"At This Time"

One of our former pastors, Mac Brunson, recently released a video in which he shares about a person in history, Alvin York and The Battle of the Argonne Forest, which happened 101 years ago, on September 26, 1918.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT2o6evwb7s

He is doing a series of these videos entitled, "At This Time" - a look in history with a Biblical twist. In the first one, on Labor Day, he mentioned that he hopes to do one per week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L0XmeY9rjg&list=PLY3qLav1O0m86c7ZOouBVNxtz1ZSIp0c3&index=1

I think you might enjoy listening to them!

How wonderful to have compassionate friends!

I was going through a rough time this week, so I asked one of my co-workers, and the hostess of the GriefShare class that I attend, to come to my office. She came immediately and we talked and prayed. I am so grateful to God for Mae and Ken for hosting the GriefShare classes near campus here.

That evening, there was a knock on my door, and I went to find Mae and Ken on their evening walk and that they had brought me a bouquet of flowers from their yard. It was so sweet and I was so touched by it and their kindness.

The picture doesn't capture how pretty the arrangement was, and the kindness and thought behind it was even more precious!

I am so thankful to be here and surrounded by folks who are ready and willing to pray over everything that goes on! They remind me that God cares about each thing that impacts me, nothing is too trivial for His notice.

How does culture influence understanding?

I took a picture a few months ago, I think it may have been during the "Explore Bible Translation" course that I took - I've had it in my folder to share on the blog, but just had not done it yet - but today is the day...

How does culture influence the understanding of scripture?

John 3:16 is a beloved scripture, Jesus speaking:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

How might another culture interpret this? Consider this:

 It reminds me of the gift that we have of God's Holy Spirit to teach us to understand His scripture. Thank you, God, for Your Holy Spirit!

Ethnologue - part 2

Continuing looking through my pictures, I'm continuing my story of the Ethnologue (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2019/09/ethnologue-part-1.html).

These pictures are from a display just down the hall from my office on campus:

The person in the picture is looking at a list of the languages listed in the 16th edition of the Ethnologue...

A close-up of one area of the list of languages...

The text at the bottom says: "This display lists the 6,909 known living languages as catalogued in the Sixteenth Edition of the Ethnologue."

When Vanay takes tours through the building, if anyone on the tour has a particular language that they are curious about or have a heart for, she encourages them to look for it in this list - each time, the person is amazed to find a language listed that they thought no one (or only a few people) knew about...

The Brazilian flag

There are 6 flagpoles in front of the building where I serve at the Welcome Desk. The flags are changed every 2 weeks, though the flag closest to the building is always the US flag and the next one is always the Texas flag. I think that each flag represents a country in which SIL International is involved in linguistics or literacy or translation work.

A couple of weeks ago, Jill had selected a number of flags that had similar colors but differences in how the colors were arranged. I forgot to take a picture of the names of the countries, but, looking it up, I think that

the first one is Guinea, the second is the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), and the fourth (hard to see in this picture) is Benin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-African_colours

Within this group, she also included the flag for Brazil. There is a family on campus now who are visiting while he is in school here from Brazil. I had the opportunity to hear him speak at Sing and Share a couple of weeks ago. He and his wife are often in the lobby area of the building where the Welcome Desk is while waiting for their children's school buses to let them off (I think one is in elementary school and the other in middle school because they are on two different buses). He was so pleased to see his country's flag represented, and he told me some about it.

Here's a better picture:

Josue told me that the curved band represents the equator, and the stars represent states in Brazil. The single star above the equator identifies one of the original states which was north of the equator (if I understood him correctly, he indicated that other states now also exist north of the equator, but the flag maintains that design to recognize the one that was originally there). There are 27 stars, representing 27 states (or, more correctly, Brazilian Federative Unit).
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brazil

It is fun to be on a campus with people who have lived in so many varied places around the world!

Did you know? Sidra...

Did you know that Jewish congregations have assigned portions of scripture to read for each Sabbath?

In my Basic Biblical Hebrew class, we are learning the characters and words by examining the Sidra, the Weekly Torah Portions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekly_Torah_portion). This is the way that the Torah was sub-divided - there were no chapters and verses.

For example, the first reading is

b’Reisheet

or

in the beginning

and it encompasses Genesis 1:1-6:8.

