Life at Work – Page 12 – A Liddle Good News

Nach zwei Wochen

My cousin encouraged me – told me – through Facebook that I should write again with an update on our progress in settling in here. Far be it from me to ignore her …

It’s been a little more than two weeks since we arrived in the Hickengrund – the name of the four-village cooperative of Holzhausen, Niederdresselndorf, Oberdresselndorf, and Lützeln. We are still living in the Lautenschlagers’ home in Niederdresselndorf (a.k.a. Ndd.), where the boys will go to school and where we ourselves hope to live. Here’s a map, and I hope it looks right for you:

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Last week, we had the pleasure of meeting with the principal of the school. She evaluated Jonathan for his academic abilities and his German, since he is at the age where children are divided between two school tracks. To make sure that he has the best chance of success in school, he is going to be placed in the 4th grade. He’ll be with younger children and cover content he already knows, but he will be in an environment better suited to his learning German well. C will begin in the 3rd grade. Yesterday, Katherine and the boys enjoyed a “play date” with two families who have children in their classes. A wonderful time was had by all, in two languages.

A view of Niederdresselndorf from one of the surrounding trails

A week ago, we also toured a house in Ndd. that is being renovated in preparation for rental. The four of us like the house very much, but we don’t know yet how much the rent will be. It has enough room for us, and we can arrange it to accommodate our guests as well. The kitchen area is small, and the main bathroom is on the ground floor, but those things are offset by its location – in a quiet neighborhood away from the main road, next to the stream, and down the stone street from a bakery.

Once we’ve been here for a month, Wycliffe can release our setup funds to us and we will be able to shop in earnest for a car and furniture. We’ll also have the money we need for the initial rent payment required here.

So far as work goes, we successfully registered with the township of Burbach and the district of Siegen – and I now have my provisional residence and work permit. I’ve been coming to the office each morning for the last two weeks, and today I had the chance to help the first person with a problem. In the process, I got to take apart a laptop model I haven’t seen before. The fellow presently tests Bible translation software specifically designed for low-cost, low-power computers that can be easily obtained for use in translation projects. Unfortunately, this particular specimen – his own netbook – has a hardware problem that cannot be repaired. He will have to replace the system board or request a new computer. That’s the way these things go sometimes.

We’ve been in touch with some of our family through Skype, and we’d love to hear from all of our friends from time to time – we even have Skype on our new phones!

When you pray for us over the next week or two, please remember these things:

The beginning of the boys’ school experience in Niederdresselndorf; their first day of school is September 7th
Our desire to rent the house by the Wetterbach
The timely transfer of funds so that we can settle in properly
Our need to make friends in the community and learn German well

Thank you!

Coming to a theater near you …

Sometime around Christmas, Katherine and I saw the trailer for the movie The King’s Speech. It looked interesting, especially since it starred Colin Firth, an actor we both enjoyed in Pride and Prejudice. A few weeks ago, Katherine saw the movie here in St. Joe with my aunt and cousins. She liked the film quite a lot.

I like to watch movie trailers – they boil down films enough to fit into a short time span, give each viewer a strong sense of the content, and leave the interested viewer with a desire to know more. But it had been some time since I had seen the preview for The King’s Speech. Despite Katherine’s concern that she would spoil it for me, I asked her to describe the movie’s plot, characters, and developments. When she did, I understood the movie much better and realized that while the trailer was certainly accurate, there was much more to the film than what those short segments depicted. And since I haven’t experienced the movie for myself, even her own vivid description is fading in my mind. Until I see it, I’m missing out – and the film’s accolades and award nominations are lost on me.

So what does that have to do with Bible translation?

Until translation of the Bible happens for a language, the speakers of the language have experienced, at best, only the “trailer” for God’s Word. They’ve heard limited portions of the message. That may be because only the main points are available in their language, or because they heard it in a language that they don’t understand fully.

