The Weekly Wrap-Up: December 17-21, 2018

So you all know that the first five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch or alternately as the books of Moses. In Estonian, the language I worked on this week, they actually call Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy First Moses, Second Moses, Third Moses, Fourth Moses, and Fifth Moses. Which is awesome all on its own. But it also leads to many cases of sentences referring to "_ Moosese." This always makes me laugh because it inevitably leads my brain to picturing whatever number of moose lounging around or pastoring churches.

What can I say? It's the little things.

That was just one project this week - reviewing work again. But then, today of all days, my last day in the office in the year of our Lord 2018, someone decided we needed to publish 5 groups of Estonian. No problem, it's a lot of work, but shouldn't be an issue if all the files are ready to go.

Except they aren't.

Of course they aren't.

I can't really blame anyone in particular. This project has been causing us problems for a while now. It was something of a pilot fish for us. Our translator is very reliable and technologically savvy, so we've been testing some new methods on this project. Some worked. Some haven't. But that means it has been through more stages than normal. It has also already been Beta published twice. I'm really hoping this will be the last time.

Anyway, Group 01 still had some missing translations, and text that should have been deleted hadn't been. Groups 02-03 also had missing translation and incorrect styles. Groups 04-05 are great because I just finished reviewing them. My files are impeccable.

😁

I still have to check everything. So today, I was able to finish running all scripts on Group 01, and I even split booklets 2 and 7. (I'll probably use this as a reference so I know what I did and didn't do, which is why I'm including more detail and technical jargon than I normally would.) They should actually be ready to publish when I get back.

Next year.

Indeed, this is likely the last entry for 2018, unless I get the sudden urge to post some maudlin epic next week. Which, it is me, so that's not outside the realm of possibility.

Instead of a Pic of the Week, I'm going to leave you with a quick video tutorial on splitting booklets. I hope you find it interesting. (And I hope it works.)

The Weekly Wrap-Up: December 10-14, 2018

My brain is a sieve. It's legitimately starting to worry me. It's a good thing I made my December List of Doom because otherwise, I'm not sure anything would get done. The problem is I can't remember if I added everything to the list.

Oy vey.

This week was an odd one. I was trying to accomplish several things on my list and trying to figure out the priority for translation projects. Sometimes it has more to do with how active the translators are than anything else. To that end, one of our newest projects is Romanian. They aren't even formally using Train & Multiply yet, but the team is so excited about it that they've actually translated 11/12 groups already. Of course we're going to reward that enthusiasm by getting production started as quickly as possible. But I'm still having to review a lot of Marie's work, so we're down a production specialist. Fortunately, her work is pretty decent - just a few details to keep an eye on. We're getting there, but I couldn't begin to tell you when I'll actually take over as team leader. The end of the year is a terrible time for starting new things.

I don't know if you've noticed this about me, but I tend to hyper-fixate on things. It's a little bit like having an addicted personality. I get extremely focused on something and then have to research the heck out of it before I can move on. Some things are simple to get rid of - ask my two days of hyper-fixating on Scott Foley in Scandal. Conclusion: the show is dumb and not worth my time. (The MCU, however, doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.)

Anyway, this week's hyper-fixation was stamps. Specifically, the stamps I ordered at the beginning of December so they'd be here when I finished my Christmas cards. Which they weren't. I kid you not, I was tracking those babies every single day from their origin in Missouri, of all places, until they finally arrived in my mail box. The irony of the U.S. Postal Service delivering stamps late is not lost on me.

This week was budget meetings for ECC. We always do those the week after the retreat - more on that later. I, thank the Lord, did not have attend the meetings. But that did mean I was pretty much on my own for the week. Nice and quiet. I did get lunch out of it on Friday. Not bad.

What else? There was a baby shower on Thursday for one of our Mobi folks. I won a prize for guessing 8/9 items in the diaper bag correctly. I didn't think it was that difficult - what would you normally put in a diaper bag, after all? But apparently it was. Whatever. I'm awesome.

We're back on regular chapels for the moment. Did I talk about stand-up prayer times? We were trying out a new format this fall where we didn't do chapel on Tuesday or Thursday. Instead, we met for 15 minutes up in the lobby to have prayer time for some current needs. It's quite different, and there are parts I like and some things I don't. But it's nice that we do something.

Oh, and I did something this week that I haven't done for a long time - a radio ad! We've aired a lot of repeats this year because we've all been so busy. But it was nice to get back in the studio and record something new for the gifting emphasis this year. I don't actually know where it's hosted yet, but I'll try to remember the link if I find out.

I think that's about it for the work week. On to the retreat. This can count as our Pic of the Week.

So our theme was "...and the soul felt its worth." Sarah and I planned most of it (with Tarah before she left). Oddly enough, there's not a lot of resting for the people in charge even when that's a core goal of the retreat. But it was still good. We started last Friday. Sarah and I went up early to get last minute supplies and do some decorating.

We would have team discussion a couple times a day. Eric, Tarah's husband, led worship for us. We had the retreat at Shunem House up in Noblesville. I highly recommend it. It's a guest house of sorts for missionaries and pastors. I wrote a couple of devotionals for the team time, and we did a lot of personal reflection. What does it mean to save a soul? Can we adequately care for other souls when we don't care for our own?

We also had some team activities. This was by far my favorite.

We made them put together gingerbread houses and decorate them. But only one member of the team could use their hands at a time. That person had to be blindfolded. The others had to talk them through the process. It was hilarious to see, but we actually ended up with some decent houses.

We wanted to do something different, so on Saturday night, we had everyone dress up for dinner. We went to Houlihan's, which was a lot of fun. After dinner, we opened presents. 

We've done the White Elephant routine a few times, but it kinds drives me nuts. We always end up with the same things or a bunch of crap. So I instituted the Secret Santa rule, and I send out a survey so people can be specific about the kinds of things they like. We also did a contest this year on the best-wrapped gift. Jim won with his Snowman gift for Tarah. 

I thought it was very cute. 

I had Shane this year. See, it's a secret for everyone else but me. I have a system that makes things random, but in case I need to tweak it, I can. But no tweaking necessary this year. 

I was quite pleased with my penguin themed gift. I think Shane liked it, too. I was also pleased with the gift I received. I think everyone had a good time and appreciated the personal touches. 

