CanIL's First Scripture Celebration Day and some Mon-thoughts...

To say a class is changing my life might be an overstatement; but to say that I have experienced quite an incredible shift of understanding is not nearly saying enough. Goodness, Scripture Use has taken everything I know about the concepts surrounding Bible Translation, and carved open the chest on it, exposing a wild heart, and some complicated, throbbing veins.

Where other Linguistics courses I've taken so far teach the technical ins-and-outs about what we need to know about language in order to get any of this right, this class throws an anchor back into the discussion and reminds me about all of the living layers of things we must learn about people and cultures in order to not mess the language and translation stuff up!

Week after week in this class, we receive an arsenal of stories of how the "smallest" of details can deeply matter in how a different culture receives the Word of God, and daily I find my heart thrumming with the grace-filled, glorious fact that He has placed bits of HIS image in each of these people groups, and we must find the pieces of that, and point to them; indicate HIM in the places that they will recognize Him, and then show all the other facets of who He is that are maybe completely counter-cultural.

One of the things that Scripture Use focuses on, then, is local arts within a culture, so that when the Bible begins to be translated,...when there's even just ONE VERSE, believers within the culture can begin working with the translation team to spread the message through indigenous songs, print-media, dramas, works of art, traditional paintings, ANYTHING that speaks of God to the culture from the culture. 

This need was brought home to me most in the tiny quote of a Tanzanian pastor that my friend told me about the other day... Her parents are missionaries, and a few years ago this pastor-friend relayed a message of years of pain and wounding that came from initial missionary-efforts, many years ago. He said: "When you brought us the Word, it was like a loaf of bread, SO nourishing, but wrapped in the Westerners' baggie. We were so hungry for it that we ate the whole thing, and now we are choking on the plastic."

This breaks my heart, and it isn't Christ's intention in the least. Although Western hymns and ancient traditions can bring life and meaningful teaching, if they are the only way that we deliver the Word or "establish church," we lose so much, we dwarf the hearts and the image in those hearts of the One who saves, whose Personality is vivacious, vivid, color-on-fire, holy and utterly, creatively magnificent. Instead of showing this though, we show "new rules," new heart languages that "can't be spoken", wordlessly communicating ideas about how God can only be reached with Western ways and that the LIFE of their community might be bad. His heart, though, is for all to know Him, and to express that seeking, knowing, learning, teaching, and worshipping out in the context of the culture that He has lovingly planted them in.

Scripture Use is teaching me to empower local artists and believers in any culture to engage with what the Word says, so that they can create for their church Body, for themselves, for their local radio programs, for their children's church, so that ALL might hear inside the glorious nuances of the cultural soil their hearts and identities have grown in, and so that we do not squelch what the Spirit is doing by presenting the Bible in a form that will cause great harm, misunderstanding, pain, or sharp mis-teachings simply because we didn't know enough about the people, the history, and the culture before we thought we could use certain words or forms and assume that they would communicate the same thing.

All this to say, my head and my heart are so full....so prayerfully FULL of new things to step boldly and delicately with. It has been so encouraging to take all this in, and to know that even though this spills a daunting light onto the intricacies of the task, it also shows me more of my Lord's glimmering sides.

In the process of this learning, I got to take part last week in something truly special at school... For the first time, the Canada Institute of Linguistics threw a sort of community-party focused on celebrating Scripture, and presenting some "commissioned artworks" that our class's students presented - [ask me about "mine" sometime, and I'll tell you about this great kid named Isaiah that rocked a piece of Spoken Word Poetry via video, and the process we underwent to make it happen!!!]..  

So the Celebration included a group of us as presenters to a crowd of around 250 people, as well as a cyclists' "Ride for Translation" in the morning, that did an incredible job or raising funds for future CanIL student scholarships, a lunch banquet, a Parade of Nations, and several mini-modules that guests could choose from about Linguistics topics like Phonetics and testimonies to what it's like serving in closed-countries...

Below are some photos taken by the incredible Jacob Bowdoin and Moss Doerksen, to give you a glimpse into the day.

I've arrived in Canada! And here's some about my travel day...

I’m quite the suspicious character. 

Or at least that’s what the Canadian border officers thought this time! I flew on Wednesday from Atlanta to Dallas, and Dallas to Vancouver, and other than some weather making the first flight's take-off a little late, everything went very smoothly until I arrived in Canada. I had some dear friends from last summer meeting me at the airport, but the process from landing to finally getting to meet them behind a glass door took about two hours! 

The Vancouver airport was considerably quiet in the evening, and by the time I was in line to sort out my student visa, we could see staff was a bit low and everyone had been working for many hours already..   I was part of a motley line of mostly forlorn faces---one plaid-clad young man explaining that he'd been Ecuador-bound but "no one from his charity had been there to meet him, and so he was sent back", one American couple distraught over lost bags, one South American family with an adorable child that needed to breath from his nubilzer treatment while they waited to situate entry plans. There were so many stories, tired and waiting, in front of me, and I found myself grateful for the workers before us, trying to stay positive and discerning  as they looked over each person's documents and asked them questions..

