Teacher orientation starts this week

Dear Friends & Family,

The time for teacher orientation has nearly arrived! Lynee will be leaving on Wednesday (June 25) for Orlando to help prepare a group of twenty educators for cross-cultural overseas work with missionary children. She’s already been hard at work preparing the materials to be distributed and arranging for new people (not from Dallas) to fill various roles in training simulations. Please pray the sessions (June 27-July 3) will equip all the attendees for challenges they will face, for good health for all involved, and for some remaining work on resources Lynee needs to make available.

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Below are excerpts from a story written by the husband of a type designer I work with. They were in Tanzania at the time...

Finally, the moment came! My coach had told me it would be good to welcome those attending in Nyakyusa (the local language), so I walked to the podium and let out a loud “Ugonileeeeeeeeee!” The crowd responded with a loud “Ugonileeeeeeeeee!”

After the warm greeting, I knew that all I needed to do was to read three pages of text I had prepared. I stumbled and butchered various Swahili words as I made my way through the speech, encouraging them with the history and rationale behind our efforts to translate God’s Word for people across the world. I soon found myself nearing the end of the final page, ecstatic that I, and the attendees, had actually made it through my speech.

I began replaying every little stumble and mispronunciation. By the time we drove home, I was convinced that my speech was a complete and utter failure. But a couple weeks later, I got an e-mail … “[One of the church elders] was so impressed by your speech, which was in Swahili. When he went back to his church, he insisted that all Sunday school teachers and those who lead devotion sessions in the church should use Nyakyusa language … that by using Swahili, you set an example encouraging other people to value their languages they understand most.”

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I'm in the midst of adding a new and easier way for users of our fonts to select alternate letter forms for certain letters. This project is turning out to be harder than I expected, so please pray for wisdom and perseverance for me.

In April, we went through the annual process of reviewing our financial support needs. Our level of needed support went up about $85/mon (largely due to health insurance). This means our committed giving is about $300/mon short, though thankfully some generous gifts in the last few months have made up that shortfall. We are sincerely grateful to God and all those who pray, give, encourage, and enable our work.

In the Greatness and Goodness of God