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So why did we choose to serve in VMS and what is it anyway?

Vernacular is heart language. It is the language that speaks to your heart and how your heart expresses itself most naturally. Imagine your first language is English and you learn a second language, say, Spanish. You study in a school and are immersed in a Latin American country so you become extremely fluent in that language. When you are alone and want to spend time with the Lord would you reach for your Spanish or English Bible?

The Bible is so deep and cuts right to the inside of us. It’s important that everyone in the world has the opportunity for the Word of God to transform their lives. When the Word is presented to someone in a language they barely understand or one that is not natural to them, God remains a mystery. We want to get the Bible to people in a way they can understand it.

That’s why media is so important. Approximately 67% of the world lives in oral societies. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are illiterate although many are. Some people grew up with a strong oral tradition and this is how they choose to communicate and pass down important information. Still others simply learn better and are more impacted with different forms of media outside of reading. Many people can read and they do read for work or trade but the idea of reading on their own is outside of their realm of thinking entirely.

VMS uses various media including story telling, video, audio, drama, music, and still pictures. What is selected depends on that people group and their culture. For some, the Jesus video brings Him to life and many times tribal people have responded with awe that Jesus speaks their seemingly insignificant, minority language. If a culture is very musical, Scripture and other spiritual material would be set to their music.

The VMS staff doesn’t make these decisions or do this work alone. They work closely with the translator in that area and with the people in that group to determine what is best for them and how to meet their specific needs.

There are many benefits to providing the Word to people in a way that speaks to their hearts. The gospel is clearly presented and it gives people the chance to respond immediately. Some people will never read so they have the same opportunity to know God’s Word that the rest of us have. There are many people that hear the Scripture, see its truth, and want to know more about God. This motivates them to learn to read so they can study it for themselves. These new skills of reading and writing open doors for them in society and those opportunities pass from generation to generation helping the entire community and its future.

Now that you know what VMS is, it’s probably obvious why we decided to go this direction. God was instrumental in leading us here and we rely on Him to simply use us, as this is all His work. He knows His people and how to get them to respond to Him. He simply wants relationship with each and every one of us and is relating to each person exactly where they are with the use of VMS. We praise Him for this tremendous show of love He has for each individual and are honored to be apart of His work.

What a week!

Well, here we are at the end of our first week of VMS training and in much need of some down time which I don't anticipate having much of this weekend at all. We have a test - um, I'm sorry, they call it a reflection - on Monday that we need to study for along with some reading homework. I also have domestic duties that need attending to. The only reason I've been able to go this long without doing laundry is the season change. All of my summer clothes are dirty but it's getting cool enough that I can start wearing long-sleeves. Eventually though everything's going to be dirty and I'm going to be forced to tackle that job. The house really needs to be cleaned too but in my best Scarlett O'Hara impression...Fiddle dee dee, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Overall, I think training will be good and we'll learn the concepts and skills needed to get God's Word to people and watch Him work to transform lives as only He can. We just have to make sure we keep our eyes on why we're doing this and not get bogged down in terms such as sociolinguistics, azimuth adjustment, diglossia, or in all the many TLA's (Three Letter Acronymns) thrown around. It all comes down to the people who need to be reached and allowing God to use us as He demonstrates His love.

Tonight we had a potluck with all the VMS trainees and staff. At our table were a few veterans who told stories about lives they saw absolutely transformed when they got the Scriptures in their own language. All the lies they believed were replaced with Truth and they were brought out of the darkness into His marvelous light. That's what it's all about and through the fatigue we are grateful for this opportunity from God.


The people who sat in darkness have seen a great Light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned.
~Matthew 4:16

My Brain is Full

We just went through five weeks of Intercultural Communications Course. That training was intensive with loads of information. The work itself was six days a week and outside of class we had reading and homework. ICC training ended on Friday. Today is Monday and the beginning of Vernacular Media Services training. Instead of being half-days of class and half-days of homework like ICC, it is full-days of class and evenings of reading and homework. The information accumulated over the last month hasn't really had time to settle and I could feel it today as more and more data went in. So here I am at home trying to absorb the many pages of reading we have to get done. I literally feel like my brain is full. Is that possible?