There are also portions from the prophets to be read each week.

If you think about it, the Hebrew Bible was/is on a scroll. It isn't quite as easy to lookup a particular verse on a scroll as in a book. So, the readings are from Genesis through to Deuteronomy. My teacher, Pat, told us that at the end of the year (coming up towards the end of October, I think 10/22), Jewish congregations will complete the last reading for the year 2018-2019 and "roll the scroll" back to the beginning, and immediately start with b’Reisheet again. The celebration is "Rejoicing with/of the Torah" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simchat_Torah).

So, I should have known this... and, I guess in some ways I did - for example,  in Luke 4, regarding Jesus:

And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

From what I have been taught about this scripture, Jesus read the appointed scripture for that day in the synagogue - so, I was aware that there were specific readings.

 

But, I love how God uses different things that I am learning to make scripture come to life for me... I am using the F260 Bible reading plan in the Discipleship group to which I belong. The assigned reading in the F260 reading plan for 9/25 was Acts 13 & 14. These verses in Acts 13 stood out as if they had flashing lights around them (I added the yellow highlight to imitate the flashing lights for you):

¹⁴ but they [Paul and Barnabas] went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. ¹⁵ After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

<< pause for a moment here... do you think the rulers of the synagogue sent a text message? No? Curious minds want to know... >>

Continuing on a little further in the chapter, Paul speaking:

²⁷ For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

Okay, I *know* that those verses have been in there every time I've read these chapters, but this week, they stood out -- I now better understand what they are referencing.

God is so generous to me to allow the timing of my starting the Basic Hebrew course and these verses in the Bible reading plan to come together! I am, indeed, wonderfully blessed!

Only one chance to make a first impression

I have heard it said that you have "only one chance to make a first impression"...

Well, I muffed it a few days ago...

The leader of SIL International is in Dallas - I knew that he and his wife were going to be staying in the tiny house that is in the RV park.

One evening when I got back to the bus, I had been wearing a nice dress for work that day, and I didn't want Miss Kitty to get cat hair on it or risk snagging it with a claw, so I changed into "around the house clothes". *Grubby* around-the-house clothes. Clothes you use for cleaning the kitty litter pan or taking a nap, but not clothes you use for meeting someone.

There was a knock on the door, and one of the other ladies, Lisa, who lives in the RV park was there - I went outside to talk with her - she has seen me in grubby clothes, no big deal.

Then, a couple came along the path from the Cowan apartments that are located behind where I am parked... I didn't recognize them, but, Lisa did... and when they came into the light, I thought, "I've seen this guy's picture... oh yeah, he's the one hosting the global meeting tomorrow, oh good, I'm here in my grubbiest clothes meeting the head of the organization, wonderful -- not!"

Both Michel and his wife were very kind and gracious.
https://www.sil.org/biography/michel-kenmogne-phd

I was scheduled to work at the Welcome Desk during the time that Michel was speaking at the global meeting on campus - but it was broadcast on Zoom so I was able to listen and be updated on what he had to say:

A photo of my computer screen during the broadcast

A portion of one of the slides from his presentation with the mission statement for SIL.

I think that he will continue to be in the US and probably back on the Dallas campus in the next weeks, through the Bible Translation conference that is happening in mid-October. As one of my co-workers said, "Maybe you were disheveled enough that if he meets you again, he won't recognize you as someone he has met before!" I can only hope!

A yurt is coming! A yurt is coming!

A yurt is coming to the campus! Actually, it is already here and being built.

"What is a yurt?" you might ask...

... here it is in the process of being constructed...

From Wikipedia:

A traditional yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger (Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt and used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises an angled assembly or latticework of pieces of wood or bamboo for walls, a door frame, ribs (poles, rafters), and a wheel (crown, compression ring) possibly steam-bent. The roof structure is often self-supporting, but large yurts may have interior posts supporting the crown. The top of the wall of self-supporting yurts is prevented from spreading by means of a tension band which opposes the force of the roof ribs. Modern yurts may be permanently built on a wooden platform; they may use modern materials such as steam-bent wooden framing or metal framing, canvas or tarpaulin, Plexiglas dome, wire rope, or radiant insulation. 

From what I've heard, the latticework side structure means that it is very strong in straight-line winds - not any better in tornadoes though than regular structures.

