It Comes To An End

As the week winds down… it is Saturday already. I am putting up this post tonight because we leave here tomorrow after church. The plan is to bless the United Methodist Church with our presence, top off the diesel tank, eat lunch at Jerry Bob’s, empty the RV tanks, hook up, and be gone.

It has been a great week. I completed Hebrews in the Ozumacin Chinantec language on Thursday – just in time to do 1 and 2 Thessalonians in Zapotec Yatee. It was easier to hear the words but I had to hear fast as the reader was very fast. I assume that is the way they speak. Completing Hebrews was a challenge because my computer didn’t like the upgrade our leader put on it over the weekend. It keep freezing up and I would lose a few verses. I quickly learned to save about every 10 verses.

Just to review, I worked in four languages and synchronized about 19 Bible books. Joyce priced over 1.000 stamps from dozens of countries.

Thursday night was the Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. It was put on by the “regular” people who are not volunteers and they did a really great job. The decorations were first rate, the food was very tasty, the program was good. It was a great evening and we feel appreciated.

People  are beginning to fill the seats at the Appreciation Banquet. Joyce is on the right.

Today was the lunch that Sharon does every year for the volunteers that work in her department. It was the keyboarding department last time we were here but now they call it archiving. Sharon is a year round volunteer who lives just down the street from the Center. It was a salad and sandwich potluck. Jim and Nadine Rupp who translated the Chinantec language we worked on was there to talk about it. There are so many things to consider when translating the Bible into another language that it boggles my mind. I wish I could explain all of it but I’m not sure I even understand it.

Jim Rupp is explaining translation to us

These are the archivers. I think two are missing.The lady in the flowery top right behind the cactus is from Salem. Our leader, Sharon, is on the far right.

You might be interested to know that diesel is $1.69.9 at the Circle K and Valero stations here in Catalina. Gas is $1.39.9. Not bad. In fact groceries haven’t been very high except that our style of living in the RV and with both of us working in the Center we tend to eat more expensive food than we normally do.

My next post will not be until we arrive home and I’m not sure when that will be – sometime around the 28^th or 29^th. So blessings to each of you.

Church and Nuts

Today’s a holiday. It’s President’s Day. So the Center is closed. That gave us the opportunity to do a little spiffing up around the RV and Joyce did the wash. Other than that bit of labor, it was a nice restful day. But last week? Well, let’s see.

Work as usual. I finished Matthew then did 1 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and Colossians. It’s fun doing the shorter books; seems like it goes faster. Joyce is still doing her stamp thing – pricing Germany, Peru, Argentina, Panama, Chili, Costa Rica and a few others. She figures she has priced over 900 stamps so far.

Let me tell you about church. Actually churches. We church hop here. The two Sundays we were in LA we went with Jana and family to Marina Christian Fellowship. The Sunday in Fountain of Youth we attended the nondenominational worship in the RV park. Then we arrived here on a Monday. These churches have been blessed by our presence:

• January 17 – Life Point in Catalina. It is only 5 years old and growing. It is very VERY much geared to reaching unchurched people. Good worship.
• January 24 – Community Church at Saddlebrooke. This is a nondenominational group comprised mostly of the residents of Saddlebrooke – a large planned development of upscale homes next to the property Jim and Joyce own. There were at least 300 in attendance meeting in the community’s performing arts center. The place has no center aisle so there are 37 seats in a row. If you are in the middle, don’t have bladder problems! Good worship.
• January 31 – Vitoso Community Church. These folks direct their worship toward senior adults -- all hymns, choir, order of worship, but a young pastor. We liked this church. It is located in an area of mostly retired people.
• February 7 – Open Door Baptist Church which meets in the chapel at the Center. Very friendly but I had a hard time following the pastor’s message. This was our least favorite.
• February 14 – Casas Church. Jim and Joyce attend there and we have gone with them when we were here before. We like this church. They have three services. Jim and Joyce have chosen to attend the worship that begins at 7:50. In the morning! We left here at 7:15 a.m. because the church is in Tucson (I felt like I was going to an Easter Sunrise Service). After worship we went to the Senior Adult Sunday School class followed by lunch at McDonald’s with the “lunch bunch” Jim and Joyce hang out with. Then back home for a nap! 

This is Cases Church. The early worship is really quite well attended. It just doesn't seem like it because the sanctuary is so big.

Now, I’ve saved the best to last. Have you ever gone gleaning for pecans? Me either. Until Saturday. One of the other computer people I work with went last weekend and told us about it. So a group of decided to give it a try. As it turned out there were 7 of us in a van only knowing vaguely were we were going. We found an orchard about 30 miles from here. Up near Picacho Peak if you know the area. The man in the farm yard told us go down this dirt road to the end, turn right, go under the freeway and the best orchard would be on the right. We did and it was. The picking was not real good because they had already disked the center between the tree rows. But there were still lots between the trees. I got all I want to shell – about a grocery bag full. Haven’t shelled them yet. I need to do that this week.

