SEE BEYOND THE STARS

It wasn't about the technology. It's about the relationships. Sometimes it is a hard lesson to learn in that it is so easy to revert back to the project goals and timelines. It's a part of our culture.

After our trip, I received from Steve Sheldon one of the nicest thank you notes I've ever received in my 21 years of ministry. I'll let the e-mail speak for itself. But, before you do, I simply want to thank God for the opportunity to serve in this capacity. I took from it more than I gave. I also want to thank those that faithfully and generously support Anne and I with prayer and financial support. Without you, we couldn't be helping our national colleagues pick up the burden of Bible translation.

Read on...


"I wanted to give a brief report on the time of the IT team with ALEM.

From my perspective there were very positive results from the week the team spent here.

1. The Linguistic / Translation training course is going on right now. Because of the visit, 10 Dell Desktops are installed and working. These will be able to be used to enhance the training that the young people get this year. They will be able to be introduced to SIL software in a way that has not been feasible before. The visible encouragement this has been to the staff and to the students is evident on every hand. One of the young woman training here plans to do Bible Translation in (country name withheld). She and another student came to me one day to ask me some questions about the team that had come. One of their comments summarized well the feeling of students and staff as well. "Steve, it is hard to imagine that such high quality technical people would come to help set computers so that we can be better trained." The other young woman went on to ask: "Who paid for all of the computers?" From that question, I was able to explain the team effort that had one into all of this. People willing to fund, people willing to plan, technical experts who could put valuate and things in place, the vision of JAARS leaders etc. She just looked at me for what felt like several minutes, and then said: "only in God's kingdom is that kind of love and service seen." People like these young women will go from here and minister to Bibleless peoples in ways that most of us will likely never know about. I hope, however, that their feelings of joy and appreciation will make all of you feel that it really was AND IS, worth it all.

2. The team was able to evaluate and plan for the next phases of the project. This is a staged project, and as such requires good advance planning. Up to this point the planning has been by people who did not understand the technical needs and requirements so was more of a wish list than anything else. By carefully utilizing the skills of all members of the team, they were able to go much farther than I thought possible. In a really good rough draft form they have basically "finished" the planning for all stages. Their keeping a balance between doing the work of initial set up, and planning carefully for the next phases was impressive. In other words the "urgent" did not keep them from giving priority to the "important."

3. Ken Haugh, Bob Wright and Bill Penning are competent professionals. They are all gifted technically, which is not surprising to me in JAARS personnel, but I saw first hand that they were also willing to look at people as worth investing time in as well. The two young men from ALEM who were part of the team were able to contribute to the work, so of course there was benefit to the effort in that way. However, each person added to a team requires more time, meetings need to be managed more efficiently etc. The thing that pleased me in this regard was that the JAARS/SIL team that came, was able to see people (these two young men) as being
just as important as machines and systems. The input they had into these young men's lives is something that I believe will have an ongoing and lasting impact in their lives and for eternal purposes as well. I talked to both of these young men each day to make sure they were doing well. Their joy in being part of this effort was evident each time we talked. They learned, they saw the way IT professionals can contribute to BT, and they grew professionally, and personally in the process. A comment one made was that he was pleased to see that there are Christian organizations willing to commit to excellence in their work and not just "dar um jeito" (get by.) He is a quiet leader who will have influence with other organizations and within ALEM. The idea of serving with excellence that is so much part of JAARS and SIL may thus spread here as well.

I just wanted to say thanks, to encourage you with the good results achieved, and to challenge you to keep on keeping on. The Pirahã with whom we worked taught us to dream "beyond." Their way of speaking of this is by saying "see beyond the stars." God allows us to see a lot, but not all. I have done some dreaming "beyond" as I thought and prayed about what I might write in my note of thanks to you, and in my prayers of thanks to God. Perhaps you can stop and do that too, even briefly, and in that way say "thanks" to HIM for all he has and will continue doing. As I did this my dreams of what "might be" happening that I will never know about, and never see, led me rejoice greatly. God used the team for accomplishing great things. You and I know and see some of these things, but only God knows all that He is bringing to pass through the faithful service of the ENTIRE team."

Steve Sheldon

Brazil's ALEM

I left Jamaica on Sunday, January 15, flew to Miami, and then flew to Brasilia, Brazil arriving on Monday, January 16. The purpose of the trip was to assist ALEM (Association of Linguistic Evangelical Missionaries), a Brazilian organization dedicated to training national missionaries, with their computer needs. The courses had already been started and 26 students were enrolled. They were desperate for new computers as a portion of the training is in linguistic principles and needed computers and linguistic software for the course.

Vision 2025 focuses on transitioning from doing Bible translation ourselves to assisting the national church to accomplish the task. We thank the Lord that donors have the same perspective as several days before leaving for Jamaica, we were informed that a donor provided the funds for 13 computers and additional hardware (over $23,000). Two days before departing to Jamaica, we ordered 10 Dell desktops. They were waiting for us when Bob Wright (JAARS), Bill Penning (the Brazil branch network administrator) and I arrived there. We were absolutely delighted albeit not half as much as they were. We were kids in a candy store!

The other half of the project was the assessment to determine what it would take to set the entire building up with the computers, wiring, network infrastructure, wireless access, etc. Cristiano Barros, a Brazilian translator with excellent IT skills, and Davi Fuch, a recent German high school graduate in Brazil with his family, joined the assessment team. This was truly an international endeavor.

My role was to guide the discussion, ask the questions, and refine the results, and present it to the leadership. We successfully completed the project in the week alloted.

Where did you say that was is that in the Bible?

Can you guess what portion of the Bible the following Scripture text is from?

1 Fo God mek de wol, de Wod been dey. De Wod been dey wid God, an de Wod been God.
2 Fo God mek de wol, de Wod been dey wid God.
3 Shru dat Wod, God mek ebryting. Ain nottin een de whole wol wa God mek dat been done dout de Wod.
4 De Wod, e de one wa all life come fom. An dis life yah de life wa da mek all people see de light.
5 De light da shine een de daak, an de daak ain neba been able fa pit out dat light.

I'll give you a clue. It is the heart language from people that live right here in the United States!

Go to the JAARS website and read to the bottom for the answer .

More Wycliffe Jamaica

One can't leave Jamaica without tasting Jamaica's succulent Jerk Chicken, cooked in a pit with Pimento wood fueling the fire. So, Wayne Ashwood, Wycliffe Caribbean's network administrator, and his family took Steve, Larry, and Ken for a drive around the island.

Wayne took us to an area known Jerk Chicken. It is also known as a center of the Rastafarians. We dined on chicken, pork, sausage, and lobster and met some characters along the way.

Wycliffe Caribbean/Brazil trip update

Larry Gradisher and Steve Bradley, two IT volunteers, and I traveled to Jamaica in early January to help set up the Wycliffe Caribbean office, pictured right. We installed a Windows 2003 server and seven workstations. To be sure, the trip was about setting up the office infrastructure. But ultimately, the technology was just a small part of all that happened.

We ate “patties” (meat pies) that looked like ground meat Hot Pockets and Jerk Chicken, the Jamaican staple. We also enjoyed sweet fellowship, sang songs, and heard the Christmas store in Patwa, the native Jamaican tongue. It was truly a moving experience for both us and them. The Scriptures and even Bible stories in the language that speaks to the heart still moves people! John Roomes, the Director, and the others thanked the Lord for the new server and computers because, just like us, they connect this island to the rest of the world.

The Lord provided the funds for the computers. The Godly Wycliffe Caribbean staff will use their office and computers to share the vision of Bible translation with the Caribbean region.