Hiking in New Mexico

A few weeks ago my family and I went camping in Red River, NM. It's a beautiful, sleepy, peaceful town. You should check it out if you've never been. Here's some pictures for your pleasure.

Translating in Papua New Guinea

Well, it looks like the Lord is leading me to serve Wycliffe in Papua New Guinea. My assignment hasn't been confirmed yet, but I am praying that it will be soon!

Here is a soul-convicting story about the great needs of translation in this island nation written by a translator serving in Papua New Guinea.

"I was standing in the middle of a big logging camp upriver from our village home in Papua New Guinea (PNG). My bare feet had long since disappeared in boots of wet sticky clay. On one side of me stood Adau,the leader of the translation team we work with. On the other side was an old man from a village near the camp. I also had two American college students with me. They had come to PNG for a month to get a taste of mission life.

"It was clear that the old man wanted to talk to me about something very important. After finding a language they both knew, Adau began to translate the old man’s message. He said, 'I know that you live downriver there to help those people translate the Bible into their language. And I have heard that another couple lives way up by the headwaters of our river, and is helping those people up there to translate the Bible into their language. But here in our place, we want the Bible too, and we don’t have anyone to help us do it. Can you tell your bosses to send someone to help us too?'

"Before I replied, I turned to the two American college students. 'Come closer and listen to what I am going to have to tell this old man,' I said. 'I want you to remember this conversation, and when you get back home tell the people in your church what you’ve heard.'

"As they moved closer, I started to answer him, but I couldn’t help but hang my head as I did so. 'You know there are many, many languages in Papua New Guinea,' I said. 'And to translate the Bible into just one language takes many years of work. We would really like to send someone to help your people translate the Bible too. But we don’t have extra people available. Very few people are coming to Papua New Guinea to help in translation now, and those few have to be shared out—not just in this province, but among all of the other provinces too. So I will tell my bosses about your request, but at this time we don’t have enough workers to be able to send someone to your people.'

"The old man was obviously not satisfied with my answer—who would be?! Perhaps he couldn’t understand why God would talk to others but not to his people. What would you have said to the old man if he had asked you? Maybe, indirectly, he is asking you. He was appealing to the wider Church to help give them access to God’s Word. What will your response be?"

-Published originally in InFocus Vol.14 No. 2

Cloned Humans

 Replication: The Jason Experiment

 by Jill Williamson

  Genre: Christian YA Science-Fiction

"Martyr-otherwise known as Jason 3:3-is one of many clones kept in a remote facility called Jason Farms. Told that the has been created to save humanity, Martyr has just one wish before he is scheduled to 'expire' in less than a month. To see the sky. 

"Abby Goyer may have just moved to Alaska, but she has a feeling something strange is going on at the farm where her father works. But even this smart, confident girl could never have imagined what lies beneath a simple barn. Or what would happen when a mysterious boy shows up at her door, asking about the stars. 

"As the reality of the Jason Experiment comes to light, Martyr is caught between two futures-the one for which he was produced, and the one Abby believes God created him to have. Time is running out, and Martyr must decide if a life with Abby is worth leaving everything he's ever known." 

I had a difficult time as a pre-teen and teenager finding 'Christian' novels that weren't cheesy, filled with bad writing/plots, or boring. I didn't want to saturate my mind with the godless, hormone-driven, cussword-filled teenage books that one often (though not always) finds on the book-shelves. But it was just difficult to find specific Christian books that looked entertaining and deep. Has anyone else had this problem? 

Replication, however, is a cute, humorous book that I wished I could have enjoyed when I was younger. Williamson keeps the cheesiness/superficiality to a minimum, although she does have God talk at one point. Why do Christian authors often do that? I've never heard the Lord speak clearly like that before, but all these characters just happen to hear him so well. Anyways, Abby is fun and real, and Jason stole my heart with his sweet innocence. There is also plenty of adventure/mystery in this novel, even though most of it couldn't have happened in real life (probably). The author does a good job of portraying the world as a clone would see it and using (or not using) words the clone would know. 

The characters in this novel face real, deep issues without the author preaching at anyone, and while keeping its lightness. I didn't find any major flaws with the book, and it was a delight to read. It's suitable for children 12 and older, and I give it a 3.5 out of 5. 

What I learned: It's important to know that not everyone sees the world like you do, and we shouldn't take the little, beautiful things for granted. 

A Review: Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker
Genre: Psychological Thriller

"Who am I?
My name is Christy Snow.
I'm seventeen and I'm about to die.

"I'm buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me. I'm lying on my back, soaked with sweat from the hair on my head to the soles of my feet. My hands and feet won't stop shaking. Some will say that I'm not really here. Some will say I'm delusional. Some will say that I don't even exist. But who are they? I'm the one buried in a grave.

"My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen. I'm about to die."

Ted Dekker does at least one thing well: capturing his reader's attention. Just by the short synopsis on the back of the novel, I wanted to dive into this mystery and get to know Christy better. Throughout the book, I was often as confused by the twists in the novel and the idea of reality as the characters. But since I have read many Dekker books, I was somewhat able to figure out what would happen to the characters. I often felt sympathy and pity for the two lost people in this book, and saw myself in Christy, which made the words that much more real.

