The temperatures in Dallas are climbing as we move into summer. We've had a couple of 100-degree days and several in the high 90s. May was a dry month, so we've already started "watering" our home's foundation to keep it from settling as the soil dries out.
Below are some thoughts on language and culture learning and a list of Top 10 Things that some visitors to Wycliffe's work in Peru learned. After that is a personal update.
Language learning, West Asia
A worker recently described language learning: "Learning a new language is more than learning new sounds and words; it is learning about how a whole society of people live, think, feel, and view the world. Language and culture come together in an inseparable package. And no culture exists in the abstract; rather each one is expressed by living, breathing people with their own hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows." Several families in West Asia are in the beginning stages of language learning. Pray for insight and understanding of the language and culture as they adapt to their new homes.
A few months ago, Wycliffe's president posted this blog entry:
"For the past few days, we've been traveling around Peru with five people from various Moody Radio stations. Since none of them knew much about Wycliffe before this trip, we decided to check in with them to see what they’ve learned so far."
http://wycliffeusa.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/top-ten-things-our-moody-radio-friends-never-knew-about-wycliffe/
Personal Update
My team has finished most of the work on a greatly enhanced version of the Gentium font and has started testing it. We're checking it with our internal tests and are hoping to send it to a group of about a dozen testers soon. Thank you for praying! The font engineering I had to do (to support such things as placing alternate forms of accents over upper case letters) was challenging for me, but it came out well, I think, and I learned some new things. Please pray that any remaining bugs in the font will be found before we release it publicly. We hope this font will be useful to people around the world who may have very few fonts that include the letters of their alphabet and that it will further Bible translation and literacy for those people.
Lynee is working feverishly on the teacher orientation that is scheduled to start the last week of June. Her team is making changes in the course (which equips teachers to educate missionary children overseas). They are also holding the orientation in Dallas for the first time, so there are many logistical details to work out. Today, Lynee was placed on a jury, which will complicate all of this preparation. Please pray that all will be ready for the twenty teachers who are coming and for the teachers themselves as they become part of the Bible translation team.
We had a great visit with my parents around Easter and enjoyed a brief visit with Lynee's brother and one nephew while they visited Dallas. We're thankful we've been able to get some repairs and improvements done on our home at good prices. Lynee is enjoying the ladies in her summer Bible study. We hope you are doing well and enjoying the summer. Is there any way we can pray for you?
May the glory and wonder of Jesus' presence in your life encourage you today.
