Snow! Again!

It seems something other than weather should be the point of interest when a person is in Tucson. But for the second time we got snow. In the last blog I mentioned how nice a day we had on Monday, and how nice the weather was. Monday: 70 degrees; Wednesday: snow. Late morning the wind began to blow, then rain. This turned to a rain-snow mix, then to snow. It was big, wet flakes that stuck to everything except the pavement. By 4:00 when we left work and drove home there was about 2 inches of snow. Very pretty. Late that evening it started to snow again. By Thursday morning we had four inches of snow and about 31 or 32 degrees. Very little snow on the roads so we went to work.

This seems unreal to me but it really happened (maybe that’s why we take pictures). However by midafternoon it was all gone. Look very carefully at the picture below. The dark object in the middle is a javelina (or peccary). Six or seven of them walked through this little clearing just off the balcony of the building where I do the keyboarding. I guess they were out looking for breakfast amidst the snow.

Keyboarding was interesting this week. Tuesday Doreen and I corrected the Nahuatl we had typed in. This went well even though there were more errors than we expected. It’s interesting how I can type it in carefully, then go over it myself and correct it even more carefully. Then when we do the side-by-side comparison there are still errors. Maybe that’s kind of like life. We try so hard to straighten out our lives, remove all the errors (i.e. sins) and be certain we are doing well. But when we compare our lives with what the Bible says God wants… oh, oh… we don’t measure up so well. That’s why it is important to be sure we are doing life God’s way or one day we will stand before him thinking we are pretty good only to discover the truth.

After Doreen and I got our portion all corrected we stared a new Old Testament summary. This one is Mixteco Jamiltepec. There are a lot of Mixteco languages. I am guessing it is one for each village or area. This one is in southwest Oaxaca State. I just looked it up on Google Maps. Typed in “Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.” A link on the left let me switch to street view and I started taking a tour of the area. I can’t read Spanish so I downloaded a translator app for my iPhone and began “reading” the signs. Very interesting.

Speaking of computer sites. If you want to see and hear this language (or any language). Do this: go to www.scriptureearth.org. On the left side scroll down to Mexico. Click on it. Then scroll down to Mixteco Jamiltepec. Click. Then you will have lots of choices: read, hear, download, etc. You will hear the New Testament because we are still working on getting the Old Testament summary on line. It is a sight like this that a resident of Jamiltepec (or any other language) can go to to hear the Bible in his/her heart language.

After the “big snow” had melted Joyce and I went to Western Night at the Center. It is basically an excuse to get together to have fun without working. We ate cowboy stew, listened to some good western jokes, and sang some old, hooky western songs. It was fun, kind 0f.

This is most of our keyboarding team. A few were missing. Sharon, our team leader, is in blue, 3rd from the left. The lady with white hair in the rear left is Cathy Marlett. It was her parents that translated the Seri language. She was born and raised there and loved it. Her husband, Steve is to her left. The lady sitting on the left is Trudy. She is 82 years young, comes every year and is the life of the party. So…. that leaves me, the only other male, peaking over a couple shoulders. I am affectionately known as the token male.

I discovered my phone would take panoramic pictures. This is my keyboarding room. I would be on the computer at the left. Jackie is next, Donna is far right and Doreen is on the right. Actually this picture is distorted because Doreen and I are back to back. Jackie is from Oregon; Donna and Doreen are from Canada.

This is another panorama, from the balcony after our recent “blizzard.” Actually they posted blizzard warnings for I-10 south and east of Tucson – only the second time in 20 years for southern Arizona. The mountains are the Santa Catalinas.

If I were to move down here – and I am NOT – but if I were I would have two requirements: a view of the Catalinas and a large, really good telescope. Enjoy.

We work but we don’t work much

Maybe I should talk  about the weather. It changes faster here than it does anywhere. The first part of last week we had rain mixed with snow. Two inches of snow was predicted for Tuesday morning but it didn’t happen. What DID happen was that for about 5 or 6 mornings in a row I had to scrape frost (ice once) off my windshield!!! I know, I know, I could do that in Oregon. In fact I wouldn’t do it in Oregon. I would wait for it to melt before venturing out. I don’t even have an ice scraper in the pickup. So I start the pickup early, burn up a lot diesel, melt some of the frost, then use my Shari’s VIP Card to scrape the rest.

Then about Thursday it began to turn nice. We had 70* or so weather – short sleeve shirt weather – over the weekend. Nice today but clouds moving in. Now they tell us a cold front is escaping from Canada, will bring high winds tomorrow, and rain/snow Wednesday. Oh well. Such is life in the winter.

