Thursday, September 13, 2012

What About "Booda?"

I think I am getting a hold of this “pigeon’ language better.  Pigeon is a broken English with a strong dialect to it.  Our dialects only hold us back a little.  The people here talk too fast, and they say the same about me.  I was talking to one of the students about what we had at dinner and telling him that Elangwe offered me “booda.”   What he was saying was "butter" which is important to this story.  I wanted to see if the students knew what Brother Elangwe was talking about, because I didn’t.  Well the way I said, “booda” they thought I said “bottle.”  When they say “bottle” they associate that with whiskey.  So with the student looking very confused at me, I got the impression that something was not right.  So once we finally spelled it out in the dirt, they understood that Elangwe offered me ‘butter’ and not ‘bottle’ (whiskey).  I am glad we got that cleared up.  That could have been bad for the school of preaching and for the director (brother Elangwe) and myself.  The point is that words have very important meanings and is the way by which people communicate.  Make sure that we are communicating things correctly and not sending the wrong messages.  Let us be careful of our tongue.  It is something that cannot be tamed (James 3).  The words by which we speak can be detriment to other or ourselves if we are using them negatively such as gossiping, backbiting, lying, etc (Romans 1:30).  Rather, let us edify one anther (Heb. 10:24).  Tell others about Jesus Christ and salvation (2Tim. 4:2). Let us use it to praise God and glorify Him for the things He has done for us.  What will your words communicate to others? 


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