October 8, 2019
Shadows from the Past
Like much of the Old Testament, our history has much that brought us to where we are but which also points to where we are going.
Joy’s map of Ethiopia
Last week I was privileged to be treated for supper at the Outback Steakhouse by former recordist Kathy (Hoffmeyer) Petrie. Among many other things, Kathy was telling me some of her recording stories in Ethiopia with former recordist, Evelyn (Bailey) Jansen. The subject came up because we had recently found and digitized a map signed by Joy Ridderhof from their first recording trip in that country probably in the mid fifties. Joy had gotten direct permission from Emporer Haili Salasi for that recording trip.
That map provided good data for documenting those early recordings. If you could see the original map you would see in handwriting the names of tribes needing recordings. The recorded ones are underlined in red. Also noted are the different mission agencies Joy and her team were working with, predominantly with SIM.
This second map is the current map of recorded languages in Ethiopia. This is the cumulative work of a number of recordists subsequent to Joy and Ann, and Evelyn and Kathy.
Despite the pioneering recording work of the past we still have work to do and that is what points to our future. Fortunately those languages are much fewer in number than what has already been recorded but they still represent a significant number of people that could have been in the story that former Ethiopian missionary and GR administrator Dick McClellan used to tell.
God Bless,
Larry DeVilbiss | Executive Director
Global Recordings Network USA