Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for December, 2009

Beginning January 3, 2010, our language project will broadcast a weekly pre-recorded mother tongue radio program.  The Christian station with whom we have a contract has a fairly new tower which reaches up to 100km radius.  That means these radio programs can be heard in at least part of every one of the 10 languages we are translating here.

Basically, our goal is to get God’s Word out there… literally.  So, the focus of every program will be for people to hear Scripture in their heart language, their mother tongue. Wrapped around those audio segments will be announcements, songs, advertisements, intro and outro.

We’ll record six programs at a time so we won’t be in the studio every single week.  I call these our cycles.  Our first cycle will be the dates of Jan 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 and Feb 7.  During that span, we’ll play the Gospel of Mark in the Vwanji language.  I’m excited that for our very first broadcast will give the Vwanji people to hear the actual words of Jesus in their own language.

For your perusal, I’m posting what will be our very first 30-minute program scheduled to be aired on January 3 @ 6:30pm local time, 10:30am Eastern.  Some of you may be in Sunday school or worship service so that would be a perfect opportunity to pray for this great new venture.

That’s the cue sheet above so you can have an idea of what your hearing.

I had been wanting to see him since nearly 6 months had passed since we were face-to-face.  Since my mother’s remarriage and our subsequent move to Charleston, SC, I now had about a 4 hour drive between me and my dad.  If I can just hold out for a couple of weeks, I’ll see him during my Christmas break. Why am I missing him so much right now?

I was sleeping well going into my final two days before Christmas break, but definitely not looking forward to the mid-term exams standing between me and my temporary freedom.  Thursday morning… aahhhhh. Two more to go. If you would’ve asked me, I would have said my junior year in high school was carrying along as planned.  Learning more French.  Polishing up my high school transcript with CP, Honors and AP courses.  I think I even had a girlfriend.  Or had had one… I can’t remember.  The phone woke me up that morning shortly before 6am.  I heard my mom answer it across the hall in her bedroom.  Her door opened.  Then, mine opened.  “Your brother’s on the phone for you, Jonathan,” my mom told me.  Hmmm.  That’s odd. He, my 10-years-older brother, doesn’t usually call me and especially doesn’t do so at six in the morning.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Jon boy.”

“Hey, Charles.  What’s up?”

“I’ve got some news to tell you….. Dad passed away this morning.”

WHAT?!

“….”

“You there, Jonathan?”

“Yeah.”

“His heart must’ve failed him. [Our stepmother] found him really early this morning still sitting in the living room chair after staying up reading last night.”

“Oh.”

“Well.  I’ll call you later on with details about what’s going on and we’ll go from there, okay?”

“Sure.”

“I love you, Jonathan.”

“I love you, too, Charles.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

There it was.  32 months after the brother between Charles and me was killed in a car wreck, my dad had taken his step into eternity, too.  What a blow.  I don’t think I even remember that Christmas or New Year.  I went down hill from there.  Three months of home bound schooling because I just didn’t want to go any where.  Life stunk.  Gosh, who was going to be next???

Seventeen years ago, Thursday, December 17, 1992, I was sixteen years old, aging way too quickly.  I still deal with the wounds from that combination death punch from the early 90′s.  The Enemy still tries to use this date to knock me down but to that I recall one of my favorite verses in the Bible.  Romans 8:18. For I do not consider the sufferings of this present time worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us. That promise backed by the Creator who sent His Son and traded my condemnation for His righteousness is the reason I can, and do, celebrate this time of the year.  God became a man.  A Father sent a Son.  I love and extremely miss my dad but the anticipation of God’s glory that will be revealed in me when I step into eternity… well…

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. Romans 5:1-2

That’s why I rejoice this Christmas season… and in every other season of life.  Glory.  His.

Another interesting moth we found on our back doorstep.

http://www.scripture-engagement.org/content/advice-scripture-and-drama-recording

This is a great (very short) article with a downloadable .pdf with advice for recording drama-styled Scripture.  Even though you may not be doing this time of work, it gives you a glimpse of the kinds of things we need to consider as we go into the studio to record mother tongue materials.