Languages of Africa

Click here for a cool blog post by my friends Jeff and Heather. It has a great map and brief summary of languages and Bible translation in Africa. For those interested in learning more about why we're serving in Nigeria, this is a great link to check out.

FAQ--What will Technology Be Like?

One of the questions that we are frequently asked is what our technology situation will be like. No, we are not living in a hut and be relying on a satellite phone for communications once a month or so (although some of our colleagues may be in similar situations).



We will be living in a large city (Jos) of about one million people. There is power, albeit intermittent, and Internet access, albeit often slow and unreliable. We are anticipating that much of this will be improving over the next year or two.

One of the most remarkable things about Nigeria--and Africa in general--is the widespread use of cell phones as a primary mode of communication. Many (most?) people don't even have a landline. SMS (AKA texting) is very popular. My colleague Erik Hersman (click here to see one of his blogs that I follow) is something of an expert on this topic and recently posted the picture above. Basically, residents of Lagos (a major city in Nigeria but not near where we will be) can text in traffic updates and it will then be combined to allow subscribers to get real-time traffic updates.

I don't really know how it all works, but I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to share it with you. Credit goes to whiteafrican.com for this photo and sharing the idea. If you click on the photo it will bring you directly to the post about this program.

Unexpected Blessing--Diapers!

An unexpected blessing hit us last week.

We were notified by the Cotton Babies company that we have received their "Diaper Grant for Missionaries." A friend turned us on to this program a few months ago and we applied. For a variety of reasons, we will be using cloth diapers in Nigeria and they can be very expensive (but much nicer than what cloth diapers were a generation ago), so this program seemed like it could be a huge relief for us. That has definitely proven true! The grant has provided us with almost all of the cloth diapering supplies we'll need for our time in Nigeria, and we are so grateful.

If you click here, you can learn more about their program--pretty cool stuff! We're now encouraging any of our friends who are considering cloth diapering to go for it--and use Bum Genius if you can.

What a cool company to want to use their product to advance God's Kingdom in this way. Thank you Cotton Babies!

Overheard when planning to move overseas...

I think I came in at the wrong point in the phone conversation when all I heard was Christie asking,

"Do you have rabies?"

She was in the midst of making phone calls to arrange for doctor appointments, including the vaccinations we'll need. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one!

Find a Bible

When we meet with people about our ministry with Wycliffe, plenty of people ask us, "What languages do you speak?" That prompts us to explain about how we're supporting the work in other ways (Finance, IT, etc.) so that the people who are gifted with languages can handle the translation and linguistics issues.

Now, we have a new way to have people hear what the Bible sounds like in other languages. Click here to check out the Find a Bible feature of the International Forum of Bible Agencies. You can select from several languages in Nigeria, as well as thousands of other languages around the world--all in audio form. Pretty cool!

Language Survey in Nigeria

I've always thought that language surveyors have one of the most interesting jobs in Wycliffe. They get to go out into the field and assess a variety of languages in a variety of places. There are plenty of adventures to be had with this role and never a dull moment. (That's my interpretation and impression of their job, anyway. Reality might be a bit different.)

Nigeria, the country to which we are moving, is in great need of survey. Following is a prayer request that recently went out to Wycliffe staff, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Thanks for your prayers!

"Select three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to explore the land and map it out..." (Joshua 18:4a, NLT)

Nigeria is a big country with hundreds of languages possibly needing Bible translation. Exactly how many of these languages will need translations is not known – and that’s where language surveyors come in. Language survey, or language assessment, is carried out to help identify which languages have the most urgent needs as well as which dialect(s) of those languages would be the most strategic basis for developing literature. The data they gather about languages and dialects informs strategic planning efforts and resource allocation. Surveyors are always in short supply.

• Pray for people working to recruit and train more surveyors. Praise God that more Nigerians are called to serve others within their own nation, including through Bible translation and language survey efforts. Ask God to give qualified young linguists an increasing vision of the need for language survey.

• As challenging as it is to do the actual survey, it can be even harder to patiently sit down and write up the results. Pray for surveyor Mike as he finishes four survey reports. Pray that his write-ups will be clear and insightful and lead to good decisions regarding future Bible translation.

Overwhelmed

Packing. Throwing out. Selling. Visas. Vaccinations. Goodbyes.

Wow...our next two months before we move to Nigeria will be full and intense. We could use about 30 hours in each day instead of 24! It really is a bit overwhelming. The picture above is of the desk in our spare bedroom...it gives you an idea of what our life feels like right now. Thankfully, we know that the Lord has it all in his hands and he'll be guiding us through this transition.

Good news...we're now at 88% of the minimum regular financial commitments we need in order to make the move! Just two months ago we were at 60% so we are quite pleased with what the Lord has done thus far. We'll be sharing more updates as we get closer to departure.

Oh, and if you're in Orlando...feel free to stop by our house and make an offer on anything you see inside. :-)

Transformation

Christ transforms lives...including yours, if you choose to let Him! Check out this video:



Thanks to Tom Lin for sharing this with us.