visit – A Liddle Good News

“We can make our plans…”

“… but the Lord determines our steps.” (Proverbs 16:9, NLT)

I planned to write much, much earlier than now, but that does not mean that the Lord determined that I wouldn’t. No, it was mostly just my own procrastination—and other elements of my personality. Indeed, it’s been several months since I last wrote about what Katherine and I have been doing in our ministry with Wycliffe in Germany. From that time in May of last year, some significant events have occurred, and I’m going to share them in brief with you.

In late June of 2024, we made a two-week trip to Pennsylvania to do three things: attend the wedding of one of Katherine’s close college friends, move our household goods to a cheaper storage unit, and celebrate our younger son’s birthday. That was the limit to the plan we had made. (And the Lord said, “Watch this….”)

Around when I wrote in May, our son concluded that his best option for continuing his education was to be found back here in Germany. It didn’t take much research and prayer before Katherine and I agreed that he was right. Step #4 added to the plan: pack the lad up and bring him back with us—the day after his birthday. There were many, many steps following that—Germany is famous for its bureaucracy—but I am pleased to report that our son is close to finishing his ~~first~~ second semester at the University of Siegen. He is pursuing a teaching degree, with concentrations in math and English.

One of the gorgeous sunsets we experienced on Edisto Island (keep reading).

On the day of our departure to the U.S., Katherine and I received word that the tenants renting our house in Duncanville, Texas, had departed abruptly and left behind a mess and no small amount of damage to the property. <sigh> Step #5 added to the plan: figure out what to do and how to do it. The Lord guided us to the wisest solution possible, but that situation will be a financial stressor for some time yet. (Due to taxes on both sides of the ocean, selling the house is not an option at this time.)

Test day for the motor portion of my recreational boating exam. Sail portion underway, so to speak.

August saw the three of us working regularly on various tasks related to getting our son settled and registered. At the same time, Katherine was planning her six-week practicum in the Ames Library of Seattle Pacific University. From about mid-September to the end of October, she got hands-on experience with the concepts of cataloging that she’d been studying in her MLS program with Texas Woman’s University. The practicum went very well, and Katherine even got to catalog some holdings in German for a special theological collection. She also got to spend lots of time with her sister, who oh-so-graciously-and-not-at-all-reluctantly hosted her. (Katherine visited other family members as well, but Pam gets a special mention. Duh.)

Pleasant trails and wildflowers in springtime.

Meanwhile, in my work, I was preparing for some comings and goings at Wycliffe Germany. Some people retired, and some new people arrived. Included among those was a new director, who started work in October. So I needed to order and set up all the things that beep, bonk, and/or blink. At the same time, I was planning the replacement of the remote support tool that I use along with other technicians in Europe and Africa. The server we had been using had reached the end of its life, and it was time for its services to ascend to the cloud—in more ways than one.

November and December were pretty normal in terms of work and everyday life. Katherine tended the library, I tended the many systems in my herd, and the lad tended his studies. We did that until shortly before Christmas, when the three of us joined the rest of Katherine’s family and our older son on Edisto Island, South Carolina. We all had a great time celebrating the holidays together and enjoying a break from work. Oh, and lest I forget… Katherine was granted her Master of Library Sciences degree, having completed the program with flying colors. (Duh.)

Speaking of colors, here’s lavender abuzz in front of our home in Holzhausen

The year began fairly well for us. Between semesters, our younger son completed an internship at a nearby high school. Katherine made another trip to the U.S. to help her parents for a few weeks. Little by little, I’m working with the leadership team on formulating a succession plan—and may the Lord determine our steps as we do that together. Yes, my work and duties are going to change next year, and as soon as that future is more certain, I will write again. In the meantime, please pray for us to have ever-present wisdom and grace in our relationships, in our work (and studies), and in tackling the niggly bits of everyday life. Thank you for your support—in prayer and in finances—and for your patience!

Save the best image for last. Our hearts are full with Katherine’s accomplishment!

Planes, trains, and automobiles

For months, I have told people that I knew what I was going to write next. It’s true. I did know. It is also true that, for months, I put off writing what I knew I would write. Let’s put it down to this dizzying visit of ours to the U.S., shall we? Buckle up and return those trays to their upright positions, and I’ll share what we’ve been up to.

As I indicated back in July, we started our visit at the end of August by flying from Frankfurt to Atlanta. That’s not our normal routine, but we were to pick up a loaner vehicle from a generous church in the South Carolina Lowcountry—classic Southern hospitality boosted by the Holy Spirit, or perhaps the other way around. After visiting friends in the Charleston area, we headed north to Pennsylvania, dropping off our younger son outside of Camp Lejeune so that he could follow later with his brother. (Aww….)

A fitting chariot for our stay. We are supremely grateful for the comfort, which has greatly eased the stress of travel.

On Labor Day weekend, we had a small family reunion with my mother and sisters. After a few weeks of getting reoriented and helping the lad get moving toward life on his own, Katherine and I drove to Duncanville, Texas, for our first church visit (25 September) and meetings with Katherine’s global library colleagues. I also dropped in on my old IT crew.

A pause from driving lessons along the Susquehanna River.

My wife and I parted company at this point. Katherine remained in Texas for a few more days; to help our son further, I flew to Philadelphia and took trains to Lancaster. (Now the title is fully justified!) In that time, Katherine received word of a serious illness in the family, so next she drove to Colorado. I flew out in the first week of October and rejoined her. From there, we drove to St. Joseph, Missouri, for our second church visit (9 October)—and then back to Colorado.

As in this picture, taken in central Kansas, it seemed like there was always another road for us to travel.

