An Overview and a Look Ahead

Greetings friends,

                About six months ago I launched out on a quest to serve God with Wycliffe Associates. From the plateau and forests of Nigeria, to the warm Eastern Madagascar shore I have already seen a lot. It is evident to me that God is doing many great works around the world and you are directly linked with some of those.

From Sea to Shiny Sea

                In May I stood at Ocean View Baptist Church overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Long Beach Harbor. A short while later I said goodbye to my church, Biola and Talbot friends. I launched off on a drive across the country to Orlando Florida with my mother Anita Lewis. Before leaving my car was given a good trip inspection and air conditioning zap by Integrity Auto. Along the way I visited the Hagbergs. They are long time missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Wycliffe Associates has worked closely with Wycliffe Bible Translators on many occasions and I respect the work the Hagbergs have done in Mexico greatly. My mother and I also were able to make short stops at the Kennedy Space Center in Texas and New Orleans on our way to Florida.   

                We arrived in Florida, greeted the team and just a day later I was on a Delta flight to Madagascar. I joined up with Russ Perry on our way to attend a Bible Translation Workshop. Our primary effort was to begin training national Bible translators how to use computers as a part of their Bible translation efforts.  We also helped the team there by taking a look at their current computers. We cleaned up the few systems they already had and installed some security programs on them. We also brought some new computers with us to be used by the national Bible translators.

Once the training was done, Russ and I joined a few of the Bible translation team on a short trip inland. Our purpose was to test some finished translation work on the people who spoke that language. We wanted to test to see how effective the translation was and if this translation could also be used on a very similar language in the same area. For this trip we flew into the mountains with Helimission. I have never flown in a helicopter before and can tell you it is really cool.

I made myself memorable by playing a Simon Says game with the kids as well as soccer and Frisbee.  During the whole of that trip, when the kids saw me they would pretend to make motions from the Simon Says game. They really got a kick out of that game.

Unfortunately, it is not known if the Bible translation project in Madagascar will continue. There are a number of operational questions that still need to be figured out. I had been looking at moving to Madagascar to live there a year or two; all the while supporting the project. These plans are on hold now until the program is confirmed or not.

After returning to the US, I found out about a need to set up cell amplifiers in Nigeria. These cell amplifiers amplify the signal from cell towers in remote places. They allow the Bible translation teams to use cell phones and laptops to communicate from remote places with Bible translation consultants and each other.

I accepted the request to go set these up and a few weeks later found myself traveling with Bob Bates. Together we traveled to Jos and then out West to several locations. I was quite pleased with 80% of the roads. However one 90 kilometer stretch took us at least 3 and half hours to cross. This was probably one of the worst roads I have ever been on. One of our Nigerian friends ended up losing his lunch three times.

Despite the long days of driving and many checkpoints, we arrived safely at all four sites where we set up cell amplifiers. When we arrived at the translation sites, these locations had either no reception or one bar of reception on cell service. When we were done, we tested the connectivity and all sources had five bars of connectivity. This improved signal also allowed for data connections through some of the accessible networks; This allows for e-mail to be used. Imagine if you had to walk two hours in order to make a cell phone call or send an e-mail and now you could do so from your office. These cell amps will speed up the process of translating Bibles significantly.

I spoke with many Nigerian pastors and translators who were overjoyed with the new connectivity. They told me these cell amps would make their work a lot easier. In the past they often had to wait months in order to ask questions on their translation work to a translation consultant. Now, they can hop on the e-mail and send a message with a question and get a response back in a day, if not minutes. Their challenge was to learn how to use the new connectivity and become used to it.

I returned to the states and five days later I was on another plane heading to Texas. This time I was working with a team from The Seed Company and Wycliffe Associates to look over a master laptop image.  Wycliffe Associates sends out a lot of computers to various Bible translation efforts. All these laptops have a lot of work that goes into getting them ready. In order to save time a backup image can be created on one computer. This image can then be applied to newly purchased computers bringing them all to the same place. From there they can be individualized with the proper keys, licensing, etc. This trip looked at the current process of creating a master laptop image and discussed the future of this kind of effort.  Many of you may roll your eyes and how boring this sounds. But this kind of work can really help those individuals who receive there computers. When they get their computers, they are already set up and are easier to start using right out of the box. They don’t have to worry about updates, installing programs, etc. All set up is already done.

What is in the future?

Now that I am back in the US I am looking forward to several things.

1.       Working in the Wycliffe Associates office for a while.

2.       Traveling around the US.

While I am in the office I am helping the team with a variety of projects. Most recently I have set up computers to be deployed oversees with Bible translation teams. I am starting to get to know my co-workers and their stories.

Secondly, I am preparing for a support building trip. I am responsible to raise all the support I will need while with Wycliffe Associates. That includes salary, travel expenses, shots, etc. I will be traveling to California in late September.  I have a possible trip to Angola early October; then return to the states for a four state trip to build my support team. This trip will take me through West Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. I currently have three partners and have high hopes to find some more to share in work God is doing.