I just completed my first week back in the office for 2012. This week is also the first week in which I consider myself to be full-time and finished with deputation. The week actually began on Tuesday morning, and that morning started with a meeting with all of us in the Administrative Group. We spent a couple of hours discussing various administrative matters. During the meeting I received some very welcome news. A church in MN is considering their missions commitments tomorrow, so they wanted to know what my needs were. What a blessing to hear of how the Lord is answering our prayers! Please pray for their discussions tomorrow.
On Thursday I also noticed that another couple added themselves to my support team. That brings me up to 96%! If the church in MN takes me on, I will be very near 100% or even at it. How exciting!
One of my plans after becoming full-time was to spend a little time each day reading up on the various goings-on in translation and linguistics, in order to sharpen my thinking skills, grow my knowledge, stay current on various developments, and find ways in which we can improve our ministry. I began by reading an article in the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary’s journal on KJV and Fundamentalism. How I hope and pray that good people don’t divide over a translation we produce as has happened in fundamentalism with the KJV!
I also learned that there are some currently produced technical journals on translation–Journal of Translation, Notes on Translation, and Current Trends in Scripture Translation. I hope to peruse those as I have time.
But how the week can so quickly turn into a blur where I have little time to do anything else besides just staying on top of the various ministry responsibilities! Though I felt overwhelmed at times, I also found myself thanking God for having the privilege of doing something I really enjoy and of being able to help people around the world in such an impacting way. May God enable me to have wisdom and grace to keep up with the fastly increasing pace of ministry. I will soon be wondering how in the world I ever had time for deputation!
I leave in two weeks for a 6-week trip to Asia. I have to prepare for a Consultant Seminar in India, two lectures at a Bible college (How we got our Bible, Aspects of Canonization), and numerous speaking opportunities. In addition, there is the constant flow of issues of support for our consultants and translation helps that we continue to produce. Please keep praying!
