First Days in the Pacific Rim

Hey Guys! Merry Christmas!

I am going take a brief respite from 2011 in Review to update you on my latest adventure. Don is currently here for seven months doing research for his dissertation. However , for the next couple weeks we will be spending some time together in prayer and in conversation with others looking to see if we will serve with Wycliffe or Pioneer Bible Translators (PBT) long term. I will try to give you an update on the last few days while keeping it brief.

The last week and a half has been a whirlwind of activities and get togethers with people from Wycliffe Bible Translators.

After arriving in country last Saturday, we spent a couple of days in the capital city waiting for a flight to Wycliffe’s base. On Monday, we took a nice little Kodiak plane to get here. We flew in the midst of some pretty bad thunderstorms including pounding rain, lightning, and significant turbulence. It was a really nice introduction to small airplanes for me. :)

Since arriving here at the base, we have gotten to meet lots of different Wycliffe members who have served here in different capacities. Don got to meet with Rene van den Berg to find out how he might be able to serve in linguistics in the future. And, I met with the CFO and member of the strategic planning committee, the current Director of Language Affairs, and a performance manager to talk about what kinds of opportunities there might be for me in administration of the linguistic side of the translation work. We were really blessed by the conversations we had. It was really good to hear more about where the organization is and where they hope to be in the next few years. It was also good to see the ways that we might be able to serve with them in the future.

Aside from meeting in professional settings, we have also been able to fellowship with a number of current missionaries over dinner and coffee. When Don came here a few years ago, he met the Penningtons who are in their first term doing linguistic fieldwork. They invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner, and we have been blessed to spend much of our free time with them getting to play with their two children (under the age of two!) and getting to hear about what life is like here. Regardless of what organization we serve with, I can already tell that they will be good friends.

After church on Christmas Day, the Ambroses (we flew with them to get here from the capital city) invited us to dinner at their house. We hadn’t made plans, thinking that we would just be by ourselves for Christmas eating spaghetti. It was such a wonderful surprise to get to have a full Christmas dinner with other people! It made the holiday feel a little more special even though we were away from home. We also got to play a Canadian game called krockinol (sp?) and Racko, which were both filled with lots of laughter. We really appreciated their hospitality, and given that their children are all grown and live back in North America, they really enjoyed the company as well.

In the midst of all of the meetings and fellowship, I have had a few firsts: my first time eating sugar cane, my first time at a local market, and my first time baking chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips! :)

I wish I could post pictures of all of this, but unfortunately, the internet is really slow and expensive. I had better get going for now. We leave tomorrow morning at 6:30 to head by public motor vehicle (PMV) to go to PBT’s base. Then, I will be out in a village living for two weeks! Miss and love you all! Hope to post again soon!

2011 in Review: Blog #1 How I Met My Fiance (Continued)

So what happened after that conversation with David Pryor?

Well, I went back home to get ready for my campus visit to UCSB. That Sunday, I got an email from one of my professors telling me that he thought I should check out the Christian campus scene when I went to California. He knew that I was a Christian, and he thought that it would be a big part of my social life for those 5-7 years. I thought that sounded reasonable, so I began searching the web. I clicked on several links, but all of them went to "The page cannot be displayed". So, I scrolled down. I found a small ministry called the Graduate Christian Fellowship. A few of the pictures had girls wearing dresses from the 90s, and there were only about 20 people in the group photos. There was also a calendar of events from October with no year on it. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned that the group didn't even exist anymore, but I decided to email them anyway--hoping that by some chance someone would reply .

Monday night I took the train to St. Louis to my brother's house before flying out Tuesday morning. Much to my surprise at 12:30a.m. I got a text message from Stephen from GCF wanting to know if I wanted to get lunch with them the next day. (Turns out--he was the only one who had gotten my email on Sunday, but the Bible study meets on Monday nights. So, they talked it over that night and decided to get lunch with me! Yay!) I drowsily texted back and ended up speaking with him on the telephone to confirm the plans. (I'm sure that was an interesting conversation for him...).

With those plans set, I woke up at 4:30 the next morning to catch my flight at 7:00a.m. Unfortunately, there had been a snow storm overnight in St. Louis, and I sat on the plane for over an hour waiting for them to de-ice the wings.

To make matters more unfortunate, my layover in Phoenix was only an hour and fifteen minutes. You know what that means...I arrived at 11:05 for an 11:18 flight. 13 minutes. Perfect. I consulted with the flight attendants in the air to make sure I knew what gate to go to, and as soon as the seat belt sign was off, I bolted to the front of the plane to be the first one off the plane. Once they opened the doors, I started running (wearing my long winter coat, a pencil skirt, my hair down, my backpack full, and my laptop bag whacking my rear end with every step).

