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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Campus Outreach pt. 2


The 75 Letters I will be handing out!

Today we had our second group from Campus Outreach visit Wycliffe. This time was pretty different, actually. First off, I helped lead worship (I played piano and sang--video below). Secondly, we didn't put as much emphasis on the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project tonight as last week. The reason for this is that the particular group that came tonight will distribute sign-up cards to the students at a separate time already planned. But, I confirmed with the leaders that we interns are invited to their Sunday night celebration. I'll be handing out the letters to the initial group and continuing relationships with the students. I am so excited!



Tonight I met a guy named Alex. He was born in the States but grew up in Shanghai, China. His dad is from Singapore and his mother from China, and neither are saved; nor are his brother and sister. He's studying Food Science at Purdue University in Indiana. We had a great conversation about his testimony and his heart for reaching China! At the end of our conversation, I prayed for him. I looked up and saw his tear-filled eyes. He thanked me for taking the time to talk to him and gave me a hug. This is why I love my job!
I am so looking forward to hanging out with them all again on Sunday!

Here is a video of one of the songs we played for worship. It's called Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe. That means There's No One Like Jesus. It's great to see all the students get into the African worship song and praise the Lord in another language! How awesome to be part of facilitating that :) It's really a great way to introduce the need for God's Word in every tongue.


Saturday, June 25, 2011

Membership Application

Last Tuesday (June 21), before Campus Outreach came to the Wycliffe offices, I met with Chris Walker over lunch. Her job is to recruit for Wycliffe. I had called her a few days before--from my cubicle in the Wycliffe offices--and said "Hi, Chris. I would like to be recruited." I later found out that I am the first person who has ever asked her to recruit them! ;-) Over lunch, we discussed beginning the membership application process.

Yesterday (Friday, June 24) I received approval to begin the application. I covered this a little in my previous post That's How the Story Goes.... At the time of me writing that, however, I had not been officially approved. Now I am! This means that, come Monday, I will receive a link to begin my online application. It will take 4-6 weeks to complete. Then I'll begin EQUIP (the missionary training course at Wycliffe) in October. My next post will tell of what comes after that :)

Campus Outreach

Tuesday night (June 21,) we hosted 110 Campus Outreach students from Indiana universities. We enjoyed worship together, they watched excitedly as different people presented their skills (from linguistics to teaching to ethnomusicology) and demonstrated that anyone can be used in Bible Translation! The students loved it. At the end, my favorite storyteller, Gary, challenged the students. He explained the need that Bibleless People groups have for prayer. We gave them all the opportunity to commit to praying at least once a week (preferably every day) for a Bibleless People group. The response astounded us. Out of 110 students, 75 signed up! 20-30 of the others had committed to praying last year! Praise God!

Greater yet is the opportunity I now have: on Sunday nights, these students gather together for worship, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship. We interns received an invitation to join them. I thought that hand-delivering a thank you/welcome letter to each of the students who committed to pray would speak volumes to the students and bless my heart immensely! Therefore, I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday working on this. I assigned each of the 75 students to their language, printed 75 welcome letters (some of which I personally wrote, most of which I edited), stuffed 75 envelopes with bookmarks, bumper stickers, people group information, and the welcome letters. This Sunday (June 26) I have the privilege of presenting these packages to the students and personally thanking them and encouraging them to stay committed to praying! Praise God!

Friday, June 24, 2011

That's How the Story Goes...

In the year 1991, my mother gave birth to a son. I am he.

Allow me now to tell my tale. A tale of woes and foes, friends and family, life and death,
princes and princesses, frogs and swans, bats and gnats, evil sorcerers and conquering
heroes! Perhaps not all these are included in this story, but they make for a wonderful
introduction.

Not long ago--yet not too recently--the Lord our God called me. And I, in turn, answered
Him. Summer 2007 began my journey (or so I thought) which has taken me where I am
today and is leading me to far greater a place. How mistaken I have been. My journey
began at birth. At that moment I was introduced to the two people who would be most
influential in the years to follow. These two happened to bear the title of “Parents”--my
parents, to be exact.

As my life began, the Lord wasted no time in preparing me for my death: death
intangible, yet real; death incomprehensible, yet fully understood; death inexplicable, yet
shared with many--death referred to as “being born again.” Over 2000 years ago, God
sent His Son to this earth to suffer the complete wrath of His Father. Jesus bore sin--all
sin--and brought it to death, even death by crucifixion. Three days after His death, God
in His power gave life once again to His Son. Life everlasting! Glorified, having fully
satisfied the wrath of God, Jesus gives to all this gift of life. Having brought to legal
justice the wrongdoings of all mankind, He gives the option to every man and woman to
accept this eternal forgiveness. The acceptance of this everlasting life is what we call
being born again. To be born again, however, one must first die. For can a man, fully
grown, enter His motherʼs womb a second time? No. A man is born first of flesh. When
he dies to his flesh, a man can be reborn of the Spirit of God.

