A Liddle Good News – Page 10 – The Wycliffe ministry of David and Katherine Liddle

Hitting the mark … or not

Last month, I provided support at a conference center in the Netherlands for a regularly-occurring event that I have helped before. Among the attendees are many people who are a little Internet-shy, so you won’t see any pictures of the event or detailed descriptions of it here.

All of the attendees are involved in what I would describe as creative ministries that use innovative methods to reach people in challenging circumstances. Read that however you will. The event has grown each year that it has been held, and this year, nearly 400 people were present. The event’s main dilemma is finding a suitable venue. It must be out-of-the-way so as to not attract too much attention, it must provide a variety of meeting spaces, and it’s got to have good Internet access.

Mobile Access Points — These mobile wireless access points I set up were put to good use at the conference.

That last bit is where I come in. I’m not going to bore you with the details of the hurdles that we faced, but it wasn’t easy to satisfy the Internet-hungry crowd that was meeting there for ten days. It became important for me to seek creative solutions myself, manage the expectations of the event staff and attendees, and communicate clearly with the center IT staffer. Besides this, there were a few people who needed intensive work done on the computers they brought.

I was both exhausted and exhilarated. The work I did over the course of the event was the most fulfilling I had done since the last time I had helped them.

On and Off the Mark — It was his first bullseye. You can see the satisfaction on his face, can’t you?

As I pondered the effect that this opportunity had on me, it reminded me of my son’s novice experiences in archery. It is far more rewarding for him to hit the center of the target than it is to hit it at the periphery—though hitting the target at all is still satisfying. Missing the target altogether is never fulfilling.

When I get to participate in events like that of last month, and use my skills as I did there, it’s like hitting the bullseye. My daily work? Well, much of the time it’s more like hitting the white and the black, to be honest. I can be content with those results, but I yearn to get closer to the center. Take a look at Jesus’ parables recorded in Matthew 25 and Luke 19, and you may get an even better sense of what I mean.

“… but the workers are few.”

Have the folks you work for ever been short of the right number of people in the tech department?

I wrote that Wycliffe is in the process of shuffling people from one email system to another. That’s a big job. There are probably more people than ever in jobs like mine, but it seems that there aren’t quite enough to make this project go as smoothly as we might hope.

So I finished the accounts for Wycliffe Slovakia, and my colleagues here are working on accounts in Switzerland, Finland, France, and other countries, bit by bit. I moved on to the accounts at the organizational level above us, to finish off the folks at the top. (No pun was intended there … OK, it was, but only in fun.) I have just a few stragglers to chase down in that group.

With my plate nearly clear, I’ve offered to work on other groups who seem to need help getting going. I can see from our records that there are many accounts waiting to be moved in these places. They just don’t have tech workers free to put their time into this task of ours.

Next stop? The Americas, apparently. Not Wycliffe USA, mind you—they’re all done with their staff. And not Canada, either. I’m talking about the people who help and guide the Wycliffe offices in Central and South America. They have a few dozen accounts that need to make the move—but they don’t have anyone else to work with them right now.

Clearly, the difference between time zones (3-7 hours?) is going to reduce the time each day that I have to get connected with people. If you think of me while praying, please pray for good, timely communication, clear thinking, and quick, skillful work. Thanks!

P.S. Here’s a shout-out and some accolades for the Bomgar company, whose technology makes such work possible. They’re terribly good to us, and we couldn’t do it without them!

The blessings and curses of communication

You can take the look of surprise off of your face now. Yes, I am writing another update, after months of silence.

Even under normal conditions, I have never been the type to write or call home much—my mother will testify to that. The past several months of my work have been addressing communication itself and have highlighted its blessings and curses, its joys and sorrows, its ease and difficulty.

Much as we did in 2009, our family of organizations in Wycliffe are moving to yet another email system. The last time, only about 1500 accounts switched—this time, all of the accounts are being changed. Spurred on by a desire to add services and reduce maintenance and complexity, this crew of thousands is migrating from our home-hosted email system to Google Apps for Nonprofits.

Thankfully, we have a lot of clever people working for us, and these folks made the process quite easy. It’s so easy, in fact, that the whole project is about 80% complete. But guess whose part of the world represents most of the remaining 20%?

So far, I myself have managed the move for my brothers and sisters in Sweden, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, and the Netherlands. I’m now working on the few accounts in Slovakia.

The tricky part? Communicating with all of these people in such a way that each person clearly understands what is happening and knows what I need from him or her to give the move a happy ending. Most of these people didn’t grow up speaking English. Though each can use it quite well, there have been plenty of instances in which I let a subtle phrase or word choice worm its way into my instructional messages. I’m trying to bring these people a benefit to their work, but things like language or past email practices can pose a hindrance.

Indeed, there have been ups and downs to this experience. My thoughts during such times recall one of the last things that Moses did with the Israelites before his death. God told him to put half the tribes on Mt. Gerizim and the other half on Mt. Ebal. Blessings would be pronounced from the former and curses from the latter. The tribes would be given a choice about the future—to do what is right and be blessed, or to do what is wrong and be cursed. It’s an interesting read; you can find it in Deuteronomy 27.

Many promises are made about technology, both that which exists now and that which is promised in the future. We humans often treat technology as something of a “promised land”. Like Canaan for the Israelites, there are both blessings and curses to be found in this new land. We see every day that there are right ways to use technology—and there are wrong ways to use it. It can be a help to us, and it can be a burden to us.

My job with Wycliffe is to direct people to the helpful side of technology and to battle against its burdensome side. It sometimes feels as though my chair is perched on the edge or line between those two places. With your prayers, friend, and your support of our ministry, you ensure that hundreds of Christians working for the cause of Bible translation are not without that guidance. Thank you!