"Come."

"If you abandon to Jesus, and come when He says, 'Come,' He will continue to say 'Come' through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ's 'Come.' That is the result in every soul who has abandoned to Jesus." (June 13)

excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition by Oswald Chambers.

Amen!

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things." ~Steve Jobs (I saw the quote, and said 'Amen!', before I saw who said it. Either way, it was worth sharing.)

Come to the Well...

Three years ago, as the Lord re-directed my steps in this new direction, He gave me these verses in Isaiah 41:17-18 as a promise: "The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them Myself. As the God of Israel I will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land fountains of water." (NASB)

This year, we will celebrate the dedication of the FIRST 32 Bible stories in 5 more African sign languages & the second 45 stories (and first set of sign language Bible commentaries) in one African sign language and one Asian sign language.

Praise, praise, praise His glorious Name. I keep finding myself in tears of awe...  The song below is by Casting Crowns and just came out this week. Rejoicing that we serve a God who fulfills His promises. With Him, there are no forgotten ones.

Verse 2:
So bring me your heart
No matter how broken,
Just come as you are,
When your last prayer is spoken,
Just rest in My arms a while,
You'll feel the change My child,
When you come to the well

CHORUS:
And all who thirst will thirst no more,
And all who search will find what their souls long for,
The world will try, but it can never fill,
So leave it all behind, and come to the well

And now that you're full,
Of love beyond measure,
Your joy's gonna flow,
Like a stream in the desert,
Soon all the world will see that living water is found in Me,
'Cause you came to the well

CHORUS:
And all who thirst will thirst no more,
And all who search will find what their souls long for,
The world will try, but it can never fill,
So leave it all behind, and come to the well

~Casting Crowns, "The Well"

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will never thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14, NASB)

...Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" (John 7:37b-38, NASB) 

To God be the glory!!!!

You are looking at the first ever portions of Scripture in Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, and Tanzania Sign Languages!!!! PRAISE GOD!! PRAISE HIS MIGHTY NAME!!  PRAY for these teams and the upcoming dedications of these Scripture DVDs!! To be held the first and second weeks of November in their home countries. PRAY for ready hearts. PRAY for smooth preparations and customs processes.

Watch a picture slideshow here:
http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/nXX0rKPT/1/5318794_6009400

new favorite thing: footnotes

Cram sessions spent elbow deep in research data with a clock mercilessly ticking down the minutes to paper deadlines do strange things to a person. Somewhere between hour -16 and hour -14 (in the countdown to the finish line: paper presentation) I developed a very strong affinity for footnotes. I have never used footnotes before. But now, they're my new favorite thing. I have them on every page... and it's a long paper. Dear footnotes, where have you been all my academic life?

Praise God for my awesome research buddy/partner and my amazing friends in Kenya who helped out by letting us interview them via Skype, at all sorts of odd hours. Tomorrow, we will present a paper contrasting the use of kinship terms by Deaf and Hearing individuals from two different Kenyan ethnic groups. I like to think this is cutting edge... never. done. before. But who can know. Either way, our preliminary study is almost done... and we have more questions now than we had before or than we have answers. This is a good sign.

A roommate bonding experience...

The Tarantula Relocation Project

living between worlds

"You live a new life for every new language you know. If you know only one language, you live only once." ~ancient Czech proverb

I'm realizing...

The antidote for ignorance is not knowledge, but experience.
Because sometimes we know just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to truly understand.

waiting... still waiting...

for the morning I can wake up without this pressure in my chest of missing Africa. waiting for the night I go to bed without this constant, dull aching for people there whom I dearly love. trusting God's plans are bigger, greater, perfect. waiting for Him to reveal what He has in mind... because His plans are never less than amazing. choosing... choosing joy. choosing faithfulness. choosing obedience.

"God only doeth wonders. He does nothing else. His hand can work nothing less." (Jim Elliot, quoted in Shadow of the Almighty)