language learning

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)

Say What?

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How can missionaries break through walls of misunderstanding?

Everyone Needs to Hear!

We say this often. It’s our passion. This is what missions is all about: The unreached need to be reached with the Gospel. They need to hear the message of Christ.. and we believe they deserve to hear it in their heart language.

What Does “Hear” Really Mean?

If they misunderstand our message, have they “heard” it? If they reject it because we communicated poorly, have they really been evangelized? If they mix parts of God’s truth with their existing beliefs, have they been “reached”?

The answer to each question is No.

Culture is Important…

Language fluency is important. But it’s not enough! A big part of what Bill does is to help missionaries learn language and culture so that they can effectively communicate the gospel. Clearly. So it will be understood. So the Unreached can respond with faith to the truth of the Gospel. So they won’t simply put faith in their own misunderstanding of the Gospel.

Missionaries need to be able to get inside the head of their audience. We must understand what the Unreached believe… what they think—even their unconscious preconceptions—and most importantly, how might they misunderstand the Gospel.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Missionaries don’t study the culture in order to change the message to make it more palatable! We do not change the Gospel to make it fit the worldview of the audience. Rather, we learn the culture and worldview so that we know how the audience might misunderstand; how they might make the message fit their preconceptions. When we can anticipate how they will misunderstand, we can teach in a way which will avoid that… a way where God’s truth can be clearly understood.

We don’t change the Gospel; we want to see the Gospel–clearly communicated–change people’s thinking.

Recently, Bill took two trips to Ethnos360’s training center in Missouri to meet with others on his team as they develop the updated CLA (Culture & Language Acquisition) training materials for missionaries worldwide. The second set of meetings focused on helping missionaries gain insight into the worldview of their audience, and who to deal with potential misunderstanding of the Gospel message.

Health Update

This has been a year of doctor visits (32 and counting): ER, urgent care, doctors, ultrasounds, CT scans, an MRI, injections, physical therapy… whew! Since our last update, Bill has seen great progress in recovering from his pelvic bone/muscle injury. He spends hours each week faithfully following his physical therapist’s instructions, and that has made a big difference! He can walk around now without pain, and can even climb stairs. But he still needs to set some limits.

On top of all that, this week he has a kidney stone removal procedure (on September 14). Please pray for that to go well with no complications. Pray that it will not interfere with his teaching at Radius International the following week.

Upcoming Ministry

Updates coming soon on:

  • teaching at Radius International
  • development of culture/language learning software
  • a language consulting trip to Mexico in November
  • plans to revisit Asia Pacific in January

Step by Step

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Hanuman

Huge statue of the monkey god Hanuman in the square outside our hotel

Baby Steps

In November and December we took our first trip to South Asia, the region with the most Unreached Peoples Groups in the world. Thousands of unreached groups call this part of the world home. We were blown away by the vastness, the tremendous need for committed Gospel ministers, the poverty, the oppressive idolatrous false religion, the powerful anti-Christian sentiment of the government, and how much we have to learn to be the most effective in helping missionaries in this part of the world.

We were blessed and encouraged by the believers in some of the already-reached People Groups and their gracious hospitality, their love for the Lord Jesus, and their passion to reach the Unreached in their corner of the world! We also enjoyed some pretty amazing food and all the colorful beauty in the South Asian culture.

We helped four couples with their language learning (one South Asian couple and some expats) and Bill was training two consultants to coach language learners in the same way (one South Asian consultant and an expat.)

We were also able to reconnect with Singaporeans friends as we passed through their airport. Most of them were on a team that came to our tribe on Palawan in 1987. We hadn’t seen some of them in 30 years! The other friend we had met at missions camps in 2010.

Spices

Our South Asian host was ready to make every meal taste amazing.

Big Steps

While in South Asia, we were excited to be able to meet up with nine graduates of Radius International. We were part of their prefield training, when Bill taught them about how languages, language learning, and translation principles. Now they are in place, thriving in a very challenging context, and doing very well in language learning as they prepare for their future ministries. These Americans have left much behind and stepped out to do big things in the power of the Spirit to share about the Savior they love so much.

Painful Steps

While in Asia, we had to climb a many flights of stairs. Lots of them. Every day for 4 weeks. This took its cumulative toll and Bill got home in mid-December to find himself in tremendous pain and sometimes unable to even walk. The holidays made it difficult to schedule an appointment to see his doctor, so we went to urgent care first. Now, many weeks, 3 more doctor visits, a few x-rays and an MRI later, we know that his body took a beating and he has inflamed joints in his pelvis, swollen bone marrow, and a partially detached muscle (hence the pain, as you can imagine!) The pain clinic prescribed steroid injections. He just had the first injection on Feb 17th, and the next is set for March 3rd. If those reduce the pain as hoped, he will start physical therapy. Your prayers for a fast recovery are really appreciated!

