OneStory Conference and a Full Plate

We just got back to Longmont from Dallas - and were welcomed out of the heat and humidity of Texas to a cool front here in Colorado. Driving from the east, our anticipation of the mountains was rewarded by towering peaks covered by snow! The cold front and rain had capped the Rockies with white - and in the afternoon sun we could see layer after layer stretching to the west. Ah! It really was and is beautiful.

The time in Dallas was very useful. Not only did we get to enjoy lots of time with our good friend Caty who lives there, we also got to learn a lot through 7 days of seminar time. In these days we learned to tell orally 25 stories stretching from David through Paul - each an important part of the redemptive story that is shown in Scripture. The last day we got into two groups and sat in a circle and told each story chronologically, one after another, for about an hour. What a meaningful experience to see how God's promises to David were fulfilled in Jesus and how we as individuals can be a part of the one story that God is even now creating! Each day we would get into small groups and learn the stories, discuss them, and pray for each other. It was a bit like being in Sunday School everyday! :)

Being a course on orality and methods of sharing Scripture with oral cultures, it was only fitting that there were no course handouts, very few presentations, and it was very highly interactive. We also learned more about OneStory translation projects and how they could look for sign language projects - this will help us during our survey travels to better be able to explain to possible translation partners how SIL can work with them.

A number of meetings were also key for steering our time now that we are back in Colorado. Along with preparing for the survey trip to the Hispaniola island in the Caribbean (which you can pray for as they were just touched by a hurricane) and trying to decide the best time to head there, we are also focused on:
- submitting some of our papers to academic journals to possibly get published so that more people will be aware of the needs in the deaf communities we have visited
- creating an internship program for the people that will be coming to learn with us in this upcoming year
- connecting with our Guatemalan friends (where we did survey a year ago) to see how we can partner with them to get a OneStory project going (onestory.com). The Guatemalan deaf community is already excited about recording Scripture in their local sign varieties!
- writing People Profiles about the deaf communities we've visited to give to the Joshua Project (joshuaproject.net) so that ministries and churches can better understand the less reached people groups of the world
- and a number of other projects that seems small but are always much more time consuming that anticipated!

So that's what's on our plate this week - and probably next too, unless some miracle happens! God is good and he gives us plenty of work to do (sometimes that makes me feel like he doesn't know what he is doing - but of course he does, and he is still very very good) - if you know anyone who wants to come help, send them our way :)!

After getting home on Sunday, we were really blessed by the church service at our home church, Flatirons Community Church (www.flatironschurch.com). Along with an awesome rendition of U2's "Walk On", we were also encouraged by Jesus' words:

"You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
"You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.
"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.
"You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.
"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.
"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.