So last year, I got a little bit sadistic with some puzzles - for a good reason, not just because it's me. This year, we wanted to be a bit nicer about it, so we put out two puzzles that people could work on throughout the weekend. But we have some very motivated people when it comes to puzzles. This was the mad scramble to finish them before we had to leave the house. 

All in all, I think it went well. We'll have to wait for the evaluations. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: December 3-7, 2018

You've probably heard me mention Sam a few times on here. She's a good friend and the director of Dynamic Women in Missions. Our brains seem to work on a similar wavelength. She frequently has me write up little blurbs for their publications. But it works better in person, when she can talk at me and I can distill the intent into a few compelling sentences. That was fine when she was upstairs. But now she's in another building. I must now brave the snowy expanse when she calls for aid. It's like I'm Rohan and she's Gondor and the beacons are a telephone.

It's really cold outside, guys.

Hey! How's it going? Yes, we are early. By the time I would normally post this, I'm hoping I'll be welcoming our retreat guests for the weekend. I am 95% sure we're ready for this weekend. I think it's going to be good. But it has definitely been a struggle getting to this point. Lots and lots of preparation and planning and buying and writing and calling and practicing and finding out about extra costs. All that fun stuff. But it has the makings of a really good event. Please pray for the 13 participants. Our theme is "...and the soul felt its worth." We're really hoping that they recognize their worth in Christ and start taking care of themselves a little more.

We had our regular prayer rally on Wednesday. It was a nice time to pray for eight of our OMS ministries, including a new one to the retirees. I'm really happy we do this. I'd hate for any missionary to feel tossed aside after they've given most of their lives in service here. We also had a chance to pray for three of the Billion.Global signatories. This is another thing I'm really happy about. I love that so many different organizations are working together and not trying to hoard their territory. We're all working toward the same goal, so why wouldn't we use what we're good at to complement each other's efforts?

Somehow in the midst of all of this, I managed to finish those last five groups of Tagalog. They should soon be on their way to the proofreader, and I can start to tackle the next two projects sitting in my inbox.

I'd appreciate your prayers for me this season. There is a lot to do and everything has its own deadline. The Pic of the Week should give you an idea of how I'm feeling about the next few weeks.

(I'd show you what's on the list, but I mentioned a few names, and there's no point in spoiling the surprise.)

The Weekly Wrap-Up: November 26-30, 2018

Been a while, hasn't it? I took a couple of weeks to do some deputation and to celebrate the holiday with family. I had some great conversations with people, saw a lot of folks I hadn't seen in a long time, and I successfully infiltrated three pink flamingos into my sister's house. All in all, job well done. I barely remembered my old routine when I came back to work on Monday.

Of course, it was a somber week for all of us at OMS. On Sunday, my friend and coworker lost her 5-year-old son Elijah in a car accident. We feel things deeply here when our family is affected, and there's this disconnect between mourning a loss and trying to go about our daily business. But we did our best to make sure ministry continued as much as possible.

I came back to three waiting projects. Our team in the Philippines has been translating the rest of booklets now that the first couple of groups are published, so we wanted to honor that work and get them back for proofing. As part of my new duties, I review the work of other team members, so I have been going through nine groups of booklets that Marie completed. I was hoping to do all of them this week, but I only made it through four with everything else going on.

We interviewed a new candidate for a position with T&M training on Wednesday. I've never been on an interview panel before, and I wanted to make sure I gave it due diligence. We've had this particular job posted for a couple of years now, so we're all eager to have someone take over the jobs we've either had to do in our spare time or let fall sadly by the wayside.

We're also getting closer and closer to the ECC Retreat! Sarah and I spent some time this week going over the schedule and making sure we have what we need. Next week will be crunch time for creating some devotional materials and finalizing our plans. I'm hopeful and praying that it will be a wonderful time of relaxation and fellowship for us as we get closer to Christmas.

This week has served as a reminder that life is never as long as we think it will be, and time is fleeting. I'm trying to reprioritize some things and put some other things to bed, which may mean a slight delay in getting cards out to everyone. I do apologize, and I'll do my best to make sure you know just how much I appreciate all of you.

We haven't done a Pic of the Week for a while, so here's a small corner of my office that has been decorated.

Today I'm thinking about my sister Jill. She would have been 37 this year. I wonder sometimes what she would have been like. Would we have gotten along? Would she have helped me hide flamingoes around Jennifer's house? Would she have been a bridge in communication with Julie? I don't know. She died less than an hour after she was born.

Today I'm thinking about Travis. I don't know how old he would be. I was friends with his sister. She and I had a math class together, and we bonded over how much we disliked it. My dad drove me to the viewing. I hugged his sister for what felt like hours. I cried silently on the way home. I don't remember talking to her much after that. He was probably 11 or 12 when he died.

Today I'm thinking about Josh Linthicum. He would have been 27. I knew him from church. He was shy, but when he smiled, you could tell he was a little mischievous. I was in Poland when I heard. Most of the teens were there on a mission trip. I held them as they mourned, and then did it again when we were back in Poland four years later on the anniversary. He died when he was 15.

Today I'm thinking about Joshua. He would have been 8 this year. I had just started at OMS. I followed his fight to live through the words of his mother. I followed the pettiness and vile, hateful words other people wrote after he died. I felt helpless through all of it. He was 51 days old when he died.

Today I'm thinking about Oliver. He would be a little over a year old. I didn't know his parents well, but I knew people who knew them. I knew there was a risk. I sighed in relief when he was born. I sighed in grief when he died unexpectedly shortly thereafter.

Today I'm thinking about Elijah. He was a bright, inquisitive boy. He was full of energy when I saw him at his mother's (my coworker's) baptism this summer. I can't reconcile that image with the knowledge that he was only 5 when he died yesterday.

I don't know why children die. I know how. I get the science of it. I know the facts. But I don't know why. And rarely do I know what to do. It's not really about me, of course. But I'm really the only one I have control of at any given moment. And my instinct, every time, is to run away. I tend to deal with things by not dealing with them.

Healthy, I know.

But I can also pray. I can pray for my parents, who lost a daughter. I can pray for Travis' parents, who lost a son, and his sister, who lost a brother. I can pray for Ralph and Tanya and Shane and Jill and Will and Joylily, whose grief doesn't really fade with the passing of time but becomes something undefinable. And I can pray for Taylor, who woke up this morning as a mother without a son.