I arrived at Gate B7 only to find a line of people waiting for BURMINGHAM, ALABAMA. Apparently, there was an unprecedented snow storm happening there too. The man in line told me he didn't think he would make his flight, but I didn't care about his flight at that moment. This was supposed to be my flight and my gate! He then proceeded to explain that they had been changing gates all morning because the BSC Bowl Championship football game had been in Phoenix the night before. There were 50,000 football fans filling the airport, spending hours in security, and missing their flights left and right. He told me to check the screen for the new gate. I asked him the time. 11:10. 8 minutes. Good. The screen? It said, "B17 Santa Barbara". All rational thought would have led to the idea that B17 was in the same concourse as B7, but no. Phoenix is not rational. Luckily, however, a woman walked by in that moment and said to someone else, "Oh, B17 and above are in a different concourse." (Never underestimate the benefit and power of eavesdropping...). I quickly started running. Did I mention that the moving sidewalks were under construction??? Either way, I was making a scene. One man even pointed at me as I ran past and said, "You're gonna see a lot of that today!" Nice.

I got to gate B17 only see this:

Emptiness. Complete emptiness.

BUT, I remembered a time years ago that my mom had missed a flight, and a flight attendant in the airport told her to bang on the gate door and if someone was there, they would open it for her. So, that's what I did. I ran up to that door, and I beat, and I beat, and I beat. But, no one came. Well, except for one older couple. They came up ever so kindly and said, "Sweetie, it's okay. We missed the flight too. We'll just go stand over there in that line and get a new flight."

No way! I was not about to do that! Had they seen the line? It was 4 hours long! And, I needed to make this flight! I had lunch plans with people I didn't know after all! So, I frantically kept searching for options. Then, I looked out the window. The pilot was right there in the cockpit. So, I looked at the window to see if it was tinted. Could he see me? I don't know, but it's worth a shot! I threw my hands up in the air and began flailing them for help. And, you know what he did? He smiled and waved. NOOOOO! I need your help!!!!!! PLEASE!!! I began motioning for him to come. And, you know what he did? He got up! He got up out of his seat! I told the older couple. And, they said, "He's just getting ready for the flight." But, then! He came back. And he gave me an "okay" sign. And his co-pilot gave me a thumbs up! The older couple then said, "They were probably talking to each other." No way. Not in the same cockpit! No one does that! (Giving an "okay" sign.) "All systems a go!" (Giving a thumbs up.) "Turn on the engines!" No. Absolutely not.

But, then, we all saw it with our own eyes. The gate had been detached from the plane. It was over, the plane was leaving. But, no! A flight attendant leaned out the door into the open air and gave a "hang on" sign. BAM! The older couple could not deny it! They had seen, and they had believed! 10 seconds later, the doors opened and a female flight attendant came out and said, "The pilot has stopped the course of action for this flight for you to get on." I said, "I just have a question..." And, she said, "Ma'am, GET ON THE PLANE." Sheesh...I just wanted to know if my bags were gonna make it. Regardless, four of us ended up making that flight! The couple and another man who had walked up in the meantime got on with me!

As we ran down the hallway to the plane, a male flight attendant's voice rang out, "STOP! STOP! STOP! We have to move the gate closer to the plane so you don't have to jump!" (There just happened to be a four-foot gap between plane and the gate.) So, he inched us closer. And, we got on. I, with my heart racing, and my hair disheveled thanked the flight attendant for letting us on. He said, "Don't thank me, thank the captain." So, I did. I leaned in the cockpit, out of breath, and said, "Th-th-thank you! Thank you!" And, he calmly and unemotionally replied, "Not a problem..." And, that was it. I was the plane. I made my way back to the back of the plane with glaring eyes of passengers staring me down. So, I thanked them too. One by one with a little wave and a warm smile. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." And, I whispered apologies as I went. "Sorry, sorry, thank you, sorry, thank you."

When I made it to my seat, I set my stuff down and took off my coat only to find that my pencil skirt was completely turned around with the slit in the front and my slip poking out the bottom. The male flight attendant in the aisle just shook his head and said, "It's okay. You made the flight."

While I on the flight, I wrote a thank you note to "The Captain of US Airways Flight 2719 Phoenix to Santa Barbara" on January 11, 2011. By the way, if you know him or have connections, let me know. I wanna invite him to the wedding!

