Indignant (originally published 5/10/2010)

Every Monday morning at family devotion we watch a short video clip about a city in the 10/40 Window that we then pray for the rest of the week. The 10/40 Window is geographically located on the map in the eastern hemisphere between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude and includes most of the world's unreached people and actually, most of the world's people period. 2/3 of the world's population lives in that window. Anyways, today before watching our clip on Pyongyang North Korea, we watched a short clip introducing the 10/40 Window to children. I was watching my kids who were all viewing the video with varying levels of interest, as you might expect, except my son Josh who was completely riveted on the screen. When the narrarator said "most of the people have never heard of Jesus" - he gasped "WHAT?!" and was just so in shock that such a place existed! It is so funny how little minds work - here we are in a place - not in the 10/40 window, but a place where the name of Jesus is used but His message is not understood the way it is revealed in Scripture. That is what motivates me to do the work I do. Joshua, it seems, is motivated by the people that have never heard of Jesus at all! He was indignant, in fact, that such a place should exist. That is the beautiful thing about missions - there is work to be done everywhere and for all different people with all different interests. Humanitarian aid, discipleship, evangelism, prayer and encouragement, on and on - there is something for every Christian to do to be involved in missions. As one good friend of mine says, "Across the street or around the world, the mission is still the same." That is true and yet the mission is also beautifully diverse so that we may all be involved in some way. But, may we all be indignant that there are places where Jesus the Messiah is still not known as He is revealed in the Scriptures.

In their own words (originally published 7/21/2010)

The following is the closing remarks at the end of the July 12 meeting of the Board for the Shekgalagari Bible Translation Project given by Chairman Nelson Lekutlane. I wanted to share with you because each of you partnering with our ministry is a part of what is happening here and we want you to know that while things are moving slowly there is a firm foundation being laid and God is going to do big things.

"I want to close by letting you know that by this meeting, I am inspired.I am ins pired at your commitment. Mr. Machao, I am inspired at your passion. Mr. Mogapele at your wisdom. To all of you I am inspired at the way you engage the issues and seriously address and discuss them. I am inspired that we shall continue to go forward in this project. And I hope that you are also inspired Richard, that you have come from so far away and have found that there is a need and that there are people who need your help. Gentlemen, I want you to think about the sacrifice this man and his family have made to come here. To come here so they can help us. It is like Paul having the vision of the man saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Come to my Kalahari*, come to my desert and help us. Help us to find the living water that will quench the thirst of my people's soul. And I know that one day my people will drink from the living water here in this desert, my people - Bakgalagari - will have this living water. I know it. Thank you."

* 'Kalahari' means 'thirsty ground' in Shekgalagari

End Session Two

Ok, session two of the Certificate in Applied Linguistics ended today at GIAL with no fanfare or pomp, because session 3 starts right away tomorrow.  However, the Articulatory Phonetics class that Maya and I have been taking wrapped up today with a final exam.  We don't have our final grades yet, but I would estimate that Maya did in the 'B' range in a graduate course in linguistics so congrats to her!  If you get the chance to give her a call or send her an email to congratulate her and say way to go, I know she would appreciate that a lot.  She has the next four weeks off of class, but will be doing some Bible study and other mission related reading as well as taking the chance to make some Christmas gifts and catch her breath before she picks up with Cultural Anthropology from Mid-October to Mid-December.  I'm so proud of her!

Meanwhile, I move on from phonetics to the second half of grammar analysis, while continuing phonology and second language and culture acquistion (SLACA).  In SLACA I am learning Swahili, an east African language, along with my fellow LBT candidate, Kory Fay.  We are having fun with it and learning a lot of great tools for when we have to devise our own language learning program in the field.  I took the family to a Kenyan African church yesterday for their worship service and got to speak briefly to the congregation in (very limited) Swahili.  It was a lot of fun!

This coming weekend I am flying to Dayton for Kristen Holdeman and Charlie Blair's wedding.  I also get to preach at the congregation where I was previously pastor, Emmanuel in Kettering OH.  That's about all that's new around here.  Take care and I'll talk to y'all later.

Rich for Maya & The Crew

Matt's First Day of Kindergarten

Well, it finally happened, Matt started Kindergarten today at CJ & Anne Hyman Elementary School in the Duncanvillet (TX) school district. He got to ride the bus. He thought that was cool. He wasn't sure about the rest. He said, "You know how on meet the teacher night my teacher had a nice happy voice? Today she had only a boring voice. And you remember all those toys in the classroom. Well we hardly ever get to play with them, we have to stay in our seats and work, work, work. I want to go back to my old school (The SIL preschool on campus). Welcome to real life buddy!