Why? God alone knows. And I have to figure out how to be okay with that.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: November 5-9, 2018

I'm going to make a claim here that you're not going to believe. It's fine if you don't believe it. I know the truth of it.

I experienced a miracle this week.

On Monday, I was all set to publish the first group of Chinese booklets (traditional Chinese, not simplified. Yes, there is a difference, and no, I don't know what it is.)

I downloaded the necessary files, having been assured that they were ready. I believed in those assurances, but opened the booklets up for one last look anyway, as is right and proper.

Shockingly, they were not ready. In fact, a whole section of proofs had not been entered. I had to re-run all 7 books, check them all again, fix some problem glyphs manually, and then set them up again for publishing.

It took me until Thursday to do all of this.

"But Jessica," you say, "why is this a problem? You have all of next week to publish these files."

I won't be here next week. Nor will I be here the following week. I'm not waiting two weeks to publish Chinese.

Here's the miracle: I published 7 booklets and 17 sub-booklets (because 'Good News' and 'Follow the Lord Jesus Christ' have to be divided into individual studies) into full page AND booklet format PDFs. And I did it in one and one-half days.

I'm going to bed now.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 29 - November 2, 2018

Do you ever think about how much jargon you use in your job or hobby or regular life? If Average Joe were to join you in your daily routine, how much would he understand and how much would be lost?

We spent a lot of time discussing this when we did the English revision of T&M. There was so much jargon and Christianese and stuff we thought everyone would just automatically know. Except they don't.

(It's like when Campus Crusade for Christ changed their name to Cru because it made sense because everyone they knew called it that. Except everyone they knew was in Campus Crusade and used Cru as shorthand. Everyone outside the organization knew it as Campus Crusade for Christ. And five years later, we still clarify what we mean when we call them Cru. Not that I'm calling them out or anything. Except I totally am. Sorry, guys.)

Anyway, there are just some words and phrases you use regularly that someone new coming in wouldn't immediately understand. Or they would understand the individual words but not why you used them in that particular combination.

Why am I wittering on about this? Because in the training manual we created to help people know how to produce Train & Multiply, I found this sentence:

• Create PDF MA4 files paginated as A4 spreads with spinal binding:

Ugh. Do I know what it means? Yes. Did it take me awhile to figure out what it means? Also yes. There are easier ways of saying this.

Anyway, four groups of Portuguese are now published. I spent Monday splitting booklets 2 and 7, which is labor intensive, but fairly simple in the end. Then I spent Wednesday and Thursday actually outputting PDF files and securing them and making them available to the public.

What was I doing Tuesday, you ask? It was our Fall Work Day on campus, which means we all do stuff we don't normally do to make our property look nice and get us ready for colder weather. I cleaned the MK Center (missionary kids - jargon again!) with Taylor and Sarah. It needed a good scrub, so we did what we could. If I had children, I would be much more likely to allow them to roam the MK Center now than I would have before Tuesday. It just seems to attract creepy crawlies and dust.

And that's about it for the week. Look at me, posting on time and everything. Go team!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: October 22-26, 2018

Believe it or not, I actually meant to do one of these last week. I actually had things to write about. And then, like all good intentions, they went sadly by the wayside.

But we're here now. So let's do this!

My language project for the last couple of weeks has been Portuguese. Four groups of it, to be exact. And it had to be perfect because as soon as these groups are done, they are being published. Woohoo! But, naturally, I encountered issues.

This time, it had to do with the booklet titles. Because when you have 64 booklets on related topics, why wouldn't you refer to other booklets within your material? You would. We believe in our stuff! You should read more of it! But one problem of translating the booklets in groups is that you sometimes can't remember exactly how you translated a booklet title before. Or you didn't quite understand the nuance of it. (For example: we have a booklet in English called "Church Planting Guide." In the initial Portuguese translation, it came out something like "A Guide for Church Planters." But it's more of a how and less of a who. So now it's "A Guide for Planting Churches." Subtle. But it makes a difference.) We tried to reduce redundant tags as much as possible. But there's no way to catch all of them. I probably spent a full week cross-referencing paragraphs and booklet titles and the Student Activity Guide, which lists all booklet titles at least twice, sometimes as many as five. I want this to be a good product, and I don't want there to be any confusion. Can we catch everything? No.

But I can try.

In the midst of Portuguese and making funding calls and meeting with people, we're also planning the ECC Retreat. That has been a trip and a half. All of the questions you can think of: where, when, who, what, why (because we need to rest is not a good enough answer, apparently), and how. Where and when turned out to be fairly simple, although we got something of a late start (you really need to get the venue in at least a year out). Who is ever changing - do we invite the wider world of ECC? Because that's a lot of people. Just office staff? What about our remote people who often call in for meetings? And do we want a speaker? Someone else to do music? It's supposed to be restful, after all. What - that is a minefield, along with how. You need activities that will appeal to the largest common denominator, and let me tell you, we are a very diverse field.

We're getting there, though. I am confident that it will be a beneficial time for everyone.

I think that's about it. I'm hopeful that this will again be a regular occurrence. I'm still struggling with life in general, but it's getting better in dribs and drabs. (That's a weird phrase. Dribs and drabs. What does it mean? Why dribs and not drips? This is going to bother me.)

Right. Going now.

Is that an update I spy?

Sarah just told me that I could write about the random piece of candy that has been sitting on my desk for who knows how long and it would still be interesting.

I'm questioning her sanity.

But I'm also taking it as a subtle hint that I should actually update this thing once in a while.

So here goes.

Last time, I wrote about spiritual warfare. That's definitely still a thing. Sometimes, I feel like every day is a struggle. But there are also good days. Days where I feel productive and like what I do makes a difference. So there's that.

A lot has happened since then. I spent two days in Vancouver, Washington, learning how to support raise the right way. While there, I also saw my good friend Addie. She is a blessing, and while I'm sad that she is all the way on the other side of the country, I'm also happy that we got to hang out. Plus, she's an excellent excuse to go gallivanting.

I've been working on my funding since I got back. It's a slow process, especially considering I'm still doing all my usual jobs. But I'm slowly finding a balance. It's all stuff that has to be done, and I'm decent under pressure. God either wants me here or he doesn't, so I'm going to keep doing my job and see where the road takes me.

