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7月29日 Wrapping UpIn just less than two weeks, we’ll be back on the road. We’ve grown fond of Grand Forks, North Dakota even though (or maybe because) being here means an incredibly intense workload. Again this summer we have seen God work in ways we never expected, met humble servants who amaze us and teach us about giving and love and relationships. The SIL instructors are some of the most fantastic people we know. It has been an invaluable summer. We are thankful you’ve prayed for us and that our health has held. The last two weeks are full of presentations, tests and papers. Please continue to pray.
So what exactly have we done here and how will that impact the Japanese Sign Language Bible translation project?
Mary Esther has worked as a volunteer in the reception office doing things like filling the copier with paper and handling the mail. We’re thankful for this opportunity as it allows a reduced tuition for Mark and Anna. She’s audited a Second Language Acquisition-Mandarin class which Anna is also taking.
Mark is taking 5 graduate level classes and is pushing the brink on sleep deprivation. He’s been able to meet others who are also passionately involved in Sign Language Bible translations and this has been invaluable. Classes this summer have helped with his analysis of a natural text that our translator has produced apart from his translation work. Analyzing this naturally signed (ie, not translated) story will help the translation team recognize more deeply how their language works on the discourse level, and what it is that sometimes makes their translations seem unnatural.
Along with our course load and some translation checking, we've also been involved with SIL to work out details of an Asia Pacific Sign Language Multi-Agency Meeting in Bangkok November 20-22, 2007. The SIL leadership knew that ViBi shared this interest, and hasinvited us to co-host the event with them. We are thankful for the opportunity to contribute to other Sign Language translation projects. They have also given Mark the opportunity to work in Kenya the first two weeks of September as a translation consultant in training. Pray that he will quickly acquire the needed skills and be able to contribute to the Sign Language Bible translation work in Africa. (We are grateful that SIL will be covering those expenses.)
What does the future look like? We don’t expect to need to return for summer school next year. If Mark can finish the distance classwork and write his thesis before next summer, he could make a quick trip to UND for the thesis defense. This would be the easier course logistically. Otherwise, since the SIL profs are scattered throughout the world most of the time, the defense will happen whenever and wherever two or more profs on his thesis committee are in the same place, and Mark can get there too. Right now, his plan for the thesis is to compare the discourse structures of ViBi's translation work with that of natural Deaf (signed) literature.
7月14日 The battle continuesSome friends/coworkers are seeing their marriage shatter. The pain for them and their family and the ripple effect to those around continues. Please pray for our friends who we love, pray for their young children. Pray for Pastor Minamida and the Japanese Deaf church which is impacted in this loss of a vibrant teacher in leadership. Pray for the marriages of those involved in missions—the enemy is ruthless. Pray for us. Stretching and growingThis week has been stretching. We had expected that the NPO applications papers for the Wheelchairs of Hope project to be submitted the end of May and that we would have our approval by the end of August. I have now just heard from the man handling this that he has lost the papers and was afraid to say so until now. Please pray that he will be able to find the documents soon.
On the other hand, there is a group of five people from a church in southern Japan who want to take 5 wheelchairs to Bangkok in August. This will be the first time we’ve tried to take wheelchairs out of the Hiroshima airport. Please pray for those who are caring for the logistics in Japan, and rejoice that the project continue to move ahead while we are here in North Dakota.
7月8日 Wheelchairs into Philippines!Good news from Japan about the wheelchair project this past week. A Japanese pastor and 20 people, some of them short-termers connected with Twin Lakes Church in California worked on 13 wheelchairs that were taken to the Philippines on Wednesday. We had some concern at first as the wheelchairs were held up in customs for a day, but then they cleared without further problems. Praise God with us, and also pray for Pastor Noel Pantoja who will be overseeing the follow up on wheelchair recipients. Back at Home in Japan . . .Back in Japan, work continues on Genesis 36-42. The comprehension checks (feedback from Deaf people who see the video draft) are done. Pray for the team in Japan as they revise the working draft based on what they learned, and for Mark as he makes a final check of their work. Hopefully this month, we’ll have a recording session! On The Home FrontIt’s been four weeks since we arrived at the University of North Dakota for SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), and Grand Forks has turned warm. The campus thermometer across from the cafeteria read 95F as we walked to supper this evening. Mark ’s laptop doesn’t like the heat any more than we do. He has set it on plastic containers of ice in hopes of nursing it along. So far so good, though he now has some very wet papers on his desk.
Anna has been studying linguistics with us here at SIL and had also hoped to do ethnographic research on siblings of disabled people for her Biola undergraduate thesis. She’s met many obstacles in the process, and now has started calling local churches to find out what outreach there is in the community for disabled persons. After speaking to one pastor for 20 minutes, sharing about Daniel, and discussing various special needs programs, he told Anna that in his staff meeting on Tuesday he would bring up the topic of beginning a church outreach to the disabled in this area!
The good news from Andrew after his visit with Daniel is that Daniel is using his right hand more and also reaching further with his left hand. Please pray that the Physical Therapy sessions will continue.
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