Lost in Translation

The last week has probably been the most hectic of my life. We've met with different people for lunch and supper on several days. We had to finish packing and move out of our apartment--praise God, we got all of our deposit back! We had to rush around to get different accounts closed out. But now we're in Chicago with family, and we can relax for a day or two.

Yikes, the last week has been hectic. We move out of our apartment tomorrow. Then we're off to Chicago for a family get together. God is good! It looks like we might get almost everything done before we leave . . . but sleep hasn't been high on the priority list. Gotta run.

I just uploaded our December prayer letter. You can read it at December Prayer Letter.

Lucas with boxes

Hey, I like to thank God for the small blessings in life. Today our new laptop arrived! I'm so thankful for God's provision and timing. I didn't need a new computer. I told the Lord I was satisfied with our old laptop. He allowed us to finish our last presentation at a church and use the old one for two more weeks, then its hard drive died, rendering the whole computer dead.

I really enjoy dialing a new computer in too. I'm not a major techie, but I like computers. Here are a few things I just downloaded today:

Mozilla Firefox 1.0 -- Why continue to use Internet Explorer when there's an open source browser with more power? (Open source software is cool).

ZoneAlarm firewall -- another freebie. It's amazing how many people try to tap into your connection when you don't have a firewall. This one alerts you to any outgoing program trying to access the Internet, and it stops incoming attacks.

I also use a small free password program called Password Safe. It stores all my passwords for me so I don't have to try to remember all 20 of them.

Packing is going pretty well too. We're going down to the last of it. Thank you Lord for the little blessings in life!

I've tried to post to Blogger a few times this week, but each time I get thwarted. I think that the problem is on my end (minor computer trouble). Right now I'm borrowing a laptop, so it's not configured to my connection, etc. Praise God, our new laptop should be arriving this week!

I've been to a gov't office three days in a row. Yes, I know that you wish that you could do that too. On Tuesday, I went to the Story County office to turn in the plates on my LeSabre (I know, it's an end an era). Yesterday, Lucas and Eliana and I went to the Story County office again, then down to the Polk County office for certified copies of their birth certificates and our marriage license. We also took a quick tour of the capitol building, which Lucas really enjoyed. Today he asked, "Dad, could we go back through those doors that beep?" [security checkpoint] when we were back down in Des Moines to get a seal of Apostille for each of the documents. The seal of Apostille is an internationally recognized way of certifying documents. Oh, by the way, we got this done in the "Lucas Building," a fact that impressed Lucas.

The house continues to become less cluttered with stuff and more cluttered with packed boxes. That's good!

This year I set a goal to read at least 16 books . . . four on Colombia, four on ministry, four on the New Testament, and four on theology. It's been a good exercise to write down what I read. Last count I had read 31 different books. I'm on the last of my 16 "required" books now. Jesus as God: the New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus by Murray J. Harris, which of course falls in the NT category.

I'm enjoying this book immensely. Reading a good exegete work through NT texts always thrills my soul. He examines nine times in the NT where the Greek word theos may refer to Jesus. So far I've read his sections on John 1:1; 1:18; 20:28; Acts 20:28; Romans 9:5; and Titus 2:13. Very compelling! (Not that I doubted the deity of Jesus Christ!) I especially liked the chapter on Romans 9:5 because I'd never studied that one in depth.

The other book that I'm really enjoying right now is Baptist Centennial History of the Philippines by one of ABWE missionaries, Elaine Kennedy. The Philippines offer perhaps the best "success" story in our mission's history. Our Filipino brothers and sisters have started over 1,000 churches, various seminaries, and are sending missionaries around the world. I've enjoyed learning about how God blessed in the ministry in the Philippines. One thing really surprised me--to learn about the persecution faced by the believers in the early 1900s in the Philippines.

We've started the full-time packing routine. Sort of. Holly has gotten about 12 boxes of books, etc. packed already. We emptied off several bookcases and a corner cabinet.

It was pretty funny last night trying to figure out how to transport a bookcase and corner shelf to a friend's house. We put the corner shelf on top of our van, but we didn't have the right size bungee cords. So we hauled it back up to our apartment. The shelf fit snuggly in the back of our van, pushing into the back of the passenger seat. I talked about just throwing things from our apartment into the parking lot below--but of course I was just kidding--it's good to keep a sense of humor.

I'm still reeling from all of the things that need to be done. Paperwork, packing, shipping, etc. But God is good!

After three weeks away, we're back in Iowa. Our co-workers in language school called us yesterday. They're excited to have us join them soon. It's amazing to think that we'll be leaving in about a month.

Holly has started packing. We've already got almost all of the books boxed up! I'm at the library right now because we no longer have internet access at home (our laptop died). Oh well, that's kind of a blessing because the computer can steal so much of my time. Now I have to plan my computer time at the library (yesterday I couldn't get in when I wanted to because a high school class was using the lab).

After the last month of missions conferences, Field Prep. Seminar, and holiday meals, we're ready for some simpler meals (I'm not used to dessert at every meal!). I told Holly that it's the start of boot camp. We're walking every day in preparation for living in Costa Rica. We won't have a car there, and our home is about a 15 minute walk from the language school.

Well, I gotta run.