When it was all said and done, everything for my entry was fine, I just hadn't brought official- enough proof of the address I would be living at or of the small on-campus job I will be working. I was granted the visa and was able to tromp out to my waiting chariot of people, and groggily chatter with them all the way to Langley to crash to sleep after 20-some hours of being awake!

The rest of the travel day was beautiful though, and I took a few photos out of the plane windows for you of some of the things that caught my breath:

Sunset over the British Columbia coast as we circled for a landing!

2012 - In Memoriam

Just a handful, not even a full-fingered hand, of posts punctuated 2012, and yet it has been one of the most remarkable of my life... The last few hours of 2012 tip-toed out last night, but I was left with gratitude as I listened to the patter. I stand baffled at the sheer speed of this last year, but more by the things I don't know how to explain about it.

A year ago in December, God set a tumble of miraculous movement in motion (explained HERE, if you missed it), and in that post I mentioned the impression I had that 2012's name for me was The Year of the Lord's Favor. This might have sounded pretentious in so many ways, but my goodness this past year spilled over with kindness and generosity that I have earned in no way. Over and over and over again, there has been a constant stream of things my soul couldn't have thought to ask for, and a joy-rush towards the work God formed me for. Where pain and waiting were my strong, patient teachers for the last few, warmth and unmerited awesomeness have guided this year. And so, though it is less conventional than listing things at Thanksgiving time, here is my heart's attempt—a typed register of a few things that should not stay unsaid, an account of goodness that must be spoken.

I am thankful:

• For my parents and siblings!—My parents and my sister and brother-in-law have a Masters in sacrifice with a Concentration in making you feel loved instead of needy. They have all made room in their homes for me, as we're all adjusting to the nearness of my move to Papua New Guinea (12 months!), and it has had such an impact on me.  Beyond this, I am so very blessed by the friendship of my siblings... how all three of them are truthful mirrors, verbal, kind, honest, and playful. They chip the edges off my too-serious, and comfort me in my too-sensitive. I am surrounded by love, and have never felt the weight of it as keenly as I do now that there is a timeline until I'm on the other side of the world for a few years.
• For getting to use my passport this year! I was blessed to spend time globe-trotting with Krissy and Chris, to hop into Canadian life for three months, and to take a train down the West Coast when I left Canada to spend time with dearones in San Francisco! 

• For a church family I am always blessed to be near, where there are artists that give of themselves, where worship is born of what God is doing among these people, where community is valued above 'having everything figured out', and where I'm challenged 

• For the many new babies in my life this year, and friends that welcome me into Auntishness with their children!!!
• For getting to go to Wycliffe's headquarters last February, and again in October for training. Both of these trips shifted and impacted huge decisions, and were such a submersion tank of prayer, preparation, and counsel

  

• For time this summer (while I was at school in Vancouver) with my uncle that lives there. We got to know each other as adults now, and I am moved by his tender heart and funny stories
• For all the students, friends, and soon-to-be-colleagues that I spent the whole summer with at CanIL! It was an incredible experience, to be surrounded by people that are passionate about Linguistics, Christ, and the need for Bible Translation, (not to mention the part where British Columbia took my breath away!) Lord willing, I will see them again in 2013 for one more class~

• For Allison and the Thursday Girls—You are friends of the highest caliber, and I will always, always, always be grateful for these years in Alli's dining room, one night a week, unmasking the world, laughing, baring our hearts, and eating delectables. 
• For a job that has been more than a job and people that have been more than co-workers

• For the interest, care and concern that I have been shown as I step into this role of missionary.. for the encouragement and prayer warriors in my life, and the prayer and financial team that is beginning to form.
• For good health(!!)--I have been in a pretty steady remission from Ulcerative Colitis for more than 2 years, and despite symptoms being a little rockier during grad. school this summer, I have been allowed to begin lowering doses of maintenance meds. This was something I dreamed of getting to do before heading to PNG next year!
  
  And most impactful to me,

• the overwhelming grace that I have been treated with this year. In so many ways, I have had nothing to offer. In the past, desert places were utilized to plant me firmly in the understanding that all I have sometimes is the will to choose obedience——when sickness comes, when hardship shakes what our culture tells us we're entitled to, all we have are the ways we respond, and this can bring God glory even when we have or are nothing else. But being stripped down in this way (in strength, health, time, finances), and needing to depend on others, has also at times left me feeling utterly indebted to kindnesses I can never repay (or has made me respond as an awkward recipient). But God is turning this on its head for me—reminding me that it's all His, and that He will do what He wants with it, that He delights to surprise us, and that His methods of getting us to where He wants us (and ultimately, of redeeming  e v e r y t h i n g) are unpredictable, joyous, and almost always communal and relational. He has been revealing pride for what it really is in me, and showing me that this will need to go; that His plan has always been about interdependence and goodness that we can't earn.
  This grace and generosity took many forms this year, (a spontaneously provided airplane ticket to visit my potential school last January, a vacation with 2 of my siblings gifted to me with a loving desire to spend time together in the face of us finding out I have 1 year left before moving to Papua New Guinea, an extension on a paper that came with so much more encouragement and edification than I could have guessed, dear friends providing the funds for Wycliffe's Equip Training and others paying the full conclusion of school loans that were keeping me from the mission field).. and this has sprung fertile humility. I have been shown so much faith by others in what God has been working out in me, and that faith and the active support of it moves my heart beyond words that I will ever have access to.

