When we do community checking in the villages, one of the translators will read a passage aloud so that everyone can hear it, even if they cannot read or see a copy of the printed text. This makes it possible for everyone to participate in the checking. It is such a cool thing to hear people reading along with our translator, going over the words themselves even as they hear them read. It makes such a wonderful echoing noise during the checking, so many voices echoing after one main voice.

It reminds me of our own voices of faith, echoing after the One who spoke the universe into being. Whether it is the words of the Gospel of Mark being echoed around me, or the words of the Apostles’ Creed echoing around me in church, spoken in two or three different languages, this echoing is a wonderful representation of the faith that has been passed down to us. We do not stand alone in our faith; rather, we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us, the ones who passed down their knowledge of God to us, received from those who came before them. We are a link in the chain that leads back to Christ and our link will be forged to the generation that comes after us.

We strive to make our link as large as we can, connecting more and more people to Christ, even as we remain faithful to the chain, not straying away from the truth passed down to us. I give thanks for those who have gone before me and I pray for those who will come after me, trusting that God will keep them faithful unto the end.