Several years ago, we had a Lutheran missionary visit our congregation on a Sunday morning describing his experiences working in a small farming region of Africa. In relating to us the great work the Lord had accomplished through his and his family's ministry in Africa, he shared a humorous anecdote about the struggles of communicating.
One day as they worked to translate Luke chapter 8 into the native tongue for that area in Africa, the locals were struggling to understand the text. It was the parable of the sower that gave them trouble, so the missionary tried to see which particular word or phrase they were having difficulty translating but it turned out not to be the words or their meanings that were giving them trouble. It was a community of farmers, who had farmed for generation after generation and they were struggling to understand the full meaning of the parable of the sower, (you know, the farmer sows his seeds and some fall on the path, some among the thorns and some on the good fertile soil). It seems the native translation group was convinced that the farmer in the parable was drunk, as no farmer would actually sow seeds in such a manner!
Coming from an urban background, that aspect of the parable had never struck the missionary before, and it always amazed him (as it does me) how some things seem to get "lost in the translation"
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