March 2011 Update - Africa!

Most of you know I spent a few months in Zambia, Africa in 2008, and that  I have been hoping that the Lord would open the door for me to go back again one of these days—and He finally has!

This time I will be going to Yaoundé, Cameroon!  I have been asked to fill the volunteer coordinator position there “part-time.”  “Part-time” means that I will be serving in Cameroon April—September, and then come back to the states and serve in Dallas October-March.  This year (2011) will be a little bit different since I am still in the process of raising support.  In May, June, and early July I will be traveling to visit my partners, a few churches, and hopefully welcoming new partners in Missouri, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska & Colorado.  Then the second week of July I will head to Cameroon for about 3 months, where I will work with volunteer teams traveling there for a few weeks at a time. 

Cameroon is slightly bigger than the state of California.  The official languages are French and English.  There are 278 living languages in Cameroon alone.

* 78 have the New Testament or the whole Bible

* 45 have portions of scripture or translations started

* 147 have no scripture at all.  Not one word…

Praise & Prayer Requests

· Praise—I get to go back to Africa and support Bible translation doing a job I love.

· Praise—The “volunteer season” in Dallas went VERY well, with many new volunteers this year.

· Praise—My financial and prayer partnerships continue to increase.

· Please pray that my financial support will continue to increase as I travel to see several partners and hopefully add new ones May—July.  I am currently at about 60%.

· Please pray for the logistics of my travel to see partners & family, as well as logistics for going to Cameroon. (where to live in Cameroon, & Dallas when I return, visas, packing, immunizations, plane tickets, etc…) 

· Please pray that I will acclimate quickly to Cameroon.  I will need to hit the ground running.

Thank you for your prayers, financial support and encouragement!

To Become a Financial Partner:

Online: Go to www.wycliffeassociates.org\links\donatenow

       and follow the prompts.

By Check:  Make checks payable to Wycliffe Associates

       Write only account # M08730 on the memo line.

       Send to: PO Box 620368; Orlando, FL 32862

Volunteer Appreciation Pig Roast

110 people showed up for this dinner. Pig, homemade macaroni and cheese, green beans, Asia coleslaw...and of course brownies. Yum!

John, our new Assoc Center Director of Facilities, roasted the pig starting at about 5AM, and I made the sides and brownies.  Good times for everyone!

Actually, it took me back to some of my favorite memories of childhood.  When I was in my early teen years we lived really close to the lake and had a pontoon boat.  Every summer someone would roast a pig and the ladies would make side dishes and we would all head out to the cove in the boats.  We would have a string of 15+ pontoon boats and several speed boats all tied together.  A big board would be laid across a couple of the boats with the pig in the middle and the side dishes around it.  Lots of fun, family, swimming skiing, tabletopping, tubing....good times with family and friends!

God is Good!

I just started a study at my church called "Lies Women Believe - And The Truth That Sets Them Free." The first lie she addresses is "God is Good." I didn't really think I struggled with that very much.  I have my moments "like everybody else," but I didn't really think it was a lie I needed to spend a lot of time on.  The Lord showed me that I needed to spend a little time on this one.  
The lie we believe is that God is not good. We (I) fall into believing that God's goodness is based on our (my) life circumstances.  It is not.  It is based on His character as a Loving God, because God is Love.

A great many things in God's divine providences do not look to the eye like goodness.  But faith sits down before mysteries such as these, and says, "The Lord is good, therefore all that He does must be good not matter how it looks.  I can wait for His explanations."  Hannah Whitall Smith

We have 5 lessons for each week and this was lesson one.  For several days I tried to find some time to get to lesson two, but just couldn't seem to get there.  I did this lesson (God is Good) on Wed night.  Thursday night God gave me a pretty good glimpse into my future (which I will be sharing more of in a few days).  On Friday, we had a Wycliffe Assoc dinner social.  The speaker that night just so happen to speak on.....yes, you guessed it....God is good.  That literally was the entire theme of her talk....she said it like 20 times in less than 10 minutes.  It's not like could have ignored her either,  I was sitting so close to where she was speaking I could have leaned forward and touched her.  Saturday, brought another reminder.  If you saw my previous post on Battle Scars, you saw that I babysat 7 kids (great and fun kiddies I might add :~).  After the attack on the trampoline we came inside and the 20 month old cutie wanted me to read her a book, so she brought a book to me and dropped it on my lap.  A book about chickens....see....harmless enough.

Not so much....once I opened the book, there it was in black and white...AGAIN!

Those are just a few of the tangible ways God has reminded me that He is good.

Battle Scars... :~)

This morning I babysat 7 kids....yes that is s-e-v-e-n and yes all from the same family.  They are great kids!  I didn't have to raise my voice even once.  I did actually scream once though...of course I was face down on a trampoline with 2 kids on my back and 4 holding me by the ankles tickling my feet. :~)  I have the trampoline burns on both elbows and hands to prove it too.  Thank God there weren't any cameras around!!  I did eventually find my camera and took a few pics.  We had a great time!!

