God's Word Made Accessible

This week we've been recording Bible Stories in Sadri, a local tribal language for which there is no Bible translation. Many Sadri people are illiterate. Many of those who can read are functionally illiterate since they read on such a low level. Those that read well have to rely on the Hindi Bible. For all of these reasons, oral methods are ideal for Sadri speakers.

We've been doing story telling with Sadri speaking people for almost 2 years. We've had the plan for a long time to record Bible stories in this language so that they have an oral canon, something they can refer to in learning the stories and making sure people are telling the stories correctly. This week, it's becoming reality - God's Word is being mad accessible to Sadri speakers in their own language!

We thank God for everyone who has contributed to Emmanuel Ministries International. With these funds, we've been able to buy time in a recording studio, buy editing equipment and give a little bit to the person doing the interpretation and voice work. We are also thankful for the various ways God has used individuals and other organizations to educate us in the intricacies of audio recording, editing, and Scripture translation so that we can incorporate best practices in what we're doing.

God is good and He's doing great things!

William Carey - A Giant

I've been reading a biography of William Carey by his grandson, S. Pearce Carey. What an amazing story!

I told Trish last night that reading his biography makes me feel so small. I realize in so many ways how selfish and lazy I am. This man was tireless. He taught himself something like 38 languages: Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Oriya, Telegu, Marathi, Assamese, Pashto, Kashmiri, Manipuri and many more. He translated at least part of the scriptures into 35 different languages. He was preaching in Bengali within 8 months of landing in India. I've been in India for almost 3 years and while can carry on a conversation pretty well, but still am not to preach.

His exploits were many. In addition to translation and printing, he started or had a hand in starting hundreds of schools, many mission centers, and a university. He published journals and newspapers, and through them raised awareness of sati (widow burning). His tireless publicity prompted the law which led to the abolition of this practice. In fact, he accomplished much more than he himself ever anticipated.

The cool thing is through it all, it's very clear from his humility that he knew that everything that was accomplished was by God's grace. Because I can see God working through him, rather than being discouraged that I have accomplished so little, I'm filled with hope. I know that the same God that used Carey is working in and through me!

How cool is it to think that if I will wholly devote myself to Him and His service that he can do much more through my life than I anticipate! This book is a great testament to what God can do with someone wholly yielded to Him and willing to obey even when friends, family and supporters wavered in their support of Him.

I'm inspired! I'm encouraged! Praise be to God that He's still using William Carey over 170 years after his death. I've redoubled my efforts in learning Hindi. I'm daily reading my Hindi Bible. Who knows, maybe once I'm able to preach in Hindi, then 'll start learning Bengali.

The other thing I saw quite clearly is that Carey labored for many years before he saw a single convert. He was faithful to the vision and calling God gave him, continuing service in India for near 40 years. One of his last sermons was from Galatians 6:9 reminding me that we too will reap if we don't grow weary. So, I press on.

Earthquake!

Yesterday, just before 3 PM I was sitting at my computer and felt my chair rocking back and forth. It was as if someone had walked up behind me and grabbed the back of my chair and pushed it back and forth. We have wobbly chairs, so I wasn't sure what had happened so I went into the next room and said, "Did you feel that?"

Megan and Pastor Rajesh both felt it, but Victoria was oblivious.

I immediately went online to see if I could find some observation station with live reporting, but couldn't.

This morning I was greeted with an email announcing an earthquake that struck Bhutan at that time yesterday. It was 6.1 on the richter scale. I think that place is about 260 miles away. Here's a link to the USGS site.

This is the second time we've been able to feel an earthquake here. The first time was just after we moved here.

Frustrated with Microsoft and Google

I'm very frustrated with Microsoft and Google. I just realized (after having spent hours across 3 days designing an html email update) that Microsoft no longer supports background images in Microsoft Outlook (2007 version). They did in the 2003 version. Gmail also does not support background images. This is really frustrating as I know very little about html and design and don't know how to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish apart from a background image. Most email clients do support this functionality.

You can read more about it at http://www.email-standards.org/what-you-can-do/.

So I ended up sending the email as it was. Some people will get it with a picture (if you use a Mac, use Mozilla Thunderbird, Yahoo and several other email clients). Many (maybe a majority) will get an email with a great big space at the top where the picture should have been. Not very professional or nice looking.

If someone knows an easy work around for this for next time, please let me know.

