30

In the year leading up to yesterday, my thirtieth birthday, I spent random segments of time trying to figure out what I should get in order in my life before closing out my twenties, and what kinds of goals and ambitions I should set out for my thirties. I do not have a big list to show for my efforts. But I can see what God has done in me over the last ten years, and how faithful He's been, so I am excited to see what His grace will accomplish in my life in time yet to come.

Looking back over three decades God has given to me has made me so grateful for His goodness to me, and for the family and friends He has put in my life (some since the very beginning, and many new people along the way)--who have made these thirty years so wonderful.

My birthday itself was very nice. John wrote me a birthday card all by himself (with Adam telling him which letters to write), Adam had a nice fish meal made for our lunch, and Esther Zubot made me an amazing cake topped with chocolate frosting and (real!) M&Ms. Sam did sneak a few off the cake ahead of time, but I still let him help me blow out my candles.

In the evening after our kiddos were all in bed, Neil and Esther brought over their nifty new portable cinema (consists of a tiny projector and large white painted board for projecting a movie onto) and we watched a movie together. It's convenient that our homes are so close together that whether we sit in our living room or the Zubots, we can pretty much hear if one of the kids wakes up at either house.

Good Poem!

God Answers

by John Piper

Is there a word to help us feel
the weight of Adam's fall?
All.

How heavy will this burden weigh,
(Spare not!) on those who fell?
Hell.

O Lord, so great this forfeiture!
Was there sufficient reason?
Treason.

Then whence could any traitor hope
before your burning face?
Grace.

But surely that will cost beyond
our wage. How is it priced?
Christ.

Entirely paid? By him? O God,
and is that gift for me?
Free.

I would receive this gift, O Lord!
How soon would you allow?
Now.

 

first visit from a short-term missions team!

This past week, we had a short but full visit from a short-term mission team, who came from an organization whose goal is to support and excelerate the work of Bible translation worldwide.

As it ended up, the three guys on the mission team all ended up sleeping at our house (we found out after they arrived that there was no room for them in the guest house on the center here!) It was really fun visiting with Max, who came from our partner organization in Bangui, and Reuben and Mark, who came all the way from the United States (Florida and Georgia, respectively).

The guys came all this way to bring some helpful equipment for the Gbaya translators, and to install a satellite internet system (powered by solar battery) so they can send and receive work-related emails. To use the satellite internet, they simply take the machine outside, direct it towards the correct spot in the sky to receive the satellite signal, and then they can send and receive emails.

Another exciting provision that the team brought with them was two compact laptops with large attachable screens for the translators. Using these computers, Anatole and Alexis will be able to use very helpful translation resources and input their translation into the computer instead of doing it all with just pen and paper.

They also installed some lights. The solar panel will provide power for charging computers and for the lights over the translation desk.

Gbaya Word of the Day #1

(This is Adam)

Each language has its points were it is alive and other parts were it is mundane.

Gbaya is very rich language as it has many interesting words that English has nothing on.  This is why we are going to try to start an ongoing series of posts on a cool Gbaya word of the Day.

 

Today’s word is dugbulu-dugbulu (pronounce the “u”s like the two “o”s in the word ‘boot’)

 

This word, while also very fun to pronounce has an even more interesting meaning.

The sole meaning of this word is “the movement of fat from side-to-side of the belly or rear-end of a person while walking”

What a great specific meaning.  I mean, we’ve all seen that haven’t we?  But Gbaya has a word to represent that reality…cool, huh?

Sometimes used as an adjective, sometimes an adverb, or sometimes just saying that someone is fat.

 

An example sentence is “Woo! Zok gasa bhoko engi! Wene dugbulu-dugbulu!”

Translation : “Hey, look at that big woman over there, she’s dugbulu-dugbulu (real fat)!” 

Cultural note: women being on the little more hefty side is an attractive thing here in Central Africa.  This person is probably commenting on how good looking she is.

 

Discovered this word from when we were translating in 1 Samuel 2:29 where Eli and his two sons literally in the Hebrew “fattened themselves” on the stolen sacrificial meat that should have been offered up on the altar.  The Gbaya translator Anatole suggested that and is currently mulling over whether or not this word will work with translating the concept “of fattening oneself”.  He hasn’t decided yet.