To die to flesh--to self--a man must sacrifice his will to accept Godʼs will. Sacrifice, they
say. A funny phrase for such a blessed experience. Indeed, since His will contains no
error, no mistakes, no faults, it brings to all who accept it great joy. The greatest
adventure is the one that follows the path with a narrow gate and few travelers. Each
footstep is ordered by God, allowing for the most tremendous trek through the time
given us. My footsteps follow this trail.

I was home-schooled my for all twelve of my school years. I was raised by two parents
far from perfection. But who honestly wants perfect parents? How could you ever live up
to their standards? How could you follow their example? How could God receive glory
through weakness if no weakness existed? Far from perfect, but close to God, they
were--they are. They chose to raise my siblings and me according to the standards of
Godʼs Word. Since my birth, my parents have poured into me their whole beings. And
God has blessed that.

I began piano lessons at a young age and continued for nearly seven years. I hated it.
 
In my first couple of years in High School, I expressed a great interest in Computer
Science. My dream job: software engineering. I hate computers.

Math, not my strongest subject, but possibly the subject I most understood. The only
times I received a grade that was not an “A” were the times I failed to turn in my work.
Itʼs hard to turn in work when you donʼt do it. “Why,” you ask, “did you not do your
work?” I found it boring to solve problems that were so simple that I found no problem solving. I failed to realize then that understanding math was not my problem, but doing
it. I hated math.

Science. Science, science, science.... I hated science.

In 2007, I gave God control of my life. I opened my hands, held out my heart, and
trusted to Him my every breath. For the most part. He took what I gave and made what I
am. In the same week I let go of my will, He gave me His. “Go to Japan,” He said.
“Okay,” I replied. After two years of prayer and seeking opportunity, God placed in front
of me a five week mission trip to Okinawa, Japan. I went.

In July, 2009, I arrived in Okinawa. After the second week of the trip, God decided I
should stay for a semester of Bible College. The place I was at just “happened” to be an
extension campus of Calvary Chapel Bible College. Near the end of my first semester,
God decided I needed to travel (alone) to South Korea and lead worship and teach at a
Calvary Chapel for the winter. So, I spent my first birthday, Christmas, and New Years
without Americans (mostly). God then decided I needed to return to Okinawa for my
second semester. I knew this was going to be my last semester of Bible College, so I
went. There I discovered He wanted me to go to California (but that comes later) to
complete a third semester.

Long story short, I returned from my five week mission trip 10 months after I had left.
Boy is time a funny thing when you live on the other side of the world!
As I remained in Florida for the Summer and Fall of 2010, God showed me His purpose
for me spending that time in Japan. I thought He wanted me to be a permanent
missionary there, but His thoughts are high above mine! In the eight months I spent in
Japan, I learned Japanese quickly, easily, and enjoyed the learning of language a great
deal. I came to a realization one day that thousands of languages, millions of people, do
not own the Word of God in their heart language. A personʼs heart language is the
language in which he thinks, dreams, and prays. Believe it or not, most of the world
does not think in English. Nor do they dream or pray in it. In fact, only 6% of the world
speaks English as their heart language. Yet, I have learned that 80% of Bibles are in
English. This is where Wycliffe Bible Translators comes into my life.

Having a gift for linguistics, a heart for missions, a desire for a rural, mountainous
lifestyle, and being born in a nation that makes achieving any goal easy, I decided to
seek out where I could fit in. God opened doors in ways I never would have imagined,
and today I am an intern at the Wycliffe USA headquarters. I work in the Prayer
Ministries Department.

I mentioned earlier the school subjects I hated. Now I will explain.
Research has shown that those who are musically innate (I grew to love piano after I
quit and found that I have a natural gift for hearing music) and those who are skilled at
math (natural sciences and computer sciences included) have a great chance of being
linguistically gifted. It just so “happens” that what I hated in my youth had actually
developed my brainʼs capacity to gift me in the exact area I love! Amazing how every
single step is ordered by God--even when unbeknownst to us.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011: I asked a recruiter at Wycliffe to recruit me. A funny request. I
am in the beginnings now of applying for Membership. This means that I will become an
“official Wycliffe missionary.” Which means I will be poor for the rest of my Wycliffe
career. Just kidding ;) It does, however, mean that I will rely on the support of a team I
am going to build--both in finances and in prayer. Especially prayer. It also means that in
January 2012, I plan on attending a semester of concentrated studies at the Canada
Institute of Linguistics (CanIL). These studies will prepare me for Language survey.
Survey is the beginning of every translation. A team of linguistically capable
missionaries go to people groups without a Bible translation and make detailed,
thorough reports on their language.