Wednesday morning all the keyboarders went over to my cousin Jim’s office for an overview of the typesetting process. We all wanted to see what happened to the pages we so carefully typed into the computer. Jim is one of the typesetters. That is the old term; now they are called compositors. So he showed us in a very quick modified way what he does to turn our pages into a book. It is very interesting and depends greatly on the computer program he uses.

I finished keyboarding my section of Náhuatl  (pronounced Naw – watt) later that day. I thought I was going to start a new book on Thursday but Sharon (our “boss” – she doesn’t like to be called that) realized the very last section of Nahuatl had not been assigned. So I photocopied those pages and started on a different computer. It is hard for me to shift from one keyboard to anther but sometimes it is necessary. By the way, we photocopy the pages because it is a lot easier to see the text enlarged and flat rather than in a book constantly trying to close. Then I copied some pages for another person. Then I helped correct some pages. Finally I got back to the computer. As far as keyboarding, it was a very unproductive day – about 4 pages!

The Mountain View Assembly of God Church was our choice for worship yesterday. It is rather small but by far the friendliest church we have been in. It is only  a couple blocks from the Center.

Today is President’s Day and is a holiday at the Center. So we played tourist. We went with a lady from Washington State to see the old mission church just south of Tucson. Mission San Xavier (pronounce hav ee air) del Bac was built in 1797. It is… well, I guess the word is  “interesting” to see what is important to those who built it and who worship there. No,  maybe the word is sad. I mean no offence to the Catholics but there is so much superstition. At one end of a side room is a life size representation of St. Xavier laying on his back. People pin notes, pictures, objects to his clothing in supplication that he will help them with their problems. Most of the objects are small legs or arms (like charms) or other body parts representing the part of the body that needs healing. People bow, cross themselves, and kiss the head. They lift the head three times. It is said that if they can do this they have a good heart. I watched all this happen.

The “body” is at the far end of this room just below the dark statue. By the way, there are 50 statues in this church.

This is the front. There are carvings of lions on each side of the altar. The whole room is rather dark with lots of echoes. Also, lots of candles representing prayers. I guess it is easier to light a candle than to speak directly with God.

The church is called “The White Dove of the Desert.” It can be seen for many miles. It is a “working” church in that they have regularly scheduled services here.

So from this “beautiful” (in a human sense) but rather dreary (in a spiritual sense) place we went to the Titan Missile Museum. Did you know there were 54 Titan II Missile silos in three locations during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Eighteen were in the Tucson area, 18 round Little Rock, Arkansas and 18 near Wichita, Kansas. All were dismantled and the silos destroyed except this one which was preserved as a museum. Here are a few pictures as best can be taken in confined spaces.

The missile in the silo ready for launch. Just kidding. This one could never be launched – no fuel.

The warhead looking up from level three.

The whole thing looking down from the top (through a Plexiglas canopy).

The control room. There were a lot of “fail safes” to keep a missile from being launched accidently or maliciously by a rogue technician. One of the keys to actual launch is in the very middle of the picture on the top row in a small round window. The other key is to the left out of this picture. Both had to be turned at the same time.

And finally, me standing next to the warhead. In this little black thing was enough energy to destroy 900 square miles. Kind of scary. This was all cold war stuff. The concept was to have enough power to destroy the Soviet Union and let them know it. Meanwhile they had enough power to destroy us and we knew it. So no one started anything. Well, there is a lot more to the cold war than that, but I don’t have the time.

So in the space of 4 hours we went from a fingers crossed hope that God would show favor to a fingers crossed hope that our power would convince them not to use theirs. I don’t know the moral here but I prefer the faith model. We don’t have to “prove” ourselves to God. We simply trust him because he said so.

Blessings.

Snow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We woke up Saturday morning to about 2 inches of snow!!! Very wet snow. It didn’t last long but it necessitated my getting up, getting dressed, and brushing off the awning. Cactus with snow is pretty but seems kind of ironic. We have been here three different winters and it has snowed once each time. Like they say around here, “It IS winter.” After a nice warm week it has turned cold, near freezing at night and only into the 50’s during the day.

Each week is different and interesting. I starting keyboarding a new language. It is an Old Testament summary of en el náhuatl de Guerrero, an area in central Mexico. Some of the words are very long –22, maybe 24 letters. This is one of them: oquimahuistilijquej.

