Coder by Calling

 

From the very beginning of our journey to missions, we knew we wanted to somehow involve our entire family.  So, when we had the opportunity last fall to start sharing with other believers the needs of the Bibleless, I began searching for a way to involve the kids.  I was so excited when I came across another Wycliffe missionary family’s blog and how their kids did a quick presentation using Skittles.  I contacted the other family, the Tolivers, and requested permission to copycat their original idea.

Then, we had fun counting and practicing….

 
 

At first, as we were sorting and counting, the most difficult part was keeping the kids from eating the Skittles.  We would jokingly say, “Don’t eat a language!”   Of course, after taking all of the effort of working together to carefully count the Skittles, the kids quickly learned the importance of not dropping, eating, or misplacing a ‘language’.

While I think our copycats gave a great visual for the need for Bible translation, the Toliver kids did an excellent job!  They recently remade the original video and it looks very professionally done.  Go check it out!

Skittles & Translation from RBennett on Vimeo.

 

Out of a known 6,800 languages spoken in the world today, only 471 language groups have the entire Bible translated into the language that they understand best.  Over 2,000  languages have a need for Bible translation to begin.   That means there are close to 350 billion people around the world today that have NO Bible available in their heart language.  (Stats were taken form the 2011 worldwide status of Bible translation.)  Won’t you join us in reaching the Bibleless with the gospel of Christ?

Yes, we hunger and thirst for technology.   If only we would have the same hunger and thirst for righteousness and be willing to stay up until 3 AM to get it…

Today was the pre-order date for the new iPhone 5.  Starting at midnight Pacific Time (3AM where we are), many people signed-up to receive the lastest and greatest phone from Apple.  The initial stock reserved for pre-orders sold out in one hour.

So who stayed up until 3AM (or got up early) to get the new iPhone 5?  I will admit that I did.  My justifications:

1. My last day at Interactive Intelligence is 9/28 and I have to give up my current iPhone 4S.
2. My Sprint contract (conveniently) expired on 9/6.
3. Sprint service is not good in North Carolina where we will be going.
4. I actually write software for iPhones.

With all those justifications, I still need to check my heart.  The pull of materialism is so strong.  But it is just a phone.  How can that hurt, right?

 The apostle Peter warns that Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NLT). He uses riches, consumerism/materialism and worldly prosperity to lure believers away from following Jesus, the true Provider, Protector and Sustainer. We, as believers, need to maintain Job’s attitude towards riches: “The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” (Job 1:21, NLT).¹

How should we as Christians spend our money?  Where is the line between tool and toy, between enjoyment and idolatry?

John Piper writes, “Jesus presses us toward a wartime lifestyle that does not value simplicity for simplicity’s sake, but values wartime austerity for what it can produce for the cause of world evangelization… The point is: a $70,000 salary does not have to be accompanied by a $70,000 lifestyle. God is calling us to be conduits of his grace, not cul-de-sacs. Our great danger today is thinking that the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn’t. Copper will do. No matter how grateful we are, gold will not make the world think that our God is good: it will make people think that our God is gold. That is no honor to the supremacy of his worth.”¹

There is a strong temptation to be distracted.  Am I abusing this world?  I need to be constantly evaluating the intentions of my heart. Would I be willing to get up at 3AM (or even 5AM) to grow in righteous by prayer and his word?

---

1. Wycliffe article on Consumerism

“Grab your Bibles!”

The kids eagerly run throughout the house, gathering as many Bibles as they can find.  They start to stack them on the table and I quickly realize that they will soon hit the light that hangs just above.

They move them to the floor and start to sort and stack them by size.

 

 

As I hear their voices discuss the best way to organize the Bibles and watch as they arrange and rearrange, with the stack growing higher, I see…

 

• my husband’s first Bible that he received.  I know it has a handwritten message from his mom inside the front cover.
• my very worn daily Bible.
• the Word and Song Bible that we first bought for our oldest child when she was a toddler.  She would listen to the CD, follow along in the Bible by looking at the pictures, and then get up and dance so joyfully to the songs that accompanied it.
• several bindings taped multiple times from being well loved.
• our littlest ones’ handled first picture Bible.
• the 5 small matching Bibles that I ordered for use during Bible time in the mornings with the kids.
• various versions of Bibles – NIV, ESV, NKJ, NASB.
• a Greek New Testament and a Hebrew Old Testament.