Dekker explored some excellent themes in this novel: beauty, identity, and reality. He does a good job of putting reader on her head by forcing her to question her views of reality, truth, and the like. He did get a little preachy at the end, and I'm not sure everything Dekker said through one of his characters was true, so be careful when you read it. Even if you know an author is a follower of Christ, you still have to measure everything they say against Scripture.

I also didn't feel satisfied with the ending. Certain things didn't seem to be cleared up well or at all, and that always bothers me. I love how Dekker connects his books to his others, which seem unrelated at the first reading, but the way he did it in this novel at the end seems like a too-easy solution and somewhat superficial.

Dekker always plays with the line between the material reality around us and the supernatural, which is great, since that's such an important facet of the believer's life, and is one reason why I like his writing so much, but it can be confusing for the reader at times. In Eyes Wide Open I had a hard time deciphering why/how things happened and what made them happen. But perhaps Dekker wants to leave us wondering.

I give this novel a 3 out of 5 and recommend it for 16 year olds and up.

What I learned: I am perfect in Christ. The most important reality is in that which we can't see with our physical eyes.

For more information on Dekker and to peek at his other books, visit his website here. He's also pretty active on facebook.

Shout Hallelujah!

Below is a story from a team in the field who are participating in what I will do, Chronological Bible Storytelling, with Wycliffe. It is originally by Catherine Rivard.

"The crying was barely audible at first. Julie glanced at her teammate, Doreka, then turned back to the crowded sanctuary, sweeping her arms wide as she told of the disciples’ amazement when encountering their risen Lord.

It was the third day of an Easter camp in a Maiwala-speaking village, and each day the two women had stood before the ever increasing crowd, dramatically telling stories of Jesus’ trial, then His crucifixion, and now, as tears began to fall more heavily and a whole row of women rubbed their eyes, His resurrection. Julie dropped her arms, and the muffled weeping grew louder and louder until everyone in the church was sobbing. The story had touched their hearts.

When Jesus sat before the crowds, He wrapped Truth in story after story of lost coins, buried treasure, missing sheep, vineyards, and paths laden with seed. Although bullet-pointed facts are efficient, stories have the ability to pierce through defenses, navigate cultural barriers, and ultimately impact hearts, especially in the oral cultures of Papua New Guinea. 

I've had the privilege of working with Julie to train translators in a method called oral Bible storytelling which allows for dramatic, accurate translations of Bible stories—before the language even has a written alphabet!

But not all the tears were of sorrow. After the service, one woman ran up to Julie and wrung her hand, 'I almost got up to shout hallelujah! because I knew that my Lord was not dead forever! He was risen!'

Shout Hallelujah!" 

Agatha Christie's Murder Train

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 
Genre: Murder Mystery

"En route to Paris, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot has booked winter passage on the fabled Orient Express. Among the assortment of fellow passengers, one wealthy American holds a unique distinction: He has been found dead of multiple stab wounds in the night compartment of the Calais coach. By dawn, thirteen travelers, each bearing a secret, will find themselves suspect in the most ingenious crime Poirot has ever solved..."

Feel that shiver down your spine? That means you're intrigued already. Actually, it wasn't particularly scary or gruesome, except when Poirot looks at the dead body. I haven't read many mysteries, even of Christie's, except I do recall perusing And Then There Were None in middle school and enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Christie is definitely a master of mystery, and this book takes the reader on several different tracks before arriving at the brilliant conclusion of the murder. I would have liked to be more in Poirot's head to see how he worked out the mystery so well, but he does explain some of it at the end. The only bad thing about mysteries, at least Christie's, is that there is no character development. They are pretty logical books, where this+this=that, and I wished for something more substantial afterwards. There is quite a bit of dialogue, probably more than in any book I've ever read, and the reader usually doesn't get to peek into any of the character's minds, leaving them merely a spectator instead of a participant in the story.

These novels are good palate-cleansers, though, in-between longer, more character-driven books. And as I mentioned earlier, Christie is brilliant at placing both true and false clues and leaving the reader clueless to the truth until bam! the detective hits them over the head with it at the end. Thus, I give this novel a 3 out of 5 and recommend it for 16 year olds and up.

What I learned: 'Tout de meme' in French means 'all the same'.

Wycliffe Says Hi

As you will see, or, if you didn't notice, there is a new page up above, under the title of my blog that says 'Wycliffe'. I encourage you to click on it to find out what this awesome organization is and what it does. Since I'm sure you're dying to find out, I'll give you a clue: they translate the Bible into indigenous languages all over the world. I feel like God is calling me to go overseas with them for at least a few years to serve in this great work. So please check the page out and feel free to explore their website from the links I have posted.

I will have more information about my assignment in August, and I will also periodically post stories from other people in the field to give you a snapshot of what this ministry looks like. Don't worry, book-lovers, I will continue to post reviews on novels once I finish them. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to comment below.

About 180 million people need translation to begin in their language today. 

More than 1,800 languages still need a Bible translation to begin.