This means a lot of travel, of course. I have found every back road and holler on the way from Greenwood to Huntington and beyond. I've battled major road closures and minor fender benders. (Not mine, thank the Lord.) I feel like I'm in the slow lane. But progress is being made.

I also spent a few days in Toledo at a women's conference. It's a little weird, since my home church isn't UB and I really only get to one when I'm with my parents. But I do still feel a connection to the United Brethren. It was a huge part of my life for a very long time, yet somehow I always forget just how many connections I actually have with them. I'm not a wife or a mother, though, and it's hard to connect to a lot of events designed for women because that's what they tend to focus on. But I thought it was a good experience, and it gave me some time in the city of my birth. I haven't lived there in years, but there's always that tether that connects you to important places. It's a part of home.

I'm going to start up the weekly updates again next week. Technically, this is one. But it's also something more. I'm working on four groups of Portuguese, which will soon be published. I'm also working on a prayer letter, which I'm hoping will be ready to mail next week. I also went to Noblesville yesterday with the retreat planning team. We wanted to make sure we had all the details on the place that's hosting the ECC retreat in December. Do you know how much work it is to plan something designed to be restful?

So. Here's what I need from you: encouragement, prayers, ideas of what you want to know about, etc. Give me a wave or a shout. Remind me that I'm valuable.

Be cool. 

The Art (and Nuance) of War

Here's the speech I wish I could give when I show off my swords during CROSS-training:


Spiritual warfare is real.

I know, you think you believe that. I might even believe that you believe that.

But I don't think you understand the reality of it. You hear the words spiritual warfare and you assume it looks like actual warfare. I apologize for some of that. I did bring swords, after all.

But I also brought my knives. Small ones, big ones, dull ones, sharp ones. Sometimes people don't know they're at war until the knife has slipped between ribs and been pulled out again. (Insert tangent on that one episode of Sherlock here.)

You think spiritual warfare is going to be obvious. Demonic possession and storming the gates of hell through prayer and split pea soup projectile vomit. It's something that is always going to be bad and depressing. It's going to be recognizable because the devil will be opposing your ministry, and obviously you'll notice something like that.

And sometimes, yeah. It'll be obvious.

Except for all the times it isn't.

Here's what spiritual warfare looks like.

*It's losing a filling on a holiday weekend when you already have 20 other things to think about but it's a constant presence in your mouth and you don't really have a dentist nor the money to fix this.

*It's being awakened by the sound of something shattering at 6 AM when you have the day off and it's your first chance to sleep in in months.

*It's your support system slowly being stripped away so that when you realize what's happening, you feel like there's no one left to call.

*It's every traffic jam and fender bender and closed street and aggressive driver and late train and confusing sign and flat tire and broken mirror.

It's finding out your friend has cancer and there's nothing you can do.

*It's driving to the wrong restaurant to pick up dinner when your week has been brutal and you just needed something hot and good.

It's a job offer for more money and security than you've ever had in your life but it means walking away from everything you've been working toward.

It's your ministry going really well and sure, it's headed in a more compassionate direction and you haven't shared the Gospel in months, but people are showing up and you don't want to make them uncomfortable by suddenly making it about God, right?

It's your kid being targeted by the school bully.

It's your kid being the school bully.

*It's not knowing if you're losing weight because your diet is working or that health problem has returned.

It's smiling at those vaguely flirty texts that were not sent by your significant other.

*It's finding a new book series or TV show that is just really engaging and so you binge it until all those things you were going to do just somehow didn't get done. 

*It's the paralyzing anxiety you feel when you pick up the phone to ask someone to support your ministry. 

It's deciding to move in together because you're going to get married eventually and it just makes sense.

*It's your work computer shutting down at random multiple times in the month preceding your trip to Washington to learn about support raising and deleting the progress you've made on preparing for said trip.

*It's your home computer dying at roughly the same time.

It's life. 

Spiritual warfare isn't something that is declared by Congress. 

It started the moment you accepted Jesus as your Savior. Satan doesn't need to make life uncomfortable for those who are already in his back pocket. But he'll come after Christians with everything he's got. And it won't always be obvious. 

It's a war of attrition. 

It is death by a thousand paper cuts. 

If you aren't living every day in a war mentality, you are losing ground.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!!




That's what I want to tell them.

But I'll tell you that everything starred above is how the devil is screwing with my life right now. 

The Weekly Wrap-up: August 20-24, 2018

Is it just me or are the weeks going faster?

I don't like it.

Lots of stuff going on this week. I finished my analysis of Marie's work on Estonian. It's still weird going over someone else's stuff. She's coming along quite well, though. So that's good. Also, I can get this done pretty quickly. Six groups in less than two weeks. Go me.

It's also the week for proofing Outreach pages. The next issue will focus on Asia - it's a good one!

Funding is... going slowly. There's a lot of prep work before I go to boot camp in Washington. But I'm working my way through it. I really hope this goes well.

I'm hanging in there. But don't let anyone tell you the missionary life is easy.

I'll try to work on something longer for next week. But until then, enjoy the Pic of the Week. It has joined a few other funnies on my door.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: August 13-17, 2018

My forehead is peeling. It's not at all distracting me from my work.

Nor is the fact that I can't figure out how and when I got a sunburn only on my forehead.

Nope. Not distracting at all.

Anyway.

You caught me. I didn't do a weekly report last week. It just kinda slipped by me. I'm a little stressed. I can't really say that I'm doing any of my routine activities. My job will be changing soon, or maybe not really changing but being added to. I'm taking on Team Leader duties in the next few months, meaning I'll be assigning jobs and checking the work of the production team. It's a lot of responsibility in addition to what I'm already doing. Plus, I'm trying to work on support raising. Finding a balance is proving difficult.

Anyway, this week has just added to the mayhem. It's a training week, which means a lot of time spent off-site. Plus, I took Tuesday off to spend with my parents at the State Fair. I think training went well, though. It was definitely our smoothest presentation of T&M Online.

As for booklets, I'm working my way through several groups of Estonian. This was the first project the new girl in Ukraine worked on, so I'm looking for any issues. All part of my new duties. It's interesting to go through someone else's work. It reminds me of the old telegrapher's being able to recognize who they were talking to just by the style of their transmission. We all have our own quirks, I'll attest to that.

