A few numbers to think about

How much of an impact does technology have on Bible translation? You might think, all the money that is put towards tech could just be used to finish Bible translation. Well, here are a few numbers to think about.
Not long ago the average Bible translation took twenty to thirty years or more to complete. Wycliffe Associates began distributing BTAK or Bible translation acceleration kits. These have a power source like solar; computers with translation software and a communication source like a bgan (satellite communication to allow for e-mail.) Translation projects with a BTAK now average about eight to twelve years to complete.
The cost of the average Bible translation was about a million dollars. Translations with a BTAK average about One hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

To sum up
20-30 years to finish a project compared to 8-12 years
$1,000,000 to finish a project  compared to $180,000

The end result is people get access to Bible translations in their own language faster. I am fortunate enough to help deploy these BTAK units to national translation teams. I will be headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in a few weeks to deploy several of these BTAK units. Please pray that the translation teams who receive these will be blessed by them.

What I do with Wycliffe Associates

In this post I will talk about what it is that I do with Wycliffe Associates.

Wycliffe Associates has a goal of bringing the Word of God to every language that needs one; so that every person can read the Bible in their heart language, or language they use. Wycliffe Associates works with several partners like Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Seed Company to accomplish the goal of producing and distributing these translations of the Bible. One of the main goals of Wycliffe Associates is to locate problems that are inhibiting or slowing the process of translating and resolving these issues.

I work as a member of the Tech Advance Team within Wycliffe Associates. The Tech Advance Team is working to use technology as a tool to speed up the process of Bible translation. Think three key words Equip, train and sustain.

Equip: We equip national Bible translation teams with technology to help speed up the process of translating the Bible.
Train: We train those teams how to use the technology we give them, so that it can be used effectively in the translation process.
Support: We support the teams while they translate, helping solve problems they encounter.

Here are some examples of the technologies we send out.

BTAKs, Cell amplifiers, generators, computers, etc.


A BTAK is a complete system. It involves a power source, computers and a communication source. For example,
Solar panels feed batteries through an inverter. The batteries provide a constant source of power for laptop computers which are used for translation work. The laptops hook up to bgans to communicate over the internet. bgans are satellite communication devices which send data over a satellite system. The end result is a team which can work on a translation in a place with no power or communications. This team is able to stay in contact with other translation teams, consultants and Bible translation groups.

Cell Amplifiers pick up a cell signal and rebroadcast it in a short radius around itself. Those close by can also connect to the greater cell network over the cell amp. If you are on the edge of a network or in a hole in the network, the cell amps can give you a strong signal and keep you working.
The reason cell amps are nice is that they keep translation teams connected to each other and their consultants.

Real world examples.

In Nigeria I deployed five cell amp systems. Some of the teams who received these would walk multiple hours to a location where they could make a cell phone call. Other teams had such a difficult time connecting, they would wait weeks or months to ask questions concerning Bible translation. With these cell amplifiers in place, they are able to call or e-mail that day with questions. They are able to get answers back sometimes in minutes and keep the translation work moving.

In Madagascar many of the translation teams are using pen and paper as the sole means of translating God's word. I traveled there and helped begin training translation team members how to use computers as apart of the translation process. The eventual goal is that these computers can become the primary means of translating. Secondly, we can create backups of the computers and translations being done. This is good for when a power outage happens, or emergency arises. The translations are kept safe and the translation work is not hindered.


So you have a small taste of what I do when I travel, but what do I do when I am in the US? When I am in the US I help set up the laptops and other tech being deployed oversees. For example, I helped work on a master image for all the laptops we set up. I also have set up a couple dozen laptops going oversees. It takes a couple days to get all the customizations, updates, languages, cd keys and registrations finished.
Beyond setting up equipment I work to learn new technologies so I can continue to be effective going forward.

There is a lot of good work going on around the world with Bible translation and I am excited to be apart of it. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask in the comments or send me an e-mail. My e-mail is adam_lewis@wycliffeassociates.org.

Hunstville Space Center

 

 

Greetings friends,

 

A few days ago I was given the opportunity to visit the Huntsville Space Center. For you space buffs out there, you will know that Huntsville was an important part of the space race. It was here that a lot of the rocket research was conducted by Werner Von Braun and his team. Von Braun was a German scientist who worked on the V-2 rocket in World War II. At the end of the war he escaped with many German scientists to the USA. In the US, he and his team were critical in the US success  during the space race with Russia. Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures I took while I was at the space center.

If you ever get there, try out the weightless ride. It is a ride that shoots you straight up in the air several times to give you a few seconds of feeling weightless. The ride is fun and does not cost any extra from the cost of admittance to the Space Center.

Another thing to do, which is easy to overlook; you can get into a mercury capsule to see what it was like in such a small space. The switches all work, so it gives you a feel of actually operating an early ship in space.

There are also a variety of Imax shows playing at different times of the day. I saw one which gave you the feel of what it is like to walk on the moon. I love Imax so I recommend you seeing such shows if you get the chance.

My great thanks go to Charles Edgar for giving me the ticket to the Space Center and the Imax theater show while I was there.

