Journeyman

I’m making the effort to get this published a little earlier than last night’s message. It appears that Eddie has been waiting for my blog posts before putting himself to bed, so last night was a little late for him. Hopefully, this is a better time.

It’s not a problem. He was leading the morning of the WoW course, and for all the grief I give him (sometimes too publicly) Eddie can do interactive training very well. This morning we started to consider the bigger picture of what is involved with the whole work of Bible translation. What do you need in place to be able to publish a Bible for a language group. This isn’t just you need translators, or language consultants; there’s the printing, distribution, recruitment, IT support, training, financial management, logistics, as well as the fund raising and prayer support required in an operation like this. It’s more than one person can do and requires a huge range of people with a wide range of gifts. Projects often can’t be completed at the fastest speed possible because one link in the chain is missing. Often it’s not for the lack of skilled linguists, but the desperate need for skilled support, that slows the whole thing down. Imagine the joy that linguists have when they are working on the project that they have been asked to complete; then just think how disheartened they must feel to leave it behind for a while because one of the links in the very long chain is broken and they are the only people that can fill it.

I’ll be honest, I don’t want this blog to turn into a PR channel for all things Wycliffe, but occasionally you’ll have to forgive me if I step out and put things in your mind, just link I’m about to do here.

To be able to continue the work of putting Bibles into the hands of people all around the world Wycliffe need people who can be committed to a whole load of duties, not just translation. If you’re interested in languages I’d strongly suggest you consider doing the next WoW course, but if you have logistics, accountancy, IT, management, HR,… or any other skills and you’d be willing to give a few weeks, or a year or two, of your time, please get in touch. There are a whole host of roles advertised on the Wycliffe website www.wycliffe.org.uk, or go directly to the jobs page here.

OK, back to the day.

This afternoon we considered many of the roles played by SIL and how children who learn a local language can progress more quickly to learning a national language. That was followed by seminars for people who are considering one of the many roles open to them.

It was interesting this evening talking to folk about how they feel at this end of the week. Some are scared that God may have a plan for them, others are quite calm… everyone’s excited.

I went back to the office while the interviews were taking place. I’ve got a job that I’m enjoying so I was less interested in this bit. However, I did record one of the sessions and hope to do the same tomorrow. I’ll let you know when something’s online that you can listen to.

That’s my last update. I’m off to France on a ferry tomorrow. I should know better. We did this during the World Cup and I got no sleep. This time it’s a cheap day ticket, so I’m probably going to get two nights in a row without sleep. A load of fun I’m going to be at breakfast on Monday morning.

Have a good weekend folks, even if it is a little early to say.