Trish Leads Women's Retreat

“She washed my feet with her hair and her tears.” Jesus can say that of the woman in Luke 7, but I can also say it of my wife, Trish.

In May, Trish and a friend named Jodi, led a women’s retreat for the ladies of Bible Centered Fellowship. The theme was Behold the Lamb. Trish asked me to come and take pictures. When I got there, I discovered that she wanted to tell the story of the woman washing Jesus feet and act it out with me sitting in for Jesus. It was a very moving experience. I really just wanted her to get up and stop. I felt so unworthy, yet at the same time really loved. They followed up this story by washing the ladies feet.

The ladies really enjoyed the participative discussions. They said they’d never experienced a retreat like that.

Insights from Weeding

This morning I spent a few hours weeding our flower beds. While weeding I was meditating on the Bible lesson I'll be teaching tonight - the creation story from Genesis 1:1-25. I had several insights that I wanted to share with you.

First, I was thinking about how many times in that passage that God was separating something. He separated light from darkness, day from night, waters above from waters below, and water from land. Here I was separating weeds and grass from plants. I was thinking about how God also makes set apart, or holy.

Thinking about our holiness or "set apartness" made me think about the parable of the wheat and the tares. In that parable we learn that there are non-believers in among the believers and that God would separate them in the harvest. This is also established in Matthew 7 where we're told that many prophesy and cast out demons in His name, but at the judgment he'll say, "Depart from me for I never knew you." This had me thinking about our churches and wondering how many people are there that don't know God through faith in Jesus Christ. Said another way, I wondered how many people in our churches don't have saving faith. In my garden, there's more weeds than plants. Is it that way in the church too?

As I pulled weeds I also thought about how creative our God is. Do you know how many varieties of grass and weeds there are? Do you know how distinct pieces of the same type of weed can be from one another? In Genesis 1 it says He created grasses and plants that reproduce according to their kind. There are so many kinds, it's amazing! The differences in shades of green alone is amazing! Our God really went all out. I could also go on about all the different kinds of ants he's made, many of which emerged to display His glory as I was plucking weeds.

I also thought about sweat. You know there was this curse as a result of man's sin that had something to do with working by the sweat of the brow. Was my brow ever sweating! It had me wondering how much easier that work might have been had man never sinned. In fact, I started wondering if weeds themselves were not a result of the curse. Thank God that even though there's a curse for sin, in Christ there's redemption and blessing!

In the beginning God created.... and His creation is really amazing! He said, "Let there be light" and there was light. He said the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. Even in my life I see Him separating light from darkness as I'm sanctified. Praise Him that the same grace that redeems us and separates us by declaring us just also separates us by conforming us into His image.

It's pretty cool what you can observe just weeding the garden!

Pythons and Swords

Last night I went to Tilabari with one of my disciples to see one of his disciples lead a small group in Bible Story telling. When we arrived in Tilabari, we got a rare treat. There was an enormous crowd at the edge of the village and Nasib was waiting for us nearby. He explained that some of the villagers had caught a large snake and asked if we wanted to go see before we started our small group. So we went.

When we arrived there was a large crowd around a very large snake. This thing was at least 11 feet long. It was a python (I believe a Burmese Python). Nearby there was a goat that it had killed, but not yet eaten. The villagers were waiting for the forest department officials to come and relocate the snake.

Just so you can get a better idea of the size, Here's a picture with the people in the background:
So that's the deal about snakes, let me tell you about swords. Jyotish was leading the small group and was supposed to be telling the creation story. When he arrived, he hadn't prepared well. He couldn't remember which days what happened. While he was fumbling through telling the story, a lesson came to me from God's Word.

I shared with the students how important it is to learn God's Word. They really need to learn the stories they'll be telling completely. I reminded them that God's Word is called a sword (talvar in Hindi). I told them that if we're going to battle it is important that we handle the sword properly and hold it tightly, not allowing it to be removed from us. I reminded them that in 2 Tim. 2:15 it says an approved workman who doesn't need to be ashamed handles God's word accurately. I told them that this is akin to learning the story and telling it exactly right. How can we make good observations and applications from a story if we don't tell it right. I told them to get to practicing handling their sword reminding them of the promise in Joshua 1:8 that if we don't allow the book of law to depart from our mouth, but meditate on it day and night so that we're careful to do all that it says, that we will then make our way prosperous and successful.

Please pray for Nasib and Jyotish as they lead this group of 7. Pray for their 7 disciples, that they'll handle God's Word like a sword.

