, right? 

20:35
Speaker 5
That it’s the incarnation of more than just this humanity, but the incarnation and redeeming of all these facets of life, the very human experience of not only living and breathing and eating and sleeping, but also being under. What does it mean to be under government? What does it mean to be under a father and mother and all of these things that he experienced and did perfectly and that he redeemed it. We can’t do it, but he did it for us. Just so powerful, so empowering too as a Christ follower to share that with others that people who don’t know, they think that it’s a faith for a lofty life and that you have to be a certain way all of the time that no, Jesus entered into the mess, the everyday and redeeming that I get excited. 

21:42
Rich Rudowske
So true. 

21:44
Speaker 5
Yeah. So thinking about from the Kwanja perspective, they were hearing this Christmas story maybe for the first time. And similarly, Jim Lesh shares a story about the Greybo people in Liberia and how they were hearing this story in a new way, maybe for the first time, some of the people in the village, but really the ownership that came with it, of how do we not only see this as a story long time ago, but really a story for us and how it relates to our culture, our time, our values? 

22:29
Speaker 8
He is one of us. Luke 27 in northern Grabo of Liberia. Okona Onisaju amoa jibajuju Afifia ojupurudaro opiana mondi brokum wabu. She birthed her firstborn, a boy child. She wrapped him with a newborn cloth, and then she laid him in the animal feedbox. Newborn cloth is a grable tradition. After birth, the midwife cuts and ties the cord, washes the newborn baby, and then uses a clean cloth prepared for the newborn, wrapping him or her lovingly and handing him to mother. The word nisaju is a special grable word meaning firstborn child. Being Nisaju is unique and a highly cherished position. When the grable person hears the words jupludalo, newborn cloth, and Nisaju firstborn, it creates a very clear picture that this child was born in a humble and a true grable way. People will proclaim, he is one of us. 

23:42
Speaker 8
And that is the main idea of Christmas. 

23:46
Rich Rudowske
So true. Some of the most powerful words of the Christmas story is unto you. This day, in the city of David, a savior has been born. I said unto you, which is King James, but for you or your savior, that taking that pronoun and saying, this. 

24:04
Speaker 6
Didn’T just happen, but happened for you. 

24:07
Rich Rudowske
And I love the way that the grabo translation personalizes that for people, that in every culture, the gospel message is essentially translatable, if we can use that term. But that is the whole point, is that it is God who created and then redeems all of these cultures and most of the world’s history. When they think of what is out there and who do we relate to? Their concept of a greater being or a God is somebody that’s just local there or for them. And throughout the scriptures, the Lord God claims to be God of the entire world. And then he doesn’t just come and claim that kingship. By forcing you to go his way, he allows the translation and the incarnation of the message to also say, he’s one of us, and he’s always been one of us. We are his people. 

25:06
Speaker 5
The word made flesh. Right? And that is exactly what Rhoda Hoag shares in her Christmas story. So this is the retelling of a very special Christmas for her. Reverend Claude and Rhoda Hoag served in Africa for 23 years. One of the most memorable experiences happened during the Christmas season in a village in northern Ghana. The village had a nativity scene, said Rhoda, complete with Mary and Joseph and a few animals. But the manger was empty. I couldn’t imagine who or what was going to fill the role of baby Jesus. There were no babies that I could see, and dolls were rare. Much to her surprise, though, the girl playing Mary reached behind her back and pulled out a Bible. She placed the book in the manger. 

25:57
Speaker 5
It was moving to see how much was placed on scripture, that this book would be used to represent Jesus and how insightful Jesus is. The word. What could be more appropriate than putting a Bible in the manger to represent the savior of the world? 

26:15
Rich Rudowske
I love it. 

26:17
Speaker 6
The word made flesh, when that word speaks. 

26:20
Rich Rudowske
And working in a Bible translation ministry. 

26:25
Speaker 6
Ultimately, of course, we don’t worship the Bible. 

26:29
Rich Rudowske
It’s the Christ that the Bible testifies to. 

26:32
Speaker 6
Yet there’s something very close and powerful. 

26:35
Rich Rudowske
Between that proclaimed word and who it points to and the fact that word is powerful. It acts and it moves. And so what a lovely representation of this is the savior of the world, or the savior of the world is found here, right? 

26:51
Speaker 5
Yeah. The foundation of our faith is reading his word and how we can grow and that we’re just on this daily journey of walking alongside each other, but that God is leading us and that, like you said, that it’s found in the words of scripture that we are able to know truth and that it will set us free. 

27:20
Rich Rudowske
And we’ve got the privilege of working in this ministry, of working as missionaries and with partners in the local context. Folks, that God has. There’s a different story for every person, right? I mean, God has raised up. They may already be part of a. 