 

Will this word be in the Gbaya Bible someday?  Only time will tell…

 

and there was no fear

This afternoon, I walked alone through the Garden of Eden in Gamboula, Central African Republic. I took my time, going slowly down a dirt path surrounded by exotic tropical fruit trees and lush ground cover. The sun was shining, songs of birds and insects filled the air, a cool breeze was blowing. I could hear children laughing outside the garden as they filled up buckets at the water pump. It was almost too beautiful a place to really exist on earth (I always think that when I'm walking there).

Overall, I felt a calm gratefulness to be alive, to still be feeling the sun on my skin.

Many of you know that I had a miscarriage three weeks ago. Last night, in the middle of the night,a complication arose and I started bleeding. Adam rushed me into town to try to find help, but by that time I didn't have energy left to stand or even sit. So as we waited outside a gate of a French doctor, I was lying on the ground on my back, still bleeding. My hands and legs felt light.

I have often wondered how I'll feel when it comes to the moment of dying. Will I be afraid? Is it possible that at that point, the love of God will overwhelm me and all my fears and doubts will subside? It seems like in normal everyday life it's impossible to shake completely free of worries, doubts, fears. What if this happens? What about that? But I wondered how I might feel if really faced with the end of my life here.

Lying on my back under that dark sky, looking up at billions of stars, I realized that this could be it. Miles away from anywhere I could get a blood transfusion. Nobody there who actually could halt what was happening to me. Nobody, humanly speaking.

But I looked up at the stars and thought of Abraham, so long ago, looking up at the stars. About God promising him that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars he gazed at in that vast expanse. I'm one of those children. One of them, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.

And I remembered Psalm 23: even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

The French doctor in Berberati couldn't help us. So we headed out to the missionary run hospital in another town. Many words came to my mind in the hour or two that followed, as Adam drove me along the long, bumpy road to the hospital in Gamboula.

The Lord is my Shepherd.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hands.

And I did not feel afraid. I even felt a strange sense of happiness coming over me as I lay in the back of the truck, looking out the window at the stars all along that road. I knew I was hearing the voice of the good Shepherd, and that I belong to Him. I was at peace. Thank you, Jesus.

It won't be the last valley I walk through in this life...but it is good to know that I will never walk alone. And that perfect love really does cast out all fear.

happy independence day

We celebrated the fourth of July by wearing homemade crowns and taking pictures in them. When John announced, "Look, I'm the KING!" I realized that maybe, making crowns to celebrate the fact that our country was becoming independent from "the crown" was maybe a little inappropriate. But alas, making crowns was as far as my creativity could stretch for the moment (if you look at photos from our other holidays, you will see that crowns are a common theme).

how the garden grows

We live in the tropics, and lots of beautiful things grow here. Beautiful plants, animals and birds.

Plenty of food grows all on its own--like fruit trees and other wild plants. And also, pretty much everyone gardens. When I tell people that most Americans don't have fields, they usually respond in shock, "How do they survive then?" Here, a person has a garden to grow food for themselves, plus food that they can sell to earn a little extra money. If the average person doesn't have a garden, they are going to probably have serious problems and lack of food.

We decided to plant a large garden, too. Here is the space when we were still getting it cleared out and beginning to plant things:

A neighbor helped us out a lot in getting the garden started.

Then, we and the Zubots planted lots of things (and Tishik helped).

Well, Elliot (and Sam, too, most of the time) are actually better at destroying the garden than giving constructive aid. For example, of the dozen or so tomatoes that have appeared on my plants, only 2 have made it to full ripeness; the others have been picked prematurely by the two smallest boys. Thankfully, we just got a door put into our fence, which deters not only small boys from also goats and pigs from invading our garden.

Our garden also produces tons of wild spinach, a delicious green that spreads like crazy and grows really fast. We love it!

So far, a few of our "experimental" vegetable plantings--like bean varieties grown in the U.S.--are doing well. We have had a failed crop of sweet corn. We have also heard from an experienced botanist here that other things we planted (just to see if they will grow!) will probably get eaten by bugs--summer squash, watermelon, etc. But, we are also growing things that are tried and true staple crops here: manioc, local corn, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, okra and lots of papaya trees.

I can't wait to see what we get to harvest! So far, we are already eating plenty of green beans (mostly greasy cutshorts from seeds that the NC Huntleys gave us--yum!)

I thought it was pretty how one of my squash plants grew over and around this tree trunk in the middle of our garden. There's a bright yellow flower right on top of the tree, and others along the vine, so I'm expecting to see some squash soon!