MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-24-2007

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Hello again! It’s been a while since the last update, because last week was one of those marathon weeks that tends to crop up in October when you’re a missionary on deputation, so I shall endeavor to bring you up to speed.

On the home front, my son, Ethan learned the hard away the importance of braking when going downhill on a gravel road the Saturday before last.

When bears attack

Anna had taken the guys out for a bike ride. I’m sitting in the living room when all of a sudden she comes dashing in with that look on her face that said it was serious and said, “You have to come with me.” She raced back to the car and hopped in the driver’s side before I could stop her, so I took shotgun. We then proceeded to fly down the road as fast as gravel will allow, while she attempts to tell me what happened while in hysterics. It was a mess. It seems they got going down this hill, and Ethan panicked, forgot to brake, and crashed. She had left him by the side of the road with John, and came back with James to get me. When we got back, he was sitting there in a heap with blood all down his face and neck and looking for all the world like a guest star on “When Bears Attack!” We got everybody and the two bikes loaded in the van, and got back home. I drove this time. I got him stripped out of his clothes, in the tub, and got all the blood washed off so I could see how bad it was. He had one deep gash on his skull, and another one on his chin. The one on his skull matched the one on the other side of his head that I had patched after John accidentally dropped a pole on his head the week prior. So, I finished cleaning him, shaved another bald spot on his head, sterilized the sites with Betadyne, and glued the two wounds shut with DermaBond (surgical super glue – good stuff). These pictures were taken shortly after I got the boy patched up and dressed. Fortunately, we’re not needing to get family pictures taken anytime soon, which is when these things normally happen.

On Monday, I went out to Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX for their Great Southwest Bible Conference. It was a great conference. The preaching was stellar, and I got to make some good contacts that will probably get us in some more meetings next year. My only regret was that I couldn’t attend the whole thing through Thursday. I really appreciated the spirit of the 50 or so pastors that were in attendance. They were clearly burdened for Texas, and God came to the conference that week. Pray that I’ll get meetings in some more great churches as a result.

On Wednesday, I left after the first sermon and zipped back to Bowie to pick up the family so we could get out to Keithville, LA for a Missions Conference in Barron Road Baptist Church with Pastor Roger Morton. It was a great meeting. I got to preach, and the LORD met with us. Pastor Morton was gracious enough to let me be free to go to another meeting after this, so we drove back to Bowie that night. We pulled into town about 2:30 AM, and I needed to be up by 6:30 AM so I could leave to catch a flight out of Dallas International on Thursday morning.

My flight took me to Salt Lake City, UT for a Missions Conference in Faith Baptist Church with Pastor Chuck Beickel. It’s a thriving, Independent Baptist Church right in the heart of Mormon country. Pretty cool, eh? It was a tremendous meeting. The spirit of the church was powerful. They love the LORD, their Pastor, their community,and each other, and it was beautiful to behold. On Saturday morning, I got to go knock on some Mormon’s doors, which was brilliant poetic justice I thought. Nobody got saved, but we spoke with a lot of people, and handed out a lot of Gospel tracts. On Sunday night, they voted to make each of the missionaries a part of their mission family. Plus, they gave us a huge love offering, that covers our Faith Promise for the entire year, plus plenty left over to go in the bank to help pay our way to Africa when the time comes.

God’s just got us into some tremendous church’s since we came to Texas, and we’ve been greatly blessed. God has confirmed over and over His clear desire for us to come to BBTI down here. The ramifications of this decision are only beginning to make themselves known, with far-reaching fruit yet to be borne for the Kingdom of God in the years to come.

I’ve got another meeting on Sunday near Indianapolis in Noblesville Baptist Temple with Pastor Gene Parker. I’ll be flying out on Sunday, and coming back on Monday. Bro. James Ray, the General Director of BIMI will be speaking there, and I get to present our work in the church. Pray that God will give me safe travels, and that the meeting will go well.

