For our summer vacation this year we rented a cabin with our friends Sean & Margo for a week on the Shenandoah River about 10 miles north of Luray, VA. No internet access. No cell phone reception. No worries. Check out our video travelog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HecWpsbMK3U

Our home church, the Lewes Church of Christ ( http://www.lccnow.com ) chose us as the mission for this year’s Vacation Bible School. Emily put a lot of work into the missions tent where kids were able to explore Africa and learn about the work we will be doing with PBT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HemO_we_AW0

We were out at DCSC this week for World Missions Camp. Here’s a brief video report. We are thankful for the opportunity we had to connect with people and share a little about what we’re doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taDoOLcu1nQ

We took a trip up to NYC over the weekend and made this travelog of the trip. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN1jHGeXt4M

This afternoon we sat down at the settlement table, signed a few papers, and completed the sale of our house! It’s been a long road and we are relieved it’s behind us. We will be able to make some specific decisions about our plans for training with PBT now, and will be posting more info and updates here as things progress. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement!

We received the results from the appraisal, and it’s good news: $300,000 – just $5000 above the minimum we needed! So far everything has been going smoothly. The contract is signed, the appraisal is complete, and we have termite and radon inspections happening today. It’s pretty amazing how much work is involved, but it’s been one of those things where we’ve waited so long for a buyer and now that it’s happening, it’s happening quickly, which is a good thing.

As of now, the closing is scheduled for this this Monday, May 18th, which is less than 30 days from when I received the original inquiry from the buyer. We still have a lot of work to do to get everything ready for the final sale (including moving a piano!), and there is still a possibility of delay, but we’re praying and have faith that everything will work out just fine.

I was at work today and I got an email from Emily. It was a love note. From time to time we send each other quick love note emails, just a short sentence or a few words. If we want to emphasize the romantic aspect of the message we will send it in Italian. This particular message I received from Emily was in Italian:

“Amo la maniera lei mi tocca. amo la maniera lei mi tiene. amo la maniera lei mi bacia.”

Now, we don’t know Italian beyond a few names of pasta noodles, so we use online translation web sites to get the message across. I copied her email, opened up Google Translate, selected the correct language settings, and submitted the form. Here’s what came back:

“I love the way she touches me. I love the way she keeps me. I love the way she kisses me.”

I thought, “WHOA, that is not what I was expecting!” Apparently, somewhere from English to Italian and back to English, a slight adjustment to the personal pronouns occurred that resulted in a major adjustment in the meaning of the message. Either that or… never mind.

This got me thinking about how difficult it is to effectively communicate a message in a foreign language, and how hard it can be to understand a message written to you in a language you don’t understand, even with The Great Google on your side.

This why bible translation is so important. For over 200 million people today, the bible exists only in a language they don’t understand. The message is foreign and unclear because it hasn’t been translated into a language they know.

With a message this important, we can’t expect people to just guess through a barrier of language about what God is saying to them. When one word or even one letter can change the entire meaning of a sentence, we can’t just hope that they will figure it out. We need to be intentional about the accurate translation of the bible into the languages of people who don’t currently have it.

Because if we care about people, we will care about their ability to know God.

Or, from English, to Japanese, back to English:

“So we people, because they worry about the features that we know God.”