Three weeks ago something occurred that pained my heart. 3 laptops were stolen from national translators who work with an organization close to us. In PNG, not a half mile from where we sleep, at night some thieves came in and stole the laptops from the national men and women here to do translation work.
As a result they lost a year's worth of translation data. That's more than 4 books they were working on revising. This pained me greatly given that I've done a lot of work in this country to avoid data loss. Sadly they are not a part of our organization and did not have the resources or the training to get backups, even though at times we've consulted with them... this particular group hadn't been trained. Again, not our organization a different one, but that only slightly lessens the blow.
So we began praying... that somehow the data would be recovered and the work they had done over the past year would not be lost.
Today about 2 hours before I get on a plane to the U.S. I got an email.
> God has heard your prayers and has answered in AMAZING ways for our
> colleagues. [Translators] comments: "The Monday we lost our
> computers was a very sad day, and their was a darkness we felt like never
> before. But people started praying all around the world, and three days
> later, the Lord turned our mourning into rejoicing! There have been many
> miracles since that day, and we want to thank you for your prayers,
support
> and encouragement through this time. Through some friends and colleagues,
> the Lord has provided new computers for our translation needs."
>
> And the BIGGEST praise of all.......the translation data they thought was
> ALL lost, has been miraculously preserved and recovered. All of it!
THERE
> IS NO ONE LIKE JEHOVAH!
>
> They said, "Our hearts are filled with praise to our God...he has
encouraged
> us greatly in the work he's given to us. We can't stop praising our
> Lord...we just can't!
>
> Thanks so much for praying!!!!
>
> (If you want the longer version, please ask)
>
Praise GOD for that.
In related theft, a course called VITAL which teaches translation to nationals lost over 12 laptops in a theft last week. No one was threatened as the theft took place over night... but their work was gone. Thankfully a device CTS was instrumental in putting in place was available for backups and no data was lost!
a laptop and projector was stolen from the AIDS education team as well in the last month.
If you have a heart to, please pray against laptop theft. Laptops are being stolen frequently.