I'm hoping for a more even keel next week, but we all know the likelihood of that.

Here's your Pic of the Week:

Have I introduced Tarah yet? She's our new admin assistant for T&M. We just happened to all wear shades of purple the other day and had to document the occasion.

Don't forget to subscribe if you want to be notified of updates. It's over there. -----> And up a little. 

[title of post]

This will have to suffice as my weekly update. I could cobble something together, talk about my love of Hakha Chin and how fast the current project is going. I could talk about the prayer rally on Wednesday and how I sang and somehow got asked to pray, and we all know how much I love public prayer. I could do a lot of things.

Or rather, I should. Used to be able to. It's a toss up from day to day on what I can actually do.

I'm struggling.

I've been struggling. For six months now, maybe longer, I've been telling myself that it's not that bad. At least I can still take care of stuff around the house. At least I'm still sleeping fairly well. At least I'm still eating. At least I'm functioning.

And I made excuses. Dishes can wait another day or so. I have plenty of clean clothes. My pillows are old, so it makes sense I wouldn't sleep well. I have a lot on my mind, so of course I'm staying up later. I'm trying to lose weight. I'm just not hungry.

But people keep asking me how I'm doing. Most of them don't actually care, it's just a thing you say. And the proper reply, the polite reply, is to say 'fine' and move on. Except it feels like lying now. I started saying I was 'okay, for given values of okay,' except with the last part under my breath because it made people uncomfortable.

I can't give you a reason. I can give you fifteen reasons. I'm not totally alone in this. I am talking to people. But it's weighing on me. I feel like I'm doing a terrible job of hiding it. I feel like I'm doing too good a job of hiding it. And I don't know why I'm trying to hide it anymore.

I'm sorry this isn't the normal fare you come here for. Just, I might mention it again. And I might never talk about it. I don't know what I want your response to be. I just know that silence never helped anyone. Unless you're living in the universe of "A Quiet Place."

I'm functioning still. I'm working on the other stuff. I read. I watch movies. I hang out with friends. I work. I'm still me. I'm just more me than people are used to dealing with.

Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame

Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned

But just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die

You gotta get up and try, and try, and try

Gotta get up and try, and try, and try

You gotta get up and try, and try, and try

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 23-27, 2018

GUYZ.....

Hakha Chin is done. For the moment. I'll be back at it with another group next week no doubt, but I'm taking the win now because all 12 groups have been through the initial stages. The rest is just window dressings.

I actually met one of the guys using T&M in Myanmar. He was so gracious and appreciative of the work. It's worth every gripe about text boxes and overset text and fifteen character words to hear how this material is changing people's lives. I don't want to breeze past that. I do what I do for a reason. I need to remind myself of that every now and then.

Had quite a few side projects these last couple of weeks. CROSS-training is now done, so no more sticking my head in and bothering them. I taught them the bridge model of sharing the Gospel, which was super popular in tracts many years ago. I don't know if it still is. But it's a good picture of how sin separates us from God.

And this was the interns last day. No interns in ECC this year, but I got to know a few of the others. They are a lovely bunch, and I wish them well. I found a fellow nerd in Isaac, so we spent some time bonding over Lord of the Rings and our love of sci-fi.

But as much as I love the people months (HA!), it will be nice to get back to the quiet routines of missionary life.

Heh.

Heh heh.

BWAHAHAHAHAHEHEHAHA!

Quiet. Right.




Here's your Pic of the Week.

I love baseball.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: July 16-20, 2018

Text boxes are the devil.

I'm tempted to just end this entry there. This has been a hot mess of a week, and I don't think I have the emotional capacity left to delve into everything.

I'm not done with Hakha Chin. See the aforementioned text boxes for the reason. More than anything, the text boxes get overrun in languages with more characters. And you can't just make them longer. They have to look right. When they move, they still have to be pointed at the right person. And when the booklet is nothing but a conversation among multiple people, you have to seriously focus to make sure the right people are saying the right things with the right amount of space.

Like I said. The devil.

I'm still ruminating on that post I promised. Maybe next week. I'll need an emotional bloodletting. There are some announcements coming.

Stay tuned...

The Weekly Wrap-Up: Whenever we stopped - July 13, 2018

Wow. Okay. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Let's see, we last did one of these about a month ago. Since then, I've attended the OMS conference, went to Nineveh where I hung out on a boat, and visited my parents. I also worked. But somehow, I was never here on Friday, and this just doesn't feel the same if it's not done on Friday. (Okay, it's really only been two weeks. But it feels like it's been a month.)

Conference was good. I have a letter coming out that will tell you more, but I can give a few snippets. It was a little odd having it in Greenwood this year. I guess it made it feel more like work since I was still in the same environment. But I actually didn't have to contribute a lot this year. I wasn't setting up or designing or running anything. That was largely on purpose. I'm practicing a little self care, and I have a blog post I'm ruminating on that might actually get written down some day about that. But I needed to experience conference as its own entity, not something that I was partially responsible for. It changes the dynamic, in ways I think many people don't understand.

We didn't really have a main speaker. We were supposed to, and then life happened, and the organizers had to scramble a little. But I think it worked out fairly well. Pam Tebow spoke Thursday night and shared some of her story as a missionary and how God has used her son. She was incredibly humble and so quick to give God the glory for everything they've been able to do. The Bible studies were led by Stan Key. He spoke at the ECC retreat a few years ago, and I really like him. He always does exegesis on the stuff no one else wants to touch, the stuff I usually have questions about and ask my dad to look up in the original language. I like people who aren't afraid to really dig into the Bible and ask the tough questions. If we can't answer the questions for ourselves, how do we explain it to others? Not that everything is explainable. But God was very purposeful when he gave us the Bible. There's usually a reason for something we find troubling.

The speaker Friday night and Saturday morning was Ed Stetzer. I'd never heard of him before, but he's now the interim pastor at Moody Church in Chicago. He was quite intriguing, and he challenged some things we've just accepted as fact. I appreciate that, too. I'm a pursuer of Truth. Not conventional wisdom or tradition or popular opinion, but real, undeniable Truth. Truth doesn't change with our emotions, it doesn't change with history, it just is. People are going to be confronted with Truth during the last judgment, and if you don't want to be caught off guard, I think you have to pursue it rigorously in your time on Earth.

