Hearts

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Our Heart for Asia

In June, Bill was invited back to Asia and spent a week there, teaching some local missionaries with a local mission agency about how to better learn language and culture. This was a follow-up to our trip last year. This time, Bill was able to provide some training for 10 missionaries, and several mission leaders, including the director of their training program.

This like-minded agency targets Unreached People Groups, and their desire is to have their missionaries reach a higher level of fluency in the heart language of those people groups. And they’ve asked our mission–Bill in particular–to help them do this.

The feedback was that the missionaries found the sessions to be super helpful and they couldn’t wait to get home and put into practice what they had learned. Their leaders asked our mission to give them a list of recommendations they could pass on to their board. They want Bill to come back and do more training. This might lead to walking them through revamping their training course, as well as training their mission’s language consultants.

Bill’s (physical) Heart

A Shock… In March, our doctor discovered that Bill had A-Fib (atrial fibrillation)–that is, an irregular heartbeat. This greatly increases the risk of stroke, so Bill was immediately put on blood thinners.

Another, Better Shock… In July, his cardiologist did a procedure with a mild electric shock, which was successful in resetting Bill’s heart to normal rhythm! And from that day until now, Bill has way more energy! We hadn’t realized how his energy had gradually waned.

The Heart of the Matter

Missionaries need fluency to communicate God’s message; and they need training and coaching in order to reach fluency! So Bill’s project of updating Ethnos360’s how-to manual our training programs and missionaries use to learn language and culture is a vital part of seeing Unreached People Groups reached in their Heart Languages.

Recently, Bill’s project of revising those Culture and language Acquisition (CLA) materials is picking up momentum. The software development team is about to begin working on the beta version of the mobile app and desktop/laptop program that will integrate with the new CLA how-to program. We’re hoping to coordinate the release of the app with the launch of the new CLA materials.

So Bill is rallying his team to pick up the pace in these final stages of development. Communication can be a challenge. A recent conference call, he had to find a time that worked for people in Florida, South Asia and California! He’ll be heading to Florida in early September for some face-to-face meetings with some of his team.

Prayer and Praise

  • Thank the Lord with us for Bill’s back-to-normal heart rhythm!
  • Pray for health and strength, safe travel, and wisdom as Bill oversees his project

note: In accordance with our mission’s guidelines we’re
being intentionally vague as to country names for reasons of
missionary security. Want more details? Please ask!

Here and There

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What’s YOUR favorite color?

Where’s the best place to learn culture and language?

Answer: in a cultural community where that language is spoken. But not all communities (or teachers, or schools…) are equal.

On our trip to Asia in September, we checked out a language school where our people might learn national language and culture. Bill was asked to evaluate the course, and to check out the opportunities in to experience culture–especially deep culture such as local religion–in this ancient city. We spent a few days visiting temples and historical sites, viewing the nightly ceremonies honoring a river goddess, and seeing cremation and idol worship up close.

Yep. This would be quite a place to jump into the deep end of that country’s culture.

Expanding the Reach of the Gospel

Then we spent a few days meeting with learners of a like-minded mission who have over 500 missionaries working among Unreached People Groups in their Asian country. But there are still thousands of unreached groups in that region, waiting for the Gospel.

Bill has been invited to come back in the spring to begin training for their new missionaries in the area of culture and language learning. Bill will also help their language consultants learn to coach their own missionaries to help them reach a higher level of fluency.

We’re amazed and thankful for this huge opportunity!

You must learn a language step by step…

Holy Ground

While in Asia, we were able to worship with some believers in a very anti-Christian country.

I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
   I will sing your praises among the nations.
Psalm 108:3 (NLT)

Frozen Meetings

A couple weeks ago, Bill spent 5 days at our training center in Missouri (we were trained there in 1978, and taught there in 1979! And that’s where Elisa was born.) In the meetings, Bill and others explored how our missionaries who are trained to do linguistic analysis can help their teammates to learn unknown, unwritten languages.

Why “frozen”? Well… during that week, the temperatures were something like “22 degrees, feels like 17“! Bill had to borrow a “real” jacket from our son-in-law Chris. His San Diego “jacket” (= light hoodie) wasn’t going to be enough. The day after Bill left, it snowed 4″ and got down to minus 1. Yes, that’s right… one degree BELOW ZERO.

When Your World is Shaken

A consultant trip to Asia Pacific had to be postponed because of an earthquake and tsunami that leveled the city where we usually go on our consultant trips. Our hearts were broken for that city, and for our friends and coworkers there as they shifted to disaster relief and had to relocate their own center of operations.

You haven’t heard from us in a while. Our family suffered its own earth-shaking disaster with the tragic death of our other son-in-law Ricky in October. God has been showing his grace, but it’s been hard, both grieving and watching our daughter and grandson grieve even more. We’re doing all we can to provide support to them, and we’re so thankful for the prayers of God’s people.

note: in accordance with our mission’s guidelines we’re being intentionally vague as to country names for reasons of missionary security

Please Pray!