Next Steps

In Asia, we were within sight of the highest mountains in the world, and in one location, we could see the hills of FOUR closed countries, each with many unreached People Groups. But to these unreached tribes, political borders mean very little, so they cross over from their closed countries to places where believers are waiting to engage them. The most exciting thing is how local South Asian believers want to reach those groups on their side of the border and these South Asians are asking for training in language learning and effective cross-cultural ministry. We want to help them!

So we have a number of potential ministry trips: follow-up visits to South Asia and to the islands of Asia Pacific, a workshop to train Singaporeans, trips to the Philippines and West Africa…

…but first we are getting Bill’s body ready to travel. He can’t be walking between airport terminals or dragging luggage around just yet. Meanwhile, he has his ongoing projects to keep him busy developing language learning materials and he’s preparing for some upcoming workshops and consultant training here closer to home.

Pray for healing, for God’s grace and provision, and for all that’s involved in the preparation of materials to enable many more missionaries to take God’s message to the world and to communicate it clearly in the Heart Languages of the Unreached.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

Spices and Thankfulness

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family-pumpkin-photo

Some Reasons We Are Thankful

Thankful for Pumpkin Spice

It is the season for pumpkin spice you-name-its (and we’re thankful for those!); but we are also closing in on the season for giving thanks in a special way. Since we will be traveling in Asia over Thanksgiving, here is our list…

Thankful for Ministry

We are so grateful for the privilege we have in being part of training students at Radius to go out and reach Unreached Peoples “in all the hard places.” We just finished up two weeks of Bill teaching 17 eager missionary trainees about how to communicate effectively in languages which are very different than English. We love investing in their lives and future ministries.

Thankful for our Family

We love our kids and grandkiddos, and are so thankful to be close to them (when we’re not gallivanting around the world). We staged our own home pumpkin patch for a family photo shoot, welcoming our newest little pumpkin Elias to join with big cousins Max and Myri. This may just become an annual event!

Thankful for Ministry… with Spices!

We leave tomorrow for Thailand and then on to South Asia. It’s a nearly 6-week ministry trip. Bill will be leading a weeklong workshop, training missionary language coaches, and helping missionaries learn some hard languages in needy places. And we will be thankful for the amazingly tasty spices of the cuisine in that part of the world.

Thankful for God Answering Prayer

We are only 34 days into our 100 Days of Prayer, and God has done some amazing things. We’re at least 1/3 of the way to our Level 1 goal for monthly support. We are humbled and encouraged, and feeling very blessed by many generous one-time gifts and several who have joined our ministry team as new financial partners. Several have become advocates, recommending us to pastors they know. We’re grateful for the Lord and for his people.

Keep praying! God is able to get us to our first goal and beyond!

Pray for safe travel and smooth connections–specifically no problems with our tickets or other bookings.

And please pray for Bill especially in the next 5+ weeks, that he will be a blessing and encouragement to those he ministers to.

May this be a season of thanksgiving for you, as well. We serve a great God who richly blesses his children.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

** No pumpkins were harmed in the making of this photo (although Elias did try to chew on a few)

 

Reaching the Unreached Next Door

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Punjabi Sikhs

 

sikh_man_agra_09

America (and California in particular) is home to many Punjabi immigrants who are members of the Sikh religion. Sikhs are not Hindus, and are often mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans and beards. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion which was founded in the 15th century in the Punjab region of India, and it is currently the 5th largest religion in the world, numbering around 30 million followers–more than all the Jews, Baha’is and Confucianists combined!

You have probably seen Punjabi people in your communities. If you are so fortunate, you have tasted their food (spicy and yummy!)

They live next door to us… yet as a people group, they remained unreached (~1% Christian).

Building Bridges

As we mentioned in a previous update, two churches in California have committed to reaching the huge Punjabi community in their city. The first step in reaching those nearly 40,000 Punjabi Sikhs is to build genuine relationships, to learn their language, and to understand them at a deep, heart-and-worldview level. The goal is to develop real, long-term relationships; not just “being-friendly-so-I-can-preach-at-you” relationships.

Punjabi woman

Baby Steps

Bill just returned from a follow-up trip to Central California where he and another consultant met with one of those churches to help them identify the most strategic neighborhoods and strategies, and to determine which of the many dialects of Punjabi would be the most effective for sharing about Christ.

Join the Team Through Prayer

Would you pray for the Punjabis to come to Christ? Pray also for those who face the challenge of learning the Punjabi language and building cross-cultural relationships.

And pray for Bill as he coaches them in their language learning.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

Photos from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Unported license: Yann (Punjabi man, 3.0 Unported license) and Raminder pal Singh (Punjabi woman, 2.0 Generic license.)