Postscript

It was time for the annual Europe Area meetings, again.  This year we met in Germany, and both of us were invited to attend.

The Remote IT Support program that serves both Europe and Africa and for which Jeff is part is led by his supervisor in the Europe Area…which makes Jeff part of Europe Area…and why we get to come to this meeting annually.

In these meetings we usually get an update on what is happening in Wycliffe around the world, and what’s happening in Europe Area.  Since the Europe Area team is quite distributed, with staff in several countries on three continents, we also get personal updates from our colleagues.

We’ve been invited to spend some extra time in Europe after the meetings are done.  Jeff will be helping his supervisor set up an office in Germany with wired-internet ports and extra electrical outlets, and may also help with some other special projects.

Jeff will also travel with me and a small team to Denmark and Romania where we will be gathering some information for a few publicity articles for Wycliffe. We’ll be working on a profile about a woman in Denmark who is preparing for service with Wycliffe, and we’ll also be gathering a story about a small church in Romania that sent a family from their church to Ethiopia to serve in translation.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Every so often its important to review what you’ve done and assess what’s next.  Wycliffe has been working on establishing communications teams to serve each of our global areas — Africa, the Americas, Asia & the Pacific, and Europe/Eurasia.  About two years ago we finally had a least a person assigned to each of those areas.

Five of us (representing each of our global areas) gathered for three days in Germany to reflect on what we’d been able to do, define our major victories and barriers and discuss what the best way forward could be.

The result?  A more than twenty page report for our leadership to review with some recommendations for next steps.  We’ll see what happens.

It was a productive several days, but it wasn’t without an extra day to explore Germany.

A day before the meetings began, we all went together to visit Wartburg Castle–the place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1522.  The room in the photo is where he did the translation.

…seemed like an appropriate place for a group from Wycliffe to visit…

Fredrick the Wise brought Luther to the castle to protect him following Luther’s excommunication from the Church after refusing to recant his 95 theses.

I guess Luther didn’t have much else to do except work on his translation.  It was completed in only 11 months–an amazing amount of time especially considering how much time it had to take just to write down all the words!

Translations of the New Testament today can take ten, twenty, even thirty years to complete. Before the computer age, they could take longer.

Luther was a mother tongue translator (MTT).  While MTTs are always involved in Bible translations, the process can often go faster when an MTT, like Luther, is well educated in the principles of languages and theology.  This is why our organization and colleagues invest in training local people to do translation work.

Read about Fransisco Pihali, a mother tongue translator in Mozambique.

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From Kenya to South Africa to Ghana to Czech Republic to Germany–we’ve seen World Cup fever everywhere!  This was our first time to really experience World Cup excitement.  I don’t remember it being a very big deal at home. So many people everywhere else we’ve been these last few months were into it that we both found ourselves checking the scores and watching some parts of games.

We were in South Africa in late February during the lead up to the games and saw two of the game venues (Soccer City in Soweto and Green Point Stadium in Cape Town).  Preparations for the World Cup were still in full swing and many shops were already full of World Cup souvenirs.

I was in Ghana during the first week of the World Cup.  A street was blocked off downtown for a screen and projector set up for game viewing.  While I waited at the Accra, Ghana airport for my flight back to Kenya, the England vs. USA match was on.  Everyone cheered every time a goal was scored.

In Austria at the meetings we attended there, we both saw some of the Germany vs. Ghana game at Schloss Klaus.  Nearly everyone in the castle was watching the game…and cheering for Germany.

We saw World Cup fans in Prague watching the South Korea vs. Uruguay game on two large screens set up in the middle of Old Town Square.  In addition to this viewing, many restaurants also had TVs for game viewing.

A highlight of this World Cup for us was being in Berlin the day the German soccer team beat England.  We were there after our meetings in Austria and after a brief visit in Czech Republic.

Wow, the city was alive.   We’ve never seen so many people so psyched about winning a soccer game.  We were just walking around town, but we could hear people in their homes, at restaurants and at other viewing points cheer every time Germany scored.  We enjoyed being part of their celebrations.

Congratulations to Spain for winning the tournament!

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Our travels took us briefly to the UK where we met up with my sister Ashley.  We spent a day with her in London before we all boarded planes headed for Nairobi. That’s her in the photo being silly in front of Westminster Abbey.

She was on a different flight than us but arrived in Nairobi just an hour after us.  Our plan came together perfectly, and I was able to greet her at her arrival gate and help her through immigration and customs.  We’re very excited about her visit.  She’s the first of any members of our families to see us out here.

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We took a couple of field trips during our meetings with Europe area.  One was to the Wycliffe Austria office in Linz.  Wycliffe Austria currently has about twenty staff in various countries working in translation or in work supporting translation efforts.  They share this office with Operation Mobilisation.  My counter-part in communications for the Europe area, Bud, will also be using office space here.  It was neat to see the office, visit with the staff, and see where Bud will be working.

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Jeff and I are in Europe for meetings with the Wycliffe International Europe Area team.  The Information Technology (IT) group under Europe area is launching a new initiative to provide remote and roving IT support to staff located in five time zones in Europe and Africa.  The two colleagues pictured with Jeff, Martijn and Ken, are leading this initiative.  Jeff is joining this group as their remote/roving IT tech for Africa.  They hope to have several more remote/roving IT techs in the future.

Our meetings are in this beautiful old castle in Austria called Schloss Klaus.  It’s a Christian retreat center.  It’s part of Torchbearers International, and a short Bible school is held here every year.  During our meetings, however, we are the only ones other than staff occupying the building.  We’ve had some fun exploring.

The staff of the Europe Area team come from seven countries–Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, Finland, South Africa and the US.  Not only do members of this team come from many countries, some have also lived (or are currently living) in countries far from their homes.  This administrative team includes staff that work in personnel, finances, fund-raising, church relations, communications, information technology and more.  While for the most part this team serves staff in Europe, the IT team, with it’s focus on time zones as opposed to geographic areas, serves both Europe and Africa.

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With only two percent of the international Deaf community professing a belief in Christ, the Deaf are one of the most unreached people groups in the world. In this video, learn about how Wycliffe is working in Sign Language translations.  This is the second part of God Speaks My Language produced by 100 Huntley Street and Wycliffe Canada.

Learn more about sign language translation projects in Africa.

Popularity: 26% [?]