This one being built on the campus is not intended to be portable, but it does provide additional indoor meeting/gathering space with a distinctive character and design that is appropriate on a campus that is international in intention and ministry. It also will have a concrete floor and will have heating and cooling. All of the parts were delivered a week or so ago, and folks have been working on building it. (Karla, in the mail room, was a little concerned when she heard that it was going to be delivered in parts and asked, "Is it coming by mail?" The answer: No, it was delivered by a truck.)

As I understand from the folks who know, it will be used during the big Bible Translation Conference that will be held on campus in the middle of October as a space for break-outs or other gatherings.

Miles for Smiles Africa

I was able to help out on Saturday morning with Naina and Mohamed's daughter Safiya's event, Miles for Smiles Africa.

Safiya did such a great job organizing the event and having specific jobs for volunteers to do!

Safiya had me work at the Registration table, checking folks in who had pre-registered, taking payment from those registering on-site, and getting folks their wrist-bands and pointed in the right direction for their race numbers and tee-shirts.

Before the race, there was a warm-up of Bhangra dancing...

It was great how the instructor got everyone up and moving and their blood flowing!

There were many activities available - face painting (behind the guys on the sidewalk),

Voter registration, all sorts of food and water in the pavilion.

My friend, Naina - every picture I have of her, she is talking with someone - she is so welcoming and kind!

... and her sweet husband, Mohamed - also so kind!

... and this is Safiya, the dynamo that took on this challenge and was the driving force behind it - in just eleventh grade! I am so impressed with her!

I was very grateful that it was a cloudy day for the most part!

The participants gathering at the start/finish line....

Less than 20 minutes later, the first runner returned having run the 5K race.

All of the participants, runners and walkers, completed by the time an hour was complete. Individuals of all ages participated. Plenty of food, water, and conversation were available once the race was done.

If you are interested, you can contribute via the GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/miles-for-smiles-africa -- or, if you want to write a check directly, the account is "Miles for Smiles Africa" - and contact me for mailing address.

Elohim!

As I posted a few days ago, I started Hebrew class on Tuesday; our second class was on Thursday.

We are using the sections of Hebrew scripture in our study. These were used in the Hebrew scripture as there were no chapter and verse designations. Each section has a "title" and then a sentence or two in the scripture. The first section (Genesis 1:1-6:8) is B'Reisheet, or "in the beginning", "In the beginning created God the heavens and the earth."

In our workbook, we have a picture of a scroll and the Hebrew text for that sentence. I realized that I should be able to find "God" in that Hebrew text, and, sure enough, I found it: 

אֱלֹהִים

Actually, in the scroll, it did not have vowel markings but, the place I copied it from on the computer has the vowel markings.

Since one of my goals is to be able to look at Hebrew characters and, instead of seeing squiggles, to see characters and to be able to sound out words, I was SO excited that I am already starting to be able to do that! I'm so thankful to God!!!

What punishments of God are not gifts?

A couple of weeks ago I listened to a video that I think influenced some of my thoughts in my blog post for yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB46h1koicQ
It is an interview between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert primarily about grief and loss. In it, Cooper asks Colbert about something he had heard him say, "What punishments of God are not gifts?" Colbert indicates that he was quoting Tolkien.

I did a search to get more information about the quote, and found this post:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-punishments-of-god-are-not-gifts
which addresses the concepts brought up in the video, and which I really appreciated.

Some quotes from the blog post:

Those shaped deeply by the Scriptures know, however, that the lavish love of God for us often hurts in this life.

Therefore, for those who love God, all our pain comes through his loving hands to lead us to deeper reservoirs of joy.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him. 
 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:5b-6)

I'm still learning, I realize that I am encountering things in my heart that I most likely would not have encountered had I not lost Dwayne and been working through the grief of that experience.

I heard today that the wife of one of the RV couples that we used to meet up with in the desert in Arizona passed away this morning... please be in prayer for Carl and for their children (all adults, but grieving over the loss of their mother).

Stewarding Forgiveness

I haven't gotten this all thought out yet (maybe writing this blog post will help), but this is something that I feel that God showed me during the Healing Group that I attended last weekend.

