Speaking at Wycliffe Associates Banquets in California

We’ll be sharing briefly about our ministry with Wycliffe at several Wycliffe Associates banquets in southern California.

- April 16 at 7pm at the Embassy Suites in Temecula
- April 18 at 7pm at the Hyatt Regency Suites in Palm Springs
- April 19 at 7pm at the Westside Baptist Church in Fontana
- April 20 at 7pm at the Courtyard by Marriott in Riverside
- April 22 at 7pm at the Ambassador Hotel in Victorville
- April 23 at 7pm at the Holiday Inn in Ontario
- April 25 at 7pm at the Holiday Inn in Torrance
- April 26 at 7pm at the Airport Holiday Inn in Long Beach
- April 30 at 7pm at the Courtyard by Marriott in Monrovia
- May 2 at 7pm at the The Castaway Restaurant in Burbank
- May 3 at 7pm at the Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills

If you can come to one of these, go to this link, find the banquet you want to attend and follow the instructions for making a reservation. We’d love to see you!

These banquets are a great opportunity to learn more about what God is doing through the ministry of Bible translation. Admission and your meal are free. An offering is taken to cover expenses and raise funds for Bible translation projects.

These banquets are held all over the US. Is there a banquet in your community? Go to this link and click on your state to find more information about banquets near you!

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04 2013

Home Assignment: A Return to the USA

jumbo jet airplane landing at sunset

On March 1 we completed packing, moved all of our belongings out of our apartment, and boarded a plane to head back to the USA.  After four years in Africa, it’s time for our home assignment.  It took almost a full day of travel (a 16 hour flight followed by a six hour flight), and we touched down at our destination in the USA.

Every three to four years staff with our organization return to their home country for home assignment (also called furlough).  This time is designed for reconnecting with ministry partners, family, and friends, rest, working on next steps with our ministry, and also continuing to do some work for our organization.

Home assignment is not a vacation or an extended break.  While we will have some vacation, much of the next few months will be quite busy. Our time will be split between both coasts of the USA with stops in the northwest, southwest, southeast and northeast. I will be doing at least a portion of my work leading the Wycliffe News Network.  We’ll both be involved in sharing about our ministry in various locations.

If you’ve been praying for our ministry, here are six topics for prayer for this time:

  • Transition:  Many people upon return to their home country after an extended period away experience reverse culture shock.  Pray that God will help us connect with the resources we need to handle this transition well.
  • Housing and Transportation: We need to find affordable housing and a vehicle to use in each of the locations where we’ll be staying.  Short-term, furnished housing can sometimes be difficult to find, and finding a vehicle to use for 2 to 3 months can also be hard. Pray that God will help us find the housing and transportation we need in each location.
  • Connecting: We’ll be connecting with many of our current ministry partners.  Pray that we’ll have good times to share with them and that God will use us to encourage them in their participation in missions.  We’ll also be connecting with friends and family we haven’t seen in a while.  Pray that God will give us good times of reconnection.
  • Sharing: We’ll be sharing about our ministry with many people over the next few months.  Pray that our stories will glorify God and clearly show how he has been at work in our lives and in the lives of those we’ve served over the last few years.
  • Finding more partners: Our ministry budget is increasing, so we need to find additional ministry partners for our ministry team.  Pray that God will give us guidance as we plan our activities – that he will lead us to the right places and the right people at the right times.
  • Balancing: Our home assignment time will be very full.  Balancing our work to develop new ministry partners, connect with existing partners, doing some of our regular work, and trying to find times to rest will be challenging. Pray that God will help us balance all of our various activities and that he will help us find times of refreshment.

We are beginning our time in the USA on the west coast.  As our plans for time in other parts of the US come together, we’ll keep you informed.  You can find a schedule of all of our public meetings on our calendar.

Thanks for your prayers!

* Photo provided by iStock photo.  To use this photo yourself, purchase it from iStock.

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03 2013

Singing in Mono

Is it possible to sing in Mono? It is if that is the name of your mother tongue!

A year ago when I visited the Mono language community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I was reminded afresh of the excitement people have when they use their own language.

This video shows the pastor of the church we visited singing a song in the Mono language.  I think people in this church usually sing in Lingala (a regional trade language) or French (an official language of the DRC). You can hear a murmur in the background  - people were talking about this – their pastor was singing in Mono!

