EQUIP week 2

Today is hump day of our second week of training.  We are almost done and just beginning at the same time.  The training has been jam packed with all the things we will need to know to be successful in our first assignment with Wycliffe, Partnership Development.  We are assigned to build a team of partners that want to serve the needs of the bibleless people in Nigeria by sending us in person.  We are looking for financial partners to give regularly, and prayer partners that will help protect us from the fiery darts the enemy is throwing at us.
One of the interesting things that we heard was the idea that during this process we are missionaries to the local church, sharing the needs of the bibleless and the exciting work of Wycliffe to give the Bible to those who have no access to it now. We are excited to share the things that Wycliffe is doing around the world and stories of how literacy and Bible Translation is changing lives.

Did you know:
-There are around 7,000 languages spoken around the world
-around 2,000 of those languages have no known scripture in their language, and most of them do not have a written language 
-The Ethnologue, An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages uses information collected by mission agencies like Wycliffe Bible Translators.
-Nigeria, where we are headed has been identified by Wycliffe as being one of the top 3 countries still in need of Bible Translation, the other two are Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.


Please contact us if you aren interested in joining our team!

Wycliffe Wednesday: EQUIP week 1

It's Wednesday, and we have been in training since Saturday, but yesterday was the first normal day of training for us Herens. Lydia had gotten sick on Friday, taken to the Dr on Saturday, complication on Monday & back to the doctor, finally heathy and fever free on Tuesday and in childcare. While Lydia was sick we had to take turns attending the sessions so one of us could stay with our sick child and not expose others to whatever the bug was. We were thankful to have a friend volunteer over Facebook to come sit with Lydia on Monday so we could attend class together for the first time. We are also thankful we are local to the training so seeing the doctor just meant calling our own pediatrician. There were 2 other children who arrived sick who did not have that luxury. All the children are feeling better and are healthy at this time. Caleb is getting spoiled by the team of volunteers watching the kids and we are told that Lydia has begun using “mine” in reference to Caleb, in the nursery.

We are learning a lot of good information. Our brains are packed full at the end of each day. We have learned about spiritual warfare, dealing with transitions, details on the translation process, how finances are handled, and have had our picture taken more than once. The training really isn't sequential; it jumps from topic to topic at each session, so it's hard to keep everything mentally organized. We are trying to be sponges absorbing everything we are being taught so we can return home and put it all in to practice. Today, EQUIP will the theme for Wycliffe USA's chapel time called EnterMission. We will all be introduced and a few of our classmates will be sharing their stories.   

Wycliffe Wednesday: An Asset, or a Liability?

Wycliffe needs people to do a huge variety of jobs around the world, including many within the US. One of the things that is extremely difficult for new Wycliffe members is to raise support for a stateside assignment, because somehow it doesn't seem like it's "real" missionary work to those they talk to. People often expect Wycliffe workers in the US to be paid, even if they are fully behind supporting missionaries who go to other countries.

Recently, I shared some thoughts about this with a Wycliffe member who is raising support to join our Customer Service Team in Orlando, and I thought I'd share them here as well. Hopefully this can give some of our readers a little different perspective on one aspect of missions than they may have had before. The following is the email that I wrote:

I wanted to write and share my experience in the hope that it can help you talk to people. I am actually a paid employee who is moving to a supported status, and here’s the way I summarized my reasons for myself:

“Wycliffe doesn't create a product that generates its income; it relies on donations and members' regular financial support to keep it afloat. My salary as a paid employee is being paid for by the members who raise support. In other words, in putting everything Wycliffe operates and owns on a balance sheet, my current paid job would go in the expense category. It's a necessary expense, certainly, but at the same time I am not an asset, I am an expense. By raising support, I will be able to be a contributing asset to the organization, instead of a constant drain on its resources.”

Their perspective of it being “expensive” to support you overlooks the fact that without churches giving to supported members such as you, we would not have the resources to pay anyone! They may need to have the perspective that they are supporting Wycliffe through you as a vessel; not merely paying you personally to do a job. Them supporting you to be on our team will free up resources to pay to fill other critical positions that are currently empty (example: we currently don’t even have a network administrator position filled, because we do not have the resources to pay anyone to fill it. That one has really hurt us a lot recently). That is why we are eager to have you come to join our team!

Wycliffe Wednesday: Contest

Tyndale House Publishers and Wycliffe Bible Translators are partnering in an effort to give the New Living Translation to contest winners—and to give one fortunate family the opportunity to learn about the exciting world of Bible translation with a custom-designed adventure at the Wycliffe Discovery Center in Orlando, Florida. Visit http://biblecontest.newlivingtranslation.com/index.php for details.

Wycliffe Wednesday: Thank You

We are new at this Wycliffe Membership, since we just started the membership process in March and were accepted in October and will sign our employee documents at our training next month. WE feel it is still important to say thank you to all of our friends and family who have prayed for us and encouraged us this past year. Wycliffe USA has put together this video and we want to share it with you. We look forward to creating our partnership team in 2011 so we can be fully supported with prayer and finances to leave for our assignment in Nigeria. Thank You!

CHECK IT OUT HERE

Wycliffe Wednesday: Published!

Something cool happened recently that Cynthia encouraged me to share here: one of the projects I've started since becoming lead technician here in Orlando Customer Service Team is a blog, where different ones of us on the team post something semi-weekly to inform those we're serving. It's hosted on our corporate intranet site for collaboration within Wycliffe USA. Sometimes it's computer tips, sometimes warnings about viruses, sometimes policy updates or clarifications, etc. I've been working on keeping it going for over a year now.

I recently did a three-part series entitled "Why is my computer so slow?", handling a variety of computer maintenance things that can be done to improve a computer's performance and lifespan. Somehow it came to the attention of Mark Nelson, a supervisor at JAARS who helps publish the Computer Support Newsletter, a monthly newsletter containing IT news and tips that goes out to interested Wycliffe members all around the world. He asked me if he could include those articles in there, and I said that was fine. It felt like an encouragement and a vindication of the work I've been doing.

Wycliffe Wednesday

**One of our new regular posts will be updates on our membership and Partner Development with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Here is the first in the series.**

We have been busy getting started as members of Wycliffe. Our online training is almost over. We have weekly assignments that introduce us to the organization and how things work. SOme of the topics have been, Spiritual health, History of Wycliffe, Organizational Structure, Third Culture Kids, Employment Paperwork, and Biblical FOundation for Partnership Development. The lessons have been interesting and very valuable in preparing us for our new careers in Wycliffe.
Monday, Bob and I had an important meeting with our Personnel Assistant, who is helping us get everything ready. SHe had prepared our ministry budget and was explaining it to us. Several of the budget items are provided by the Nigeria Group office like our cost of living and rent. The numbers may change but for now we have a goal for our ministry needs.
The meeting was especially interesting because we were interrupted by a fire alarm. Going outside in December would not normally be an issue in Florida, but it is COLD right now. Winter coats are out of the closet, and we didn’t have ours during the alarm. As we resumed our meeting, a group of carolers from various departments came caroling. It was also nice to fit in a lunch date as well. We scheduled our meeting for after lunch and I got a babysitter and left the kids at home.
We are still in need of support for our EQUIP training in January, if you would like to help us with this please let us know.