My brothers and sister and I! - Christmas 2012

A few little thoughts around midterms

There is a Jiminy Cricket that works in the Homework Department of my psyche that is maybe not so pleased with me right now, but I have not taken a moment to come and breathe here in just over FIVE weeks, so he will have to whimper on tonight… 

Dearones, I’m so sorry! Weeks have tugged at small fibers so that every mental and emotional facet I have are all focused on school; but you all, your faces and your voices and your support tug back without you even knowing you’re doing it. I MISS YOU, am bolstered by you, and am lonely for how well I’m known by you, but it's a delight to be here, and I'm learning so much!

These last few weeks have been a roller coaster—I’ve been trying to juggle the course load here (Phonological Analysis, Sociolinguistic Survey, and Language and Society) with Skype-interviews and meetings with my Wycliffe Personnel Administrator; and then stuffed somewhere in between those major players have been gorgeous little bursts of either time outside to process my whirwind-head, or time with my uncle or other students… 

Last week was a crux of extremes: it began with the most exquisite beauty (our group went for a day of hiking and night of camping a few hours north to the most beautiful spot!), but then we all returned to midterm exams, awaiting projects, 12-page papers, and all the while the need to think and pray through the large decisions that are on the horizon. I found myself bucking at feeling inadequate—my brain wriggling in the one class that stretches it against its regular constructs of thinking (to the point of embarrassing tears in front of my professor!)—and I observed my initial frustration (two weeks ago?) when my history with health issues was discussed as a factor for Wycliffe in where I will be assigned… I am reminded that no matter how many seasons my faithful Christ walks me through that pull back my expectations and identity to a gloriously content and worshiping place, I am still not comfortable being a vessel filled with the right kind of emptiness sometimes.

If I’m completely honest, I gravitate back to wanting to be defined by some sort of skill or ability or unique characteristic—to have “something to offer”—but always I’m returned to the place where weaknesses or past bouts of sickness are a defining factor, or my mind’s struggle with the data/structure side of this task before me overwhelms me and I feel defined by lack. But THIS is where He begins to move again, this is where he uses my disillusionment with myself to open my eyes again, to fill them with light, to show me that those specific weaknesses that He has allowed in me are exactly as they should be and that He has always woven good stories around weakness whose only acclaiming attribute is a steady, resounding “yes, Lord”.

Once again He has to whisper, hold loosely, with your hands wide open… don’t choke it; your clasped, tiny fingers are ineffectual anyway, but you’re going to want Me to be free to move these things over and around you, across your flattened, receptive palms, little one, so trust Me and stride forward, delighted.

Arrival in Vancouver!

Light spills out of the top of a paper lantern before me, and the sun has just fully left the sky dark, although it’s nearly 10pm.. This summer British Columbia sky has caught me off guard every night this week, but I’m enjoying its temperamental rain-cloud tantrums and layered-cloud blue bliss!

How strange to begin the week on one coast and end it on another! The last few weeks have gone so quickly, let alone the last few days! Packing and precious people filled them—last-grabbed hugs, words, clutched-at hands and moments. Small bits of weighty prayers I tucked away from off your lips. Laughter that I've bottled to smile about for the next three months until I see your faces again. 

I flew here on Tuesday… Atlanta to Phoenix was a sleepy blur—eight a.m. across time backwards, arriving in Phoenix only minutes after I’d left, though I’d flown for hours. Phoenix to Vancouver arched and skimmed over carved, crooked grins of pink and brown, jaggy curves of canyon-teases kissed with blue haze. And so here I am!

It's been a lovely few days with my uncle, who lives about 30 minutes north of CanIL, the school I will be attending. His kindness has made me at home, and his company has made me thankful. It's been a joy to cook with him and run errands—to learn each other as adults and to revel in story-telling! Early this morning I drove him to the airport, as he’s a tour guide and will be in and out of this area all summer…

I took today to skype with GA-family :), and to anchor my head and heart a bit.
I got to jog a long, incredible stretch of New West Minster, too, down the Fraser River, and the sky burst down a chilly downpour as I pounded out glad-feet in a new town..

For now sleep~ And tomorrow I will drive down and continue this week of transitions, as I move into the dorms on campus for the summer!