Deputation’s going great! Keep praying!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-08-2007

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Greetings, again! This is the last week of Phonetics, so pray for us as we study for the final on Friday. After that, we launch into Phonemics. Basically, where phonetics deals with the actual recognition and reproduction of individual sounds in a given language, phonemics deals with the patterns of sound that are peculiar to a given language. For example, in English, the sound for /p/ can be aspirated (puff of air when you say it), or unaspirated (no puff of air), and it doesn't change the meaning of the sound. Hold a piece of paper in front of your mouth, and then say 'paper'. Notice how on the first syllable, the /p/ is aspirated, but on the second it is not? In English, that doesn't matter. It's still just a /p/. In other languages, like Korean for example, an aspirated /p/ and an unaspirated /p/ would be two different sounds, represented by two different characters, and would change the spelling or the meaning of a word where it was used. Sound complicated? It is. Yet, you need to know these things when you learn a foreign language in order to avoid the pitfalls of pronunciation that English speakers fall into when trying to place their phonemes on a foreign tongue. Again, it all comes back to learning how to speak foreign languages like a native.

We had a meeting this weekend in Friendship Baptist Church in Pineville, LA (near Alexandria), with Pastor Kenneth Wilkinson. It went great. I gave our testimonies and showed our slides in the Sunday School hour, and then I preached in the morning service. The song-leader's nephew, Jeremy, 'happened' to be there that morning. I was preaching a missions message like I typically do, but in the invitation, I gave the opportunity for folks to raise their hand because they weren't sure where they were going when they died, but they'd like to be. Jeremy raised his hand, and during the invitation, he came to the altar. So, I went over to deal with him, and about fifteen minutes later, he prayed believing, and the LORD saved him! In addition to him, a young lady across the room named Paige had come forward, and was praying to the LORD to be saved. So, we had two saved in our morning service! What a blessing! Pray for Jeremy. Pastor Wilkinson is going to be visiting him this week to talk to him about baptism. His wife is still lost, and has struggled with understanding the Gospel in the past. Pray that she will hear the Gospel, and believe on the LORD Jesus, and be saved. Pray that the Gospel will come to this home and change it forever.

I have a Bible Conference next week at Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX, a meeting in Shreveport, LA on Wednesday, and then I fly to Salt Lake City, UT for a conference up there on Thursday. Pray for me as I zip hither and yon. October is a busy month, even when we're not in language school. Pray that our support will continue to increase, that all the churches we visit from here on out will support us, and that other churches we've visited in the past will be able to support us. Pray that I'll have wisdom about where to go for meetings next October. I'm contemplating a trip out to California or perhaps a second trip to Alaska. Pray that the proper course of action will become clear to me soon, so I know what direction to pursue.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-03-2007

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Hello again! Things are progressing well here at school. We're learning how to make a variety of sounds that are quite, QUITE, foreign to the English speaking mouth. Take double stops for example. This is where you make two "stops" (where the flow of air is halted, like t, p, and k, or d, b, and g) at the same time, so they're one sound. Sound complicated? It is. Yet, there are languages where they make these sounds, and if you don't know how to identify and replicate them, you'll sound funny to the native listener.

We visited one of our supporting churches last week, Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX with Pastor Bob Smith. They had our prayer letter up on the wall with all their other missionaries. The people recognized us immediately from our pictures, which is always an encouragement. This means that the church actually reads the prayer letters they receive, and prays for the missionary.

Our home church in St. Louis, MO, Grace Baptist Church, just finished up their missions conference. It sounds like they had a tremendous conference. Our faith promise giving saw a dramatic increase again this year, which is a huge blessing. Even more important, one of our young men, Harrison Beckman, surrendered to the LORD for full-time Christian service. This is one of the "boys" I used to teach in Sunday School way back when. He's turned into such a fine young man, and it fills me with such incredible pride to see how God is working in his life. Pray for Harrison as he continues to follow the LORD. Pray for our church as they form next year's budget and decide how to allocate the money that was promised.

We have a meeting Sunday morning at Fellowship Baptist Church in Pineville, LA with Pastor Kenneth Wilkinson. I will be presenting our burden for Uganda in Sunday School, and preaching in the morning service. Pray for us as we minister in this church, and for our travelling.

