Texas imaging and barbeque

I have been doing a lot of travel this year. From California to Orlando, Madagascar, Nigeria and Texas its been a bit of a whirlwind. Last week I was in Arlington Texas for meetings with TSC or the Seed Company. Wycliffe Associates works closely with TSC on many translation projects.







This week was dedicated to working out a new master image to set up the first step of computers going oversees. When you have a lot of computers to set up a master image basically allows you to skip a large chunk of setting up any individual computer. It is like skipping the first seven levels of a ten level game. This puts on software, drivers, removes junk, etc. Once done you can individualize the machines with proper cd keys and the like.

We also talked about what would go into these master set ups. We also talked about a program called Balso which
is a nifty variant of Ubuntu which would make running computers oversees much simpler. It might be used in coming years. Overall it was a productive time and I enjoyed meeting my counterparts in the Seed Company.
Along the way we had some delicious food including Vietnamese and Texas Barbeque. I sampled fried pickles, fried cheese stuffed jalapenos, beef ribs, catfish, sausage along with potato salad and the like. Needless to say it was too much to finish. The picture of BBQ below is from Mark, not my own; but it gives you an idea of what we had. Below are pictures of my co-worker Bob Gray talking with Randal from TSC.

Above is a Texas Longhorn

 

Below is a band playing at the stockades in Fort Worth.

Deploying Cell Amps in Nigeria

Greetings and salutations!

How long would you be willing to walk to get reception on your cell phone? For some Nigerians, they were walking hours over multiple miles whenever they wanted to make a phone call. For some national Bible translators, this was still the best option they had.








In the last two weeks, I was fortunate to be able to travel to with Bob Bates to Nigeria in order to set up cell amps at four locations. These cell amp systems boosted the signal strength of cell networks from nothing or one bar to a full five bars. We traveled to the Northwest and around Jos which is in Plateau state.






Now these Bible translators can call and send e-mail from their office. This saves valuable time as they work on their Bible translations. They can communicate with other translators and consultants by phone with questions they have. E-mail allows more in depth textual questions with consultants. The Nigerian Bible translators were so happy to get these cell amps.

There are three basic parts of the cell amp system. There is an cell amp antenna we mount on the top of a large pole. This attached to the two units in the picture to the left. They are a power regulator and another antenna for rebroadcasting the cell signal in the area. This is all powered by solar power or generators.

Nigeria is an amazing place in terms of languages. It has the second largest amount of languages needing to be translated in the world. There are still over three hundred languages to be translated in Nigeria alone. Hundreds of languages have already been translated or are in the works. The total amount of languages that needed translation in the first place was over 500.

When I went to Nigeria I expected the roads would not be very good. Happily most of the roads I was on were relatively nice. However, one section of road we traveled was beyond bad. The last three and a half hours of a twelve hour road trip took place on an absolutely miserable road. This thirty year old road was not constructed well in first place. If there was a foundation it eroded all over the place, washing out large parts of the pavement. The constant jaw jarring potholes and other obstacles caused some of us to loose our lunch out the side of the car. Many of you would not call this a road at all. In fact a road we took later that was dirt only was a lot better than this one. I sadly don't have a picture of this road. However, I do have a picture of some of the traffic in Jos.

I would like to thank you for your support as I traveled in Nigeria. As you might know there has  been some troubles in the country with regards to fighting and the militant group Boko Haram. Fortunately we did not see any trouble and the hot spots were in different states than the ones we traveled through.
 On this trip I was able to visit two pretty neat groups. The first is called NetAccess and the second is called NBTT. NetAccess is trying to provide internet access to Nigerians in and around Jos. They help by providing internet for Wycliffe Associates and NBTT. NBTT is a Nigerian Bible Translation group Wycliffe is working with. Wycliffe has helped advise NetAccess as they have started. The fellow I am working with in the picture to the left is a technician from NetAccess.

I have a few pictures here from the NetAccess office. In the front they offer an internet café to anyone needing such access. Otherwise, they can beam or run cables to other groups who need them. I stayed at the NBTT guest house for Wycliffe Associates folk while in Nigeria.

Anyway, the trip was a wonderful success. I even was able to meet my father on my way out of Nigeria. He was coming in for some meetings of his own the same day I left. We met in the airport at Abuja and were able to have lunch at a Mr. Biggs close to the airport.

Despite this

To Nigeria

Hello everyone,

I have got some interesting news. I am off to Nigeria. I will be joining Bob Bates as we deploy cell amps and netbooks in a variety of places. We will be gone about a week and a half.

Update on Madagascar from the Wycliffe Main Website

I thought some of you might be interested in this update from the Wycliffe Associates website. This project and these people are the ones I was working with on my last trip.