Too deep? Okay. On to work stuff.

As of today, I have completed the initial formatting stage on all but one group of Hakha Chin. This puts us well on the way to getting it published. I hesitate to say it'll be done by the end of the year, but we should be able to come pretty close. So that's pretty cool.

It's been quiet around the office. People took time off after conference and all the meetings. It's slightly busier this week because it's CROSS-training, but not everyone is involved in that. Except today was sword day. I love sword day! I like showing off my collection and seeing people's eyes get wider as I keep bringing more out. This is why you shouldn't judge the book by its cover. Except now I have a reputation. Probably deserved. But still...

That's about it for work, I think. Actually, that's probably it period. Like I said, there's a letter and a blog post, and both of those have kind of hit a nerve with me. I'd appreciate your prayers over the next few months.

Enjoy the Pic of the Week!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 18-22, 2018

So I'm actually writing this from the front desk of OMS today. I usually work on this off and on from my desk downstairs, but they needed someone to cover reception for a couple of hours, so here I am. It's been fairly quiet, and I write that knowing that I'm probably about to get fifty calls in a row now. Tempting fate and all that jazz.

I finished another group of Hakha Chin this week, including the booklet I affectionately refer to as "The One Where We Commit Murder." No joke, the booklet is a narrative, and in the course of things, we actually kill the evangelist. I can still remember the first time I read it, thinking, Is this really going where I think it's going? Oh. Wow. Yep. Dead guy.

Not that we show the dead guy. But it was a little more frank about things than we usually are. Fact is, missionaries die sometimes. It's not pretty. There are the ones you hear about because their story was especially dramatic or inspiring. But there are a bunch more who you will never know about until you get to heaven. People who labored in Africa or darkest Peru and got malaria after six months or got bit by some weird animal - I sound like I'm playing Oregon Trail now. Point is, I was impressed that we actually went there in this booklet, but it still catches me off guard every time I work on it.

The other booklets were much less traumatic, unless you count their formatting, but how many times can I really complain about how we didn't allow enough white space for translation? I'm bored, you're bored, so let's just assume that's always the case with every booklet and move on.

I'm thinking about my next letter and what I'm going to write. It'll have to wait until after conference, but I don't want it to be just about conference. I need to address my funding needs, and I'm trying to find a way to do it that isn't pleasehelpI'msuperpoor.

Although true, I'd like to present the many benefits of supporting a missionary. To that end, I'm asking for your help. As a supporter of said missionary, what are the benefits you experience? Are there any? Am I doing a terrible job of imparting these benefits to you? What can I do better? I'm very interested in your answers.

And if you can spare a few extra dollars over the next few months, it would be greatly appreciated. I've had several unexpected medical expenses on top of expected ones, plus my laptop died and needs to be replaced, and I had to decline several car repairs because I don't have the funds for upkeep. As always, prayers are also needed.

Okay, so I can't actually say there have been fifty calls. But there have been about a dozen, which is odd for Friday afternoon, and I should probably pay attention to my duties.

Bon chance, mes amis!





Oh! Pic of the week!

Look at these beautiful people! We all matched one day (sort of) and just had to take a photo. Aren't we precious?

Okay, I'm really done now. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 11-15, 2018

So I think I mentioned that I was working on a new group of Hakha Chin booklets. I've seen all of these in English, but it's been a while, and I've never had to deal with the translation side of things.

And after I opened up the first booklet to start working on it, I was worried that I would take far longer to finish than normal. 55 errors in overset text, which told me that we hadn't left nearly enough white space in the English templates for a longer language. Things you only learn as you go.

I didn't want to add pages. I will if I must, but adding pages throws off the whole booklet, and if you ever have to train a large group of people in multiple languages, they should all find the same thing on page 15. Sometimes it's unavoidable if you want something readable. But if at all possible, I try to avoid it.

Fortunately, I finagled some extra space out of nowhere and got everything to fit. It won't all be on the same page, but it's only off by a paragraph or two instead of whole pages. I'll take it as a win.

Three of the five booklets were in similar condition, so it did take me a full week to finish the group. But I'm actually really proud of that because I was anticipating 7 days instead of 5.

Chapel on Tuesday was a recognition chapel, first for Andrea Fisher, who has been here five years and was introduced as our new director of mobilization, and then for Ken Westercamp, who has volunteered here for ten years.

On Thursday, we had our intern chapel. They led worship and then each gave a short-ish testimony about themselves and/or what brought them to OMS. I always like hearing them speak, but it's also always a reminder of just how old I am now.

One sad note for this week - we had to say goodbye to Madison. I don't think I've mentioned her much, but she's been a big part of ECC for a little less than a year. She joined us as an administrative assistant while she funded to go to Hungary full time. She's a huge help in keeping us organized, and together with Sarah, we kind of became the three amigas of ECC. We also bonded over origami and Broadway, and I shall miss her greatly. But I know she will do great things in Hungary, so throw her some love, yeah?

Ashleigh (not in ECC, but still lovely), me, Sarah, and Madison

We like walking around the building in the afternoons.

The Weekly Wrap-Up: June 4-8, 2018

For a lot of reasons, this has not been a great week. That's life, sometimes. It marches on whether you're prepared for it or not. All we can do is just ask for grace and continue taking those small steps forward with the realization that the weekend is right around the corner.

It's People Month. Yes, it's that time of year when the hordes descend on OMS for training, conference, meetings, and who knows what else people invented as an excuse to get more people in the building. This week was orientation, and we had a bigger group than we've had for a while. 17 prospective missionaries joined us this week to learn about all the things peculiar to our little mission. As usual, I joined them for the history of Christian missions session. It's always nice to get out of my office for a bit and see the new people - I often don't know we have new people until orientation or a staff briefing. That's one disadvantage to having a specialized job - not much interaction with newbies unless they'll be using Train & Multiply.

This was a prayer rally week, which meant we all gathered Wednesday morning to pray for various things. This one was a little different because we did some prayer walking. We did this last year, too. Various groups went all over the city - to the mayor's office, police station, fire houses, businesses, neighborhoods - and prayed for the services and people there. I, however, stayed back at the office and took my group through the building so we could pray over every office, cubicle, and room. We prayed for people, jobs, projects, future inhabitants, computers, safety - you name it, we covered it. There's no sense in covering everything else and leaving the home front undefended.