 

 

After gathering, sorting, stacking, and counting, we realized that we have over 35 Bibles.  35 Bibles for 7 people!?  Really?   (And that does not even count the access we have to the Bible through sites like BibleGateway and through downloads on our phones.)  Wow!

 

While taking photos, one Bible in particular stands out.  It’s title (on the bottom in this photo) is this…

God’s Word for Me.  God’s Word for Me!   Thank You, Lord for sending Your Son and for giving us Your powerful, living, and active Word that penetrates my soul, awakens me to my sins, transforms me, comforts me, directs me in Your Truth, and is as life to me.  It was through reading His Word for me that I fell in love with Christ – which is probably why it brings me so much joy when I see this…

Yes, God’s Word is for me…but it isn’t only for me, for my family, for our neighbors, for our friends and church family, for believers here in the United States where access to God’s living Word is in abundance.

God’s Word is also for THEM.

– for the 2,000+ languages without any portion of the Bible – not even one verse.
– for the 340 million people within those 2,000 languages where Bible translation projects have not yet begun.
– for those who don’t have one Bible, one portion, or even a single verse to share with their children.
– for those still waiting for knowledge of the One and Only Savior.

We are so blessed to be able to read God’s Word in our own language and to have it available so readily, but my heart is heavy as I read these statistics.  I am challenged to not take God’s Word for granted, but to yield the sword daily.  And, I am once again reassured of our journey to be missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators, whose goal is to see the Bible accessible to all people in the language that they understand best.

 

1 Peter 1:18-25
(emphasis mine)

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,

“All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.

Won’t you take the challenge, too?

The following article is from the Winter 2012 edition of the Rev. 7 publication.

---

Employing cutting-edge technologies continues to be a game changer for enabling and speeding Bible translation. For years, linguistics and translation experts have recognized the great advantages gained by leveraging the power and speed of computers. As early as the 1970s, innovators searching for effective Scripture translation aids created a “portable computer,” long before one came out commercially. God has continued to raise up technologists who have created applications and built hardware to help language teams do every necessary task: collect language data, analyze it, learn how languages work, create alphabets and primers, and translate God’s Word.

Vision 2025 (the year we hope to see a Bible translation project started in every language that needs one) has led our translation teams to change the way they do language work, especially over the last five years. They are seeking to partner with a broader range of people both in and beyond the language communities they serve. We in IT software development are able to support this change because of exciting developments worldwide in technology and infrastructure. One is the creation of low-power devices with simple user interfaces, which is giving rise to a viral acceptance of smartphones worldwide. These phones exist even in very remote locations, including where Bible translation teams are at work. A second major development is the increasing spread and availability of the Internet. And third, the electronic publication revolution.

This combination of new technologies now allows us to harness the help and input of the language communities in which we work—in three major ways. First, low-cost computers and tablets, which use low-power and advancing solar-power technologies, can be used easily by non-technicians in remote settings. With these technologies, accompanied by simple and customizable user interfaces for our software programs, we are now engaging computer novices in tasks necessary for language development and Bible translation (see page 4).

Second, technologies like “distributed version control systems” enable large teams that are separated geographically to work together in collaborative ways—with or without the Internet, thanks to usb flash drives or local networks. Now language speakers in diaspora can participate in the language work from anywhere in the world. We are also experimenting with enabling the “crowd”/“cloud” (meaning almost anyone worldwide who can access the Internet) to articipate in a language project. We’re defining social networking strategies to engage these communities and also evaluate the quality of contributions (see pages 6 and 7).

Finally, the explosive changes in the digital publishing world are now enabling us to reach many more people in the communities we serve (see pages 10–13). These include:

• print-on-demand, which allows printing single copies of Bibles, dictionaries, or academic papers at reasonable prices, delivering them efficiently to language communities
• publishing to electronic output paths like the Web, cell phones, tablets, and more, which can reach the masses
• incremental publishing, which allows us to print Scriptures, literacy materials, academic papers, and other documents-in-progress

Because electronic publications are so much cheaper, faster, and easier to distribute than paper ones, this option is now feasible. For example, translators can publish Bible stories for their community to read even as they continue working to complete their Bible translation. Or, they can publish separate books of Scripture as they are produced. This allows communities to use what is currently available, as well as offer feedback and suggest revisions. In addition, it builds excitement as they see the results of the language project early and often, rather than several years of work later.