 

Southeast Tour

Greetings and salutations,

I am not in Florida anymore. I greet you from Florence Alabama. In the last half week and for the next three weeks or so I am traveling through the great states of Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. I am traveling on a banquet tour. The purpose of this tour is to raise awareness of the work Wycliffe Associates is doing with Bible translation. I have been allowed to travel along and raise support for my own ministry with Wycliffe Associates.
Besides the number of months I have lived in Florida now; I am visiting the south east for the first time. As I drive down the roads, I am noticing the colors starting to change in the trees. The temperature has dropped dramatically from Florida. I left during a cool spell there, where the temperatures were in the 80's during the day and 60's at night. The temperatures have been in the 60's in the day and tonight plants are being covered to protect them from freezing in Florence.
I have been encouraged by the families I have already stayed with on this trip. They have been generous with their hospitality and fellowship.
I am very thankful to God for his protection on this trip. I check my car every day before I head out to make sure it is in good condition and in general the car has performed well. I did have a bit of a wobble when I got up to speed and I had thought one of my tires might be out of alignment. Today knowing I had a whole day without a banquet, I decided I better get the alignment checked on the car so no damage would come from it. My host family in Florence referred me to a mechanic in Florence by the name of Dennis. Dennis surprised me by pointing out that both my back tires were starting to split and come apart. It was recent as I had looked at my tires the day before as usual and did not see any splitting. One of the tire rod ends had also fallen off. Happily Dennis saw the problems and is fixing the car even now so I can continue on my journey. I am getting the front tires rotated to the back and two new tires put on the car.
This issue with the wheels could have proven a very serious issue for me if the wheels had actually fallen apart while I drove; so once again I thank God for calling my attention to the state of the car (in the wobble) and for pointing out the problem to Dennis so quickly and clearly. As a note, I should have had the balance issue in my car looked at far earlier, as I had tell tale signs of this for a while now. So I encourage any of you out there with possible problem like this to have it looked at. Happily nothing else is wrong with the car.

Update: I have come back from the mechanic shop and my car is fixed and feels great. So I am set to continue on this grand adventure through the southern part of the USA.

From California With Love

Friends, Californians, Country Men,

Despite the government shutdown I finished my trip to California and have nothing but gratitude for all the friends I met with. For two weeks I visited my Ocean View Baptist Church family in San Pedro; my Biola/Talbot/La Mirada/Buena Park friends; and my Redlands/MAF/Trinity Church family. Thank you all for a wonderful trip. In this post I will recap my trip.

Before I begin, let me inform you about what I have coming up. Sadly, I just found out my trip this weekend to Angola has to be canceled for the moment. I will still go eventually, but the trip has been delayed until later this year or early next year. I do plan to be apart of a Wycliffe Banquet tour this fall in four Southeast states. I might have another trip to Congo late November. I will be having another PD trip in Oregon and Washington in December. I look forward to seeing my friends and family up there.

I would like to give a really big thanks to Tom and Deb Berg, Don and Amy Joel, Ryan and Miriam Tolsma, Jeff and Kathy McNair and my former apartment mates Larry and Nathan for hosting me.




I started my trip in San Pedro at Ocean View Baptist Church. I stayed at the home of Tom and Deb Berg just off the Pacific Ocean. They are a very mission minded couple who have traveled more than I have.






Here are a few pictures of Ocean View Baptist Church. On a nice day you can see way down the coast of Long Beach, make out down town LA and see the whole San Bernardino mountain range.







For those of you who don't know, I worked as  junior high Sunday school teacher and Stamps Intern while at Ocean View. I attended Ocean View while I was a student at Talbot Theological Seminary. Besides helping me financially make it through Talbot; Ocean View also provided the family and support I needed while studying. The pastors of Ocean View demonstrated to me a Biblically centered, grace overflowing, God honoring ministry.

The high school youth group allowed me to speak for their Wed night meeting and we had a great time. I talked about some of the process of Bible translation and the challenge ahead for finishing translating all the remaining languages that don't yet have a translation of the Bible. The students were really interested and I was encouraged by their level of engagement.






I drove around California in this red Ford Fiesta. I am not a major car person, but I can say I enjoyed the Fiesta. It has nice styling and it felt a lot lighter than my 1999 Pontiac Grand AM. It has some pep to it, so its good that I drive conservatively, or else it would have been easy to speed.







My next visit was in La Mirada/Buena Park. I stayed with my long time friends Don and Amy Joel, plus their family. Don was a fellow Talbot student with me and a fellow co-worker at Biola Financial Aid office. Don's kids have really grown. Here are a couple pictures of their family.









The Last part of my trip was in to Redlands where I visited the church of my youth (Trinity Evangelical Free Church.) Though Trinity is no where near the size of Orlando First Baptist. It is still a pretty decent sized church. I have only respect for the preaching of Gary Inrig the former head pastor. Trinity was a great example for me how a church could impact the surrounding community with Christ like love and truth. When I worked overseas, there were many Sundays I would follow up church with a sermon from Gary. If he reads this page, may God bless your continued ministry.

I also grew up in TLC, or the Trinity youth program under Jeannie Osterberg. Besides being introduced to the musical, which I was in every Christmas, I was given a solid foundation as a young believer. I give particular thanks to Jeannie Osterberg and Byron Low for their impact on me while growing up in the church.

I stayed with Jeff and Kathy McNair at their ranch overlooking Redlands and the mountains. The primary purpose of my trip was to raise support for my ministry with Wycliffe Associates. Ocean View Baptist church is my sending church and happily I am receiving support from friends in California. Indeed I did receive some more support on this trip for which I am very grateful. I still have a long way to go, but I have a banquet tour coming up in a few weeks through four Bible Belt states.
Wycliffe Associates has a banquet tour every Sping and Fall. They speak about Wycliffe and what they are doing to those who are interested. Happily I am being allowed to come along in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Thank you for reading and being interested in my work. I will leave you with a few more pictures from my trip.

 Sara Lawson made this wonderful desert inspired by her trip to Australia.

 

This grapefruit, which is larger than many watermelons I have seen, is from the backyard of  Ryan and Miriam Tolsma.

The grapefruit was so large, that half of it could barely fit into a decent sized blender. Despite being so large, the taste was still good.

I took the grapefruit and mixed it with spinach, grapes, banana, mixed nuts and apple juice. I then blended that all together into a drink. My blender was not quite strong enough to break the seeds down all the way. However, the drink was still quite good.