{"id":24227,"date":"2019-10-11T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T21:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24227"},"modified":"2019-10-13T21:33:50","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T04:33:50","slug":"they-came-and-a-language-was-born-became-sick-died-and-was-buried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/they-came-and-a-language-was-born-became-sick-died-and-was-buried\/","title":{"rendered":"They came and a Language was born\u2026.became sick, died, and was buried."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There is an interesting story in East Africa that Swahili language was born along the East African coast through the interaction of the indigenous African Bantu language group with the Arabs. The story goes that Swahili is healthy in Tanzania and Zanzibar, fell sick when it got to Kenya, died in Uganda and was buried in Congo. That tells you that the language is spoken across East and part of Central Africa but it differs in how much its spoken in the respective countries which also shows how far into Africa and how much influence the traders from the middle East, India and the far East had on Africa. They came with dhows and their visits were seasonal depending on the direction of the wind across the Indian ocean. A language called Swahili which is a mixture of the Bantu languages and Arabic emerged that facilitated trade between the two groups of traders. The Oman Arabs brought spices, silk and other garments in exchange for food, ivory and other items, which eventually grew to include slave trade. These are the memories that were awakened by reading the book by Peter Frankopan[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frankopan seems to echo the bible in declaring that:<\/p>\n

\u201cwhat has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun\u201d[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

History repeats itself and we can predict the future by reading history and this has become the default mechanism of modern practitioners to analyse the past in order to predict the future. While this is true in many instances, as leaders we needs to be aware of the limitations of this default mechanisms. Jennifer Garvey[3]<\/a> highlights some simple habits for the complex times that we operate in our day which are powerful practices for leaders. She highlights the power of questions and asserts that asking questions, allows you to take a humble posture as the leader to bring aboard other leaders on the table to help come up with better solutions. I recognize that leaders have to envision and communicate powerfully, such vision to the followers and its easy to take Peter Frankopan\u2019s book[4]<\/a> as the vision for the future as he purports to suggest but is it necessarily true? He points to the recent trends like: none of top ten fastest growing economies in 2017 and neither in the last decade are \u00a0from the Western Hemisphere, all are coming from the East;[5]<\/a> two thirds of the world population at 4.5 million living in the East; and many more facts, as evidence that the future belongs to the East. While there is credibility for what Peter Frankopan advances which for the bigger part seems to be a prediction from history, I am as a leader more inclined to ask questions which afford me the luxury of looking at other factors that I believe will affect the future. Are there other factors that affect the development of nations? Are the current trends sustainable into the future? These and other questions would seem to me to suggest that the morality standards in a society determines the progression or retrogression of its economy. Christianity has a way of influencing the social fabric in any society to raise the moral standards which have a direct influence in the upward growth in their holistic welfare. Christianity impacts on the value of human life, compassion and mercy, justice, marriage and family, education, government, science, free enterprise and many other aspects that lead to the overall welfare of society. Historian J M Roberts[6]<\/a> is quoted by Dinesh D\u2019Souza in his book What\u2019s so great about Christianity[7]<\/a> to put it in perspective as he highlights how Christianity has positively impacted many societies:<\/p>\n

\u201cChristianity is responsible for the way our society is organized and for the way we currently live, So extensive is the Christian contribution to our laws, our economics, our politics, our arts, our calendar, our holidays, and our moral and cultural priorities that historian J M Roberts writes in The triumph of The West, \u2018We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly two thousand years ago had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen Him crucified, dead, and buried, and then rise again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As Christian Leaders, we should rather ask ourselves what role Christianity will have in defining the future of the world. I\u2019m persuaded that the answer lies in realizing that Christianity holds a greater promise for our world than mere historical considerations. As a Christianity leader, I am a witness of the positive impact that our Christian work among the poorest of the poor in Kenya is having and I sense the stewardship responsibility to work hard towards taking this work to more vulnerable communities in my country and beyond. As I work on my dissertation on biblical financial literacy for economically empowering Christians in vulnerable communities, I am persuaded that the future will be defined by the church\u2019s efforts to spread Christianity. I\u2019m persuaded that despite of the silk roads having influence East Africa and borne the Swahili language, Christianity will have a more greater influence as Christian Leaders give themselves more seriously to the Great commission of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Peter Frankopan (2015). The New Silk Roads: The Present And Future Of The World. Bloomsbury Publishing. Oxford, UK. <\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bible. Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV<\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jennifer G Berger & Keith Johnston (2015). Simple Habits For Complex Times: Powerful Practices For Leaders. <\/em>Stanford University Press. Stanford, California.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Peter Frankopan (2015). The New Silk Roads: The Present And Future Of The World. Bloomsbury Publishing. Oxford, UK.<\/em><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid,\u2026..Loc. 404, Kindle.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> J M Roberts (1998). The Triumph Of The West: The Origin, Rise, And Legacy of Western Civilization. <\/em>Bernes & Noble.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Dinesh D\u2019Souza (2007). What\u2019s So Great About Christianity: Your Guide To Answering The New Atheist. <\/em>Salem Books. Washington D C, USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an interesting story in East Africa that Swahili language was born along the East African coast through the interaction of the indigenous African Bantu language group with the Arabs. The story goes that Swahili is healthy in Tanzania and Zanzibar, fell sick when it got to Kenya, died in Uganda and was buried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1321,35,1029,1639],"class_list":["post-24227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp9","tag-leadership","tag-peter-frankopan","tag-the-new-silk-roads","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24264,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24227\/revisions\/24264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}