I am stupid.  Really, I am not kidding.  When I study I find myself learning something new and different each and every day.  I am amazed at the arrogance of Christians, especially here in the USA and more importantly, here in New York.

I am meeting many people from around the world and thought that ethnic arrogance was reserved for nations where a major people group suppresses indigenous.  The world is not made up of countries divided by lines, but people groups, tribes and nations.  Shocking though it seems, two people from the same nation, lines drawn by men, may not be able to speak because they are not from the same people group.

Fortunately, there are many who do know better and who travel to the ends of the earth.  People who do what Christ said and go to the ends of the earth, often find that people on one side of a mountain do not speak the same language or are the am ethos as those on the other side of the same mountain though man may have included them within the boundaries of one or another nation.  In China, there are many different groups of people, which are included in a homogeneous group, designated by man.  Hmong are actually many different peoples and though they are from the same mountainous area do not speak the same language, nor do they dress the same either.  When you go to the market in Sa Pa, the mountains of Vietnam, you are struck by the colors and languages of the people from the area.  They are of the same ethnos, people group and are often grouped for translation by governments and then, to their chagrin, find the people do not know what they were given, nor understand what is told them.

So, in order to speak the things of importance to a people, it behooves you to find out what language they use, how they talk to each other and if they understand you.  The Holy Spirit came upon the believers, as written in the book of Acts chapter 2, in the Bible: And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What means this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

According to this account, God deemed it necessary to speak to the people in the language wherein they were born.  God did not seem to think that a general proclamation in the language of the day was sufficient but went to the languages of their hometowns.  Therefore, seeing that God deemed it necessary, perhaps we could use the same care when sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today, we are blessed to have organizations that specialize in tongues of nations and have tried to reach people groups in their own language.  http://grnusa.net/ is a fine example of a place to go when you need to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who you might think understands English or your native tongue.  You might be delightfully surprised that they have a language or idiom that needs a translation which speaks to their heart.

Read the following article for further illumination.

http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/resources/detail/11672