Going Batty

Yes that's a bat Trish is holding. It's a fruit bat, but at night when it swoops over your head, you'd swear it was a pterodactyl or a vampire bat.

Every year in February and March these creatures visit the cotton tree just behind our house for several weeks. We love going up on the roof and watching them.

This particular critter had the misfortune of running into a power line and getting electrocuted. We discovered him the next morning.

Our friend Gopal (pictured) said he was going to eat it, but chickened out when he got home. He said by the time he got it home, it didn't smell very good, so he threw it out.

I Took the Bob Challenge

One of the great things about travelling is it gives me lots of time to read. One of the books I read on this trip was, "If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat," by John Ortberg. It impacted me through the "Bob Challenge."

In the book, he tells a story about a guy named Bob who was basically dared to pray for something specific every day for six months. In fact, they made a bet about it. If nothing happened Bob would get $500, but if it did, he'd have to pay $500.

He chose to pray for Kenya. For a long time nothing happened, but then one night at a dinner he met a lady from the largest orphanage in Kenya. He began asking her lots of questions about Kenya and she invited him to visit. He went, was moved by the poverty and came home and arranged for prescription drugs to be sent there worth one million dollars.

The orphanage invited him back to celebrate. While he was there, he met the president of Kenya, who ended up taking Bob on a tour of Nairobi. While on the tour Bob saw a prison full of political prisoners. Bob told the president he should let them go. Sometime later the US state department called to thank Bob as they'd been working for a long time to get those prisoners released.

Several months later the President of Kenya called and asked Bob to come pray for him for three days while he selected his government.

After telling this story, the author challenged me to take the Bob Challenge. He didn't say he'd give me $500, but he said if I pray for every day for six months for something and don't get it he'll give me back the price of the book. If I pray every day for six months and something happens, I have to write him an email and tell him about it. I'm looking forward to writing that email.

December Nagaland Trip

With this post, I'm finally caught up on posting our pictures from the past 3 months. In December, we went with some friends to Nagaland for a wedding. This was a great time to help them out, experience local culture, and just have a good time. You'll see some crazy stuff if you check it out.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Macaroni and Cheese

Yes, that is mac n cheese! It was the first time they've had it since being home in the states. Someone who loves them very much sent them Velveeta. It was a cutthroat evening with family member pitted against family member over the last bites of the cheese delight. Towards the end they were even offering monetary compensation per noodle. What a night!

~camille

Lakla Reunion

In October of last year, Awor, Kikon, Taipi and Jeff led "Simply the Story" Training in Lakla. They had such a good time together that they decided to have a Lakla reunion 30 days later. These are some pictures of their silliness.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sikkim Trip

In November, a friend sent us (Trish & Jeff) to Sikkim for a few days of vacation. What a blessing! We got to see God's beautiful handiwork and shop. :) Check it out!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My Trip to the Post Office

In December I posted something telling about some of the things I'd blog about in the near future. Now I'm making good on that promise.

One of the things I said I'd blog about was a recent trip to the post office. Here it is.

I'd been out of town for the second week of December and got a notice that there was a registered letter for me from the post office, an important legal document I'd been expecting. So the first full day I was home (a Thursday) I went by the post office at 11 AM. They were closed. I went again at 2 PM. They were still closed. On Friday again I went near 11 AM (they open at 9 AM). Still closed. I started wondering whether they're ever open.

That Friday I asked Awor if there's some holiday I didn't know about. He said it was someone's birthday (maybe a former freedom fighter) so the West Bengal government offices were closed. So I went back Monday morning at 9 AM. That's were the frustration started.

They open at 9. When I got there, there were 2 other customers there, sitting on a bench. There were 3 employees behind the counter, opening log books, booting up computers, sweeping the office and getting ready to start their day. I told them I needed to pick up a registered letter. They told me to have a seat. After about 20 minutes of doing the same stuff that they were doing when I arrived one of the employees called out to me.

He said, "We don't have those kind of envelopes here."

"Huh?," I thought. Then I repeated, "I came to pick up a registered letter that was sent for me. I was away and the postman came and left notice that I need to come here to pick it up."

"Oh," said the clerk, "then you need to sit and wait for your postman. He'll come in a few minutes."

So I sit patiently. After about 10 minutes, I ask, "When will my postman turn up?"

They say, "Near 10:00." 30 more minutes.