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02 2013

Sharing God’s Care: Mercy Ships Features on 60 Minutes

During my first trip to Benin in 2009, I had the opportunity to tour the Africa Mercy  while it was docked in Cotonou, Benin.  The Africa Mercy is a fully functioning mobile hospital on a ship. Mercy Ships is a health care ministry that was born out of the ministry of YWAM.  A team of doctors and other medical professionals provide medical care to people who may not otherwise have access to care. There’s also a team of support staff and the ship crew.

I was delighted to see that the American news show, 60 minutes, featured this very ship as well as the ministry of Mercy Ships on a recent program.  Watch this video to learn more.  It is a unique medical missions organization that God has used to bring His hope and healing to hurting people around the world.

Learn more about Mercy Ships

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21

02 2013

Cultural Economics: Expenses in One Place Don’t Match Another

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When we moved to Africa (Nairobi, Kenya to be exact) four years ago, I took my first real trip through the grocery store to look for items that I actually needed for our home. The Nakumatt Mega near our house was an amazing store with a variety like Walmart in the US. You could buy everything from a loaf of bread to a new kitchen table and everything in between. There were some familiar brands, but so many new ones I had never heard of.  I remember little things like how different I thought the carts (trolleys) were because they had four wheels that all turned independently (which I’ve since noticed in some other countries, too).

One difference that I didn’t anticipate was prices. I guess I always thought that someone somewhere just magically set some objective pricing system that would determine the cost of goods sold…well…everywhere. My first trip to the grocery store, amongst other things, turned into a lesson in cultural economics.

Price tag surprises

What did I find that surprised me so much? I remember picking up a medium box of corn flakes, doing the currency conversion, and discovering that it would cost me almost $10USD! At that time at home that same box might have been $3USD–maybe even less with a coupon. On the other hand, I remember visiting the butcher and discovering that we could buy a nice piece of beef filet pretty inexpensively. Chicken breast, however, tended to be costly.

We began to see this with all kinds of other things, too. Familiar dairy products were priced higher than we were used to, but some of Kenya’s really nice fruits and vegetables were far cheaper than we would ever pay for the same things at home. Clothes and home goods from stores in the mall felt extremely expensive (how could that fleece throw blanket cost $50?!?). Then again, going out to eat was often less than it would be at home, and even a visit to the local wildlife reserve was pretty cheap (about $10USD for foreign residents).

Economies are cross-cultural, too

Everything felt upside-down. Money and expenses were just another part of cross-cultural learning.  I had to throw out all those presuppositions about how much something should cost. The overall buying power of the country based on wealth and population, cultural values, available local products versus imports, taxes – all of these impact local prices.

I guess before living in an African country, I also had the idea that if a country had less wealth, then products would be cheaper. What I learned was that while labor for services was often cheaper, products (especially those requiring some kind of processing or manufacturing) were usually more expensive because fewer people want or can afford those items. The supply is less because the demand is less, so the price is higher.

The 2012 results from an annual survey of the cost of living for some of the world’s cities included 13 African cities in the top 50 most expensive cities in the world!  Luanda, Angola, in Southern Africa, was listed at number two with one of the highest housing costs in the world (higher than Paris and New York City).  Learn more.

Constantly changing currency exchange rates add another complication. 

Explaining differences can be a challenge

Maybe you’ve had some of these same thoughts, and perhaps this information comes as a surprise to you as it was to me.  When missionaries travel abroad, it can sometimes be difficult for them to adequately explain these differences in expenses between the country where they serve and the country where they are from to their financial support team.  Maybe some supporters feel that the missionary needs to raise too much money for the location they are going to, or for a particular budget item.  Or maybe something that is very inexpensive where a missionary serves seems extravagant because it is expensive in the missionary’s home country.

A colleague once shared with us about a how difficult he thought it would be to base some staff in a new strategic location – a country that had previously not allowed any missionaries.  While it was an economically poor country, he said that the cost of a simple, secure and unfurnished one-bedroom apartment in the capital city could be more than $2000USD/month.  He shared that the struggle he saw would be that it would be very difficult for someone to raise the amount funds they needed. Potential donors might not believe that the expenses to live in an economically poor country could really be that high.

It’s important to remember that every economy functions differently.  Each needs to be evaluated from within it’s own context.  Thankfully, many missionaries have financial advisors that help them construct budgets to compensate for these differences.  However, even with advice the reality of the finances of a new place can still seem very strange at first.

If you’ve ever travel abroad, what expenses have surprised you?  What has been more or less than you expected?

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02 2013