Round Two is Complete

Our Inter-Cultural Communications course is now over. We learned so much through this experience and are grateful for it. I have realized how thankful I am for the organization of Wycliffe. I couldn’t imagine just packing my bags and “going” with no preparation at all. Training with people who have years of missionary experience really helps us to know what to expect and plan for.

We’ll spend Saturday resting from the five weeks of training, letting it all sink in, and resting our minds so they’ll be ready when we begin our VMS training on Monday. We pray that the Lord will make our Saturday off seem like a week as far as the amount of refreshing and rejuvenation.

The VMS training is three months long ending on December 15th. The first few weeks are instructional. The last weeks of the class will be filled with various projects. I’ve heard the training is a lot of fun so we’re both really looking forward to it. We’ve been building up to this time for about a year now and it’s great to know we’re finally here. We’ll be learning about the area we’re so passionate about and getting to put our hands on the equipment and watching God’s Word come to life for those who can’t read.

Thank you for joining us through our journey and praying for us. For more information on what VMS is, see the article on the front page of our website: http://www.jonathananddana.com/.

God bless!

As our second round of training comes to a close......this devotional on www.heartlight.com really spoke to me today. I hope it speaks to you as well!


Rest from Your Labor!
by Phil Ware

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 NIV).

Work.

Labor.

Endurance.

These are not wimpy words. They remind us of the grit and determination to make life happen in a fallen world. They are not particularly spiritual words. They apply equally well for the folks on the assembly line, the crew running optic fiber line for high-speed communication, or those managing the hurting and nervous folks in the emergency room line. Life lived productively requires effort; it often requires strenuous effort. The apostle Peter even suggested that we had to make the effort to see the spiritual growth in our lives (2 Peter 1:5-8). Life involves work, labor, and endurance. As Christians, we believe our faith, hope, and love inspired by the Holy Spirit help us produce such needed effort.

On the other hand, we must also recognize that we cannot bootstrap our way through life. More effort isn't going to fix, repair, or even improve some things in our lives. Even our best efforts are not going to be enough to pull us through some binds in which we find ourselves. That's why God built into our world a rhythm requiring rest. In fact, if you listen to the rhythm of God's creation, it was rest first, then creativity and productivity — notice in Genesis 1 there was evening then morning as part of each day.

So often in our busy culture, we feel that resting is a waste of time. We could be getting something done instead of wasting time resting. We could be advancing our cause instead of laying low and burning daylight on resting. We could be wringing an ounce or two more productivity out of the day if we could only get by with a little less rest. Rest is for down the road when we're older ... or when we go to heaven and don't have to worry about pleasing our manager ... or for when we don't have to try to keep our family afloat financially ... or for those days when we've actually gotten our "to do" lists finished. Our modern mindset is that rest is for when we're weary or sick or have time to rest.

God didn't make our world this way. God rested on the seventh day. He called it Sabbath. He built that rhythm into our world. Surely the almighty, sovereign, and all-powerful God didn't NEED to rest. So why did he rest on the seventh day? Why did he put this imprint into our busy world of work, labor, and endurance?

Simple! We needed to see God rest! We needed to know that God made rest a priority. We needed to know that our rest is crucial to us, to our lives, and to those around us.
Jesus practiced the rest principle in his busy ministry. He taught his disciples the importance of rest. Jesus clearly had much to do and very little time in which to do it. Yet with all the pressures of the people and their needs, with all the things he needed to teach his disciples before his departure, he could say to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" (Mark 6:31).

We cannot bootstrap our way through life.Why is our rest so important to us? I can't pretend to know all the reasons, but there are several that are very clear.