Please pray for Bill as he continues to work on the new language/culture learning program that will be used worldwide. The software team should begin working full time on the accompanying app soon.

Pray for his upcoming trip to Asia to train those language learners and consultants mentioned above.

And continue to pray for our family, for healing, strength, and courage.

Worldview

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What Have Bill and Donna Been Up To?

Here are a few examples of what we’ve been doing recently…

  • Bill has been Skyping and emailing with missionaries in the Middle East, Mexico, Brazil, the USA, and a few countries in Asia, helping them work through their language learning struggles.
  • We spent a week in February and again in May at our mission’s HQ in Florida. Bill and his team made exciting progress in the development of the mobile app which will help missionaries learn language and culture.
  • Bill taught a 20-hour class on language and Bible translation to 37 missionaries at Radius International, and then we attended their graduation in June. Now they are all headed out to take the gospel to Unreached People Groups.
  • Bill attended on 2-week workshop on how to help missionaries better learn the worldview of the people they minister to.

Pray for us as we work to see as many well-trained missionaries as possible get out to the field.

And stay tuned for an update on the mobile app Bill’s team is creating to help missionaries learn both language and worldview!

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

What’s the big deal with worldview? If you want to learn more about that, keep reading…

Worldview

Over 7,000 people groups have never heard of Christ. We need lots of missionaries to go. But how can we train missionaries to be effective at communicating the Gospel and making disciples once they get there? One answer: Worldview.

As you know, a big part of the training Bill is providing for missionaries is “How to learn an unknown language on your own.” We talk about that a lot.

But another important part is “How to learn an Unreached People Group’s Worldview.” Bill just spent 2 weeks at a workshop about how to help missionaries learn the worldview of the Unreached People Groups they ministry to.

What’s Worldview?

A culture’s worldview is, well, how they view the world. It’s their assumptions about reality—what they believe is true about the universe; what they believe about themselves and about God (or the gods)… about morality… about the origin of everything… and about their final destiny.

God’s worldview—his version of reality as revealed in his Word—is the only one that is 100% true. Every human worldview is flawed; some are overflowing with error: evolution, no God, 3 million gods, ancestor worship, reincarnation, animism… these are parts of various major worldviews, but these strongly-held beliefs are not true!

Why is Worldview Important?

If human worldviews are full of wrong beliefs, why bother with them? When we bring God’s message—his truth—to an Unreached People Group, why do we need to learn their misguided worldview first? Why don’t we just give them the simple message of God’s truth?

BECAUSE EVERYTHING THEY HEAR WILL BE INTERPRETED IN LIGHT OF THEIR WORLDVIEW.

It’s like they are wearing glasses that have the wrong prescription, blurring everything they see. If we don’t understand their worldview, we will be unaware of all the ways they will misunderstand our message. We won’t anticipate all the ways they might blend God’s truth with their own beliefs (syncretism). They might reject the Gospel for the wrong reason, simply because they don’t clearly understand it. Or we’ll never know why they might seem to accept it when they really haven’t!

“The Bible tells us that God’s son died for our sins, and if we believe in him, we will go to heaven.”

Okay, if we were to give that version of the “simple Gospel” word-for-word to Palawanos, here are some of the many communication problems that would arise:

  • Bible: The Palawanos know the “truth” based on their ancestor’s stories, and what the spirits tell the shaman; Palawanos cite their ancestors’ legacy and say that those teachings are for them, but they believe that the Bible is the Americans’ ancestors’ stories, and is only for Americans.
  • God: Palawanos believe in many “gods” (rice god, river god…) The supreme creator God is thought to be uninvolved with the world, he’s not really loving, he isn’t the one who provides crops and blessings, he doesn’t really care about sin, and he has nothing to do with death or afterlife.
  • Death: Palawanos don’t believe that death is because of sin or because of a judgement by God. People get sick—and sometimes die—because spirits were offended; not by sin, but by trespassing, cutting down trees, etc. So the idea of a substitutionary death as payment for sin is confusing at best.
  • Sin: Almost everything Palawanos consider to be “sin” they see as offenses against people, not against God. Such “sins” are dealt with by simply avoiding the offended person until emotions calm down in order to avoid shame. Many Biblical sins are not considered by Palawanos to be sin. On the other hand, to become a Christian and therefore to stop offering to your ancestors would make you a bad (sinful) person.
  • Believe: It would be rude to tell you they reject your message, so to be polite, Palawanos will pretend to believe for the sake of their relationship with you.
  • Judgement: Most spirits can be manipulated by rituals and amulets, so Palawanos believe that they could manipulate God and avoid judgement.
  • Destiny: Palawanos’ main concern is health and having enough food in this life; everyone dies, but it’s not because of sin; after death, everyone goes to a backwards-but-nice place called Kelebegang.

Do you see any potential problems if the missionary did not take the time to understand the Palawano worldview?

