Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. \u00a0This was an unexpected treat. \u00a0It was not on my schedule when I came down.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
These missionaries have been called to serve in an Arabic-speaking program. \u00a0(One of them is a native speaker from Irbid, Jordan. \u00a0At least two of them have been students in BYU\u2019s Arabic-speaking program, including its Jordanian intensive Arabic semester. \u00a0Several were called to serve after arriving in the San Diego area.) \u00a0There is apparently another such program \u2014 for understandable reasons \u2014 in the Detroit area, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to learn that yet another such program is or might be in Toronto, a place of wide ethnic diversity where a great many people of Middle Eastern origin have also come to reside.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
They had lots of questions about how to speak with Muslims, how to teach Chaldean Christians, and so forth. \u00a0I have to admit that I\u2019m dazzled to see actual Arabic-speaking missionaries \u2014 and I\u2019ve already seen Arabic-speaking returned<\/em> missionaries, from this \u2014 during my lifetime. \u00a0Moreover, the mission president says that a Persian-speaking unit will soon be assigned to the California San Diego Mission, along with three Persian-speaking elders. \u00a0(Persian is already being taught at the Missionary Training Center, and Arabic may soon begin to be taught there.) \u00a0For some time now, the mission has had an Arabic-speaking unit.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We had a good discussion. \u00a0I don\u2019t have any \u201cmagic bullets\u201d or \u201csecrets to success\u201d to pass on, but I hope I was at least somewhat helpful.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve wondered for a long time how the Gospel would be taken to the Middle East. \u00a0Now,\u00a0in a very real sense, the Middle East is coming to West. \u00a0And it has been my conviction for quite a while that, when the message is taken in a larger way to the Middle East itself, the people who will be carrying it won\u2019t initially or even primarily be Anglophone missionaries, but people who are themselves of Middle Eastern origin and who have encountered the Gospel in the West as part of a diaspora of Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, Afghan, and other peoples. \u00a0They will have the street smarts, the cultural savvy, the linguistic ability, and the kin-networks \u00a0and relationships that foreign missionaries would lack.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from San Diego, California<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve just returned from meeting with several elders and sisters from the California San Diego Mission, as well as with their mission president and his wife and an Iraqi-born convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0This was an unexpected treat. \u00a0It was not on my schedule when I came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>