First, we need to acknowledge that God is God and we are not. "Be still and know that I am God!" (Psalm 46:10) God said this to the busy nations, and especially Israel, wrangling and striving for superiority and preservation. God wanted the nations to know that he was at work while they rested. He would accomplish his will and keep his promises if they would rest in his will and trust in his providence. This kind of resting is not passivity: it is trust. We acknowledge that we cannot do everything needed and so we rest, trusting that God is at work doing only what he can do in our lives.

Second, we need rest to restore and renew our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. Our bodies need rest to function properly. Our minds need rest to operate at peak efficiency. Maybe most importantly, our spirits need to rest in the presence of God. The Old Testament Sabbath rest was a time for God's people to open themselves to the presence, providence, and protection of God. Setting aside a time to intentionally be in the presence of the Shepherd of our souls allows us to be restored in our spirit as we are led by still waters and made to lie down in green pastures (Psalm 23).
Third, we need to rest to allow those around us to rest. When God called on Israel to keep his Sabbath, he reminded them that they were to let all their livestock and all their servants and workers, Israelite or not, rest as well. In other words, God's rest was not a time for his people to take off from work so others could work for them, but a time for them to rest and let those around them to share in this blessing from God. God would take care of the land. God would take care of the harvest. God would bless his people and the people among them if they would rest in his care (Exodus 20:10).

As God's people, we never want to be lazy. On the other hand, we need to hear God calling us to a time of rest so we can receive his blessing, so others can share in that blessing, and so we can learn to trust God to work on things that we cannot do. In our busy world with all its demands, let's not let our first experience of genuine spiritual rest be the day we go home to God to rest from our labors. God wants to meet us, bless us, restore us, and bless others through us in our times of rest!

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." (Revelation 14:13 NIV)

Priorities

I arrive home from our mission trip to Honduras and the air inside is frigid. I’ve spent nine days in the heat with no cool place for escape. You’d think I’d welcome the labor of the air conditioner but right now it just feels harsh.

After a night’s rest I make my way through my house that now appears to be a mansion. As I sip on my first cup of coffee, I notice a notebook on the table. In it is the list I made before leaving on the trip. I made it in order to release the things giving me anxiety, to record what was important for me to get done, and to help me budget my time so I wouldn’t squander it on futile things.

In reviewing the list I laugh at myself. It’s amazing what happens to you after spending nine days in a third world country. The people there are wonderful, grateful, kind, loving, hospitable; the poverty is great, the children uncared for, the pain unfathomable. My mind wanders around and then falls back on this list showing me what I thought imperative less than two weeks ago.

Organize closet and clean out the excess. It dawns on me now why they think we’re the “rich North Americans”. In thinking back to the homes we visited, I remember the lady sweeping her dirt floor. I remember taking groceries into the one-room shack, setting them on the floor because there are no cupboards, hitting me hard with the realization that there was also no food. I need to organize my closet. They don’t even have closets, because they don’t have excessive amounts of clothing. In fact, they don’t have much more than the shirts on their backs.

File, organize, and catalog my books. What a luxury I have taken for granted. I have a variety of books: classic literature, modern fiction, spiritual growth, Bible studies, devotionals. Many of the people we met don’t even have a Bible. Some do and they value it. I pray for those who don’t have the opportunity to dive into God’s Word while I switch between three books on any given day.

Now I know I’m not to feel guilty for what God has blessed me with and I don’t. My priorities have just reorganized and those things that actually gave me anxiety now don’t seem to matter at all. My shoes can stay disorganized and I’m in no rush to catalog my books. I pray I will take these lessons to heart and be grateful for what God has given me and that I will be a good steward of these blessings, using it all for His glory.

One Scripture came up over and over last week and it penetrates my thoughts again:

“For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”
Luke 12:48b

May God give you a renewed perspective on what’s important in life and a new appreciation of the many blessings from Him.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights”
James 1:17a

And may God remind you of the best gift of all: Him.