27:39
Speaker 6
Church that is formed, that is seeking. 

27:41
Rich Rudowske
To know God more and more deeply by access to the word of God. It may be part of a group that isn’t Christian yet, but somebody knows the language well and says, I want to help do this. And in that process, the word of God being active transforms their lives, and they come to know the true and living God. There are some places in the world where Bible translation is happening, where persecution still happens of christians. And again, that is really the christian experience throughout most of the world. We grew up in a. And we come from a european context, ancestrally. Many of us listening even as well, where Christianity has had a place of power and privilege for a long time. 

28:25
Rich Rudowske
But most of the world, through the history of the church, hasn’t experienced that the church does not need to have that power and that prestige for the gospel to go forth. In fact, it seems like it may go forth even more effectively when that’s not the case. And so, even today, as folks are listening to this podcast, there are christians at work in the world sharing the good news in situations that are dangerous and desperate, and we want to share one of those stories from one of our contexts about a guy who will. 

28:56
Speaker 6
Call for safety purposes. Pastor Santi Pastor Santi has been an integral part of our project’s literacy and scripture engagement program over the last several years. Toward the end of 2017, our team had asked him to help with a gospel film dubbing project into the cone. 

29:12
Rich Rudowske
Language, and cone is a pseudonym for the language, again for purposes of safety. And he was to read the part. 

29:19
Speaker 6
Of Abraham in three short bible story. 

29:21
Rich Rudowske
Videos from the series called God provides. 

29:25
Speaker 6
Since Pastor Santi came to faith, he’s. 

29:27
Rich Rudowske
Been used by God to plant and. 

29:28
Speaker 6
Disciple several churches in his home province. 

29:30
Rich Rudowske
In the country where we work, including a number of house churches, among other tribal groups. 

29:35
Speaker 6
In December 2017, after completing the audio recordings in our studio for two of the God provides videos, he was asked by a group of those house churches to come and preach for a village Christmas celebration in another district. He agreed to come and preach, but reminded the villagers that they would need to get permission from local authorities to do this. They assured him they would take the necessary steps. Just a week or so before the celebration, he finished his part on the second film, and we saw him at. 

30:04
Rich Rudowske
A Christmas service at a house church near our home. 

30:07
Speaker 6
He preached a beautiful message about our savior, Jesus, emphasizing the fact that Jesus had been willing to come from heaven, to be born into the middle of the refuse of humanity. The word in the national language that’s prefixed to a number of verbs indicating various vices and bad habits, is key. This happens to be the same word as dung. Pastor Santi recalled how Christ had been willing to be born in animal pen, which local people easily understand, to be full of the smell of dung and the like. He explained how Jesus was not only willing to do this, but to be born into the midst of our various human vices and failings, to save us from them and the punishment that we deserve. 

30:48
Speaker 6
It was for this purpose, the purpose of lifting us out of the dung of our sins, that he came into the world. A week after we saw him there, he went up to the hill village where the Christmas celebration was to take place. The village believers had also invited a team to show a Christmas film or christian film in the national language. Prior to his arrival, and a large crowd had gathered. But someone in the village had complained to the authorities, and when it was asked whether they had secured proper permission to carry out this Christmas celebration, it turned out that they hadn’t. So shortly after Pastor Santi arrived, before he even had the opportunity to preach his Christmas message, he was accused, along with the film team, of breaking the law. 

31:28
Speaker 6
He and the film team were taken into custody and sent to the district police station, and later that evening to the provincial jail while the authorities investigated and sorted the matter out late at night on what would have been Christmas Eve, instead of preaching a message to encourage these young believers in their faith about all that Christ had done for them, he found himself being put into a holding cell with drug addicts, thieves, brawlers, and sex offenders at the provincial lockup. There was hardly any space on the hard floor to find room to lay down. It was cold, and he had no blanket. 

32:02
Rich Rudowske
He worried about his wife and what. 

32:04
Speaker 6
She would do when he didn’t come. 

32:05
Rich Rudowske
Home and found out that he was. 

32:07
Speaker 6
In jail for preaching the gospel. He didn’t know what exactly the charges would be or how long it might take to work through this misunderstanding, he started to despair about the situation he found himself caught in. He lay curled up on the hard floor, awake with these worries swirling through his mind, smelled the urine and feces of the cell’s common commode, and began feeling sorry for himself and asking God why. But at that moment, he recalled that on Christmas Eve, his savior Jesus, had been born in very uncomfortable circumstances, probably less comfortable even than his current state, and that Jesus had been willing to do this for him and all the dung of humanity, even the lawbreakers laying around him and those who had taken him captive. 