Just in the past few days, another church from one of the churches we visited in Montana has added us as one of their missionaries! Pray that God will continue to enable churches where we've been to support us, and that all the churches we visit in the months ahead will do likewise so we can be ready to go to the field after next year. Pray that I will continue to get meetings lined out for 2008 so we will be able to have a full schedule and finish our deputation quickly.

Thanks so much for all your prayers!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-17-2007

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Hello, folks! No more tarantulas to report this time around (yeah, I know. You’re full of disappointment. :D) Our language studies are progressing well. We’ve moved from consonants to vowels. How you pronounce your vowels determines what accent of English you speak, and the same for all languages.  I have always had this secret habit of mimicking accents, due to my ongoing fascination with the many varieties of English spoken in America and around the world. Now I know WHY these accents are different. We’ll be doing drills, practicing the various vowel glides, and one moment, we’re from Brooklyn, the next from Piccadilly, and the next we’re all Aussies. It’s very cool. This means, when we learn French, or Luganda, or Tooro, or Swahili, or whatever our ministry requires, we will be able to say it like the natives. Some cultures actually look down on you if you speak their language with an accent. This training will eliminate that problem entirely.

We were in a missions conference this past week at Friendly Lane Baptist Church in Haltom City, TX with Pastor Bill Howe.  Pastor Tim Booth (Haughton Baptist Temple, Haughton, LA) was the main speaker. He did a tremendous job preaching. He was representing the Midwest Christian Boys’ Football Camp, run by the First Baptist Church of Dwight in Dwight, IL. It uses football to teach discipline and character to boys aged 12-19. They get solid scriptural preaching in a camp meeting format twice a day, in a “girl-free” environment where the preachers can be very direct to the young men. It’s a great ministry, and one we’ll probably take advantage of when we come home on furlough in a little while. On Friday night, the church voted to make us one of their missionaries, so we have gained some support from this meeting, which was a blessing.
Pray that every church we’re in from here on out supports us. Pray that churches where we’ve been who haven’t already done so will support us. Pray that we will learn our phonetics training well so we can be well prepared for speaking Ugandan dialects when we get to the field. Pray that the rest of our deputation will continue to go smoothly.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-05-2007

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Greetings! Things are going well here in Texas. Pictures are faster than words, however, so let me show you:

The trampoline, which is right by our house, is a huge hit.

Trampoline

 

One of the members of Eastside Bapitst Church, where we’re attending when we’re not away at meetings, brings horses by regularly for us to ride. All my little cowboys (and cowgirl) are loving it!

Anna was good enough to ‘find’ this for me, and I posed for the picture. So did the tarantula. I know they look deadly, but they’re very docile creatures, unless you’re a cricket or a beetle.

Tarantula

It’s been good so far. The classes are progressing very well. We’re studying phonetics at the moment, which is the acutal formation of sounds in speech. You use a variety of articulators in speech (tongue, lips, teeth) which touch various points of articulation in the upper mouth. You use different manners of producing the sounds (nasal, stops, fricatives), and all of this with various rising and falling tones, which in some languages can radically alter the meaning of the word. The basic gist of it is this: we are gaining the immensely valuable and practical training to be able to not only learn the Ugandan dialects quickly, but with a native accent when we do. Just because we look foreign doesn’t mean we have to sound foreign. I am firmly convinced that this, or similar phonetic training ought to be a required course of study for all prospective missionaries. Our time here is being well invested in making us more effective communicators on the field where God has called us.

I have been able to schedule several meetings in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and even Utah while here, so, even though we are doing language study, we are still on deputation, an advantage we would lose were we attending school somewhere out of the country. Thank you for praying about meetings. Please continue to pray. I am trying to get next Fall filled up. I have made good progress, but there are still some slots, particularly in October, that need to be filled. Currently, we’re planning on remaining in the States through the holidays, and then heading over to Africa in January or February of 2009, provided the support we need comes in by then. Thanks for praying for us!