Numbers Lie

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…

Christmas Depression

As we approached the Christmas season, I’ve asked various groups to pray for the depressed on a number of occasions. I’ve been aware of the general increase in depression around Christmas for some time. But I hadn’t thought seriously recently about my own struggles in feeling left behind in the Read more…

Lifecycle of a Democracy

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…

25km

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…

Missionary Linguist

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…

Pre-Congo Pepper

I’ve been trying to grow a proper plant this summer, with minimal results. I have ten peppers, but only one ripening, and only this much. Anyway, I figured should eat it now, since it will be overdone when I back. The first fruit of this mission, as it were…

Crunch Time

There are now three more mail deliveries before our trip should begin on Monday morning, and we still have no sight of our passports. The Embassy is not answering their phone, nor responding to Emails.  To develop our next alternate plan, I called the travel agent (which we are required Read more…

Dictionaries

I just finished drafting the line “good progress on dictionaries for each of the languages” for the newsletter we’re hoping to put out in the next couple days, and I realized I’m not sure that it is clear to all why that is a good thing.  So here’s a bit Read more…