The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 21-25, 2022

Hello from a grey, freezing Greenwood! It turns out we can't have more than one heater plugged in to the ECC hallway or we'll trip a breaker. Oops. I guess I'll just have to wear layers.

I don't have a ton to report this week. I had to take off Monday to fully recover from some awful back spasms I was having over the weekend. 0/10, I do not recommend.

Most of my actual work this week was done on Amharic. There are eight booklets in the group I'm working on, and like I said last week, the punctuation is different. It makes my eyes cross sometimes, which necessitates frequent breaks. Good thing we have a new reception area now! The front lobby has been totally redone, and it looks really nice. You should come see it since I'm depriving you of photos. 

I don't think I have anything else for you. The world is a terrible place right now, and it's depressing. Pray for the people of Ukraine in general but especially for our pastor's and their families there. All except two of our missionaries have evacuated, which is a prayer request in itself. I may have printed walking directions from Greenwood to my parent's home in the event of extreme emergency, but it's still hard for even me to think of what it's like to leave everything behind, not knowing when or if you'll see your home again. Can I send my medical bills to Vladimir Putin for raising my blood pressure?

Breathe. 

Okay. 

Take some time for yourself this weekend. Spend quality time with the Lord.

Bye.

Make It Make Sense

There are six things the Lord hates,
    seven that are detestable to him:
17         haughty eyes,
        a lying tongue,
        hands that shed innocent blood,
18         a heart that devises wicked schemes,
        feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19         a false witness who pours out lies
        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Proverbs 6:16-19

These verses have always intrigued me. Why say there are six things God hates and then list seven things that are detestable? Are hatred and detestableness synonyms? The modern definitions seem to suggest that. Detestable things are deserving of intense dislike. Hate is an intense and passionate dislike for someone. I've used both words in different contexts. I don't like using the word 'hate' because of its implications. I can detest something and still put up with it. There are things in this world that I hate, and yet I have few options to effect change. The missionary path is a slow one, and it necessitates a certain lessening of one's own expression of political or social opinions. People you thought should know better make incomprehensible decisions and hold inconsistent opinions. And yet I am called to love them as Christ loves them. 

Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world that prompted these ruminations. The situation in Ukraine, the protests in Canada, genocide in China, battles in universities, our own governmental incompetence - just one of these would be enough to drive you mad, even if there wasn't an ongoing pandemic. But to have all of these occurring at once along with our usual cares and concerns is untenable. I find myself forced to ignore many injustices in order to function from day to day. 

I know there is only one viable solution. The world focuses on the tangible, maneuvering their troops like they were chess pieces and not individual human beings with souls in need of a Savior. I do what I can to reach who I can whilst maintaining my own sanity. 

But there are two phrases I feel like I need to address. 

1: History is written by the victors. In the immediate aftermath of an event, perhaps this is true. But history is just that - history. It is a series of events that lead to other events, culminating in an understanding of how we got to the world we live in today. Historians may speculate on why something happened, but we are primarily focused on the fact that it happened and what then happened because of that. Truth will out. Given enough time and distance from an event, it is fairly easy to piece together the series of syllogisms that are history. Because of A and B, C. In my opinion, this can ONLY be done with time and distance. I can tell you some of the historical events connected to the first Gulf War, but I cannot write a definitive book on the subject because it happened recently enough that it is still impacting people's lives. Are there events that have been lost to time? Yes. The land of Punt is a largely unknown quantity for historians. But we know it existed because of the impact it had on ancient Egypt. 

2. The right side of history If you want to see my blood boil, say this phrase in front of me. It's almost become a threat today - if you want to be on the right side of history, then you'll do X. But there is no right or wrong side of history. History doesn't (or shouldn't) take sides. History can only tell you what was and what resulted from that. We should learn from these things, but we cannot make moral judgments about events. A thing isn't good or bad because it happened. A thing is good or bad because of the motivations and decisions of people that made it happen. As a Christian historian, I could judge something by whether or not it follows God's laws and plans. But for secular historians, right and wrong are defined by popular opinion, and that changes like the wind. 

I have so many more thoughts about this. Avoiding the news seems impossible these days, and there is always someone ready to excoriate you for holding an opinion, not holding an opinion, or just existing in a way that offends them. I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it: all I can do is live in a way that is pleasing to God, doing my best to fulfill his plan for my life, and encouraging others to do the same. 

History will write itself. It was ever thus. We just happen to know how it ends. 

The Weekly Wrap-Up: February 14-18, 2022

It's the week of love! Or, if you're like me, it's exactly the same as every other week. I did get a lovely card from my father, but otherwise, Valentine's Day might as well not exist. Except for the movie. That one was kind of cute. 

I did capitalize on the day to do a devotional on Monday about love and society's obsession with love songs. We decided that most were quite shallow and focused on external attributes. 

I completed the fifth English volume for the Village Church Planting curriculum. This one is fairly small, so nothing too complicated. My next project, however, will be quite the doozy. I'm publishing a group of Amharic booklets and then creating a volume of them. Amharic is quite a beautiful language, but it is also one that looks quite complicated. Lots of different punctuation rules and things to look for. 

Thursday was quite a long day. We had to move our monthly production team meeting up to 8am, and if you know me at all, you know I'm not a morning person. Then we had a mini CMF workshop from 10-12ish, talking about all of the changes coming to OMS. (Have I mentioned those on here? I keep forgetting who knows what. That might have to be its own post.) Then we had a T&M committee meeting at 2:30, discussing where we are with current projects and what future languages we should be starting. 

One other thing I do want to mention here - we heard this week that the creator of what became Train & Multiply passed away. George Patterson started writing hundreds of little booklets when he was a missionary in Honduras in the 1950s. He was responding to an immediate need, and his efforts did not go unnoticed. Somehow, the booklets got into the hands of SEAN International - Study by Extension for All Nations. They consolidated the booklets, but it wasn't until they were discovered by Lloyd Niles of Project WorldReach that they started to look more like what we do today. Throughout the history of T&M, we've kept in touch with George and kept him up to date on how his work was being used around the world. I will always be thankful for his legacy.

That's my week in a nutshell. Temps are continuing to roller coaster, which is weird. We went for a walk outside one afternoon this week, and then this morning, I was slipping on ice. Welcome to Indiana. 

Bye!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: January 31 - February 11, 2022

Welcome to the February Funk. 

I don't know who first coined that term, but I am claiming it as my own. But first...

Yes, we did miss a week! Remember when I said snow had finally come to Greenwood? That was nothing compared to last week. Granted, what we got was not what they originally predicted, which I was fine with - no one needs that much ice in their lives. But we did get about 8 inches of snow, which prompted an office closure on Thursday and Friday. 

I'm not able to do much work from home. Firstly, I only have the Internet that occasionally sneaks across the street from the office, so it's spotty at best. Secondarily, I'm pretty much tied to the computer at the office. It has all of the programs and the virtual computer, so I didn't get much done with T&M on those days. But I did still have meetings and other things I could do, and I made up for the T&M stuff this week. I sent off a group of Hindi booklets for proofing, and I published the second group of Tamil! There's a big India training event coming up, so I'm hoping this will put us ahead of the game. 

I've also been working on my next prayer letter this week. This one should be quite colorful, so that's something to look forward to. 

But yeah... the February Funk. I enjoyed the snow, I really did, but now we're getting into the grays and browns before Spring, and it's still dark all the time, and I'm just over being cold. 

The only way out is through, though. So we go on. I don't want to end on a down note. I'm not in a bad place. I just really, really like sunshine. So feel free to send a little my way!

Bye!