Telling God's Story

I thought I would share an article from the Wycliffe Associates Website showing one way God's story is being shared around the world.

 

Many cultures in Papua New Guinea revolve around oral storytelling. Thanks to you, villagers there are now telling stories of God’s love.

Families and neighbors sitting under the stars, gathered around a crackling fire, eyes wide and ears open as they listen intently to the person who is telling the next story. Jesus was known for telling stories, and this is also a common scene in Papua New Guinea, where oral storytelling is an integral part of the many communities and cultures.

To help reach these people with God’s Word in a way that is meaningful to them, a special storytelling workshop was recently held at the Alotau Translation Center’s new facilities, which was completed last year through the support of generous partners like you. Attendees from seven different language groups learned how to accurately and effectively communicate key stories from the Bible. As a result, people who live in areas where the Bible has yet to be translated are hearing God’s truths before the Scriptures come into print in their languages, and lives are being greatly impacted.

“I have heard that story many times,” said one excited villager. “But the way you told the story in my language, that touched my heart. Now I want to change.”

Your support helped workshop graduates to present God’s Word in this culturally relevant way that deeply touches their lives and moves them to obedience.

   

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.

 

 

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.