When I got to California, the older couple was astonished. They turned around to me and said, "How? How did you do that? You don't understand. We've been flying for decades. That doesn't happen." All that had happened in the last two hours hadn't really sunk in, so, I said,"Uhhh--I don't know...desperate times call for desperate measures?" The older couple didn't care so much about my answer, they were just grateful to make the flight. So grateful in fact that the man told me, "I don't know what I owe you, but take this." (It was a $1 tip.) :)

Once at the baggage claim, I got picked up by a UCSB student and made my way to the hotel where I got a call from Stephen. He was on his way to pick me up! I stood anxiously on the curb waiting for an unknown man in Santa Barbara to come pick me up in a car I'd never seen and then take me to a place I'd never been. Somehow I started thinking that this might not have been the best idea. I'm pretty sure I looked bewildered because the next thing I knew, a car pulled up and a man got out and said, "Are you Kelsey?" So, I did what any rational woman would do. I got in his car. And, you know what? There was a woman in the front seat! Whew! It was safe. :) Stephen and his wife Courtney then led the way to the restaurant where he said that we would meet up with two other students from the ministry. One of them was even a student in the Linguistics Department!

Once we got there, I met Don and Caleb. Soon after the introductions, we all walked to the window to order, and Don offered to buy my lunch. I hesitantly agreed. As we waited for the others, Don asked what I was interested in. I said, "Well, I've done some research in grammaticalization, but I really want to go into Bible translation in the Pacific Rim." I said, "I talked with David Pryor last week, and I would really like to intern with Martha Wade sometime. What about you?" He said, "Well, I'm interested in historical linguistics, Papuan linguistics. I spent this past summer working with Martha Wade in the Pacific Rim, and I am using a grammar sketch of David Pryor's in a paper I'm writing right now. And, I've wanted to go into Bible translation since I was a sophomore in high school." Huh. That's weird. Really? He must be such a player. "So, what's Martha Wade like?" And, when he began to talk, I knew it! He was telling the truth! He actually DID know her!

So, we all ate lunch together. It was great. We had a fun time talking and laughing, and they were the first people to hear my plane story! :) It was awesome! Then, about halfway through, Stephen and Courtney said that they were leaving. Naturally, I stood up to go too because they had brought me. But, they said, "No, no, Don can take you." Really? Did he give you "the wink"? How did this happen? Alright, I'll just play it cool. "Oh, okay. Sounds good."

So, Don, Caleb, and I stuck around to talk for another 30 minutes or so until they needed to head back to campus. As we got in Don's car, he said, "Hey, I'm going to a Bible study tonight, do you wanna come?"

I'm pretty sure I said, "Well, my options are sit in a hotel room by myself or go to a Bible study with you. I think I'll choose the Bible study." Ouch. But, luckily, he then responded with, "Well, Stephen didn't give me your number." So, we exchanged phone numbers, and he dropped me off at my hotel. I went back and showered, worked on an abstract, and called my mom. She wanted to talk about how my flight had been, but the first words out of my mouth were, "Mom, I think I just met my future husband."

And, just in that moment, Don called me, and I said, "Mom! He's calling! I gotta go!" I hung up as she was shouting, "Wait! Who is this guy?! I need phone numbers! Who is Stephen?!" It turns out that Don was calling to see if I wanted to get dinner before Bible study. Ahhh! I calmly agreed and hung up then excitedly called my mom back. I told her he was coming in 30 minutes, and I need to put make-up on, so I put her on speaker phone and multi-tasked. I explained how compatible we were and how it had to be meant to be while my dad shouted in the background, "You're awfully trusting! A Bible study? Is that what they call it these days?!"

They've come an awfully long way. Three weeks ago, they told him that he could marry me. And, the rest is history. :)

2011 in Review: Blog #1 How I Met My Fiance

As 2011 comes to a close, I have felt overwhelmed at the incredible number of blessings that God has poured out this year. I have also been feeling convicted that God wants me to share them. I don't think that He give us incredible blessings and stories just to keep them to ourselves. He wants his children to speak of his greatness. I mean, who does something good and doesn't want people to know about it?! We want to have our goodness shared! And, so does God. So, I decided that I would try to write a few blogs summarizing all that has happened in the last year.

Blog#1? How I Met My Fiance.

Many of you know this story, but for those of you that I haven't had the privilege of visiting with more recently. Here is the story on paper.