The topic that we were studying was "Forgiveness". As we were discussing it, I felt that God brought two concepts together in my mind that I hadn't considered in this way before (I won't say that the Healing Group taught this, but rather it brought my mind to a point to be able to understand it differently than I had before).

I have long believed that nothing comes against me that has not previously been sifted through God's fingers. He can and does protect me from many slings and arrows that may be directed my way, but He, in His sovereignty, allows some to come to wound me. Sometimes I can see why He has allowed suffering or pain in my life, sometimes I cannot. My experience with God that He is trustworthy and faithful gives me confidence that He is still trustworthy and faithful, even when I cannot see it. I have a very strong trust in the sovereignty of God - either He is sovereign, or He is not, and I can't comprehend Him not being sovereign... so He is sovereign in all things.

A second belief that I have is that I own nothing; God owns everything. I am a steward of things that God provides. Many years ago, Dwayne and I took a Crown Financial Ministries class. One of the lessons in that class talked about God owning everything. One of the activities that we did in the class was writing a "Quit-Claim Deed" - we listed everything that we may have previously said was "ours" and indicated that we were now acknowledging that they belonged to God (obviously, this was not a legal document, but rather a confession of and communication of belief). We listed the house, cars, furniture, etc.. I can remember that Dwayne listed the cats on the Quit-Claim Deed - I told him that he couldn't get rid of them that easily, that we were still stewards to take care of them!!! We even listed our bodies on the Quit-Claim Deed - and Dwayne would remind us both of that every time we prayed a blessing over a meal, asking that God would use the food "to strengthen Your bodies for Your service."

So, in considering forgiveness this past weekend, it occurs to me that (1) if someone offends me in some way, God has allowed that offense to come against me. Either He is sovereign or He is not, and I believe He is sovereign, so I think that this belief that He has allowed the offense follows.
And (2) if God has "given" me an offense from someone (allowed them to offend me), then He expects me to "steward" the gift of the offense well. I have been forgiven of far more grievous offenses against God than could be done against me, how can I do less than forgive others of their offenses against me? As Jesus indicated in the model prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

I was sharing this with my D-group this evening - we are studying in Acts, and one of the chapters last week was Acts 7, the account of the stoning of Stephen. As he was dying, he said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." (Acts 7:60). Stephen gave an example of stewarding forgiveness well; he certainly could have desired to call down the wrath of God on those who killed him. But, as one of the ladies in the group had pointed out from Acts 6, Stephen was "full of" many things: good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, full of grace and power -- net: Stephen was full of Jesus. So full, that when he was stoned, when he was dying, Jesus figuratively bled out of him, forgiving them of their offenses. His forgiveness, his grace towards them, enabled those who committed this heinous act to have the ability to come to faith in Jesus.

What does this look like in my life? When I am offended, I probably am sensing a prick or a damage or a hurt or murder in an area that doesn't "belong" to me anyway - back to (1): it all belongs to God. And so, it is up to the owner (God) to address the prick or damage or hurt or murder, not me. It is up to me to be a good steward.

I haven't been thinking through this long enough yet to feel settled in my thinking, but, I definitely think that the concept of being called to "be a good steward of forgiveness" is in line with scripture, and that I need to let God teach me more about it.

Lusophone?

Do you know what Lusophone means?

First: it is *not* a new kind of cellular phone service or type of telecommunications equipment.

Background: I was updating information for one of the folks working on the International Linguistics Center campus into the "people" database based on their hand-written input. Their information previously indicated that their area of service/expertise was "Francophone Africa". The update indicated it should now indicate "Anglo- and Lusophone Africa". I wasn't positive how the "Lusophone" was spelled (the hand-writing could have spelled out "Lugophone" instead), and since I wasn't sure, I decided I should try looking it up.

Given "Francophone Africa" - which means French-speaking countries/areas of Africa, and "Anglophone Africa" (English-speaking areas), I figured it had something to do with a language, but, which language would be "Luso"?

To give you more to think about, I found that the name is derived from "Lusitania" which is the name of the Roman province where this language originated.

I only knew Lusitania from the name of the ship, Lusitania -- and I couldn't remember much about it except that I thought something happened in World War I involving it. Looking it up, I found that the RMS Lusitania was a British passenger ship sunk by German U-boat in 1915, and its sinking had a large impact of turning the opinions of the American people against Germany.