CURRENT PROJECT UPDATES
MADAGASCAR TRANSLATION PROJECT

More than 22 million people—most of them practice animistic worship—live in the island nation of Madagascar. Millions are living in utter spiritual darkness!
Ten different translation efforts have begun in this spiritually barren region of the world and another six are waiting to launch.
Most of the translation efforts in Madagascar are done painstakingly by hand.
Hand written notes and translations go back and forth—then the final draft can be typed.
Every verse . . . every Scripture by hand.
Imagine the time and commitment!
Two strong and very brave missionary ladies, Lioni and Bev, have been training and consulting national Bible translators in Madagascar for decades.
They are isolated and alone. Their training location has changed hands—it’s no longer available. The task is overwhelming!
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Wycliffe Associates is prepared to come alongside Leoni and Bev, and the 10 Bible translation teams with support and much-needed encouragement.
Prepared to empower them to accelerate Bible translation—we will provide a new translation training center, technology, and other resources.
Leoni and Bev have no one else to turn to for support!
Please help! The need is so great. People are waiting for even a word of Scripture. Eternity is literally on the line for millions of men, women, and children.
You are their best help. Help place the priceless Word of God in the hands of people in desperate need of truth and hope.
Without your help today NO new startups can begin in Madagascar . . .
And the current translation efforts could be stalled!
Would you prayerfully consider giving a generous gift to support Bible translation efforts for these spiritually hungry people?
Or, would you consider volunteering? Be an encouragement with your presence. Help advance Bible translation in Madagascar!
To contribute to this project, you can donate online, use the printable giving form, or call us at
1-800-THE WORD (1-800-843-9673). Thank you!
If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please complete a sign-up form.


If you wall like to see this post from the Wycliffe Associates website click this link.
http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/ministries/project.asp?id=50

Trip Report Madagasar

Tech Advance Madagascar Trip May 17-June 10 Welcome to Madagascar! If you like warm days and cool evenings than you might like winter here. Being located in the Southern Hemisphere, Madagascar has its winter in America’s summer.
It took me three days of flying to get to Madagascar and another day of flying to get down to Toliara. I went to Madagascar to participate in a Bible translation workshop. My part in the workshop was to co-lead a computer training class for the national translation teams with Russ Perry. Around 30-35 pastors and church leaders participated in the computer training. Most of these individuals had never used a computer before and really looked forward to learning what I could teach them.

The goal of the computer training is to equip translation team members with the ability to use computers in the translation process. Beyond computers, I am looking into the possibility of using Bgans (Satellite Communication equipment) to facilitate communication between national translation teams and the translation project leaders. I also want to help find ways to make Bible translation self sustainable. Hopefully better communication and the use of computers can speed up the process of Bible translation for the 20 current translation projects.

There are multiple stages to translating the Bible into someone’s heart language. The first step is usually to translate Luke and use that to create a Jesus Film translation. Once Luke is done, the other gospels and letters follow; eventually followed by the Old Testament. This translation workshop was focused on Colossians. Ten different teams were present to begin a first draft of Colossians. Each day the teams would begin with training sessions on the translation process. They would then have sessions focused on actual translation work.

South African, Irish, British, Norwegian and Dutch consultants helped train and give aid to the national translation teams; making this truly an international affair. In the third week, some of the translation teams turned their focus to polishing the translation of Luke which had already been finished. Those teams which had already polished Luke looked to begin new projects.
Meanwhile, a couple of the translation consultants, Russ Perry and I set off to the mountains. We went to test the finished Luke translation on several villages. I was excited to find out I would be able to take a helicopter to these various villages. Andy was our Helimission pilot and he stayed with us the entire trip. Besides myself and Russ Perry; two long term Norweigan missionaries and Leoni all headed inland.
We had been worried the helicopter would be an option as weather, mechanical problems and other issues had delayed other trips. Indeed we were delayed at first with a bad fuel pump. However the excellent people at Helimission drove all night and fixed the helicopter by the next day so we could proceed.

The first village we came to was called on a hill. Here a male nurse and his family worked. This nurse is a remarkable person, so I will describe what he does briefly. He came from Antananarivo and sacrificed a much more pleasant lifestyle to work in very primitive circumstances. There was no running water, or electricity or plumbing. Bjørn and Johanna had helped build him a cement brick house and small building to act as a hospital. This single man serves hundreds of square miles as the only medical option. He gives thousands of consultations and delivers hundreds of babies every year. He also is very involved with the church and sang in a choir that greeted the translation group. He and his wife have a tremendous ministry and I can't say enough about his wonderful work.