I also corrected the section of Seri that I typed earlier. It was also typed by a fellow keyboarder. She and I sat down at a computer that had a special program to compare our work side by side. If there was a difference, the program highlighted it. Then we looked at the original book to see what it really should be. We made the correction, poked a couple keys and it went to the next discrepancy. We corrected that and moved on. Etc. Etc. Etc. Yes, we had to make “several” corrections. But I was pleased with our work.

The ladies had a High Tea Thursday afternoon. Sort of High. But they had fun. While they tea-ed I worked. When they finished, Joyce and I went home early. It was good to rest with no keyboard in front of me.

At the top I showed you this area with snow. Here is what it looks like without snow. The road in to our home away from home is to my back. Can you see the black arrow just to the right of the end of the road? It is pointing to our RV. Just to the right of that is Jim and Joyce’s house. They are almost at the end of the road – only two houses beyond theirs.

Today we attended worship at St. Andrews Presbyterian. It is large – very large. Rather liturgical, with  a choir, children’s choir, hand bell choir, and a very good sermon. It turned out to be a nice day – probably low 60s, warm sun.

I’ll close with this interesting picture of a saguaro cactus from the National Park. Have a great week.

Around the Center

I trust you have had a great week. Joyce and I had a really enjoyable one. Working and playing and soaking up the sun. Let me say the last part of that again – soaking up the sun! We have been having such nice weather. Highs in the 70s or high 60s; sun shining with maybe some broken clouds. All this warm will disappear this weekend for a few days. Canada is about to descend upon us.

Where we spend our days is called the Center. Let me give you a photo tour.

On the right is the volunteer office and the main room for sorting and storing stamps. Another office or two is in that building. On the left is the study building – so called because it has about 45 small rooms, originally to translate the New Testament into various Mexican Indian languages. Most of the rooms are used for all kinds of things now – including keyboarding and the room Joyce works in.

It is in the shape of a “U.” The base of the U is behind me as I took this picture. It contains the break room which doubles as the room for ladies doing sewing and quilting, a small kitchen, restrooms, and a library. In the picture above are the two “legs” of the U. On the left top level has the two rooms we are using for keyboarding. On the right top is the room Joyce works in.

Here is what she says does. “I take stamp albums which have been donated to the Center. Presently there are 50 books to work on. I gently take out each stamp with tweezers and place it in the appropriate envelope – sorted by category. The categories are country of issue or the picture on the stamp. These wait for the Men Who Know to decide how valuable each stamp is. Valuable ones will be sold on the internet, less valuable ones are sold in bulk, ones of no special value are used by school teachers in their classrooms. The money generated is put into an emergency fund to assist translators who need to leave their village because of illness or political unrest.” At the present, Joyce is by herself in her room. The reason she is not with the other stamp ladies in the volunteer office building is simple – there is not enough room there.

Here we have the chapel on the right and regular Wycliffe (not volunteer) offices on the left. My cousin, Jim, has an office here. He does the “type setting” after the keyboarders finish their work. Calling it type setting is an anachronism because it is all done on computers now. The top picture was taken from the steps where the two people are.

And there you have it. There are some shed and storage buildings for the construction and repair people. By the way, one of the projects this winter is building a house for a translator couple. It is almost ready for sheetrock.

Okay, all work and no play make Gene and Joyce edgy. Friday we helped Jim and Joyce move stuff away from their walls so the termite eradication guy could do his spraying. They are not having any special problems, it’s just that termites are always a problem here.

Saturday we went to Saguaro National Park (West). There is also one on the east side of Tucson. We toured the visitor’s center and climbed a couple hills. Well, I climbed the hills; Joyce doesn’t do hills well.

Here is the view from Valley View Overlook. It is looking away from Tucson and to the south.

Saguaro cactus only grow in a band running from northern Mexico thru central Arizona to northwest New Mexico. This area is part of the Sonoran Desert. Some centuries old petroglyphs are on Signal Hill in the park. They are a little hard to see in these pictures. Look for the shapes or lines on the rocks.

No one knows why these were chipped into the rock. Maybe religious, maybe to mark land, maybe to be artistic, or simply graffiti.

Sunday we attended worship at LifePoint Church in Catalina. It is only two years old, small, but a nice service. We went to the early service so we had lots of time to rest before the Super Bowl. Did you watch? Wow! What a game. Too bad San Francisco didn’t  win, but a good game anyway.

Enjoy your week. Blessings.