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Safe with Scorpions

12 May

Ken has arrived in Jos, Nigeria once again. I’m always grateful to get a text message or email to let me know he is at his final destination. Today, I got a phone call for Mother’s Day! I love hearing his voice.

Tomorrow Ken and a group of others from Wycliffe Bible Translators partner, Jaars, whose campus is in our town of Waxhaw, NC, will start sharing the duties of teaching and doing tech support for a group of Nigerian Bible Translators. Most will stay for three weeks but Ken’s work will be one week long.

Thanks for praying. He’s doing something new this trip. Although he’s studied the material it’s always nerve-wracking to do work on someone else’s data. He’d hate to lose any of their hard work!

Scorpion!

Scorpion!

P. S. This scorpion was found in the kitchen of the guesthouse he’s staying in. We’re not used to seeing those kinds of insects on the east coast of the USA!

 
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Posted by on May 12, 2013 in JAARS, Ken, Tech Support, Wycliffe

 

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It’s all a matter of perspective

27 Mar
Snake eating a lizard. Source: ntnews

Snake eating a lizard.
Source: ntnews

My friend’s daughter and family just moved to Papua New Guinea to serve as teachers to missionary children for the next two years. They are getting some field training and are in a classroom themselves for a few weeks.

They posted a photo of a snake eating a lizard in their classroom (not the photo above) on their blog. They casually mentioned, “There was some discussion as to whether we should leave the snake in the rafters so that it would kill the rats and mice in the classroom, or remove it.”

What? Who would think about leaving a snake to hang over your head while you were studying???? Trust me, if I were there, it would be a short discussion! Get rid of the snake!

Apparently, there were others like me. They caught the snake and it’s happily (we hope) living in a tank in the classroom for all to (safely) see.

This got me thinking about what other things might be obvious (and good decision-making!) and important to me, but not necessarily to others that share my space.

  • I can’t understand seeing stacks and stacks of shoes in other people’s closets and so have a minimum number of pairs of shoes, but if you get me near a lawn and garden center, I can’t resist buying a plant or two or three….
  • Eating out everyday? Hmm, I sure love to have someone cook for me, but I do like my own cooking and I love saving money by eating at home.

It’s all a matter of perspective. What’s important to me may not be to others.

What does God see as important?
People.
His Words.

It’s why we work for Wycliffe Bible Translators and have done so for the last 22 years. We’re in the “business” of both people and giving them God’s Words in their Mother Tongue.

It’s important to many of you too, since so many of you are our supporters and have been so for many years.

So thanks…once again. We love doing the obvious!

P. S. Is there anything that’s important to you but not so much to others? Drop us a line!

 
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Posted by on March 27, 2013 in Wycliffe

 

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God Dvu’s you!

11 Feb
Yes, that's someone's head, but here is the group!

Yes, that’s someone’s head, but here is the group!

Last night we had about 25 people over ranging in age from 11-25. It was the youth group from our church, Next Level Church. We had the great opportunity of  sharing with them about the Bible translation process, the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators, and why God’s Word is important to them too.

One of the stories we told was recently posted on Wycliffe’s web page. The translation committee in the Hdi language in Cameroon couldn’t find the world for “unconditional love,” the kind of love that God has for all of mankind. How could they translate verses about God’s love without this important word?cameroon

They knew that a verb in this language needed to end in an i, a or an u. They knew two words for love already, “Dvi” and “Dva” but would these words work? The coordinator got together with a group of men who spoke Hdi.

“Could you ‘dvi’ your wife?” he asked them? “Yes”, they said. “That would mean that her husband loved her once, but not anymore.”

Hmm, that doesn’t work for God’s love.

“Could you ‘dva” your wife?” “Yes”, they said. “That kind of love depends on the wife’s actions or what she did.”

That won’t work either.

“Could you ‘dvu’ your wife?” he asked? Everyone laughed.

“Of course not!” they said. “If you loved your wife that way, you would have to keep loving her no matter what she did – even if she never made you meals or even if she went to live with another man. No, we would never say ‘dvu.’ It just doesn’t happen.”

The coordinator sat quietly for a moment. “Could God ‘dvu’ people?”

After several minutes tears started running down the faces of these men. They finally responded.

“Do you know what this would mean? This would mean for God kept loving us over and over for thousands of years even while we rejected him and were sinning!”

By changing one simple letter, the vowel at the end of the word, the meaning changed from “I love you because of what you do and who you are,” to “I love you because of who I am.”

Isn’t that a wonderful story about how God created this language so that people could understand the true love of God!

Thank you for supporting us in this important work. It’s so exciting!

 
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Posted by on February 11, 2013 in Family, Uncategorized, Wycliffe

 

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The Road to Transformation

09 Jan

Road to TransformationHere is a short video which clearly explains the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

It’s a lot of work! We each have a small part in this huge task.

Thank you for playing your part!