My (tentative) plan is to do this in the Himalaya Mountain range in Nepal. I plan to leave
at the end of Summer 2012 and return 2-3 years later. To accomplish this, several
things must take place. First, I am already interning with Wycliffe. I have 30 hours a
week in my job, 4 hours of classes, and a number of other responsibilities. Now I have
begun an intense application process that will take 4-6 weeks. After being accepted as a
Wycliffe Member, I will begin raising my support (referred to as Partnership
Development). I will be building (developing) a team of people (partners) who will
commit to first praying for me and second supporting me financially. Some will do one,
some the other, some both. In October or November, I will attend a missionary training
course called EQUIP at the Wycliffe USA headquarters. In December, I will continue
Partnership Development (PD) and take a couple of weeks to “rest” before moving on to
CanIL.

I am blessed beyond measure, my cup is overflowing, and I cannot contain this joy! I
want to share this with you for a few reasons. First, I thought you might like to know
what is happening in my life. Second, I wanted to encourage you with the word of my
testimony (however summarized it may be). Third, I want to challenge you to consider
what you are allowing God to do with you. Fourth, I want to give you an opportunity to
be a part of the Great Commission (specifically the translation of the Word of God). It is
so important that every believer have His Word, for the Bible is Godʼs primary method of
communicating with us! And you can take part in delivering it to every people, every
tribe, and every tongue. You can do this in two ways: first by praying. Commit to praying
for a Bibleless People group (bibleless.org). Pray for translations already taking place.

Pray for translators. Pray for me. Second, you can support the work financially. I still
need $1000 to complete the support for my internship. I will need $625 for the EQUIP
training program. And I will need financial support for many years to come as I follow
God on this epic journey He is allowing me to take part in! You can support by donating
once, or by committing to donate monthly, quarterly, yearly. However the Lord leads you
to give. The money I will receive from you is truly from God. He does not want His
money given away grudgingly, but cheerfully. If you do not feel the Lord calling you to
give, do not give. I donʼt desire that money. But obey the Lord.

Most importantly, though (and I cannot express this enough), I need your prayers. The
Enemy will do all in his power to keep me (and you, and all believers) from walking in
the paths of righteousness! Though a joy and a blessing to serve God, a constant battle
is fought with the Enemy. Please pray.

With that, I end my tale. Tragedy, mystery, romance, adventure, battles, and many
dances combine to form this epic journey! At least, thatʼs how the story goes...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Newsletter June 2011

Wycliffe Bible Translators --
Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project

FOUNDATIONS

Wycliffe was founded in 1942 by William
Cameron Townsend. A missionary to the
Cakchiquel Indians of Guatemala,
Townsend caught the vision for translation
after Cakchiquel-speaking men expressed
their concern and surprise that God did not
speak their language.

Townsend resolved that every man,
woman and child should be able to read
God’s Word in their own language.
Borrowing the name of the Reformation
hero, John Wycliffe, who first translated the
Bible into English, Townsend founded
"Camp Wycliffe" in 1934 as a linguistics
training school. By 1942, "Camp Wycliffe"
had grown into two affiliate organizations,
Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL).

Today, SIL and Wycliffe Bible
Translators work together to translate
Scripture, train field personnel and promote
interest in translation. More than 700
translations have been completed, and
hundreds more are in the process. With
God’s provision, Townsend’s vision will be
realized.

~Taken from Wycliffe.org

BIBLELESS PEOPLES PRAYER PROJECT (BPPP)

This summer, I am working in Wycliffe
USA’s Prayer Ministries Department.
Prayer is the backbone of Missions.
Without intercession, nothing could be
completed. I am honored and humbled to
be working in such an important and
amazing department. The Prayer
Department of Wycliffe USA runs several
ministries. All of these ministries are

designed to allow the general public to assist
in the Bible Translation mission. One such
ministry is the Bibleless Peoples Prayer
Project--in which I will be assisting. BPPP is
a ministry to promote prayer
for people groups around the
world that do not currently
have a translation of the Bible
in their own language. There
are 2,078 language groups that
are still in need of translation.
There are currently 12,864
people committed to praying
for one of these language
groups until a translation is
begun in their language. Some
people pray for twenty years,
some for a few weeks, before a translation is
begun. You can easily become a part of this
team of Prayer Warriors by contacting me
or visiting Wycliffe.org/Pray online.

