I will post more in 2015.

Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015Iwillpostmorein2015

Really. I will.

Homes 4 Haiti

Back in 2010, there was a devastating earthquake in Haiti. OMS has a lot of missionaries and ministries in this country, so we immediately knew we had to help. But we wanted it to be something practical. Thus, Homes 4 Haiti was born. I helped put together the original brochure for this project, encouraging teams to travel to Haiti for 1-2 weeks to build homes for families who had lost everything. This project has continued steadily for the last four years, and I just found out some cool statistics that I want to share.


Year           # of teams sent                # of homes built               # of people sent
2010                     2                                       1                                       8
2011                    17                                     16                                   156
2012                    21                                     17                                   265
2013                    23                                    *20                                  283
2014                    23                                    *15                                  334
TOTALS            86                            69                             1,046


In 2013 * includes building a school depot at Gressier

In 2014 * includes building 3 outhouses, installing 3 wells, and 1 Orphan Home at Gressier

OMS is now building a community in Bon Repos, Haiti, for the poorest of the poor. At the center of the community is a church.

You can contribute to this project here: https://onemissionsociety.org/give/express-give. Be sure to add project number 408065 when you give.

Literacy and You

How much is the ability to read worth to you?

Think about it for a few minutes.

What does the ability to read do for you?

It helps you know what is going on in the world. 

It gives you perspective on other cultures. 

It provides an escape to exciting new worlds. 

It allows us to travel. 

Now think of all the things we couldn't do if we couldn't read.

You likely can't get a high-paying job. 

You can't verify what people are telling you as true.

You can't read the Bible.

(You also wouldn't be reading this, and that's just tragic.)

So, think about my question again. How much is the ability to read worth to you?

Apparently, for me, it's worth a mild case of hypothermia.

(Probably more. I read a lot. Like, every day. I can't imagine what I'd do without it.)

For the past few years, ECC has done a Walk for Literacy to benefit literacy programs in Africa and South America. Literacy is incredibly important to the work of ECC because so much of what we do involves words. We want people to be reading their Bibles.

Plus, T&M is 64 booklets full of words. 

Last Saturday was this year's event, and because I don't want to walk 5k, but do want to help, I hung out along the route and pointed people in the proper direction and cheered them on.

And because it was November, it was 40 degrees and incredibly windy.

Hence the hypothermia.

But we still had a good time!

We had some folks from outside OMS.

Some of our MKs.

James, on the left, is the Director of Literacy for ECC.

In all, we had 22 walkers/runners, one baby, and one dog.

And one guy who thought the run was so nice, he did it twice. (20 minutes for the first lap, about 24 for the second. Yes, he lapped several people. He moved fast, so I had to get a pic when I could.)

At the end, we gathered for hot chocolate and donuts. 

You can donate to the literacy effort by sending a check to One Mission Society and putting "Literacy" on the memo line. 

2 Timothy 2:16-17

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

So, every Monday we have department meetings, except for once a month when we have a staff briefing to learn what everyone else has been up to. Every department does things a little differently. Some have a short prayer time, others use it to catch up on everyone's home life, some talk about the challenges they're facing in their work. In ECC, we have a short devotional followed by prayer time for work or personal requests. The whole thing usually lasts about an hour. We also have a lot of folks off-site, so we include them via video chat.

This morning, our devotional was on 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which you can read above.

And I know we've all read these verses a hundred times. I did an entire Biblical Interpretation class on 2 Timothy when I was in college.

But something about these verses just really appealed to me this morning. Specifically, those four words in the middle: teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training.

Now, you can view these things as separate acts. We all do each of these things at various times in our lives. But I also see it as a process.

Think about when you're learning something new. You are first taught how to do it. You have knowledge, but wisdom only comes through understanding that there is a right way and a wrong way to use this knowledge. Using it the wrong way leads to rebuke or reproof. Even with this wisdom, however, we can unintentionally follow a wrong path or need a correction in our application. But once we're on the correct path and know how to do something, we can't just stop there. Without a diligent, continuous repetition and practice of the process, without continuing to train and narrow our focus, we would lose our knowledge or ability over time.

You can apply this to so many areas of life. It's true of the church multiplication process, it's true of parenting, sports, etc.

But also realize that this doesn't happen in our own strength. We don't just automatically know these things. We have to apply everything through the filter of Scripture.

Scripture teaches us.

Scripture rebukes us.

Scripture corrects us.

Scripture trains us.

To what end?

So that we are equipped for whatever path God sends us on.

I need another year-long goal, something like what I did with the photographs a few years ago, but maybe in writing this time.

I need prompts. Questions to answer.

Maybe I'll do some digging.

to SAG (v):

Normally, the verb 'sag' is defined as follows:

1. to sink or bend downward by weight or pressure, especially in the middle: The roof sags.

2. to hang down unevenly; droop: Her skirt was sagging.

3. to droop; hang loosely: His shoulders sagged.

4. to yield through weakness, lack of effort, or the like: Our spirits began to sag.

5. to decline, as in price: The stock market sagged today.

