Vanuatu: Critical Thinking Skills for National Translators

From Ross Webb

SIL Vanuatu Director

 "I didn't want to come," said Laurie. "But I did, and unlike at other workshops, I stayed awake right to the end! God really wanted me to come to this."

Recently, a two week workshop was held for 14 national translators in critical thinking skills  and rudimentary exegesis, as well as some Old Testament background. A lot of thinking went on, that's for sure. There were plenty of comments on the revolutionary nature of the content; being shown how to take into consideration all of the information presented to reach a conclusion, or how to consider all the implications of a life situation to make a decision, or how to read through all the 'facts' lined up in a Bible passage to determine the punch line of the author -- all of this was eye opening, perhaps even life changing in the long run to many.

We spent a lot of time showing that too many people don't read to the end of a passage of Scripture before jumping to a wrong conclusion or totally misusing the passage. 'Aha's' of recognition were ignited all over the room. You could pray that this will all lead to better understanding of the Word and not a new breed of sermon critics in Vanuatu!

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