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