In ECC, SAG means something quite different.

The Student Activity Guide is a 103-page supplement to the Train & Multiply booklets. Trainers use it to guide their students through specific activities or to decide which lesson they need to focus on next.

However, it has gained a rather negative reputation amongst the editing staff. When you tell someone you've been SAGging, you are immediately met with a word of sympathy, along with a note of thanks that it's you and not them.

Today, I embark on my quest to make this beast a productive member of society. 

Monthiversary

Can you believe it's been a month since I started working with ECC?

Weird. 

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Woah.

So, a few years ago, a new version of the NIV was released.

I didn't care much for it then. I preferred the 1984 version. But I'm sure they had their reasons. Whatever. I don't use the NIV normally, so I really only noticed the differences when I was looking up verses people wanted for their prayer cards. I thought most of the changes I saw were a bit ridiculous, but there was no skin taken off my nose.

However.

We've updated the fourth edition T&M booklets to use the NIV translation. And I just looked up Matthew 25:14-30.

The Parable of the Talents is now the Parable of the Bags of Gold.

WHAT?!?!?!?!

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

I may be late to the party.

But I can still make some noise.

Editing Ain't for the Faint of Heart

Here's the thing.

OMS is very Wesleyan.

I am not.

OMS is very holiness-oriented.

I am not.

And honestly, that's okay. We both believe that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, rose again, and is coming back. We believe he is the only path to salvation. We believe in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We believe God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and immutable. We believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God.

So the basics are solid.

But there's a reason there are approximately 41,000 Christian denominations around the world (according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity). Believers don't always agree on things, anything from what day to worship to the place of secret societies (the reason for the division of my own denomination). This is also okay, to a certain extent. As long as the fundamentals are in place, I'm pretty okay with most differences.

All that to say this: I'm editing the T&M booklet on the Holy Spirit right now. I don't agree with some of the theology, but not in a life-altering, this-completely-changes-all-religion way. Just in a I-don't-think-that's-what-this-verse-means way.

Makes life interesting. 

Pirate Day

We occasionally do more than work in the office. Because sometimes you just have to.

 

    My pirate name is:
   

 

    Captain Bess Cash  
 
 

    Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine.    Arr!
   
  Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network
 

Live Long... And Tape Your Fingers!

"Hey, Jessica?"

"...hmm..."

"Why do you have electrical tape on your fingers?"

"Electrical tape was all I could find."

"..."

Train & Multiply

It's been a few weeks in the new job, now. So what exactly does a Train & Multiply Production Specialist do?

Well, first, we have to figure out Train & Multiply, or T&M as we call it. T&M is a method of training potential Christian leaders around the world in evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and a variety of other Christian disciplines. You can read more on the website. Essentially, it's a series of 64 booklets covering such topics as baptism, counseling, small groups, love in action, and obedience to Christ.

I came into this project at a good time. Our Theological Education team at OMS just finished a theological review of all the books, making sure they were biblical and consistent in their teachings. Now, we're editing, reformatting, and in some cases, rewriting the booklets to make them more internally consistent in tone and style. This will be the fourth edition of the English version. It can be a challenging task. The books were written by different authors, with different styles, and we have to be mindful of the fact that these books will be translated into more than 40 languages. We try to make things culturally generic, while still maintaining the Truth of its teachings.

So that's what I'm doing right now. I'm reading through each booklet, editing for content, grammar, punctuation, Scripture references, cultural references, and common sense. I'm working on booklet 63 right now (we don't do them in order), which is called "The River of Grace." It's done almost entirely in narrative format, which is different from every other book. One of the great things about working with these booklets is that I get to learn along with the students. I'm editing a section on the differences between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. I never realized just how many references translate Old Testament thinking into a New Testament world. I really enjoy what I'm doing.

Eventually, I'll get to help with formatting the translations. It's a huge project, and I'm excited to be part of it.

It's Official!!!

More details coming soon, but I just wanted to let everyone who was praying for me know that our prayers have been answered in a huge way! Thank you so much for being faithful!

TBA

Stick close to the blog in the next few days. The factory floor just started humming again!

This Is Life

I'm beginning to think I come to church just to write blog posts. (Except I'd have a lot more up here by now. But I'm in church now, so whatever. The point stands.)

So. Here we go.

Hey, guys. Long time, no see. 

I've started a few posts over the past few months. I only posted a couple of them. The past year has done a great job of squashing lost of my creative leanings. No writing, no photography, no crafting, no cooking experiments, no travel - just me, marinating inside my brain. 

You have no idea how dangerous that is. 

So, to recap. 

I worked as a project manager for the Gift in Kind program for OMS. What does that mean? We'll, I helped sort out all non-cash donations, usually real estate, to OMS. That meant intake, processing, utilities, legal matters, advertising, selling, and donor relations. For the better part of the year, I worked with a couple of guys in Illinois and Ohio. This was an incredibly stressful job, for a lot of reasons. This job ended July 31. 

My grandmother, my last living grandparent, declined in health rapidly over the last few months. She died July 25. Because of work, and because she died in Pennsylvania, I was not able to attend the funeral. I will miss her.