The first order of business for our team was to test the recently completed Luke translations in the local Bari language. We wanted to see if these translations actually communicated and were understandable by the people. There was another language very similar that we wanted to test to see if the Bari translation could act as a translation for them as well; or if they would need their own translation.
Over the next several days, we traveled from Mitsinjo to Mahabu, Andranosoa and Andeka. We landed and greeted the village as they came out to the helicopter. We then walked into the village and visited the school and church. We distributed Malagasy Bibles to the local evangelist while Bjørn, Johanna and Leoni gave advise and reconnected with friends. In several of these villages, this was the first time that they had received a bible in Malagasy, or that matter a Bible at all. We were excited to be able to give them these Bibles and I look forward to the day when they can have a translation in their own heart language.

Lets catch up

Catching Up

Greetings,

It has been several years since I have touched my blog and the time has come again to revitalize it. My intention here is to catch you up on what has happened since my last posts and give a taste for whats coming in the future.
In my last several posts I talked about becoming a stamps intern, beginning weight lifting and a spiritual formation class. Since these posts I graduated from Talbot Theological Seminary and finished my internship. My Stamps internship ended the day I graduated, however I continued to volunteer in the same manner as when I was an intern. I and my roommates moved to an apartment on Stage Rd. in Buena Park and that is where I am currently living.
Toward the end of my time at Talbot I found myself making a job decision. I had to choose between working in the Financial Aid office at Biola or working with the Tech Advance team with Wycliffe Associates. After much prayer, I decided to work with the Financial Aid Office at Biola. As the Technology Systems Coordinator for Financial Aid I had many responsibilities. I helped prepare the office for the new registration cycle. I built or updated all the forms students would be turning into the office. I updated the Financial Aid section of our database program called Banner for the new aidyear. I built reports called popsels and cognos reports for the financial aid team to find the students they needed to work with. I also participated in meetings concerning Noel Levitz; which is the system used to determine the costs Biola would charge and the aid Biola would give to students. I also helped maintain and update the Financial Aid Website (http://offices.biola.edu/finaid/). Beyond this I helped provide basic level IT for the Financial Aid Office when something went wrong. Oh, and I would help do research on upcoming issues the Office would be dealing with. For instance the emergence of net price calculators has brought about new comparison tools for students looking at schools. I researched some of the tools that would be used and how Biola was seen through these.
At the beginning of this year, I was approached again by Wycliffe Associates about joining their team. To make a long story short, a number of events led me to accept Wycliffe Associates offer and I am now in the process of preparing to move to Florida and begin my work with them. I finished my work with the Financial Aid Office on April 5th and have begun my efforts to build a support team to fund my work with Wycliffe Associates. This blog will serve as one way to communicate with my support team and keep them up to date on what I have been doing.

 Going Forward

In May I will be looking to travel to Florida where I will take up residence close to the Wycliffe Associates headquarters. Later in the month I will be taking a trip to Madagascar to participate in training Bible translation teams in the use of computers and other technology that will help speed up their Bible translation efforts. I will then head back to the US for orientation with Wycliffe and to concentrate on building my support team. I plan on traveling up to the Northwest to Washington in order to participate in a number of Wycliffe banquets focused on growing my support team. At the end of the year I am looking at a long term trip to Madagascar which will last a couple years. My goal is to raise my total support by the end of the year.

Thoughts

I have been wonderfully blessed by my time at Talbot and Ocean View Baptist in California. I have made good friends who I will stay in contact with. My fellow workers at Ocean View Baptist are wonderful. I must mention Jared Kilduff (Youth Pastor), Sara Sherman and Ramos Smith; who worked with me while I helped with the Junior High age group at Ocean View. You have inspired me to deeper study of scripture and greater asperations for impacting others.
I thank my roommates Larry Briner and Nathan Hagberg for the years we have lived together.
I thank Don and Amy Joel for opening their home to me and being such good friends over these years. Also my friends Sara Lawson and Adam Chute who spent some good time with me at the Joel's house. I wont forget our guild group "Geek Believer's" (http://geekbeliever.co/) and our gaming group. I also am very grateful for MOFA or the men of financial aid. I won't mention there names here, but I have been incredibly blessed by you and our times together. Some of the lessons I gleaned while being among you I will carry with me the rest of my life.

 It is exciting thinking about what is coming and I look forward to the adventure that awaits.

 Further up and further in!



 Adam Lewis

Spiritual Formation

Spirituality is motivated by gratitude and
gratitude is motivated when the wonder of the salvation of the Cross is clearly understood, and
that is salvation from sin

From Robert Saucy a paper on spiritual formation