[Quantum Leap] The Interpreter

Knowing how to speak English is one thing, but interpreting English is completely different thing.

So, there he goes. Leaping into a character called an "Interpreter". Last time I saw him, he was a lecturer with tons of office tasks during new coming semester. Preparing research proposal, preparing scholarship applications since he's so eager to take Ph. D this year, preparing subjects to be taught for next semester, involving in some campus activities to make sure that he can hit Key Performance Indicators (KPI) target as a lecturer.

But then, last Saturday, the news came like brick hits his head. He was elected to interprete Pst. Steven Davis from Australia for the sunday service at Bethany Church, Malang. Why did they choose this-so-unexperienced-interpreter to interpret? The church has more experience-and-annointed-interpreters, but somehow they could not do the interpretation. One is sick and must be hospitalized, this-mom-would-be is pregnant for 5 months, and this-best-interpreter-ever couldn't do because must taking care her of baby boy (Geee... this-best-interpreter-ever is amazingly-incridibly-accurate, though she never formally studies English!).

So, he was the chosen one, leaping into a character called "interpreter". Must accomplish the mission, interpreting Pst. Steven Davis' preaching in two services. The challenge was thathe's never done the interpretation for a service with one thousand people. The other challange was, he knew exactly that he's not yet a good interpreter - he neither having rich vocabulary nor knowing lot "christian-terms". I saw him, he was scared to death! He prefers to do 100 TOEFL tests or translating 1000 pages rather than interpreting an Australian preacher in front of thousand people.

So, what happen then? I believe your guess is same like mine. In the first service, he totally messed up the sermon and the service as well. Lot of words missed, lot of sentences not delivered clearly, many times he used inproper term. He ruined the whole service. I really felt sory for him...

After the service then I saw him humbly himself... Spoke to the deputy-pastor if should he be replaced. The deputy-pastor simply smiled at him, and said to carry on for the next service. He's not losing hope on him and believe that he'll do better for the next evening service.

He went back with discouragement and uncertain feeling... Fear and doubt came. Wondering if he'll keep doing the same mistake for next service.

At the second service, I saw God's grace was upon him. He was able to interprete much much better than the first one. Very few words were missed, and overall he delivered the interpretation quite well. Despite of the difficulty-level, he considered that as his best interpretation. It was not by his power nor his mighty, but it was truly by the Spirit of God and God's grace...

So, he learned something by leaping into this "interpreter character". He knows that God's grace always sufficient for him, he experienced personally what God's grace is - not from what people said or what he've learned from Christian books, but experience PERSONALLY... Suddenly, he returned back into his body... The body of a man who loves teaching and writing, plus a valuable personal experience about God's grace and how good God is. Then, that man started to share his quantum leap experience through this posting.