unreached people groups

A Matter of Life and Death

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The Virus that Shook the World

COVID-19. The whole world is talking about it. Everyone is concerned. Everyone’s routines and lives are being disrupted. People are dying.

We pray that each of you is safe and healthy whether you are sheltering at home, or heading out to work or shop.

The Morning that Changed Everything

But the coronavirus, as bad as it may be, is not the world’s greatest problem. Many will never be infected. Many will survive. But sin affects everyone, and has a 100% death rate.

This weekend, on Easter Sunday Christians will celebrate and remember not just our Lord’s death for us, but his resurrection. When he walked out of that empty tomb, he changed everything forever! And he made salvation and eternal life possible to all who believe. There is no vaccine for sin, but there is a cure, and his name is Jesus.

Missionaries and COVID-19

People have been asking us how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting missionaries. What about those who are scattered across the globe sharing the message of the cure to sin and death?

Let us tell you what some of our missionary friends are experiencing. Then we’ll give you an update on us and our family.

Some missionaries are choosing to stay in their ministry countries. Missionaries that we trained are hunkered down in Peru, Chad, the Middle East, and all over Asia. Many are locked down in different situations. Some are being blamed for bringing the virus and even face threats of violence.

Others have been evacuated by their mission agencies–or forced to leave by local governments. Some had to change tickets and plans multiple times in the course of a few weeks, and barely slipped out of the country before international flights were stopped. They, like all the rest of us, are now under quarantine somewhere, wondering when and how, and if this will all return to normal.

One couple that Bill trained at Radius had just gotten to Asia and had barely started learning language in Asia when they suddenly had to return to the USA. But they are continuing language study as best they can over WhatsApp and Skype!

Bill and Donna Busy Indoors

What about us? Well, we’re hunkered down in our house, thankful for a nice yard to stretch our legs, thankful for phones, email and online church, and thankful for a well-stocked pantry (Bill was even able to buy TP at Costco today!) We’re working from home, which is pretty normal for us. But it’s weird to not be able to go out, and it’s hard to limit time with friends and our grandkids.

Donna’s been sick for about a week. But she tested negative for conoravirus, praise the Lord, and she is on the mend from what turned out to be an “ordinary” upper respiratory infection.

Bill’s ministry is moving ahead and he’s busier than ever!

Managing his team as they work on missionary training materials for language and culture acquisition (CLA) is really picking up pace. The mobile app is being developed and Bill is quite involved in guiding the programmers and testing the app. He’s working hard to stay ahead of them as they are making great progress.

A weekend consultant trip to Bakersfield for Bill to help missionaries learning Punjabi has been switched to a 4-day video conference call… that’s a first!

Bill’s trip to Missouri in May to get a new team member started on the culture/language project will likely switch to online interaction, as well.

Lord willing, an international forum of our missionaries to be held in Thailand in November will not have to be cancelled. Bill is planning a two-day training there for about 60 leaders and CLA consultants, and will demonstrate the new mobile app and CLA program at that time. We’re excited to see it launched!

In the past week, Bill had a one-hour phone call followed by a 90-minute Zoom conference with six Asian American college students in Los Angeles. They all attend one of our supporting churches, and these students are all interested in finding their role in reaching Unreached People Groups! They wanted to pick Bill’s brain, and they filled all those hours with tons of great questions. These conference calls may become a regular thing, at least until we can travel freely and get back to meeting face-to-face.

Our Family… and You

Our daughter Bethy is still working (Habitat for Humanity in Los Angeles). She’s working from home, but that’s not easy with Elias, an active 4-year-old, under foot since his preschool closed. We’ll go back to helping her once in a while once Donna’s fully recovered. Meanwhile, we read stories to Elias in a video chat and had quite the conversation with him this morning.

Elisa is homeschooling her two kiddos, as always, and Chris is able to work from home. We’re thanking that our kids’ jobs are considered “essential” and they are able to keep working during this time of turmoil! But it’s hard to start isolated from each other. We read stories to Max and Myri in video chat on Tuesday, and a week ago, we all had Myri’s 9th birthday party via a Zoom meeting, playing games, watching her open gifts, and watching each other eat cake in our respective homes!

And you… how are you doing through all of this? Let us know how we can pray for you. We’re thankful that God is in control and sovereign over all of this.

And we are especially thankful for each of you as you partner with us to reach the Unreached. We feel very blessed.

We have the cure! Let’s keep sharing it until our savior who walked out of that tomb returns.

Fire & Ice

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Tomorrow, Bill is heading to our training center in Missouri where they teach our missionaries how to learn the language and culture of Unreached People Groups. He will take 3 days to update the staff there on the latest version of the CLA (Culture/Language Acquisition) program his team is developing.

He’ll also be meeting with a missionary who will be joining his CLA Development team full-time. We’re thankful for how this will enhance and speed up the project.

Fire

Taal volcano erupting
Taal Volcano

The Taal volcano in the Philippines is erupting. It is near where we studied Tagalog in Lipa City in 1982, so several of our former teachers live still in the area.

Two Palawano young people, a brother and sister named Risyal (“Resh”) and Melanie, are currently attending a Bible institute just outside the 11 mile “danger zone.” They are close, but safe, although they and their classmates are constantly having to clean up ash and concrete-like wet ash on their campus. Their school is also serving as a relief center, collecting and delivering clothing, water and hygiene kits to those who have been affected by the volcano.

We’re proud of them, and thankful to the Lord that he has them there, and for how he is using them to help others in His Name.

Pray for the safety of Resh, Melanie and their classmates. And pray for the relief efforts of their school.

Ice

Winter Storms

This morning, as the latest winter storm hits the US, American Airlines notified Bill that his flight plans might be “affected” because of ice and wind tomorrow. They are offering free flight rescheduling. That’s nice of them! But changing his arrival date will mess up several of his planned meetings. So we’re going to push ahead and ask the Lord to keep the skies clear in Springfield, MO!

Please pray with us to safe and unhindered travel tomorrow!

Coming Soon!

Be on the lookout for our next update. Bill just received the first trial version of the new CLA App! He’s testing it out and looking forward to giving a report.

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)