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2013 in Uncategorized, Video, Wycliffe

 

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Living with Hope

20 Dec
Credit: Mars Hill

Credit: Mars Hill

I’ve been in a Christmas funk! I just haven’t had the Christmas/Holiday/December excitement that I usually have. The month started off with the death of a church family member. John had cancer so it was not entirely unexpected, but it was still disturbing. I miss him. Then a young 16-year-old girl from our church died. I didn’t know her, but my heart was in pain for her parents. Following that we heard that an old friend, Tanya, who lived her life in a wheelchair and was still too young, died suddenly, leaving her 14-year-old daughter on this earth. And then of course, the awful tragic news of all those senseless deaths in Connecticut. Like you, I’ve cried several times a day, watching the news and thinking about the pain those families are in. In between this news, several friends have found out they have cancer and have a long fight ahead of them.

I have my own pain too. Nothing as dramatic as a death or cancer. But it’s my own burdens which weigh on me daily. I share it with my husband, we try to carry it together, but it is a heaviness indeed.

Each morning, like many of you, I try to read the Bible and pray. And when I am finished, I always feel better. My spirits are lifted up little by little. The other day I read about forgiveness and felt the weight of my own sin of holding on to my unforgiveness of others. If Jesus loved me so much that he came as a baby to die for me, the least I can do is forgive the people around me!

On another morning I was reminded about the sacrifice and the faith that it took for the wise men to travel for two years just so that they could worship Jesus! I was so humbled by their faith. It just renewed my faith and my heart welled up with joy as I remembered how amazing the Son of God really is.

So I live with hope. Hope for the future. Hope that God is still in control. Hope that I serve a God who knows what He is doing. Hope that my Savior will return for me one day in the clouds.

The people we serve and the people you support with your prayers and finances have no hope. They don’t have God’s Words to read each morning to get out of their “funk.” Isn’t that awful? And they still live in darkness.

You make it possible for them to one day live in Light and to live with HOPE. And they will never be able to thank you. But we can.

So, thank you! Thank you for your faith, your love, and your hope. We couldn’t be serving the Lord, helping to bring the hope of Jesus to the world, without you.

Have a Merry, Hopeful Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Anne and Ken

Wycliffe Bible Translators

 
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Posted by on December 20, 2012 in Family, Praise, Wycliffe, Wycliffe Associates

 

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On Advocates

16 Nov

ad·vo·cate/ˈadvəkit/

Noun: A person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.

Who doesn’t like to be supported? And to be supported publicly is even better! I hope I’m the kind of person that supports others. I love the verses from the Bible that remind us that both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are our Advocates before our Father in heaven. Some people translate that word in the Bible as “Comforter” which is another aspect of the word.

Ken and Anne with Virginia.

We have so many great advocates in our lives. Just recently we met one for the first time. Her name is Virginia. Virginia is on the missions committee at United Armenian Congregational Church in North Hollywood, California. On November 4, we were able to speak and worship at this church which has been supporting us in our work with Wycliffe Bible Translators for many years.What a great time we had sharing with some of the members in the fireside room! Virginia passes our newsletters on to others in the church, prays for us, and makes sure that we’re not forgotten. What a great Advocate she is to us.

About two weeks ago we discovered another Advocate in Scott. We met Scott and his family almost 30 years ago when we were first married and moved to a distant land called Wyoming (WY-O-Ming!). We lived in the same remote town for two years and worshipped together in a small, country church. We then moved to New York to serve for five-year with Children’s Bible Fellowship before joining Wycliffe in 1990. We lost contact with Scott after we left Wyoming but last week, out of the clear blue sky, he contacted us by phone. What a pleasant surprise! Reminiscing about our Wyoming days with Ken he later said, “I’d like to pass your name on to our church here on Long Island to see if they could take you on as one of our missionaries.” Wow, wouldn’t that be a blessing.

Within two days we received another phone call from Scott asking if we could quickly send to his pastor all the information we had about ourselves and Wycliffe. The pastor, as we discovered, was meeting with the missions committee the next day and wanted to evaluate Wycliffe and ourselves. We gathered our ministry material and sent it off – PRONTO.

Two days later I received a phone call from the church’s pastor. “Where can we send our first gift for you and your husband?”  Wow!  With the ailing economy, our funds have been very tight so what an incredible blessing this will be. And, I simply couldn’t believe how fast this happened.

Just like Virginia, Scott was an Advocate for us. He took the time to hunt us down, gave us a call and then followed through by passing our name on to his church. If he had delayed with any of those steps we probably wouldn’t have this new connection. Isn’t that cool?

Jesus is our advocate to the Father. Where would we be without that? Virginia and Scott have been our advocates to the church. Where would Ken and I be in ministry without advocates to the churches like Virginia, Scott, and yourself?

We cannot thank you enough.

 
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Posted by on November 16, 2012 in Family, Wycliffe

 

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Ok, I’ll try to explain!

07 Sep

Just got a short email from Ken asking for urgent prayer. It’s all very technical so please don’t quote me on the problem!

As I understand it (this is like a lay person explaining string theory!), Ken and Russ are running into problems getting the translators computers ready to be used on Monday. Each translation team is receiving a new laptop in order to start their journey of Bible Translation. Each laptop must be configured so that they are the same. They need to have licenses and programs and all sorts of other stuff put on them.