For software developers, this is an especially exciting time, as we take advantage of the many technologies that seemingly God has orchestrated specifically to enable language communities to have free, wide, and convenient access to his Word.

---

—Mike Cochran

Mike grew up in the Philippines as a Wycliffe “missionary kid.” He worked as a software engineer in defense aerospace for 15 years. Mike now serves as the SIL International language technology development director and currently lives in Thailand, assessing the impact of software tools used by language teams.

The following story is an excerpt from a letter to Wycliffe staff from Bob Creson, President of Wycliffe USA.  This was also posted to the Wycliffe USA Blog.

---

At a Good Friday service in 1980, Leonard Bolioki stepped to the front of the church he attended in Cameroon and began to read the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Always before, this passage from John’s Gospel had been read in French, but this time the priest had asked Leonard to read it in the local language, Yambetta.

As he read, he became aware of a growing stillness; then some of the older women began to weep. At the end of the service they rushed up to Leonard and asked, “Where did you find this story? We have never heard anything like it before! We didn’t know there was someone who loved us so much that he was willing to suffer and die like that… to be crucified on a cross to save us!”

Leonard pulled out his French New Testament and showed them that the story was in the Bible. “We listen to this Passion Story every year during Holy Week,” he told them, but they insisted that they’d never heard it before. That, says eonard, is what motivated him to translate the Scriptures into the only language his people could really understand—Yambetta!

Leonard had to work full-time to support his family, and for most of the next 28 years, he could only translate when he found free moments. That made for a very long project; by 2008 Leonard and other Yambettas had drafted just 35% of the New Testament. The church was using the Yambetta Gospel of Mark and some lectionary materials, but those whose lives had been changed by the Word were still very much a minority.

Hope began to glimmer when an SIL Cameroon fund made it possible for Leonard to translate half-time for several years. And then in 2008, the glimmer of hope burst into bright light! The Seed Company picked up the project and began providing funds for training, equipment, and living expenses for Leonard and his team of translators and literacy teachers. In addition, SIL assigned Patricia Wilkendorf to work alongside them as consultant.

Leonard says, “I took it upon myself to translate for my people this Word of God that gives life. From 1980 on, this goal remained uncertain. But now, thanks to The Seed Company, I can see the realization of this dream, and I can only be happy—VERY happy! May this Word of Life that has saved many people from other language groups also save the Yambetta people!”

In the last 18 months, the 35% in rough draft has become 75%, and it could reach 100% within 2 ½ years! Taking into account drafting, checking, testing, and reviewing, The Seed Company calculates that the New Testament is almost 50% done with ALL the steps of translation! A literacy program is also underway, preparing readers for the Scriptures.

There have been many great missionaries in the world.  We learned about some of them during a missions class this past fall called Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (which I highly recommend).  As part of this class, we learned about four men and three world-changing eras in the last 200 years.

One of the two men who set in motion the third era was Cameron Townsend, co-founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators.  “Townsend saw that there were still unreached frontiers, and for almost a half century he waved the flag for the overlooked tribal people of the world.”  If you were to ask Cameron Townsend who is the greatest missionary, I am confident of his answer.

‎”The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.”
— Cameron Townsend

As part of our training for Wycliffe Bible Translators, we have to learn about Partnership Development (PD in the Wycliffe vernacular).  Here is a description of what PD is from The IT World of Wycliffe website.

Partnership Development (PD) is a ministry. It is a ministry of education and involvement to those people whom God has called to be missionary senders. This ministry begins when God calls a new single person or family into missionary service, and it continues until they withdraw from the work (change of ministry, illness, death, retirement, etc.). Throughout this ministry, God uses personal involvement with the missionary to bring Christians not already active in the Great Commission into His global purpose. Those involved gain the increasing satisfaction of seeing their contributions making an eternal impact.