I've felt very cut off from OMS. My office was about five miles from HQ, but it might as well have been on the other side of the world. I have spent most of the last year on my own, without any human interaction.

Again... Dangerous. 

Now, I am unemployed. I don't really have a plan. When missions was just a two-year thing, I had a plan for after. But I don't remember what it was. Missions has become my life. I can't fathom a life without some kind of ministry. 

There's a possibility of continuing with OMS in ECC. But it's a nebulous prospect right now. No formal offer.  So I'm stuck between waiting for that to happen, but knowing that if it doesn't, I need to have found something else. 

If I had a choice, I think I'd move back to Huntington, or at least closer. I'm not really a city girl. Living in Greenwood has been a stretch. 

I guess I'm saying that I don't know what happens next. I am trying to trust that God has a plan for my future. I'm trying to figure out what that is. 

Every time I see someone now, they ask what I'm going to do. I never know how to answer. 

Well, the sermon is wrapping up. It was good. 

The Blue and the Gray

(Edit: I wrote this back in November 2013, but I'm posting it in April 2014. For some reason, it didn't post then, and I didn't want it to get lost in the mix.)


I just got a new old CD in the mail. Two, actually, both of which I'm excited about, but one that makes me extremely happy.

Way back in 1982, a mini-series aired on CBS called The Blue and the Gray. For some reason, my family latched onto that as one of four movies we watched in our house.

(I'm not joking. I don't remember watching any movies that weren't educational outside of those four - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (of which I wasn't allowed to watch the first ten minutes until I turned at least 13); The Scarlet Pimpernel (the 1982 version - popular year - the soundtrack of which is coincidentally the second CD I received); and The Three Musketeers (the 1993 version, which, despite the presence of one Charles Sheen portraying Aramis, I still love dearly, and which gave me my undying love of Chris O'Donnell) - and I didn't watch other movies until I realized just how awesome movies were and started buying them left and right. My bank account is forever grateful to Netflix.)

But some of my earliest memories are of this mini-series. This is probably where my love of the Civil War was kindled. The story is really a giant soap opera, and the writers managed to cram every coincidence and important event of the war into a little over three hours, but I loved this movie. One family: a branch living in Gettysburg (natch!) and a branch living in Virginia, their stories told by a son of the Virginia branch who refuses to fight for the South after a freed slave is lynched on their property, but also refuses to carry arms for the North against his three brothers. He becomes a newspaper artist and manages to travel the length and breadth of the war, even meeting Abraham Lincoln. Despite the depressing lack of Ulysses S. Grant (he got two minutes max!), I knew this was something special. And imagine my joy when I discovered not too far into my teens that I'd been stuck with the TV version my whole life when I could have been watching the extended version! Pure euphoria.

But it's the music that really sells this series. One of the musical themes reminds me of the hymn "Be Thou My Vision," and for the longest time I would shudder every time I heard "Rock of Ages." (You'd understand if you watched the film.) The score complemented every scene perfectly, as evidenced by the fact that I, a proud Yankee, cried when Robert E. Lee gave his farewell address to his men. The horror and suspense of The Wilderness is magnified by the long, piercing notes of a violin. The deaths of the family members, two on each side, each different and moving and entirely due to war, are underscored by mournful and foreboding themes. And who knew a harmonica could be used to such great effect?

I could go on and on. But I'll leave you with this sampling of the music and encourage you to check out the series for yourself.

Now Showing: Church!

It figures that my first post in a while is going to be a rant.

Actually, not even ranty. I'm just tired. 

I'll be honest. Church has been hit-or-miss lately. Part of it was the weather over the last few months. Most of it is the depression that has once again reared its ugly head with a vengeance. 

People keep telling me that the best cure for depression is to draw closer to God. And it's true. But lately, going to church hasn't really felt like being closer to God. 

This morning church, more than ever, felt like a show. It was disappointing to say the least. 

I left a church two and a half years ago for this reason. And after months of searching, I found my current church. I was encouraged by the Truth I heard from the pastor and by the passion for missions. 

But we're missing joy. 

No one sang because no one knew the songs. Or if they were singing, you couldn't tell because all you heard was the 'worship leader.' And I use that term loosely. There were no smiles. The screens were full of graphics and flashy content that linked loosely to the sermon. 

There's a car onstage. 

The sermon, fortunately, spoke Truth. Jesus is no longer on the cross! Amen! 

But if I was distracted by the periphery, how can a newcomer hope to hear the message? 

I need to think on this further. I don't want to switch churches again. I don't think that's the answer. 

But I don't know what is. 

The Utz Factor, New Year Edition

'My Dear Acquaintance' by Regina Spektor

I discovered Regina Spektor many years ago in high school. She's quirky, which appealed to me immediately. And she's great at putting social issues into verse. This isn't the traditional Auld Lang Syne that we hear every year around this time. This song is a just a little more thoughtful. It captures perfectly the hopes and fears we have as we look to the year ahead.



Happy New Year, everyone.