Staying Plugged In

It's our job, and moreover our dream, to move out of town and into the village. We'll pick a language group we want to work with full-time and move into where the people live.

Where they speak.

We'll learn their language. 

But we'll learn who they are as people. 

What their needs are.

What their wants are.  

What their fears are. 

What they long for. 

And then we'll translate the Scripture with the hopes that their true need becomes apparent to them as they read its pages. 

But as beautiful as this sounds. There are some problems. 

Namely, we aren't used to living in the jungle. 

We've done it before but it's not really how we live our day-to-day in and out. 

Without the modern conveniences we're used to, life's a lot harder. 

Where's your laundry room? How caught up on laundry are you right now?

What if you had to haul all your laundry 10 minutes down a muddy incline to a river and hand wash them and then haul wet laundry 10 minutes up a muddy incline? And then hang it? And then pull it off the line if it starts to rain? 

How are the state of dishes in your home? What if you had to hand-wash them?

What if you had to hand wash them down at that river I mentioned before?

How's the water coming out of your tap? What if you had no tap? 

What if you had to walk to that same river to get everything you need for drinking and cooking and then filter said water?

How's the fridge doing? Keeping things cold? Can you store leftovers? Does a loaf of bread last more than a couple days before going moldy?

Everything has to be cooked from scratch in the jungle because those staple ingredients won't go bad. Salt, sugar, flour, eggs, oil? Practically immortal. And woe to you if you need to use flour because you've just tacked a good 10 minutes on prep time as you sift out the weevils. 

Now add all the normal components of your life sans modern conveniences. 

So after doing the laundry and the dishes at the river and hauling water back, you also have babies who's diapers need to be changed and need to nurse or have food made for them (more dishes!), you have a spouse who deserves a little attention at least throughout the day, and you have a full-time job. 

Speaking of that full-time job, how do you do Bible Translation and Literacy Work without electricity?

How can I manage my language learning data?

How can I access my translation helps?

How can we format books and stories for printing?

How can we even type a draft up?

There's the old school method: analog.

Write everything by hand and enter it in the computer later. Hope you don't lose anything between those times. Spend a ton of money on buying every single commentary you'll need and have it shipped over and flown in. 

This is a space, money, and time intensive method. And it means I'd be repeating work in town instead of helping other language groups with their projects. 

But there's an alternative. 

Solar power.
The initial set-up is a bit pricey but it's an investment that will pay off quickly in work efficiency. 

And I am overjoyed to say that The Rising Church has hooked. us. up!

A former translator in our branch worked with solar panel systems a lot and gave me a list of things I would need in order to get up and running and a website to buy it all from. 

The Rising told me to put everything I needed in the shopping cart and they would cover it!

Our solar panel system had been sitting at a JAARS export station in North Carolina and just departed for it's international journey (that the Rising is also covering) here!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't that awesome!?!?!


This is the thank you video we made for the Rising when they initially made the purchase earlier this year.