I've been working my way steadily through Hakha Chin. Finally, the four groups in the proof stage are done. Now, I get to work on the next four groups, taking them from formatting to creating proof files. This is the furthest we've gotten in any of the languages that I've done, so many of these will be booklets I've only ever seen in English. Should make for an interesting challenge!

I also found time this week to publish the second part of my Philippines series. Check it out if you get a chance.

As always, prayers are appreciated. Or come visit. It would be really nice to see a friendly face.

The Philippine Adventure: Tarlac Strikes Back

Let's talk about sequels for a moment. They have a bad rap. Almost everyone would agree that the second in a series is usually worse than the first. It's just the nature of things. And I am willing to concede that there are some real stinkers out there. But not all sequels have to be bad. There's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The Dark Knight. Umm... I'm sure there are others.

Look, the point is not to talk about movies. It's to say that this is part two of my trip to the Philippines. (Yes, the one way back in February. What's your point?) And I'm sure this will be even more entertaining than the first part. Even if we are changing the format entirely.

I'm not going to go day by day. Honestly, I've forgotten what happened on which day, and my expression

 rarely

changes.

I know. I look thrilled to be there. I promise you, I was. But I have really bad resting face. I don't understand those people who just naturally smile all the time. I don't trust them. It's not normal. 

So every day, we would start with worship. 

Our worship leader was a well-known Filipino radio personality and pastor. He lost everything in the typhoon a few years ago. His journey to joining the team in the Philippines showed great faith. 

Technically, the photo in the middle is of the after lunch stretch time in which we did the weirdest rendition of "Father Abraham" I have ever heard. But the limbs moved, so mission accomplished, I guess. 

I think I mentioned that we had a lot of people representing many countries. And to pay homage to this, the worship leader would have someone read the verse of the day in their native language. Do you know how long it takes to read 5-6 verses in some of these languages? We had Korean, Hindi, Spanish, Tagalog, English, Haitian Creole, and one I can't mention. I felt it was a good representation of what I go through in trying to fit languages of varying length into the same four inches of space. 

Then we seminar-ed. The look of this varied with each session. First, since it was a Train & Multiply workshop, we had to make sure everyone had access to T&M Online. That was a chore and a half. 

And can I just say that hotspots are your friend? They are beautiful things. Especially when you need forty people to be online in the middle of the Philippines. 

Part of why we were there was to share some best practices in working with T&M. So we heard how it's being used in the Philippines, in Colombia, Spain, on short-term teams, among children, with deaf communities, in prison, and adapting it to a university context. There were some incredible stories of faithful people. It was worth the trip just to hear how God has taken this small tool and done amazing things in communities and individuals!

At one point, I actually got up front to talk about my job and why it takes so long to take the translated text and turn it into something usable. I think the message got across. People really don't realize just how much work goes into making these booklets great. 

We transitioned then to talk about some challenges and opportunities facing T&M. Based on a survey we took on the bus ride, we were divided into teams. My first team tackled the challenge of working with oral learners. T&M is a text-based program. I create the booklets, for crying out loud. I know that it's an obstacle with non-literate people and oral cultures. We looked into ways that T&M could be adapted to reach more people.

That's my team. And here's what I loved about it: we all came at T&M from a different context. Yes, there were four Americans. But all of us work in different areas. And every team member could think of several examples of situations in which T&M doesn't work as text. We had to think outside the box. And you can't present solutions to non-literate learning via text. 

So we got creative. And yeah, some of these solutions are quite a way down the road. But I would love to hear T&M as a radio drama. And hey, it was out of this discussion that "T&M: The Musical" was conceived. But more on that later. 

My second team was looking at the opportunities (and challenges) in using T&M in Europe. 

Europe is often seen as the place where Christianity went to die. One of the most poignant descriptions of Europe that I use often is that they have forgotten that they've forgotten God. And yes, there are tremendous barriers. But there are also amazing opportunities! Don't dismiss Europe as a mission field just because it's hard. That's like saying God is incapable of changing hearts. And if you believe that, then what's the point of anything?

On the last day, we divided into regions. There's no point talking about best practices if you don't have a plan to implement them in your ministry. So each region got some time to come up with action plans for the next few months. And don't assume that the office staff was exempt from this. We made our own action plan for how we were going to take what we'd learned and incorporate it into the future of T&M. 

(I need to take a moment to talk about a truly profound moment I had in the Philippines. I experienced a moment of zen, people. And it's all about a pen. Yes, a common writing instrument to you. But to me, it was a thing of beauty. It wrote beautifully, it was comfortable to hold - I could compose sonnets to this pen. I asked Lois and Dez to find me a dozen more. I think they thought I was joking because they never showed up. But I'm not joking, guys. I'm a huge nerd about this stuff. I'd show you a picture, but it's become my church pen, and I don't want to remove it from its spot in case I lose it. That is all.)

Okay, so let's switch gears for a minute. We've spent a lot of time indoors, and to be honest, that's how we spent most of our time in the Philippines. I didn't get many chances to explore. But I did find a bit of the flora and fauna to share with you.

These cats were just about the only animals I saw in the country. 

There were far more of these.

One reason we didn't spend a lot of time outside is that they were constantly burning the fields. I have no idea why. We mostly saw sugar cane. But I could definitely smell it in the air. Sometimes I could taste it. 

And of course, nights are beautiful. (I think there was a super moon while we were there. Very big and bright.)

We did go out one night to a coffee shop. It was really nice, though I don't like coffee. So I had some kind of flavored drink that reminded me of moscato (but without alcohol) and tasted amazing.

Which brings us to food. I didn't take a lot of food photos, because how many times can you really take pictures of rice? It's no joke that every meal in the Philippines is served with rice. Because it is. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. And the thing that got me was that the Filipinos didn't seem to want to put anything on the rice. There was stuff on the side. But the rice was on its own most of the time. Very odd for someone who usually accompanies rice with and. Rice and...

Feed me, Seymour!

Lots of pork. The adobo flakes were interesting, though not my favorite. Lots of soup, too. Reminded me of Poland, though no potatoes.

Those skewered pork things were amazing. I would eat them all day every day.

