JAARS final week

October 29, 2008

The JAARS center had a huge "Open House," which they do every three months. About 450 people came from near and far, even hours away. It was a great family day!

People get to see displays and use hands-on demonstrations of types of land--sea--and air support that JAARS provides to speed Bible translation around the world.

We saw water survival equipment, sat in airplanes, watched videos of harrowing take-offs and landings, and enjoyed a bird's-eye view of our apartment from a JAARS helicopter for $20.

This wonderful closeup is a small pile of brick-red earth beside a sidewalk, which we've been trained to carefully avoid. It is the home of North Carolina FIRE ants, and personally, I've not been eager to discover to what degree that name is accurate.

We are finishing our final week here, and wish we had more time to do more projects. Gary helped install and test for Dallas about a dozen large, white wireless routers for the conference. I call them giant dead spiders, since they look like a square box with six thick legs sticking straight into the air. I think he'll remove them and we'll tote them there, after Friday.

Along the road in lots of fields are what the Lent family often calls "Shredded Wheaties" hay rolls. In parts of WA where these are covered in white plastic, we call them "Marshmellows."

However, unlike this photo, only the afternoons may still be sunny and get into the 60s. This morning when we left the apartment, Gary's thermometer/humidity gadget read 30 degrees outside.

Southern Quilts!

On a previous Saturday morning, one of my new friends from work picked me up.

We joyfully spent the morning in a HUGE Carolina barn, enjoying a quilt show.

I took enought photos to MAKE a quilt.

It was a church fundraiser, for Wycliffe, I believe.

When we arrived, the host had dozens of her own creations along the driveway fence, for sale.

Inside the barn were a number of venders, a small snack bar, and lots of demonstrations.

The local quilt guild had stuffed handfuls of scraps into freezer zip-lock bags and sold them for $1.

They also had unused fat quarters for 50 cents. So, of course I had to help "support the worthy cause!"

Oct. 20 Concert & Charlotte Skyline

Charlotte Concert & Fabulous buildings! Oct. 19

We had the pleasure of traveling northwest into Charlotte two Sundays ago, for a Wycliffe benefit concert with “Point of Grace.” We didn’t really know what Christian songs were theirs, until we heard them.

A major characteristic of their style is “harmony.” And as soon as they belted out a couple of favorites, of COURSE we knew their songs! And since we unexpectedly were in the FOURTH row, we could even watch them blink! It was fun.

Even though it was a Sunday night, we went north a couple of hours early, to get a free parking spot on the street and have dinner. The city felt smaller than Seattle, but similar.

There are many beautiful, old, smaller brick buildings. But they are nestled between newer steel and glass giants. The skyline of Charlotte has amazing architecture!

It reminds me of the “rule” in Shanghai, China, which states NO two buildings can look alike.

First Week at JAARS

We’ve been working at JAARS.org in North Carolina for eight days now. Praise God we can rent a wonderful, 400 sq. foot, 1-bedroom apartment on the center. We’re up at 6 a.m., shower, eat, and walk ¾ mile to work by 8 a.m., then get off at 5 p.m. and walk 3/4 mile home. But don’t expect us to run a marathon.

Gary is working on a new job-skills defining and assessment project for the computer department. It’s not the IT “hardware” kind of work he prefers, but needs doing.

I (Penny) work each morning in Vernacular Media Services (VMS), where they record Bible stories into short videos, with pictures. This program allows a translator (any where in the world!) to record a local language onto each frame of the story. I edit scripts, eliminating confusions, like ambiguous pronouns. I’ve also been able to design flyers on this new “Custom Bible Story Video” program.

After lunch each day, I edit 8 ½ x 11” single-spaced, comb-bound books that will help linguists translate a passage/book properly, word-by-word. This is in Gary’s building, near Information Tech. (IT), but in the Language and Translation (LAT) department. So far I’ve done about 650 single-spaced pages on Hebrews, in three volumes, and 550 pages on Revelations, plus about 500 on Ruth and 300 pages on Psalms.
We're thankful we can help on such a useful projects, but straight hours of working on technical information each day is draining, for both of us.

On the weekends we rent a JAARS center car, so we can get to church and to a grocery story. The green rolling hills and trees turning autumn colors are wonderful. We’ve only been a little bit lost, 2-3 times.

Getting There

It is always surprising how much time and effort it takes when heading out on a short term mission trip, to merely pack a couple bags and prepare the house for temporary residents. For me it is a time when owning stuff becomes burdensome, even a laptop. Have you ever moved Microsoft Outlook from your home desktop to your traveling laptop? Well let me tell you, they don’t make it easy, especially when you have more than a few email accounts. And then there is figuring out what to do with the postal mail, the cats (they know we are leaving...), the lawn, the etc (repeat etc many times).

However, in addition, this last weekend home we had guests from Cameroon! The Wycliffe Associate “Volunteer Coordinators” were here to visit relatives, etc (lots of etc’s) and we had a marvelous time catching up with Mickey and Barbara. For years they have coordinated the stay for folks coming to Africa, about 42 so far this year.

We are wondering just how much southern drawl we’ll be pickin’ up while in North Carolina for six weeks. We were there for a year in 1974, courtesy of the USMC, but don’t recall hearing as much as the couple years we lived in Texas. On our way to NC we are visiting Penny’s great (8x) grandpa’s house and gravesite in Yorktown, VA - Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence. This entire area including Williamsburg and Jamestown is a thriving metropolis of tourist/historical activities that is really quite amazing.

See ya'll later now, Gary

Heading to Waxhaw

Gary & Penny are headed to JAARS in Waxhaw, North Carolina for a five week project supporting missionaries around the world. Gary will work with the Information Technology department and Penny will write and edit web and print projects.