Want to see what the countryside and plants in Madagascar looks like?

 I thought I would share some more photos I took in Madagascar. These first pictures come from an arboretum I visited. I also wanted to give you an idea of what Western Madagascar looks like. So I have a variety of pictures from the country side.

This is a map of the arboretum. One of the features of the park I did not capture are a number of huts, that model different styles from different parts of the island.

 The walkway through the park. Many of the plants are suited to survive longs dry spells. Western Madagascar is more desert like, as opposed to the more lush Eastern regions.

 This picture is sideways, this plant was around 25-30 ft tall.

 A closer look at the branches of this arid tree.

 This is a seed pod, the tree it was on was covered with these pods. The pod is about two and half inches wide.

 Here is one of the houses or huts that are common in part of Madagascar. I apologize since I can't remember from which part.

 Here is a friendly spider. Maybe not so much, this thing was big. It had a web ten feet wide and the spider was as big as a tarantula. It was probably around 5 or six inches long. I was scared just looking at the thing from ten feet away. Happily it did not move, because if it had jumped at me. . . .

 This is called an elephants foot. Supposedly it bears a resemblance. It kind of looks like a big white carrot.

The arboretum had a number of tortoises.  This big ones can be over 100 years old I hear. I got to see a number of baby ones too. I was surprised when the guide let us hold one for a few seconds.

 At the end of the arboretum was a small museum. Here are a few shots from there.

Ok, the next series of shots are from around the costal and mountainous regions in the southwest of Madagascar. This is to give you an idea of the environment.

 I did not take this picture, it is from Russ Perry. This comes from the Eastern part of Madagascar. I included it to give you some contrast to the other pictures you see from the West. I did not see a lemur on my visit.

This is a really deep sink hole. I could not see the bottom of it while flying over, we even circled it to get a better view. I was told tests where being done to look at the difference in the environment and air at the bottom of the hole.

I was not expecting to see a turkey.

 

To finish off,  here is a picture of a lunch I had. It consisted of naan and curry.

Some Questions to Ponder

In this post I would like to invite you to ponder a few questions. Why do we want to know anything? Do we want a right understanding of the world, of truth? Do we simply want to be successful and or contented? Our world view describes how we see the world and how we see truth. I won't get far into that concept at the moment. I would like to suggest that the only way to achieve any of the goals above is to have a right relationship with God. How we view God and our relationship with God impacts everything about us.
Think with me for a moment about some of the ways our relationship with God impacts us. Try to answer these questions.
1. How does your view of God impact your view of human worth?
2. "" impact the way you treat others?
3. "" impact the way you go about doing your work?
4. "" impact why you work?
5. "" impact what you think is worthwhile?
6. "" impact your purpose in life?
7. "" impact how you use your time?

I am sure you can come up with more questions than these. Our relationship with God impacts everything about us whether or not we believe in Him. If our relationship with God is so important, how do we go about having a right relationship with God? Glad you asked. We know God rightly by knowing Him through His Word, the Bible.
Lets take what we have thought about here and cast our thought in a different direction. How important is it for others, who do not have the Bible, to have it? Is it possible for them to be truly happy, successful, and have a right understanding of the world without it?
The answer to these questions is part of the reason I have wanted to work with an organization who translates the Bible into languages that don't have it. The Bible is not just another book of wisdom to help people out. We can learn about God through creation and from God himself. These sources are called natural revelation and divine revelation. I doubt we can exhaust what natural revelation can teach us about God. However, natural revelation cannot replace divine revelation. God has communicated directly with us through the Bible.
So tell me what you think? Do you have a response or question, go ahead and leave a comment.

Romans 10:14

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?^[a] And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

1 John 2: 1-6

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. ³ And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

P.S.

My next trip is almost here. I will be heading out to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help set up some BTAK's (Bible Translation Acceleration Kits). Please keep me in your prayers for a safe and successful trip.

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.