That is fish on my plate. I tried it because I told Deb that I would. She failed to convince me that fish is worth eating. That sweet drink in the glass, though? BRILLIANT.

These little fish showed up for breakfast a couple of times. If there's one thing I don't need upon waking, it's beady eyes staring up at me from my plate. 

Now let's talk about Sunday. It was a standout day because we didn't do any of the normal seminar stuff. They split us up in small groups so we could visit as many of the local churches as possible. And we finally got to ride in a Jeepney!

If you know anything about the Philippines, you probably know about Jeepneys. They are crowded, they are kitchsy, they are at times terrifying, and they are sadly disappearing in the Philippines. We were told that there's a movement to get rid of them. I can sort of understand. But they are also a lot of fun.

I went to the Faith Fellowship Tarlac church. This is the denominational church in Tarlac City. It was lovely. Great worship, great people, and plenty of fans on the white people.

Did I mention great food? We ate an excellent lunch after the service with the pastor's family. Let me tell you something - I may hate cooking (though I'm warming up to it), but I love cooking shows. Especially "Parts Unknown" with Anthony Bourdain. Because food is so tied up in the culture of a place. People eat things they know and can find easily. And I love seeing how that plays out all over the world. Something exotic to you or I is extremely commonplace somewhere. We used to host Russian students at our house. They were flabbergasted by casseroles.

Try everything once. You really never know.

We met up with everyone else at Pastor Mar's house, which also happens to be where a house church is meeting. Before that, though, we picked up another group that was having church under a tree. They also happened to have avocado ice cream. Now, I can't eat ice cream. Bad things happen. But it was just too intriguing. And I can honestly attest that avocado ice cream is worth just about any bad thing that could result. It is the stuff of legends. I'm drooling just remembering it.

Eventually, we all ended up at Mar's home. His wife has a roadside restaurant, too. 

And it is there that I encountered another great Filipino tradition.

Halo-halo.

Literally, mix-mix. As in, mix up whatever you have and stick it in ice cream. The picture above is someone else's halo-halo (pronounced hollow hollow) because as I mentioned before, I can't eat ice cream. So they made me a special batch without it. And I have to say, you really miss out when there's no ice cream in it. It's just crushed ice and coconut and corn and jellied fruit - nothing to hold it together.

We also had these. They reminded me of tamales since they are wrapped up, but it's more desserty. I was not a fan. I can't remember what is in them now. Oh, and there was also flan. Because why not?

I wish I could show you the evolution of this picture. We started out with a few. Then we added another. Then two more. Then we pulled Let in on her phone. It was hilarious.

And it apparently started a trend.

Like I said, there were a lot of people there. And somehow that became this:

Aww. Don't we look great?

After dessert, we split up again. Some people wanted to go back to the hotel. Some people wanted to go to the mall. Some people wanted to see an open air market.

I would normally do the market. But seeing as I hadn't exchanged any money and I was feeling peopled-out, I should have just gone back to the hotel and had a lie down. But no. I picked the mall.

It's huge. And it's crowded. I think there were at least five floors. Dozens of stores. And not mom and pop shops. High-end designer places. I had a hard time reconciling the mall with the church I'd been to that morning.

This is the thing about the Philippines that constantly perplexed me. Parts of it are incredibly modern. There are luxury stores, luxury hotels, a vast network of highways, beautiful buildings, the occasional park, and just really neat architecture. And then right next to it - not down the street or around the block - next door would be a shack or a street vendor with no shoes. Extreme luxury right next to extreme poverty. And there are no apologies or explanations. It just is. Like there's no reason to find it odd. I'm used to very segmented living. You have your nice neighborhoods, you have your slums, you have your mansions - none of which are found anywhere near each other. At least not where I'm from. The dichotomy of it kept throwing me for a loop.

Here's the thing that makes it all worth it, though. Wherever I go, there's one constant.

The people are incredible.

Whether you're meeting for the first time or you only spend time together in other countries, the people you encounter are the best part of any trip. They all have a unique perspective on life, and for a few brief (or not so brief) moments, you can connect in ways you never imagined. These are people I will never forget, and when we see each other again, whether in this life or in heaven, we will reminisce fondly about these experiences. 

Just a few more random moments to talk about. 

First, my hair does this in humidity. This was very early. Before it got even bigger. This was fascinating to the Filipinos. They have very flat, straight hair. Mine is neither of those. So I kept it down a couple of days to provide entertainment.

I'm not 100% certain of this next thing. But this might have been the day they were playing the Super Bowl. See, it was happening Monday morning for us. And we were very carefully instructed to not be watching it while we were in meetings. And I adhered to that. But I may have been tracking the score in real time. I look diligent, right? And I was. I was diligently tracking the plays as a team I don't care about beat the pants off a team I loathe. It was truly beautiful. (Oh hey! That's the pen. Isn't it pretty?)

Now, imagine this is a Marvel movie. The credits are rolling, but you know better than to leave because this is a Marvel movie, for crying out loud! There are always post-credits scenes. And it's time for me to talk about the thing that I've alluded to but never fully explained. 

So, I talked about the challenge of reaching oral learners, right? Well, for the trip, all the participants were connected on WhatsApp. It's a great tool, and it really helped us keep organized. But it did so much more than that. Because after our presentation, a little message went out across the wire. And I never pass up an opportunity like this.

I don't think anyone took it seriously at first. It's one of those things you laugh at and then move on. Except I can't move on. So I started writing lyrics. And then Dean came up with categories of entries in a talent contest. And it really just ballooned from there. So from Friday afternoon until Monday evening, we formed our own little underground groups. We rehearsed. We wrote and rewrote. We composed power point presentations. 

And then it was time. 

Pictures really don't do it justice. 

Which is why there is video. 

I can now present to you the exclusive playlist of entries in the world premier of T&M: The Musical. There are seven videos. I really hope you enjoy them. (There was dual translation for our Spanish speakers.)

Seriously. This is pure GOLD.

(Please don't share these outside your immediate sphere of influence.)

And that's pretty much it. I could only begin to tell you everything I experienced on this trip. If you want to know more or see more photos (I have hundreds), I'd be happy to to share.

We left Tarlac at 1:30 pm on February 6 Philippines time. That's 12:30 AM February 6 in Greenwood. 

Remember that. It's important. Because this is about to become...

...a THREEQUEL.