Leaving for Chad Tomorrow

These past couple weeks have been blessed, busy, and productive.  My flights to Grand Rapids on the 15th went smoothly and without incident.  For the next three days, I joined BI's office staff, area representatives, and missionaries at our annual retreat.  As always, it was a time of great fellowship, good food, and refreshment.

The retreat was immediately followed by BI's annual consultant seminar.  The BI office was crowded with staff, missionaries, and prospective missionaries for a full week of meetings.  We spent some time discussing the work that has been done and needs to be done, and had training/discussion sessions on teaching cross-culturally, using special Bible translation software, and the Hebrew language.  Between sessions and in the evenings, we enjoyed plenty of good fellowship - and good food!

This morning, most people who traveled in for the seminar have gone their various ways, to home, ministry, or graduate school.  I'm staying here in Grand Rapids for one more night, then flying out early tomorrow on the first leg of a long trip to Chad for two weeks of translator training.  I'll meet up with the other consultant on the way so that I will not be alone in the airports in Africa.  Pray for good weather; a hurricane is predicted to sweep through the US east coast near the time that I'm scheduled to fly into Washington DC.  If all goes well, we will fly to Chad via Ethiopia.  When we arrive in N'djamena (capital of Chad), another missionary will pick us up for the 12-hour drive down to Sarh in the southern part of the country.  Please pray for safety throughout all these travels.  Pray also for the (approximately) 25 translators who will attend the training, that the training will be beneficial to them as they start or continue their translation work.  And pray for me as I observe and participate in the training workshop and prepare to lead similar workshops in the future!