VISION 2025

The vision of Wycliffe is to see a translation
begun
in every language still needing one
by the year 2025. This is an impossible
goal--for man. But nothing is impossible
with God! Through prayer, this goal is
reachable. In the next 14 years, there will be
no language on this earth without a
translation project in progress. This is
particularly incredible due to the fact that
most Christians believe that the translation
work is already completed! However, it is
not, and there is much more work to be
done. Your prayers are needed, appreciated,
and effective!

Please contact me at
any time if you are
interested in
committing to pray
for a Bibleless
People Group. This
is such an incredibly
important part of
the Bible
Translation goal!
And you can play a
part through your
prayers.

ORIENTATION WEEK

The first week we spent here in Orlando, we didn’t do much
“work.” In fact, we didn’t have the chance to see our offices
or tour the Headquarters until Friday the 10th. However, we
had several classes informing us of the purpose of Wycliffe,
how it works with other organizations, the progress it is
making, and the goals it is well on its way to accomplishing.

We partook in various team-building activities, had
Bible studies, worship, meals, and began the formation of
great friendships with interns and staff alike. The group of
interns and the Internship staff spent a day at Disney
Hollywood Studios and Epcot enjoying company and
establishing community before diving into business.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Speaking of establishing
community, one of my various
roles this Summer is coordinating
and designing activities to ensure
community development within
the internship program. Whether
planning trips to watch the final
Shuttle Launch or making sure
that we spend as much time as is
necessary encouraging one
another, spending time together in
God’s Word, and basking together
in the Glory of His Presence in times of worship and prayer.

MY JOB

I work in the Prayer Ministries Department at Wycliffe
USA’s headquarters in Orlando, FL. My position is Assistant
of the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project. It is difficult to
explain exactly what my job is, but it consists of the
following (in no particular order): folding sign-up cards;
writing e-mails and letters to prayer partners, encouraging
them to continue praying; updating prayer partners on any
news regarding the people group they are praying for;
establishing communications between missionaries on the
field and those praying for them; reading missionary
newsletters, praying for their needs, and replying with
encouragement; researching countries, people groups, and
language areas; entering and updating information in our

My desk in the Prayer Ministries Department
extensive databases; and whatever else may be needed
administratively, secretarially, etc. I love every moment I
spend in the office!

WHAT’S NEXT? (See post: "That's How the Story Goes..."

Friday, June 17, 2011: I have fallen so much in love with the
vision of Wycliffe and it so closely matches my heart for the
Bibleless People that I decided on Friday to take the next
step in my journey. This upcoming Tuesday (June 21) I will
be having lunch with a local recruiter to start my
Membership application. This could mean a number of
things, but my hope and limited vision is to join a Language
Survey Team.

Surveyors are the “Marines” of
the Translation process. They are
the first on the field (often 10-20
years before any translator goes).
Their job is to, well, survey specific
language areas, taking notice of
every detail about the people’s
culture, language, and land. It is a
preliminary assessment of a
language, giving future translators
the information they need to train
and prepare for translation. I
would love to do this in the
Himalayan Mountains in Nepal, but
the Lord only knows where I will be going!

PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

In Wycliffe, there are three people who serve: Paid Staff,
Volunteers, and Members. The first two are self-descriptive.
Members raise support: missionaries working from the
United States. A Member builds a team of supporters. This
process is referred to in Wycliffe as Partnership
Development. It is one of the most important aspects of
being a missionary. The next page will describe how you can
become part of my Partnership team!

PRAISE REPORTS

Praise God for safe travels for
all of the interns--they come
from New Jersey, Arkansas,
Alabama, Kansas, Massachusetts,
and Pennsylvania.

I thank Him for a wonderful
job! I honestly believe that I am
in the perfect place for this part
of my life and I could not be
happier.

For the passionate vision God has
given me to see the Word of God
translated into the heart
languages of the people of this
world, I praise His name!

PHYSICAL NEEDS

Personally, I still have $1000 to
raise before the end of the
semester. Please contact me to
ask how you can help!

As a group, the interns need to
raise a little over $8000--pray for
us!

We could use food, household
cleaning supplies, coupons, gas
cards, etc.

I could use dress shirts, slacks,
and brown and black dress shoes
for office work.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray that I would raise the
remainder of my needed
support.

As I begin the long process of
applying for Membership, ask
God to guide each step and to
give me patience.

I have undertaken (by choice) the
responsibilities of cooking for the
interns and shopping for the
men’s intern house. I am also the
financial supervisor of the men’s
allotted petty cash--I keep track
of every dollar spent and turn in
a report and any leftover cash at
the end of each week. Pray that
God gives me rest and energy.