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Genesis 15:1b

Training Update

We are officially halfway through our first training class. We’ve been going through Inter-cultural Communications Course and have been learning about world view, partnering with nationals, language learning, spiritual vitality, and interpersonal skills among many other subjects.
The main thing I’ve learned is that no matter how much I prepare or how open and informed I feel, the transition into another country is going to be challenging. Not impossible. Challenging.
As much as I want to help people and love them, I’m still an American and that will affect how I see the world and judge situations. Out of all that’s been thrown at us, that’s probably the most important. No matter how obvious it looks to me, I should take a step back before making assumptions.
If you want to have some fun, google “USA Culture.” There are websites for people moving here from other countries and they help people adjust to us. That's right. They help others adjust to us. Some of the things on there made me ask, “Doesn’t everyone do it that way?” Others made me shake my head at how pathetic we are especially when it comes to how important appearance is for us. Thankfully, many things I read made me laugh until I cried. For example, this is from www.lifeintheusa.com, “Whether business or casual, the clothing should fit well, and be kept clean and neat. That means wearing a shirt, and certainly underwear, for a maximum of one day before throwing it in the wash.” My American mind set wonders who we have to tell these sort of things to.
Because I know we will face uncomfortable situations and maybe some culture shock and homesickness, I am so grateful that Jesus is my Rock. He will be with me wherever I go and will never change. Without Him, I can do nothing.

UNCHARTED

I just finished Uncharted by Angela Hunt. She is a Christian author who writes in parables, teaching spiritual truths with earthly stories. I won’t tell you anything about the story itself as it's one surprise after another and highly recommended for you to read on your own! What I got out of it though I will share…
I’ve been a Christian now long enough that my focus has consistently been on day-to-day living and my sanctification leaving salvation itself far behind me. Sometimes I see someone just learning about Christ or recently having accepted Him and I remember how much fire I had back then as well. In those moments my ungratefulness for salvation confronts me head-on so usually I stop and pray thanking Jesus for what He did for me on the cross. Usually out of knowing I should be thankful, not out of heartfelt gratitude.
So I read this book and WOW. I am truly in my heart SO thankful for having my sins forgiven and having a secure eternity with Jesus. When put into perspective, what could this temporary life throw at us that could take our joy of this awesome truth? Like the apostle Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18)
Looking back at the sins I’ve committed in the past and the ones I currently commit knowing they are washed away…incredible. By taking the scenes from this book and looking into my own life I can see times when my thoughts and intentions have been cruel, selfish, and murderous – all the while looking so “together” and “clean” to the outside world. God can see our thoughts and He knows the motives of our hearts. But He’s not on a distant cloud somewhere scolding us – instead He’s within us grieving because He knows how destructive and hurtful sin is to us and to others around us.
It’s so easy to examine myself for sin in my life and once the “biggies” are ruled out to declare myself “okay” and move on feeling like I’ve pretty much got this Christian life thing nailed down. I ignore the hateful thoughts I have for the person cutting me off in traffic. I ignore the impatience shown to a co-worker who interrupts me. I ignore my insistence on my “right” to “win” an argument with someone. None of those things are Christ-like at all and not who I want to be – on the inside. I can hide my frustration and not let my evil words out, but they’re still there like a stone in my heart.
Thank God I am forgiven. Thank God I have a place in heaven for eternity. Thank God He has released me from this bondage of sin starting at the day of my salvation and continuing throughout my life here on earth! I don’t have to be a slave to these evil thoughts anymore. He has set me free and now I have a choice – each day, each moment, each thought – submit to sin or submit to Christ. I don’t always choose the best way and being aware of those moments, promptly confessing them, and allowing His forgiveness to cleanse me and make me new sets me right back on the path fully restored. I don’t have to sit in guilt, condemn myself, or analyze why I failed. Once I confess I can be secure in knowing I’m completely forgiven. Praise God for His grace and giving us newness of life.


If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ~1 John 1:9