First of all, why bother opening at 9, if you're not really ready to serve anyone until 9:30?

Second, why do they make you wait 20 minutes to tell you that you need to go somewhere else to get what they think you need?

Third, when they finally understand what I need, why couldn't they say, "If you want to pick up your registered letter, you have to wait until or come back after 10 when your postman arrives."?

In the US we have all kinds of jokes about the inefficiency of the post office and poor service of the government servants. I'll never complain about them again.

I came back 30 minutes later and finally got my letter.

Short Report on Short-term Team

Of all the short term teams I’ve had, this was the best and easiest to work with. Overall, they were more spiritually mature and flexible than any team I’ve worked with. I didn’t have one complaint from them or problem with them, despite many problems with flights and the local political environment.


As far as the work we did, it also went very well. We employed a different strategy than we’ve ever used in that we didn’t do saturation evangelism, but really were looking for a man of peace in a village and were hoping to really establish relationship with a few people in the village rather than trying to share very briefly. I think the team and our national brothers and sisters really bought into this method. One of the locals told me he thought this was better because this way the person doing follow up meets everyone in the village that is shared with whereas the way we used to do it there were so many people sharing in a village that the person doing follow-up only met 1/5 of the people who heard the gospel and that didn’t make for smooth follow-up when he went to do follow-up and the people had no relationship with him. We also weren’t so concerned about professions of faith or conversions, but in sharing the gospel and in being obedient to God. I told the team that they had permission to not share the gospel at all and to just listen to God and say and do whatever He says.

There’s one story of someone just listening and obeying that I want to share. One of the team members said when he came to one house, God told him not to share the gospel, but just to build relationship. He said for more than 30 minutes (maybe it was an hour) they just visited and joked and laughed together. Finally the people asked him why he was there. He then shared a little bit. That family was really open whereas they said before that some Catholics had come to share with them, some German Christians and 2 other groups and they’d always turned them away. God really made a way here.

We told them team not to put an emphasis on praying a prayer, but to just share the whole gospel if opportunity arose. One of our partners told me that something I’d shared with him in passing has transformed how he shares the gospel. I’d told him that in order to present the whole gospel we really need to start with God’s holiness and righteousness and man’s sinfulness and the consequences of our sin. So at one house he was doing that, when all of a sudden one of the men he was sharing with said, “How can I be saved?” This is an awesome example of God drawing someone to Himself through the hearing of the gospel and that’s what we were really looking for. Praise God.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be following up with our partners as we meet with them in our Tuesday discipleship groups. Please pray for them and the 24 villages in which we worked in the Dooars region.

My Worst Day

Yesterday was the worst day I'd experienced in a long, long time. I'd told people to expect a rough time after a great week of ministry. After all, Elijah experienced the same thing. (1 Kings 19:3-4). I even planned accordingly. Let me tell you the story.

Yesterday, I was scheduled to drop off the last of our team at the airport (I couldn't go in with them since there's increased security in the airport). Then I was going to go home and take a nap. After all, I'd been running fast and furious for 11 days non stop. Those eleven days included making adjustments for missed flights and delayed flights, and adjusting to a strike that turned violent. After all of this, Thursday was to be a day of rest and finishing up some long overdue reporting.

Everything was going according to plan. I had had finally asleep when Trish woke me up to tell me that the guys had called from the airport to say their flight had been canceled. I was still not all the way awake when I started working on contacting Jet Airways to see what concessions they'd give and contacting Continental to see what their policy is for rescheduling flights ($250 per person).

I sent Trish to the airport, while I worked on making arrangements. While I was making arrangements, the day guard came up and told me that our septic system was overflowing feces. Yuck! I went to see and sure enough, it was gross.

All of this wouldn't have been so bad, but I knew that Thursday the ruling political party had called a strike. That means that I would have to get they guys to the airport and return home before sunrise or else I'd get stuck at the airport or have to risk getting the car stoned. For the same reason, we wouldn't be able to get the septic system fixed. In fact, I later found out that the septic system can't get pumped until Tuesday. (It turns out Friday and Monday are holidays and they don't work on the weekend.)

Anyway, I was not having a very good day. Still at the end of the day, I was able to say to the Father, "Lord, you give and take away. Blessed be Your name."

I did manage to get them to the airport and get home without incident this morning and though their flight is delayed, it does look like they'll get off today. (We're still praying.) I also got to come home after dropping them and get some rest.

Now I'm off to long overdue reports.