They scarcely spend enough to provide for their own necessities. The poor get nothing from them; and God’s Church, I was about to say, gets less than nothing, and I might truly say that, though it appears to be impossible, for there are some, who give a good deal less than nothing to the Lord’s cause, for they occupy a place in the building where services are held, which has been erected, and is still kept up, by others at an expense which these misers never attempt to share; so that, as far as God’s house is concerned, they absolutely take from that house, instead of giving to it, albeit that they have a superabundant substance of their own, from which they ought to contribute to the work of the Lord. Saving is well; but the first thing that a man has to do is to see to the saving of his soul; and there are some, who always look so much to the saving of their wealth that their soul stands very little chance of being saved.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2005). Exploring the Mind and Heart of the Prince of Preachers: Five-Thousand Illustrations Selected from the Works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (316). Oswego, IL: Fox River Press.

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The following comes from one of my favorite resources. Click here to see what Dr Culbert has to say. He does a great job teaching and communicating about missions!

Ahead of time

1. Pray with your interpreter beforehand. Prayer has a way of bonding our spirits.
2. Give your translator time to think about expressing what you’re going to say by taking time to go over scripture passages and main points ahead of time.
3. Let your interpreter know what you hope to communicate by giving him or her a simply worded theme sentence or phrase.

During your presentation

1. Speak in complete thoughts. Grammar and syntax vary from language to language and unless you give complete thoughts, you can leave an interpreter hanging not knowing what to say.
2. Avoid complex sentences and parenthetical “rabbit trails.” Translators often forget parts of complex sentences and audiences may be confused by them.
3.  Realize that translators occasionally find they need to backtrack to clarify.
4. Don’t recite poems. It’s impossible to translate poetry “on the fly.”
5. Avoid slang words and idiomatic expressions.
6. Realize that humor which depends on specific words likely will not translate well.
7. Be visual.
8. Maintain eye contact with the audience when you pause for translation rather than turning to watch your interpreter.

Afterwards

1. Warmly thank your translator. Apologize for the fact that you don’t know the target language. Show appreciation of the fact that generally translators expend more mental energy than do the speakers they are translating.

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It is one thing to love persons at a distance, and to have philanthropic desires for their good; it is quite another thing to live with them, and still have the same fondness towards them; and another thing by far to receive bad treatment from them, contumely, and scorn, and a worse thing even than that, to be about to receive your death from them, and still to pray for them.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2005). Exploring the Mind and Heart of the Prince of Preachers: Five-Thousand Illustrations Selected from the Works of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (261). Oswego, IL: Fox River Press.

check out bcwe.org