It doesn’t make sense on paper to uproot a teenager for the final year of school. But we were questioned about taking him to France as an infant, or to Congo as a kid; much about our life looks like foolishness to some people. But there are a number of Read more…
Have you ever wondered how people make their first alphabet? Starting this summer, we are giving people a taste of Bible Translation work in Africa, through small group meetings designed to be interactive and engaging. We introduce people to the language work we do with Wycliffe Bible Translators, in three Read more…
Rather than waiting for some other reason to use this title, I’ll go with the end of the most recent Ebola outbreak in DR Congo: [contentcards url=”http://www.who.int/emergencies/ebola-DRC-2017/en/” target=”_blank”]
When looking up the latest on DRC elections forcast, I found the following post from yesterday on the Kofi Annan foundation’s website: [contentcards url=”http://www.kofiannanfoundation.org/supporting-democracy-and-elections-with-integrity/appeal-democratic-transition-drc/” target=”_blank”] This is in the context where questions of the possibility of an election are being raised on the basis of both violence and funding: [contentcards Read more…
I have found myself saying a number of times over the years, “I didn’t get into missions to do ___.” Fill in the blank with supervising other people, managing money, raising money, helping people get along with one another, keep my family in working electricity and water; there are so Read more…
I was thinking this morning about the proverb “numbers don’t lie”, and how taken for granted it is, when I realized that there are at least two problems with it. First, it reflects our own individualism and efficiency driven culture, and second, there are times where the numbers themselves may Read more…
As the democratic process in Congo seems to be winding down, it’s weird to think that we saw its beginnings. When we first arrived in Africa, we spend three months in the village house-sitting for a colleague, and learning language and culture. It was during those three months that the Read more…
For our second weekend in the rainforest, it seemed right to visit Simon’s father’s church, which was just 25 km north of Nya-nya — in fact, while it has another name, it is typically referred to as “25km”. Simon’s father traveled down to work with us a lot in 2014, Read more…
It hasn’t always been easy describing what I do to a broad audience, but for some time now on immigration forms requiring a short answer, I indicate my profession as “Missionary Linguist”. I heard a chapel talk at the first SIL summer training I went to, in Eugene, OR, on Read more…
So we called for prayer for last Friday, and decided to wait until after mail on Saturday, just in case something weird happened. We believe that God is at work in this situation, though we don’t know what He’s doing… We waited until the very last minute, even until Sunday Read more…