Released!

This week I got a call from my Wycliffe Personnel Administrator, Jo. We had a conversation about my current partnership development efforts. It was decided that I am able to begin my assignment with the Bible Translation Committee as an Arts Intern!

"As an Arts Intern, I will support the Bible Translation Staff and local ministries in incorporating the Arts (storytelling, dance, music, visual arts and drama) into ministry in order to share the Gospel message in effective and meaningful ways. Some of my activities will be leading storytelling and songwriting workshops, developing church drama teams and doing illustrations for literacy materials."

If you are interested in supporting me please go to the Wycliffe online Invitation to Partnership. Type my name into the fields.

April Showers

This week brought some extreme weather to central Mississippi. Several people called or emailed me to ask if there was any damage to the area and if I'm okay. I'm doing well. The trees on Nana's property lost a few branches but the house is intact. The Bible Translation Office, a double wide trailer, is okay.

Please pray for those who experienced loss during the storms.

Scenes from the ECHO Spring Festival

Cooking Hominy over the open fire

Community Dancers performing

Literacy Class Visit

A group of students from the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics are scheduled for a visit April 18-20. I've been communicating with Amanda over Skype to work out the details.

Yesterday I went to the Choctaw archives to find some samples of literacy materials. The challenge for the students is making "big books" - large sized story books for use with large groups of students. The storybooks I found in the archives were in the School alphabet, not the Modern alphabet. Literacy teacher, Pam, is very excited about having the students come to visit. She's looking forward to their insight and support.

For more information on the Choctaw orthography, visit the Wikipedia page.