"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!