Chad and the Dad of Chad

This is myself and Clement. Clement is from the Pou village. Clement is a translator and is quadra-lingual working on 2 translations.

Last night his wife gave birth to a son. They named him after me.

Chad and the Dad of Chad

This is me and Clement. Clement is from the Pou village. Clement is a translator and is quadralingual working on 2 translations.

Last night his wife gave birth to a son. They named him after me.

Chad and the Dad of Chad

This is me and Clement. Clement is from the Pou village. Clement is a translator and is quadralingual working on 2 translations.

Last night his wife gave birth to a son. They named him after me.

B.E. We bring good things to life!

In this village translation project there are three ways to communicate to the outside world.

The most used one is their internet connection, because it is also reliable.

I'm out here mainly because recently it's been having issues.

Which are fixed now.

Today I stepped outside my comfort zone and had to install new batteries for a solar system.  Not being an electrician I was unsure what to do.  So I spent every break I had, reading up on things, talking with co-workers/friends back in our main HQ asking them questions, reading manuals, and coming up with plans.

Because it was a battery system, I figured people would be without power so I approached it like I used to approach server down times.

I made my plan, I documented it, I even cut out cardboard cutouts to show where everything went.

When it came time to do the actual work, it went very quickly, and it worked the first time. 

I was very happy because I've never done this before.  I was originally going to rely on my friend pictured above who was the one who had done it before.  But his real job is linguistics and translation and I didn't want to steal him away from that for longer than I had to

My buddy B.E. (let's call him B.E. because he brings good things to light), has to know a little about everything.  He's the man in charge.

He has to know a little about electricity, a little about networks, a little about computers and hard drives, a little about construction, I'm so amazed by all the things he has to know to keep his project running.  And to learn them, he meet with experts we have who have come to support Bible Translation.

So when someone comes to help him who can take one of those jobs off his shoulders, and give him more time to spend on what he's a real expert about (linguistics) then he is happy.

Today, I saw him on fire. He was all jazzed up! Because the Bible Checking workshop began!  He was doing what he came to do.  All the electricianing, carpentry, plumbing, networking etc, was all built up so he could do that.

To see the team working and doing that, was impressive.  To know that they trusted me to get work done while they were doing that was satisfying. 

Today was a day where a team worked well together, people doing what they were good at, and then sometimes, doing something they weren't so good at, but with the help of others they succeeded!

This to me is what support work is all about. Supporting others, offloading them with your skills so they can use their skills!

Fun Moments

Yesterday being sunday, I flew the drone around to get some shots, and the village kids all came running to watch, and with each turn there were giggles and finger pointing, it was fun.

I've only been here a couple of days so far, and so take this with a grain of salt, but hearing laughter and children brings this village alive and gives a sense to me that the Spirit is alive in this place.  I have been to villages that do not seem as "light" as this one. It is a nice feeling.

Today, at the beginning of the translation workshop I was asked to share a bit of my story. I did it in Tok Pisin and realized it's been a while since I've done that.

I spoke about how we have prayed for and new this village for ten years but have never been here nor seen these people we are praying for.  I drew a parallel  between that and those sending us here, how they have never seen these people but still pray for them and send us here.

I told them that I was happy to be here and happy to be helping and happy to finally meet and see them.

I told them that all of you back home supporting us, to support them, were here with me in my heart.

That resonated with them because several of them walked a very long way, leaving their families to come do this work.

God is the only one I know who can compel men's hearts to leave everything they know, to go a long distance, to do sacrificial work that glorifies Him and brings others to Him.

Being a part of something like this is eternally significant, and makes you appreciate God's ability to orchestrate lives.

Sore Buns Sunday

(What you can't quite see in the background is the road/river.  The river has flooded onto the road and we're driving through a few inches of water here.  Later it becomes closer to a few feet.)

Sunday is the Lord's day. It's a day of rest. I generally like to keep it Holy and not work. However there is a lot of work that needs to be done to prepare the computers for the workshop, and people begin arriving this afternoon.  I could definitely use the extra hours that I would normally use to visit the local village church.  In my head I was tempted to skip church for that reason alone. When you are in the village dates and time are almost irrelevant. You care more about sun for power, rain for water, so the time is 'light time' 'dark time' 'hot time' 'wet time' oh and 'mosquito time' (at least for me)

Yesterday afternoon the bruises on my backside became well pronounced. I obtained these from the 1.5 hour drive coming into the village. The bruises were such that I was unable to sit anywhere without a lot of pain.  You can imagine working on computers, moving from chair to chair, this was annoying.  It is also somewhat embarrassing to admit that my buns were not road-tested-hardened-buns-of-steel and normally I would not, except it contributes to the story.

So there I was on Sunday morning, realizing that visiting the local village church is usually a great way to meet people and get to know the area and see some of its culture.  Yet the thought of sitting on bamboo pole benches, or any type of hard seating, made me wince in pain.  Coupled with the need to get these computers working, I opted to skip church.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting at the computers unable to solve a problem that was stymieing me.  I could not figure out the proper firewall pass through for this software to work.

After a frustrating hour, I realized, that I did not start my morning the same way I had started all the others. ( I hadn't read my Bible nor prayed because the internet was off and I went right to work fixing it so others would not have to wait for me.)  So I stopped and prayed this prayer:

"God, I know today is your day, and I have not done anything to recognize that. I am sorry.  God I know these computers, and this work in this village is your work, and I am honoured to be here to help with it. God, please forgive me for not putting you first today.  God if you would, please help me out here, I'm stuck, and I can't figure out this problem. I'm going to click apply on this button in a second and I am asking you to make it work. I need your help, I need you. I forgot that for a moment, but I'm reminded all the time. Thank you for reminding me."

I clicked apply.

It worked.

I'm not advocating treating God like a genie in a lamp. That isn't what that prayer was about.  As soon as it began working my eyes filled up and got a little watery.

Unless God wants our efforts to succeed in glorifying Him, they won't.  Sunday is not God's only day, all of the days are His, all of our efforts are His.  He is almighty, all powerful, loving and graceful.

I was moved that He imparted grace to me while I chose to bun shun the hard church benches.

Pray for us while out here, we will run into spiritual obstacles.  This work, what is happening here is so exciting, people are legitimately following God, that the enemy doesn't like it and fights back.

Please pray for the next 6 weeks that when this happens we recognize it quickly.

My Trip to Arop Village

First we took this:

To this airstrip:

Then we  loaded our cargo, and 6 people in the back of this:

and drove to the village over and through this:

and this:

until we arrived here, to find all sort of help in unloading:

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I've been a lot of places, I've done alot of driving through various terrain.

That was the most adventurous ride I'd ever been on, and I'm told it was GOOD. The rivers weren't too high, the truck didn't get stuck or stall. All in all it was a good trip, thank you for your prayers in getting me here.

I was able to get the internet back up and working for them before dinner that same night, which was a big win for everyone.

Please continue to pray that the trip goes well and I'm able to help this work of Bible Translation with my skills and attitude.