The summer before my senior year of college, I did an internship in the inner city of Hartford, CT. It was during that summer that I really felt God's call into Bible translation through this verse:

"And I because of their actions and their imaginations am about to come and gather all nations and tongues and they will come and see my glory. I will send some of those who survive to the nations...to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations." (Isaiah 66:18-19)

Although I had been in contact with Pioneer Bible Translators for about a year prior to that, I hadn't fully decided if that was the path I was going to take. Once I decided, however, I told my professors back home at my state university. They suggested that I apply to a language documentation program. I frittered away the whole fall thinking that that wasn't really the path I wanted to take. One day in October, one of my professors stopped me on the quad and asked if I had decided where to apply. I told her that I hadn't, but I wasn't really sure if a Ph.D. program was the route I wanted to go. She told me to at least look into the University of California, Santa Barbara. She said they had a great program and that even applying to one school would be good. I still felt like I wasn't sure if that was what I was supposed to be doing, but, finally, November 17 (when the application was due December 1), I decided to apply. I frantically wrote over Thanksgiving break--personal statements, statements of purpose, emails for letters of recommendation, etc.

On December 10, I got a call from a professor at UCSB saying that I had been accepted! I hadn't been granted full admission due to university policy, but this was as good as official admission! I couldn't believe it! They wanted me to go out on a visit from January 11-13 to check out the school and decide if it was a good fit for me.

Meanwhile, I went home for Christmas. As is typically the case with singles in the Christian church, I got many questions over break about the possible prospects I had in my life. There were none. And, I was doing just fine. I was thinking I might just go be a single missionary, in fact. At the Christmas Eve service at church, however, my mom proceeded telling friends that this Bible translation thing was nice until I met a man "who would sweep me off my feet and that would be the end of that". I, being the "strong-willed" child I always have been, curtly retorted with, "Just you wait! I'm gonna find somebody who wants to do exactly what I want to do, and we'll do it together!"

When January rolled around, I went to a Discovery Intensive course with PBT in St. Louis to decide how and where I might serve. I spoke with several missionaries that week. One of them happened to be David Pryor--one of the first PBT missionaries to the Pacific Rim. We talked for many hours, and the more I heard what he had to say, the more I felt like that that was the area of the world I would serve in. There were no bolts of lightning, no shocking revelations. Just an attitude adjustment that led me in that direction. On that Thursday, I was talking to David to find out if a Ph.D. in Linguistics would be a good thing for Bible translation work, and he told me that if that was what I was going to do, there was just one question I needed to answer. I eagerly waited in anticipation of what this one question could be. He then asked, "Are you going to get married?" What?! That's the question?! Why is everyone so concerned with marriage?! He further explained that I should think about time lines of my life. If I went to a state university, the chances of finding a man who wanted to go into Bible translation there were slim. Then, once I graduated 7-8 years later, I would be 28. I would have to then find someone, date for a while, be married for a while. I would be 33 before I ever got to the field! I was stunned! My whole life had just flashed before my eyes. But, then, another man at the institute, Jeff Jackson, reassured me, "You know what?" he said. "God knows who your husband is. God knows where your husband is. I don't think you need to worry about it."

And, just four days later, I met him.

With that, I think we'll leave this blog with a...TO BE CONTINUED.

(Sorry, guys, it's finals week. And, let's be honest, no one wants to a read blog that's 10 pages long.)

Becoming a Missionary

"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." Luke 1:38

We had a Christmas concert tonight. A young man read this passage from Luke. Although the verse is actually regarding Mary's humble prayer after she has just been informed that she will carry the Son of God, tonight God used it to reveal an important truth to me about becoming a missionary.

Missionaries tend to be revered in Christians circles. They somehow seem to get stuck with a sticker of "SUPER HOLY". I suppose if you have read Jamie The Very Worst Missionary's blog, some of those ideas may be less true to you now. Even still, it seems that the average church-goer thinks that missions isn't for them. Missions isn't for the common man. It's for the ones who are special-the ones who are really spiritual.

As one going to the missions field, when I hear phrases praising my "wonderful example" and my "incredible devotion to God", it's seems pretty easy to get puffed up with pride thinking that I am perhaps slightly more spiritual than the rest.

But, according to this passage, that is not how God wants us to think at all. God chose to use Mary. God chose to use a young woman who was frightened when the angel appeared to her. She wasn't sitting in her room waiting for him to arrive because she knew she had been behaving so well that at any moment God was going to reward her for her incredible devotion! No. She was shocked, scared, stunned. She fumbled around trying "to discern what sort of greeting this might be." She had no idea that "she had found favor with God".

That's the kind of attitude that God wants. He wants us to be so caught up in him that we have no idea that we are finding favor with him. He wants us to "stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ" as Oswald Chambers puts it. After all, as Chambers also points out, "the lives that have been of most blessing to [us] are those who were unconscious of it."

Becoming a missionary is never borne out of a desire to be holy. It is borne out of obedience. God leads you to the point of abandon. He makes his plan so abundantly clear that you can do nothing else but obey. There is no self-awareness in it at all. Just complete surrender until we fall on our knees before him and say, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."