Upcoming Changes

In December I was excitedly telling a friend that I expected to finalize the Zinza, Jita, and Kwaya orthographies by the end of September. These were the three main projects that I'd been working on for the better part of 5 years. They suggested that September would, therefore, be a very natural and convenient time for me to end my time with Wycliffe. At the time I was strongly drawn to that idea, but more strongly drawn by my desire to remain in Musoma, so I put the idea away.

Over the past couple of months God has brought that idea and timeline back into focus and I am now convinced that it is God’s timing for me to leave Musoma, and Wycliffe.

This has been a hard decision, I didn’t feel ready to move on. I can point to several events over the past year+ that should have clued me into this plan, but I didn’t want to see them. The amazing thing is that now, having made the decision, I feel so much peace and even joy and excitement about what God is going to lead me into next.

So, I will be coming back to the States in early October, and back in Tulsa by December.

I would appreciate your prayers as I seek God’s leading on what is next for me. I do believe that it will include studying the Bible in one way or another and moving into some type of discipleship or teaching role. I have two ideas that I really love, but I still don’t know if either of them is where God is going to lead me. If you want to know what they are, I’ve described them briefly below:

1) YWAM and their DTS program followed by their School of Biblical Studies.  This would be an intensive inductive study of the whole Bible. I would be equipped to work in discipleship and bible studies and various other work along those lines.

2) Polis: The Jerusalem Institute of Languages and Humanities; MA in Ancient Philology. This would be studying the biblical languages as living languages so that I would be well equipped to read the original texts of the Bible and study theology from there.

These are two completely different programs that I could see God using in different ways in teaching/discipleship training. One is non-academic and the other is academic. One is a religious organization, the other isn't. But, both are exciting to me and have drawn me in a bit. So, please be praying about this. And if you hear some thing from God for me, PLEASE pass it on!

If you have ANY questions about this upcoming change, please feel free to write and ask me! My email address is available in the contact section of this blog.