From Colorado, we flew to Orlando, Florida, to take part in a week-long seminar at Wycliffe USA called Connections. There, we learned how to transition from crazy lives overseas to crazy lives stateside, and we met some of the people who manage some of the crazy on our behalf (read: finance and healthcare). The time impressed on me that each of us there, like the figures described in Hebrews 11:13-16, is still looking for a place to call home. In the meantime, we wander the earth, hoping for our God to put us to good use.

At Wycliffe USA. The pavement reads, “Declare His glory among the nations.”

We returned to Colorado. After a few more days there, including some with the older lad, I took the car and headed alone to Pennsylvania, leaving Katherine with her family.

After stopping for a day in Missouri, I journeyed straight to our third scheduled church visit (6 November) in Media, Pennsylvania. Then I returned to Lancaster. A few days later, Katherine flew to Harrisburg and was picked up by all three of her guys. We left our two rascals alone long enough to make our fourth church visit in Springfield, Pennsylvania (13 November).

The next week, Katherine and I drove down to Annandale, Virginia, for the fifth church visit in our schedule (20 November). Thankfully, we got a break in our travels for Thanksgiving. (Did you see what I did there?) We also got to spend time again with both of our sons. Such times make for a happy mama … and papa.

In Colorado, it was nice to *walk* for a change.

Our sixth and final church visit took us back to the D.C. area, in Fairfax, Virginia. We returned to Lancaster, but Katherine has flown to Colorado again, leaving me alone with this keyboard. (She’ll be back. I hope.)

Over all these trips, we’ve seen a lot of faces—the faces of family, friends, and a host of supporting sisters and brothers in Christ. We have also seen a lot of miles, according to the history gathered by my phone. (Yes, I let “them” keep track of me—someone probably should.) It reports that, since we began our journey to the U.S., I have travelled 10,466 miles by plane, 76 miles by train, and 8,118 miles by car. That’s an average of about 167 miles each day. For the past four years, we lived less than one mile from our offices in Germany.

Here are our faces, more or less. We took more pictures at rest than on the road. Huh.

During most of this time, Katherine has also been attending to her study program in Library and Information Science. She loves it, and she’s doing great—as if any other result was possible!—but it has added a layer of intense activity to everything else. Katherine will have a break from these studies until we get back to Germany next month. She’ll be far more settled next semester, but I know that she would appreciate prayers to the Lord our God for sharpness of mind and stamina.

I want to close with an observation. We returned to a country different from the one we left in 2018—and the churches reflected the changes. The situation reminded me of that of the Jewish exiles who returned from Persia to their homeland: they didn’t all go back, rebuilding took a long time, the results weren’t like “the glory days”, and they seemed to be surrounded by foes. Everyone was discouraged. But in a vision, the prophet Zechariah was told:

It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

and then:

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin ….
Zechariah 4:6-10, NLT

Don’t lose courage. Don’t lose hope. Let’s look to the One who can achieve far more than we can on our own. Under His faithful care and yours, Katherine and I will return on yet another plane to Germany, where we will continue our ministry with Wycliffe. We had no fixed home here, and our home there will be different from the ones before. Please pray for our journeys in this world, and we will pray for yours.

A pretty picture from the end of a day, for the end of your reading, because you made it this far.

Another end to waiting, but better

A few months ago, a member of Wycliffe Germany came to me bearing a thick sheaf of paper. She is one of several people around the center who have worked in Tanzania, as Katherine and I once did. However, her work there is ongoing—she serves as a consultant to a cluster of projects in the south of the country. One of the languages in the project is that of the Safwa, who live in the mountains around the city of Mbeya.

In the 2002 Wycliffe publication From Akebu to Zapotec: A Book of Bibleless Peoples, the Safwa people have an entry under, of all things, the letter S. The entry is accompanied by an artist’s rendering of a photo taken during the sociolinguistic survey of the Safwa language in 1998. Katherine and I took part in that survey. We found that the Safwa had a strong sense of identity and preferred their language to Kiswahili in daily use. The Church was present, but its message and ministry was hindered by the use of Kiswahili. Those of us who surveyed the language concluded that the Safwa would surely benefit from Bible translation, but we also felt that such a project would be a long time coming.

Let’s come back now, 24 years later, to that sheaf of paper. What my colleague Andrea presented to me was a draft printout of the New Testament in Kisafwa:

The cover page of the draft New Testament in Kisafwa

My friends, this day was one of the most significant of my entire life. Later that day, I wrote to others that, if I did nothing else worthwhile in my life, the knowledge that these people would receive the Good News in their own language would be enough to content me. Praise God with Katherine and me for the proofing and the publication of this good work!

The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.
It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
Isaiah 55:10-11, New Living Translation

Last month, Wycliffe Germany had its annual member meeting, which gathers together all those who are present in the country for the purposes of enjoying fellowship and conducting business. Yours truly ran the technical components of the main session, freeing others to give their full attention to their friends and to the meeting.

My command center for the *Mitgliederversammlung*

Next month, Katherine and I will be returning with our younger son to the U.S. for a 4 1/2 month home stay. We will help him settle into life and work, now that he has finished his schooling and a gap-year program. Moreover, we will spend long-missed time with our families, friends, and supporters. Our schedule is still taking form, so if you live in one of the following states and are interested in getting together, please let us know! We’ll arrive in Georgia, pick up a car in South Carolina, and then drive to Pennsylvania. From there, we will spend time in Texas, Missouri, Colorado, and Virginia, before leaving again from Atlanta.

We hope / plan / expect to return to Germany in mid-January. When we come back, we won’t come back to the house we’ve been renting since 2019, but rather to a apartment. An empty nest. When you pray, please ask the Lord our God to bless us with a great home stay, our son with a good start to the next phase of his life, and our ministry with sufficient support in prayer and finances to assure our next term of service. If you want to be part of that, you can join us! None of what we do would be possible without you!