For example, would you go see a movie if its trailer was visually interesting – but all the dialogue was in Hungarian? (Try this one – it might be familiar.) What if someone who understood Hungarian described it to you? Or offered to interpret all the lines for you at the theater? Would you be interested then? Would you expect to have a good experience?

What if the content was important to your own safety? Anyone who has flown will recognize the fundamental messages in this video, but I doubt that you’d be able to tell me exactly what was said.

So where does that leave us with The Greatest Story Ever Told? Not only does the content have everything that makes for successful films – God’s Message is absolutely critical for the eternal safety of every person alive. Yet more than 340 million people can’t get this message because it’s not available in the 2,100 languages (and more) that they speak. The whole message is available in 457 languages. (Including in Hungarian, with film.) But many people have to be told, “I’m sorry, that movie’s not showing in a theater near you.”

The good news is that we’re not satisfied with that statement – right now, Wycliffe is working in more than 1,500 languages to get God’s Message out. And we’re not alone – the Church is cooperating more and more on that effort. There are a lot of names that roll by in the credits, in addition to the Producer, Director, and Star who makes it all possible. Katherine’s name and mine are in the credits, too, along with those of the people who pray for and support us. Where is your name among them all?

One more thing – think about what happens to you when you are completely drawn in to a movie and it takes first place among your favorites. What has God’s Message done to you?

And just one more thing. Really – I mean it this time. Guess who will be among the people I’m serving once we get to Europe? That’s right – Wycliffe Hungary.

Thoughts after the trip to Germany

It’s been a few weeks since I returned from what I called my “preview” trip to Germany. Do you remember that? No? That’s OK. There was a conference held in Germany some distance from the Wycliffe Europe office, and the attendees needed some computer support and services throughout the week. Many of them were Wycliffe workers, but some were not. I was invited by my future co-worker to come and help. I didn’t have to pray very hard about accepting that invitation.

The conference gave me a lot to think about, so far as ministry goes – what I do, who I do it for, and why I do it. I think the “what” is not a big deal. There are a lot of people who have computer skills – there are even many Christians who have computer skills. God appears to have gifted me with the ability to study and remember the things related to computing that place me squarely between the beasts and their users, ready to help. So, Lord, how do you want me to use this?

All of my co-laborers at the conference work, in some way, with people who live in sensitive situations. You can’t go there, or you can’t talk about this or that, or you can’t do this or that, etc. Some of them have to use other names for themselves or the places where they work. Perhaps you get the idea now. My point here is that my brothers and sisters are taking on some risk in order to fulfill Jesus’ mission for His Church. They are doing a great thing – possibly one of the greatest things. When they gather together to talk about what they’re doing, to share ideas, to learn from one another, to encourage each other, and to improve how the message of Jesus gets to people who desperately need to hear it, I don’t want them to have to worry about stupid technological problems getting in their way.

These are capable people, mind you, who use technology every day in their work – it often forms the center of their own ministries. They can solve many of their own problems. But when the purpose of their attending a conference is to learn and to become a better servant of Jesus, computer problems should not weigh them down. So I work in the background to relieve them of that burden.

Now let’s think about who they’re serving. We hear a lot in the media today about people who create fear when they move to other countries and start lives there, or about people who engage in hostility against “us” because of the cultures and nation-states we’re part of. “We” worry a lot over these people. Politicians and pundits argue on the TV and the radio about how to handle them. I’m sure you get my drift.

When I sat there at this conference, though, listening to one presentation after another, I thought, “This is the solution to all those worries.” Not that my colleagues were concerned with solving high political and social matters – they’re not. But they’re approaching the problem at the individual level – the Jesus level – and addressing the spiritual root of it all. And it would blow your mind to hear about the harvest of souls that their work is producing. I am ready to commit the rest of my life to make more and more of that happen.

If you’re a part of our ministry to all these people – in praying, in giving, in spreading the word – you are a part of what I am convinced is the best way to drive out fear and hate in this world. Don’t underestimate your place in the big picture. You’re laying and maintaining the foundation for that “harvest of souls”, and we appreciate you keeping us up and running. Hoo-yah!