The two oldest...

The 3 middle kiddies...

The two youngest curtain climbers..

The View From Where I Am Sitting

This afternoon I am up at Mountain View. I brought my computer and some work that doesn't require Internet access up here. Here is a picture of the view.  What a beautiful place to spend the afternoon with perfect weather!

WA In The Solomon Islands

Imagine battling malaria—with symptoms that include nausea and vomiting—when the nearest “bathroom” is a 328‐foot walk away. That is what Taylor and Ali and their four children endured during their first year as Bible translators in the Solomon Islands.  The house where they lived had no indoor plumbing and a low tin roof that brought agonizingly high temperatures indoors by 9 A.M. The children began getting up at 5 A.M. each day so they could work on their home school studies in a cooler environment.

Taylor and Ali took the first steps in constructing a new house, but the carpenters in the village had formed a pact to charge eight times the normal asking price to build their home.

Thankfully, a team of Wycliffe Associates volunteers arrived, and in two weeks, they had built the floor, frames, and roof of a new house. A week after the house was completed, the family needed to evacuate due to political unrest. “It would have been so easy for us to never return to that village,”

Taylor and Ali said. “But we now had a ‘home,’ and it was like an anchor for us, pulling us back to keep going with the work. We were thrilled to be able to return one year later.”

An act of kindness can lighten the load for someone in ways you may never imagine. Your diligence can make all the difference in another person’s life. Who can you bless today?

Church Group Working in the Boutique at the Wycliffe Center

This church group from Faith Bible came to help move out all of the furniture and "stuff" in the Boutique at the Wycliffe Center today.  Someone donated new carpet, so everything has got to come out of the building.  Since they are getting new carpet, the might as well paint and check the structure, right?  Once the group got everything out, they just started tearing up the carpet.  What a surprise!  There was carpet, a layer of padding under that, another layer of carpet that was GLUED onto tile....God Bless this group that came to serve the Lord today!

February 2011 Prayer Letter

What’s Going on With My Job & Partnership Development (PD)?

Well, that has been the most frequently asked question lately.  First I should apologize for the delayed update.  The Area Director was out of the country at the end of January & beginning of February, and then was going to be in Dallas for a week and a half, so we thought it better to wait to talk and make decisions while he was here (since he is the one making the decisions. :-)  Last week we came to several conclusions.

· My monthly financial support has increased significantly over the last month and a half.  It has more than doubled, putting me around 50% monthly support.  That is a great jump in support!

· Obviously, if I am at 50% support level, I have 50% left, so there is a lot of work that needs to be done to raise that last half.

· My “transitional salary” ends in May, so I only have about 3 months, and that isn’t very far off.

· Best solution: Do volunteer coordinator work 16 hours a week, and Partnership Development (prayer and financial support raising) the other 24 hours a week (or more).

So, how is this going to work?  Because of the significant increase in my monthly financial support, several one-time financial gifts, and the remainder of my transition salary; the part of my support that stopped at the end of January is covered until May.  The rest of the transitional support will stop in May.  So, between now and May, I will work a split schedule of “volunteer coordinator” and “partnership development.”  I will also do a significant amount of traveling to see partners, contacts and churches in the States & Canada.

If you would like to know more about what the Lord is doing in Bible Translation, Wycliffe Associates, how the Lord is working in my life, or how you or your church can get involved, let me know.  I would be happy to meet with you or a small group or speak to your church.  I will be traveling in April and May, and I am starting to put together my travel schedule now.  My contact information is in the side bar, or you can respond to my email.  Thank you!

Praises:

1. I found a great church that preaches the Word, is mission minded, and the people are great.

2. My financial support has increased significantly.

3. The volunteers are coming in and enjoying their work.  God is placing each one where they can be used by the Lord to support Bible Translation.

4. I still get to serve the Lord in Bible translation in Dallas! :-)

Prayer Requests:

1. Financial Support - My support has increased, but it still needs to increase significantly over the next few months for me to continue my assignment.

2. For balance and focus, as I work as Volunteer Coord part-time and partnership development part-time.

3. That I would not try to do this work and partnership development in my own strength, but choose daily to follow the Lord’s leading.

4. For the team that leads the WA volunteers year-around, but especially during “volunteer season.”  Their names are: Randy (the boss), George, John, Janice, Dana, and me.

If you are interested in financially supporting my ministry with Wycliffe Associates online, you can click on this link, put my name in the search, click search, then click on my name and follow the prompts.

By Mail: Make check or money order out to Wycliffe Associates  and put my fund code “M08730” in the notes field. Mail to Wycliffe    Associates: P.O. Box 620143; Orlando, FL, 32862.