This is Steven, and his dad, and David our radio tech. Today I had the pleasure of setting them up with village email (or HF-email). This is a system I've described before about how a laptop using software designed by a believer, to use an hf-radio connection and modem to transmit email VERY VERY SLOWLY in places where internet connectivity doesn't exist.
Steven recently was in a near fatal car accident and broke his neck. You can see here, that the neck brace is gone. Steven works with an organization run by nationals whose goal it is to translate the Bible.
For those of you interested in missiology or missions theory, I'm sure you have heard the idea of "get in, train, and get out". The idea that an anglo presence in a country changes it more culturally than it does for Christ and that we shouldn't stay resident for too long. This is a concept I have struggled with a lot here as we do see people starting to adopt some Western culture.
We're not here to spread our culture of the West, only our culture of Christ.
Well, Steven's organization is a huge example of why we can't simply leave. They are national driven, but they rely heavily on our technical expertise to help them accomplish their goals. We partner with them, and help them, and yet they run the show for their mission.
It is a pleasure to help someone like Steven who has a true heart for Christ.
For those who subscribe to the "get in and get out" theory of missions, this country proposes and interesting problem in that the very culture is an obstacle to letting any one people group get trained and able to reach the rest of the country. It is a huge task, but because they are so divided by language and culture, no one man or one group can reach them ALL.
Many of us would love to pass on training and skills, to cultivate a mother tongue leader, but it simply is not something that would work here. I can't simply show Steven how to run the radio and email, I have to show a thousand Stevens.
Still, it is a pleasure to show one at a time, day by day. Knowing that what amounts to only a few hours of my efforts, could amount to an entire people group getting communication via email and voice.