32:51
Speaker 6
He felt a strong impression that the Lord was saying to him, I was born into animal pen for you and all these people tonight, your plan. 

32:59
Rich Rudowske
Was to preach in the village. 

33:00
Speaker 6
But my plan for you here is share the good news you have with them, even your captors. As morning broke, Pastor Santi took heart in these words that God had a purpose for him being in that jail. As the various inmates stirred awake and saw their new guests, they greeted him and asked what he was in for. He answered that he was in there. 

33:20
Rich Rudowske
Because he put his faith in God. 

33:22
Speaker 6
And in his savior Jesus Christ, and that there was a misunderstanding about celebrating Jesus’birth having sparked their interest. They began to ask him what all that meant, and he explained who Jesus was and how Jesus had called him out of a life of drunkenness and womanizing many years earlier, to come and follow him and to trust him for the forgiveness of his sins. The other captors listened with sincere intent as he shared his life story and the story of how Jesus had accomplished the world’s salvation through his birth, life, death on a cross, and resurrection from the dead. As the morning went on, the authorities came to the cell to summon him for questioning. Though he was nervous about how to answer, suddenly God gave him a boldness that he should just tell them the truth. 

34:04
Speaker 6
In the interrogation room, the lead police officer asked him pointedly, why are you a Christian? What did jesus do for you? Perhaps thinking that he was benefiting from this work of telling people about God by getting a salary or some other compensation. But Pastor Santi, with new courage, began to tell his interrogators his testimony. A number of years ago, after leading. 

34:25
Rich Rudowske
A life of excess, I had gotten. 

34:26
Speaker 6
Sick and had thought I was going to die. A man from a nearby village came to our village to share the good news about Jesus’life, death and resurrection. I had nowhere else to turn for help or healing. So when I heard these things, I began to think that maybe Jesus could help me, not only to heal me from my sickness, but to change my life and to clean me up. Pastor Santi told the officers that he had been given the opportunity by the man to become a Christian by trusting in Jesus, and he had decided to. 

34:54
Rich Rudowske
Give Jesus his life. 

34:56
Speaker 6
I asked God to clean me up so that I could have a new life. When that man prayed for me to be healed, I was healed. God not only healed my body, but he forgave my sins and changed my life, making me new. Pastor Santi later reflected, I wasn’t afraid because I was telling the police the true story of what Jesus had done in my life. The spirit helped me stay strong, speak truth, and not be afraid. I saw clearly as they listened to my words attentively that it was God’s plan for me to share with these police officers. Though it took a month of time in jail to work out his case, Pastor Santi had several other opportunities to share about God’s love in Jesus. 

35:33
Speaker 6
Both with the other inmates as well as with the police, christians around the world helped with a gift to pay a sizable fine that was assessed for him and the film team, and in the end, they were all released, but not before the seeds of the gospel were planted in many new hearts. 

35:48
Speaker 5
Wow, I love this story so much. But I also, as I’m listening and reflecting, I just wonder at the power of the Holy Spirit to change that fear into a boldness. Because when he asks why, I think that I would probably be more than just why, I would probably be a little angry, not at just the circumstance, but also why hadn’t they gotten the permit? Why God, why? And a little anger. But the beauty here of a life transformed by the gospel and how he took this situation and glorified God just so beautiful. 

36:42
Rich Rudowske
And the way that the Holy Spirit. 

36:44
Speaker 6
Prepared his heart by the message he. 

36:46
Rich Rudowske
Had already been proclaiming. And then all of a sudden, these images and things he’s using to describe Jesus coming in the world, now he’s sitting literally in them, and the Holy Spirit brings them to his mind to say, this is why. And just this part where he says, I began to think that maybe Jesus could help me. I mean, that is what Christmas is all about and what the gospel is all about. If anyone listening to this podcast is also wondering, can Jesus help me? The answer is yes. And he shows that in Jesus becoming man. I mean, that is what Christmas is all about. The incarnation is God saying, jesus can help you and whatever it takes, whatever we have to go through. 

37:38
Rich Rudowske
This man spent a month in jail and like a modern day book of acts story, he spread the gospel and sent a whole bunch of other people out with it. That’s a Christmas to remember. That is a different Christmas. 

37:54
Speaker 5
Exactly. And how maybe we haven’t found ourselves in a prison cell, but maybe in some other situation that has tested us and we feel drained and we’re at the bottom. And how God has reached out and lifts us up and has wonderful, beautiful plans for us, that maybe it’s going to look different for each one of us, but ultimately it’s a relationship with him and how we’ve been called to not only that, but then to share that with others, that it’s not a light to hide under a basket and it’s not a cold drink of water to keep to ourselves, but to pass that along. 

