Communication
Today we had a conference call with Pastor Naftal, Joan & Richard, Bo & Dan. Oh, the wonders and limitations of technology!
There we all were, five or six people in one room in Tanzania (with a laptop running on batteries because there was no power to the home) and another person on the opposite end of the globe on her phone land line. Magic Jack was the technology used.
It took a couple tries to get the audio right. At one point, I could hear the voice on the other end as if it were pulsating waves of sound: I-i-i hee-ee-ear yoo-oo-ou. Hang up, try again.
Even once we could all physically hear the voices as we spoke, the limitations of audio but no video became apparent. Thank goodness for the person in the room who had the awareness to speak: I think someone is hesitant to answer that question....I see that someone is thinking....I see that someone needs to consult with others before responding...
No two people can communicate adequately for their respective large communities.
I can ask questions that have been posed by our church's leadership and by our partnership committee.
Pastor Naftal can answer questions based on discussions that have taken place within the Tungamalenga Church Council and their Partnership Committee.
We can each relay questions posed by the other side.
We can hope that our questions are clear to one another. We can hope that our questions are not heard as accusations or criticisms, but simply as questions. We can hope and trust that the answers we receive are genuine and honest reflections of the feelings of the community at large and not just the one person on the line.
We can hope that we know each other well enough, after ten years of partnership, to understand that even pointed questions really and truly are just questions, an attempt to understand one another better and more fully.
I remember my second visit to Tungamalenga. We knew each other well enough to joke with one another. On my third visit, we knew each other well enough to ask hard questions and to receive the answers with grace.
I think we made good progress today, asking questions, asking that questions be shared with partnership committees. We will meet again in two weeks to hear the answers.
Thanks be to God.
There we all were, five or six people in one room in Tanzania (with a laptop running on batteries because there was no power to the home) and another person on the opposite end of the globe on her phone land line. Magic Jack was the technology used.
It took a couple tries to get the audio right. At one point, I could hear the voice on the other end as if it were pulsating waves of sound: I-i-i hee-ee-ear yoo-oo-ou. Hang up, try again.
Even once we could all physically hear the voices as we spoke, the limitations of audio but no video became apparent. Thank goodness for the person in the room who had the awareness to speak: I think someone is hesitant to answer that question....I see that someone is thinking....I see that someone needs to consult with others before responding...
No two people can communicate adequately for their respective large communities.
I can ask questions that have been posed by our church's leadership and by our partnership committee.
Pastor Naftal can answer questions based on discussions that have taken place within the Tungamalenga Church Council and their Partnership Committee.
We can each relay questions posed by the other side.
We can hope that our questions are clear to one another. We can hope that our questions are not heard as accusations or criticisms, but simply as questions. We can hope and trust that the answers we receive are genuine and honest reflections of the feelings of the community at large and not just the one person on the line.
We can hope that we know each other well enough, after ten years of partnership, to understand that even pointed questions really and truly are just questions, an attempt to understand one another better and more fully.
I remember my second visit to Tungamalenga. We knew each other well enough to joke with one another. On my third visit, we knew each other well enough to ask hard questions and to receive the answers with grace.
I think we made good progress today, asking questions, asking that questions be shared with partnership committees. We will meet again in two weeks to hear the answers.
Thanks be to God.
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