There is some sort of major problem with where they bought the licenses , the computers, and who knows what else. Ken has had to do a lot of “work arounds” and is trying to image the correct computer so that they can easily do the next 10 computers. Remember, they are in an area with little Internet capabilities, so they can’t just download all of these things.

They need to get this done so that they can focus on their training materials but it’s taking up all of their time.

So would you pray? I don’t know how to ask you to pray…some of you understand this better than me!

Frog for lunch! (image from Paris Miniatures”

By the way, Ken had frog for lunch yesterday. What did you have? My tomato soup sounds so boring!

 
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Posted by on September 7, 2012 in BGAN, Ken

 

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But What If They Can’t Read?

31 May

Have you ever jolted by a simple question? A question that makes you sit up and rethink what you’ve been doing for the last 22 years?

Anne and I have been serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators for 22 years now and are committed to getting God’s Word in the hands of the Bibleless people of the world so they could read it in their mother tongue, the language that speaks to their heart. Changed lives are the result. But, then the question suddenly jolted us …

What if they can’t read?

How does the estimated 20 plus percent of the world’s population learn about Jesus if they cannot read and understand the Bible? Thankfully, Faith Comes By Hearing, another Wycliffe partner organization, is committed to reaching the nations with the Word of God in audio, offering the Bible in a format that will connect with the world’s illiterate population.

What if he couldn't read?

What if he couldn’t read?

Click on the link to read more and understand the potential impact Faith Comes By Hearing can have. And then, similar to someone living in an oral only culture, pass it on to others.

More thought provoking literacy facts:

Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on May 31, 2012 in SIL, Website

 

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Bible Translation Game! Win Prizes!

09 May

Do you like games? Would you like to win great prizes while learning more about Bible Translation? Wycliffe is launching an interactive online game called “In Other Words” on May 14, 2012.

Each day over a four-week period , a new Bible knowledge or Bible translation trivia question will be posted and participants will have the opportunity to earn points by answering the question correctly. Players will earn points faster by recruiting others to join their team.

Players with the most points and those who recruit the most players will enjoy a friendly competition for weekly prizes and a grand prize at the conclusion of the game—a trip for four to Orlando to visit the Wycliffe Discovery Center and a selection of Orlando’s finest tourist attractions.

While Wycliffe staff and their immediate family are not eligible to win the grand prize, the top recruiting member or employee will win an iPad. So if you play….we could win too!

Sign up and enjoy the game! Promote it at your church too!

www.wycliffewords.org

 

 
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Posted by on May 9, 2012 in Website, Wycliffe

 

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Training–Challenges and Blessings

14 Apr

This past week, our Indian colleagues here in Bangalore walked us through the steps of Bible translation,  and together we identified which Paratext functions are used by the mother tongue translators at each specific point in the process. Then we created sample web-based video and paper training materials. These were translated into Malayalam and Hindi, two of the major languages of India.

Later in the week, we met with a group of about a dozen mother tongue translators for them to put the training materials to the test. We used this time to observe and evaluate. Some issues were identified that need fixing, but the translators, translation project facilitators and coordinators were enthusiastic about what has been done so far. Please pray for everyone involved in developing these materials so the end result will be effective in training the translators.

Larry_recording_audio

Larry, from the training department at Wycliffe Associates, captures an audio recording of a training module script. This audio in the Malayalam language was combined with the video to create a training module.

Ken_Russ_preparing_printed_materials

While Larry worked on video training modules, Russ and I prepared printed materials that cover the same topics as the videos.

Young girls on video training

These girls learn Bible translation software via video using audio translated in their mother tongue. Next, they will compare the video training with paper training. It didn't take long to see their enthusiasm after hearing the audio in their own language!

Training via paper lesson

The young girls now take the same lesson via paper (including many screen shots). The results of the training and their feedback will help us adapt the training process to better serve their specific needs.

Evaluating learning process

I stood over top of the girls' shoulders and observed their learning via both the video and the paper lessons and reported back to Larry. The feedback proved to be valuable in adapting future lessons.

evaluating_training_video

Mother tongue translators test a video training module that teaches how to use special software for Bible translation.

This afternoon (Sunday, April 15th) we fly to New Delhi to spend four days with another Indian organization also involved in Bible translation. Larry will be testing a different set of training materials with their translation teams, while Russ and I focus on training two of their new computer support staff so they will be prepared to support Bible translators. We plan to fly back to Bangalore on Thursday evening, wrap up here on Friday, and head home that night after midnight.

Traveling to a foreign culture has its’ own set of challenges. But, working with our Indian colleagues and watching the excitement of having Bible translation training materials in their mother tongue, knowing that it will help them become more efficient translators, easily overcomes them all.

Thank you for praying. And, thank you as well for being a part of the Bible translation team. We are an encouragement to our brothers and sisters all around the world and surely are accelerating Bible translation, the process of putting God’s Word in the Bibleless people of the world.

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2012 in India, NLCI

 

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