Why is Worldview Difficult to Discover?

Much of a culture’s worldview is implicitly understood. The missionary cannot simply ask, “What are all your beliefs?” and expect to get a coherent summary. Only after very intentional investigation, and much prayerful reflection, can the missionary understand the worldview and its implications for clear Gospel communication.

It’s worth every effort. People cannot be saved unless the first understand the message.

But missionaries need to be trained to do this, and that’s where we come in. It’s not enough to simply know God’s message. Missionaries need to learn another language to the point of being able to communicate the message at all. And they also need to learn the worldview of their audience in order to communicate effectively.

 

Also posted here

Airborne with Airborne

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Our recent ministry trip to the Asia Pacific region was a great success. And we did not experience any missed flights or delays like we did going to Mexico in November.

Now, our travel companions as we were locked inside a metal tube hurtling through the stratosphere… that’s another story. It is flu season–and it’s a bad one this year. Need we say more? People were coughing and sneezing all around us once we were airborne… so we were chewing Airborne tablets like crazy.

We felt like we were traveling with the germ character in this Moderately Confused comic.

But God graciously kept us healthy, both going and coming.

We went to a country with over 200 Unreached People Groups (UPGs)–whole languages totaling over 160 million people who have never heard of Christ. Getting the gospel to them in their Heart Languages is what we’re all about.

And that means missionaries who can communicate clearly in those languages.

But it’s not easy to help someone learn an unknown, unwritten language on their own. For nearly two weeks straight, Bill met with about twenty consultants/coaches/teachers who help missionaries learn two languages and cultures. First they help them learn the language and culture of the country, and then the languages and cultures of those UPGs. Much of the discussion with Bill centered around ways to help those missionaries learn the deep aspects of culture: worldview, values, concepts of God/gods, etc., in order to clearly contrast that with God’s truth.

With God’s help, Bill was able to help the team there enhance their strategies. And at the same time, they all had great ideas that he was able to bring home for his big project: updating that DIY Language/Culture learning program for the mission worldwide.

The harvest is ripe and we need (well-trained) laborers to go out into the world to reap. They need to be able to communicate clearly.

We were home less than a week before Bill had three other trips scheduled between February and May. Pray with us for health and energy and wisdom as we help to train missionaries and those who help them.

We thank God for you and your part in reaching the unreached!

 

Also posted here.

Oh, 9,000, Give or Take…

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More numbers…

This time the number is the approximate number of miles from San Diego to our destination in the Asia Pacific region. 9,000 miles–that’s a long trip.

We leave tomorrow afternoon, Friday January 5th. We should reach our destination country after 9,000 miles and (Lord willing) 28 hours of flying, terminal hopping, and carry-on dragging. We’ll spend one night in the capital city, then take a 90-minute flight to another town.

Bill will be training language consultants/coaches in 3 different workshops. If our missionaries don’t learn the language and culture well, they cannot communicate clearly or reach Unreached People groups! So it all comes down to helping them reach fluency. A very high degree of fluency.

We’re very grateful for the opportunity to continue to be a part of seeing the gospel get to the Unreached.

Please Pray

We’ll update you from over there. For now, please pray for safe travel, good connections, and that we will be healthy, rested and alert when we arrive.

Thank you for partnering with us!

3 + 1 + 2 = 46

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As 2017 draws to a close, we want to express our gratitude to God for his faithfulness!

2017 began with Bill barely able to walk across a room (injury). The year ended with him going up and down stairs in Chihuahua Mexico (recovery!) And lot of great things happened in between.

While in Chihuahua, Bill spent a couple weeks teaching several missionaries how to learn the higher levels of language they need for effective ministry. One couple will soon use Spanish to train Mexican missionaries in a Bible school. The other couple will use the techniques Bill taught them as they work to become fluent in Nahuatl, the language of an Unreached People Group. As part of the process, Bill was also training one of our Ethnos360 language learning consultants in Mexico. There will probably be some follow-up trips to Mexico to continue this kind of training.

In January, we head back to the Asia Pacific region. We’ll be on an different island this time (unnamed for security reasons). Bill will be involved in 4 workshops, training those who help missionaries with their language learning.

Please pray for wisdom, a fruitful trip, and for safe and smooth travel.

Ah, yes, “Safe, smooth travel.” That brings us back to the title of this post, 3 + 1 +2 = 6. Granted, Bill is bad at math, but he’s not that bad. We were supposed to have a 6-hour trip from Tijuana to Chihuahua: two 2-to-3-hour legs, and one hour on the ground in Guadalajara. 6 hours. A comedy of errors conspired to make the trip last 46 hours!

So when we ask you to pray for safe and smooth travel, there really can be reason to pray. You can even pray that we actually even arrive at our destination!

We appreciate your partnership in this ministry and wish God’s richest blessings on your new year in 2018.

(If you would like to read a longer, blow-by-blow recounting of that whole crazy trip, The Long Trip)