poitu varam

THE CHRONICLES OF A FLEDGLING MISSIONARY CALLED JOLLYBEGGAR "i still gaze fondly at all of the pictures, drink ginger beer, bunch my food, listen to punjabi dj tunes, play my dholki, wear my sarong (around the house only because in canada it is still really uncommon for a man to wear a wraparound skirt in public) and speak way too much of the differences between east and west..."

Monday, August 15, 2005

speaking in tongues

august 15: monday: day 6 (part 3)

the retreat centre- constructed by big korean business as part of a major textiles factory campus that, up until the war (civil, ongoing) had provided jobs for 4500 people- was absolutely amazing (albeit desserted) with an incredible edenesque courtyard.

heart-breaking that this place was in the middle of absolutely nowhere and underutilized.
***

the worship times here were incredibly charismatic. i was joking one day that tamil sounds a lot like speaking in tongues... so i wondered if when tamils speak in tongues it sounds like english?

boy, did i laugh inside when, at the end of the first song when everybody was speaking and singing in the spirit, the leader started "praiseGodpraiseGodpraiseGodpraiseGod..." !

geez- and i was joking.

all jokes and cultural surprises aside, the worship singing was powerfully moving. as i would comment numerous times over the course of the trip "different words, same voice."
***

watching the bilingual discourse and the antiphonal cadence of these guys who have done this tagteam, tamil/sinhala thing for so long, i find it fun to try to imagine a french/english back and forth that knitted together so tightly... not even our cereal boxes translate idea-by-idea.

listening to these guys (in particular jey and kumar's "purpose driven church" sessions adapting rick warren's material- not pictured here, however, because it was just too darn animated) speak, i could understand how english-speaking crowds can fall asleep in church, whereas tamils and sinhalas don't. these guys speak so fast and loud and with such passion that you have no chance to get drowsy!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home