Saturday, July 27, 2013

Welcome to the World Philip!

We celebrated the life of Philip Henry at the Thanksgiving service in our friend’s church with a dance up the isle and a small offering. Philip was a name given by us to the newborn baby of our friends Henry and Benedicta. We praise God for this little one who made perfectly in His image, and pray that his life will be as his namesake. One of obedience to the Spirit and sharing the truth of Christ!

Crayons and Kites!

Jumping around the room, kissing their new boxes of crayons, squealing with delight as their kites only flew 4 feet over their heads for lack of wind made for a very exciting day at my house with the neighborhood kids came to greet when we got back! The lack of wind made for a brilliant object lesson about the importance of Jesus as our wind, holding us up. What a lovely day it was!

Monday, July 22, 2013

There and Back!

Being "home" in the US was a whirl of seeing God at work in that place in our families, churches, and home country. Mom Watkin made us a birthday cake a month early. Oh, yummy! It's a Watkin tradition. Funny how loved you feel when someone makes you your favorites. God does this with us too! He knows the best way we feel loved, and he does it just that way for each of us. That's is truly amazing.
Christy's little sister, Leah, has a job! Life keeps moving for those we love. Leah has has her own schedule that kept her busy while we were home, so we had to visit her at work! More pictures to come, but uploading them takes time! We are so thankful for our quick trip to the US. We made a lot of important connections with those we love very much. Zach is working on his thesis this week to present at a linguistic conference. He hit the ground running with a four day workshop the day after we returned. Christy is gearing up for the final editing of the primer, the printing, and the beginning of the literacy classes in Kiceland! May God give us strength for the task he's called us to!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Light

I woke up with a start, having an urgent need to go to the bathroom. I hopped over Zach and fumbled around the room, groping for a flashlight, afraid to knock candles over, and disoriented by my surroundings. I started to mutter to myself, and Zach said, “Here, use this,” handing me his cell phone. As I reflected on this experience, once safely seated, I decided that one of the most stressful things about this year has been the lack of light! We’re going on day 6 without electricity in our home. Oh, the great need we have for LIGHT!
Is this why people that come from generations of Christianity become so complacent and void of joy in their Savior, the LIGHT of the world? Are we so far from the experience of darkness that we can no longer feel deeply the intense beauty of living in the Light of God? Oh, I pray for us, generational Christians, that we might regain the wonder of the Light. America has electricity almost 24-7, yet the darkness is so great! If we, those who have experienced Light, can no longer sense the warmth and joy of Him, who will lead those in darkness to this Great Light? What a contrast it is when we are sitting in a dimly lit room, and the electricity suddenly comes on. The lights that have been on for days without any power illuminating them shine unabashedly, and we shout “NEPA!” The generators around the neighborhood go off one by one. The colors in our living room jump off the walls, the painted vine over our archway seems to crawl and stretch, everything is… more beautiful. I do pray that we don’t have to lose sight of the Light, and become used to the darkness before we turn to the Great Light of the World and ask Him to shine brightly in our souls once again.

Collaboration, vulnerabity and trust

From Tuesday through Thursday, leaders of 24 Bible Translation organizations have gathered to discuss how we can work together more intenti...