RMS Lusitania: After being launched in 1906, she was on her 202nd ocean crossing when she was sunk -- in less than 9 years, she crossed the Atlantic over 200 times. The Lusitania and her sister ship Mauretania made crossings between the UK and US - making the transit in about 5 days, covering 560-590 miles each day.
more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania

So, where was that Roman province, Lusitania?
From Wikipedia:

Lusitania (/ˌluːsɪˈteɪniə/) or Hispania Lusitana was an ancient Iberian Roman province located where modern Portugal (south of the Douro river) and part of western Spain (the present autonomous community of Extremadura and a part of the province of Salamanca) lie. It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people (an Indo-European people). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusitania

So, Lusophone Africa would be Portuguese-speaking areas in Africa... I'll send you back to Wikipedia to get the countries included:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusophone#Officially_Lusophone_countries

By the way, other than Francophone (French) and Anglophone (English) and Lusophone (Portuguese), do you know of any other "classic compound" words with "-phone" as the suffix?

As I was doing my research, I also found Hispanophone (Spanish) and Sinophone (Chinese). In case you're interested, there are areas of Africa that are Hispanophone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanophone#Africa) but no Sinophone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinophone#Demographics). However, if you follow that Sinophone Demographics link, you'll find that it references the 2013 version of the Ethnologue that I blogged about a few days ago! (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2019/09/ethnologue-part-1.html)

I hope you've enjoyed your serving of language (with a side order of history) for today! I enjoyed learning about it!

Starting something new!

A few weeks ago I blogged about a workshop opportunity here on campus for a class on "Basic Biblical Hebrew".
https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2019/08/anybody-wanna-study-hebrew-with-me.html

Today was the first day of class!

I'm starting to learn Hebrew!!!

Today I learned how to write "alef" or "aleph" א and "bet" ב



You might notice that the binding on the books is on the right side, as Hebrew is written from right to left. Copying those two characters into my blog posting made the cursor movement in my editor get wonky - suddenly using the "delete" key deleted the character in *front* of the cursor instead of behind!!!

Would you like to learn the Hebrew aleph-bet? Check out this video and sing along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW4V2MONP9Q

p.s. I posted on Facebook as I was about to enter a college classroom for the first time in many years and asked for prayers! I heard from a lot of folks praying for me - and thank you! My first class in many years was really fun!

Miles for Smiles

On Saturday, September 21, I am going to be helping at a walk/run event in Irving that the daughter of friends of ours has organized: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/miles-for-smiles-africa-walkrun-tickets-61742912714

I am so impressed with Safiya and the heart for helping that I believe God has given her. If you would like to contribute, she has a GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/miles-for-smiles-africa

Please consider contributing to this cause!

Listening to music

On Tuesday evening, one of the ladies that I work with on campus and I drove out to Weatherford, TX (on the other side of Fort Worth) to hear our music minister and his wife sing "on the patio" at Flames Seafood.

I neglected to get a picture of them actually singing, but I got one of their promo!

I was grateful that Peggy was willing to go with me - we both enjoyed it and even though it was about an hour away, the traffic wasn't *too* bad!

20 years ago in Fort Worth

Twenty years ago, a church in Fort Worth was the site of a deadly shooting. Two of the folks who were there are now members of the church where I am a member (and we sit in the same area of our sanctuary). The wife of the couple is interviewed as part of this news report:

https://www.fox4news.com/news/sunday-marks-20-years-since-deadly-mass-shooting-at-fort-worths-wedgwood-baptist-church

Ethnologue - part 1

Outside my office in the hallway is a display case with information about the "Ethnologue".

In 2018, the 21st Edition "Ethnologue" was published.

Because knowledge about lesser-known languages has been a focus of the Ethnologue since its inception in 1951, we are happy to be able to provide our most up-to-date information about the languages of the world each year on 21 February.

2018 - 21st edition - 3 volumes

https://www.ethnologue.com/ethnoblog/gary-simons/welcome-22nd-edition
Note that the ethnologue website allows some number of page views (maybe 20?) for free, and then requires a subscription. I have been told that with my sil.org email address, I have access for no charge, but I haven't yet figured out how to take advantage of that. I have entitled this post as "part 1" because I anticipate I'll be posting more about this in coming days/weeks - this marries my love of data with the work being done here at SIL.