We were in our 20s, newly married, and fresh out of El Instituto de Lengua Española in Costa Rica when we began working way up in the mountain village of San José de la Montaña at Camp Roblealto.  On Sundays, especially, we missed gathering at one of our family’s homes for Sunday dinner back in the States. We reminisced about the big pot of sauce with sausage and meatballs, raviolis, salad, and bread from Modern Bakery in Lodi, N.J. Equally, we sometimes found ourselves craving a turkey dinner, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and potato rolls.   

A few years ago, fifteen to twenty people travelled from the United States to another country to build a village house for a missionary family. Many of the participants had construction experience. The building project lasted several weeks. By the time these Americans left, the village house was almost complete.

The July 15 coup in Turkey has brought the name of Fethullah Gulen and the movement which bears his name to the attention of the international community. On an almost daily basis, we read news reports of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blaming Gulen for fomenting the coup and calling for his extradition from the United States. Since the late 1990s Gulen’s hizmet (service) movement has been very active in the U.S., running a network of 146 charter schools¹, about 50 local interfaith dialogue groups and numerous cultural centers across the country. (C.A.S.I.L.I.P.S. 2014).

Your language is valuable,” I told the young people gathered at the conference. It was the annual youth event for a particular denomination held in Kenya in August 2016. Around one hundred youth attended. After explaining the value of their language to them, I asked them a question, in answer to which I expected them to confirm that they appreciate their own languages. A senior church leader, also in attendance at the conference, answered in their place. In short, his answer was, “We should not value our languages.”