Easter 2011

Today we begin our blog.  Our intention with this is to allow folks to participate with us on the journey we are just beginning with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  Actually, it's not necessarily the beginning...just the formal beginning.  Our progress to this point has been years in the making.  But that's a story we'll recap later.

Two weeks ago, we officially became missionaries with Wycliffe.  It was simultaneously exciting, a relief, and scary.  So all of this "official" stuff happened during the first two weeks of April while we were in Orlando, FL, at Wycliffe USA's headquarters.  We were in a class called Equip, becoming oriented with the business side of things and getting a kick-start into our partnership development phase.  It was a great time of getting to know the ins and outs of a long-standing, well run mission organization, as well as learning with our fellow classmates how much we had in common in our calling to missions.  We became very close with our classmates, all newbies with Wycliffe like us, as we all sorted out the overwhelming amount of information and began a trek into the unknown of what the Lord has for us.  The one thing we do know - he is and will be faithful.  What that will look like....that's the unknown!  Makes it kind of fun, I think, but a little scary as well.  It's kind of like being on a roller coaster.  You know everyone that day, that week, even that year, has ridden that ride in complete safety - but you still have butterflies in your stomach while you're waiting in line...it's kind of like that right now.

Below is a little pictorial tour of our two weeks at Equip training.

We had daily worship.

We did all of our new employee stuff.

We practiced a lot of public speaking.  By the way, notice the cool John Piper quote on the wall behind Lori.

We heard from Wycliffe USA's president and his wife.

We had to take the pictures that go on those cool prayer cards on your fridge.  This one was not chosen for said card.

The kids had school-work to do.

We got to see and hear a lot about the history of Wycliffe.  This was the first translation done by Wycliffe's founder, Cameron Townsend.

We practiced making phone calls to churches.

And we did some more public speaking...

And we ate...a lot.

And the kids swam...a lot.

This was our class, our instructors, all of our kids, and their teachers.  Fun times.