This really changes the perspective of talking with people about Wycliffe.  It is amazing to think that we are already starting our ministry.  PD isn’t something just for this initial ramp-up time.  It is an on-going process of communicating what God is doing through our involvement with Wycliffe.  How can PD be furthering God’s kingdom?

In our PD efforts we remind the Church that the Bibleless people are still waiting. We model the fact that God uses ordinary people with ordinary skills. Our initial God-given assignment is to be a missionary TO the CHURCHES and BELIEVERS on behalf of the Bibleless. In God’s time, we will have our teams complete and will then become missionaries TO the BIBLELESS on behalf of the churches and believers!

Thank you LORD for Partnership Development.  LORD, continue to shape in me the proper perspective of PD.

I recently started receiving the Wycliffe Daily Prayer newsletter.  They have a special 40 Days of Prayer which is September 19 – November 11.  Today’s prayer reminded me about a question we had recently about how many translations are available in audio format.

One of the great things about Vision 2025 is the increased cooperation with other ministries.  Here is a quote from Today’s prayer:

The work of Bible translation leads to more than just access to God’s Word in people’s heart languages. It’s the foundational building block for many ministries that follow. God’s Word in local languages is the cornerstone for church-planting efforts, and strengthens existing churches. Once the Book of Luke is translated into a language, the JESUS film can be dubbed into it. Faith Comes by Hearing can record newly translated Scriptures for the audio versions they provide to people groups everywhere. And of course, the language development involved in a Bible translation project leads to an improved quality of life for minority communities—the translation of health materials, teaching literacy, and much more.

Faith Comes by Hearing recently announced The Word of God in 590 Languages … And Counting.  They are committed to reaching the nations with the Word of God in audio, offering the Bible in a format that will connect with the world’s 50% illiterate population.

Seeds Family Worship has a song called ‘Do Not Fear’ based on Isaiah 41:10 from their Seeds of Courage CD.  I have been singing it for several weeks – and I think I will continue to sing it in order to ingrain this promise from God’s Word!

So do not fear, for I am with you.  Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

In my previous posts Come Follow Me, Part 1 and Come Follow Me, Part 2, I shared how God has shown Himself faithful in the past and what we believe is His call to us for the future.  If you have read these, then you are aware that our family embarked on the application process to be missionaries.    Well, months later, after much prayer, reflection, interviews, and some shaky knees, we have received word that we have been accepted as members to Wycliffe Bible Translators!

Wycliffe’s vision is to see God’s Word accessible to all people in the language that they understand best so that everyone has an opportunity to have an intimate and life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our future assignment: No, we are not gifted as translators!  However, my husband will have the opportunity to use his skills in software development to assist in the process of translating the gospel into the many heart languages of unreached people groups.  He will be working with a team to develop specialist computer software for use by Bible translators and language workers worldwide. This will allow for faster, more accurate, and more meaningful Bible translations.

Our next steps:  Training!  In addition to our current family responsibilities and jobs, we will be taking missions training for the next year – a Perspectives course and online Wycliffe training as a couple, onsite training at Wycliffe headquarters as a family, and SIL training for my husband in the upcoming summer.   Partnership Development!  We will also be seeking much needed prayer and financial support.

Our needs:
– For God to raise up a team of ministry partners –both prayer and financial supporters
– That in the midst of missions training and our ongoing family roles, we would have spiritual protection, strength, endurance, and wisdom
– For trust in Christ alone, a continued sense of calling, and an abiding peace as we face uncertainties and meet transitions
– For growth in prayer as a couple and family
– For diligence (especially when tired) in training, disciplining, and discipling the children

Honestly, I keep having to fight my knee jerk reaction to pull back, scream no, and hold on tight to where we are and to what we have in an effort to protect myself and our children – for my desire for stability, comfort in the known, and for being the overseer of MY time, MY resources, MY energy, etc.   In reality though, that is faulty thinking – to think that I am in control.  Everything we currently have has come from HIM.  Everything we need in the future comes from HIM.  If this is truly what God desires for our family, who am I to say no and to question if HE will provide yet again?   I know that HE will provide all things in all situations – within the known and in the unforeseen – time, energy, resources, wisdom for decisions, and prayer support.

For my Lord will uphold me with His righteous right hand.  It is there, in Christ alone, that I find strength, rest, peace, and security.