38:45
Speaker 5
And just the beauty of that this Christmas season, that even in spite of the situations that we find ourselves in, that he is above all and through all, and that he has a plan for each and every one of us. 

39:03
Rich Rudowske
Yeah, it can be so easy again. Now I’m thinking more from just our own culture, western culture, to lose sight of the fact that no matter what’s going on right now, it’s not like God forgot about us, right? I doubt anybody listening here is listening or has recently spent time in a prison cell on Christmas for preaching the gospel. I mean, those three things together kind of exclude most of us, but you may be feeling imprisoned by something. The pandemic may have made you feel imprisoned this year, that you can’t go and see the people and do the things that you would normally do and be with folks. I know a lot of folks that have lost loved ones because of the pandemic or just circumstances that were affected by it. 

40:00
Rich Rudowske
And yeah, God is still in all these things, and it’s so easy to blame. Like when Pastor Santi was asking God why? And you mentioned, well, he could very easily have been saying, why didn’t people do their jobs and whatever. But every circumstance we’re in has the potential to be redeemed at some point. And God can work through it. 

40:28
Speaker 5
Absolutely. And like you said, right, in that situation, even in the prison cell, he had the opportunity to share the gospel and he took it. And like you said, like the modern day acts story, and we take courage from those stories of the faith of men and women who stood by the power of the Holy Spirit. Right? It’s not our own strength, but trusting that there is, in fact, good to come out of every circumstance that God places in our lives, that we can be just a witness to his goodness. 

41:21
Rich Rudowske
I think that’s really what Christmas is all about. You think about Linus and his blanket. Christmas is all about God saying the way things normally go, I have something better than that. And whatever sin or hurt or pain or problem or addiction or broken relationship, none of those things can have the last word. The gospel has the last word. And that’s why it’s a privilege to. 

41:51
Speaker 6
Well, first of all, to just be. 

41:52
Rich Rudowske
Called in faith and to follow the Lord, but also to work in mission and to share the good news with others as well. I hope that as you listen and reflect on whatever that you’re listening to, this, if it’s still Christmas break, Christmas Eve, that no matter what, because Christmas and the incarnation is really a 365 or in 2020 where we had an extra day, 366 day a year thing, a reality, right, that God became man, changed the course of the universe forever. 

42:26
Rich Rudowske
And we’re thankful for the privilege to work together with our partners around the world to take this gospel, to review it again, to think through how to speak it again, how to really reflect that Jesus is one of us, how to focus on parts of the scripture that speak to different cultural things and recognize that the gospel is for all humanity, not bound to any culture, yet at home in every single one of them. 

43:00
Rich Rudowske
Listening to that episode again, I’m really grateful for the wide breadth of experiences. 

43:06
Rich Rudowske
That have been shared. 

43:07
Rich Rudowske
And just, again, how amazing Christmas is and the incarnation and all those different angles on it. 

43:13
Rich Rudowske
It’s so cool to hear every year. 

43:15
Speaker 5
Yeah. 

43:15
Emily Wilson
And it’s just scratching the surface, right? Just the millions of people around the world as they’re encountering this story of salvation for the first time. Like, even you think about little kids and the Christmas programs around the world where it’s finally know that this Jesus who is born in Bethlehem is for me. And he came, this king of heaven came for my sins and that he was going to live this perfect life for my salvation, dying on the cross for my sins. And just what that means around the world, this universal story of salvation and yet so personal. And that language, community is bringing it into a space of what does this mean for us? 

44:06
Rich Rudowske
That’s right. Because, yeah, every time this story is told in a new language, it immediately also finds a home in that language. When this gospel is for you and this baby born in Bethlehem is for you, a savior is born to you. And it’s just really powerful to think about what that really means and let that sink through all the stuff going on in our hearts and minds and all the busyness that we may have and just pause and reflect that is true for us. And every community that story is told is true for them, too. 

44:40
Emily Wilson
Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed our third annual Christmas with Lutheran Bible translators. God’s blessings on your Christmas. 

44:48
Rich Rudowske
Merry Christmas. 

44:49
Rich Rudowske
Thank you for listening to the essentially translatable podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible translators. You can find past episodes of the podcast@lbt.org slash podcast or subscribe on audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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 is produced and edited by Andrew Olson. Our executive producer is Emily Wilson. Podcast artwork was designed by Caleb Rotewald. Sarah Radowski. Music written and performed by Rob Weit. I’m Rich Radowski. So long. For now.