These dead-looking things are pecan trees. Seven us us fanned out and only covered a small part of the orchard. We found most of the pecans on the high area between the trees. You can see a few clusters of nuts still on the tree in the foreground.

 The weather is what we have been waiting for – in the 80s during the day and only down to high 40s at night. The weatherlady predicts more of the same to come. So blessings to each of you. Stay warm.

The Great and the Not So Great

Well I’ll start at the beginning of the week because that is the “not so great” – although it is not bad either. It is something to be expected when one comes to this part of Arizona. It is not all about basking in the warmth of the desert sun. The first few days of this week the morning temperatures were hovering around 28*. I had to scrape frost off the windshield one morning. The daytime temps got up to the high 60s so the mornings were just something to gripe about. I did have to buy a new space heater, though. While we were in LA I went to Target and got a real nice heater because our old small ceramic one was just not doing the job that needed to be done (keep us warm). It had lights and push buttons and digital read outs and beeping sounds. Well after a month of doing all those things decently and in order it decided to do them all at once – all of them all at once. Minus the heat. So it goes back to Target if they will take it.

I went to the local Ace Hardware and bought a small old fashion heater with knobs to turn for the various settings. It works. But even with the extreme cold we needed to use the RV furnace to help the little guy do the job. Okay, so we were cold. Now we are hot. Nice and warm today and predicted to be 80 by Friday. Lovely.

But all that pales in comparison to our weekend – actually our Thursday afternoon and Friday. We did two fantabulous things. Jim and Joyce (my cousin and wife (this is Joyce P, not to be confused with Joyce M)) drove us to Mesa and treated us to a wonderful meal at the Organ Stop Pizza. But the pizza is really only an excuse to go hear the organ. From the picture you can see that it is huge – no, I mean really huge. 

Along the ledge they have added auxiliary instruments such as cymbals, drums, horns, etc. A man plays requests for about 45 minutes of each hour, then takes a break. His playing is fantastic and all by memory. Seating is at long tables in the middle and smaller ones at the sides. The place seats 500 to 600 people. We stayed for about 2 ½ hours and only left because other people needed our seats.

Our deal with Jim and Joyce was that they would provide the transportation and buy the pizza, Joyce and I would get the motel rooms. So we bunked at a Super 8 not far from the Organ Stop Pizza. The reason for staying the night was that on Friday we did another fantabulous thing.

On the north side of Phoenix is the Museum of Instrumental Music. They have collected and displayed instruments from all over the world. The place is arranged by continent and then by country. We each had a set of headphones and a small receiver. When we approached a television we would hear what was playing. Usually there were 2-5 short segments of music from that country and the instruments were present in the display. Africa was first, then came Asia, Europe and so on. 

Each of those displays has a television and an assortment of instruments from that country. I'm guessing there are at least 400 televisions in the museum.

These are instruments made from recycled junk. The TV is showing an orchestra playing with things like this.

The place was mind boggling. We were there about 5 hours and my feet were tired! There was a room of mechanical instruments such as nickelodeons and calliopes. There was a room devoted to leading artists like Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. 

The Johnny Cash display. To the left was one featuring June Carter.

And there was a room where you could actually play some of the instruments. Of course, they didn’t make me sound any more accomplished but I tried.

Joyce is trying!

It was a great two days. It took Saturday to rest from all the walking on Friday. Oh, I should add that last Monday I began on a new language -- Ozumacin Chinantec. I am doing Matthew again. I’m almost finished but it is hard.

Blessings.

What Was and What Is

I think I’ll begin by writing about what was and end by writing about what is. Last week was a fun week. In my little section of the volunteer world I did what we call fine tuning to match narration with color highlight on 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, James, 1, 2, 3, John, and then did Jude this morning. After working with the language a person begins to recognize words and it goes fairly fast.

If you would like to see what the final result looks and sounds like I will give you some internet directions. You will end up at a place that is NOT the language I am working on because that is, well, still being worked on and is not posted yet. But you will see and hear what is similar except this site has the scripture being highlighted by phrase and I am doing it by verse. So here goes.

Go to www.scriptureearth.org

On the left side of the screen, scroll down to Mexico. Click on it.

In the large center box you will see a lot of languages. The second         one down is Amuzgo, Guerrero.

Click on it.

Now you have a box with several options for hearing and/or                   reading the language.

Click on the second one down, Synchronized text and audio                   (Matthew).

Be sure your speakers are on and you can see/hear this language. Pretend you are a resident of Amuzgo Guerrero. You can read and hear God’s Word in your very own heart language. God really does love you and he speaks your language. Fantastic, isn’t it?

If you want to see and/or hear the language I just finished, click on Mexico in the left column.

Go down to the next to last language, Zapotec Zoogocho. 

You can only hear OR read it – not both. But when they add what I (and 6 or 7 others) have just done you will be able to hear AND read with the verses highlighted in yellow.

Okay, that was fun wasn’t it? But let’s move on.

We are not doing much sightseeing or tourist things on this visit to Tucson. We did so much on our last two visits that we are taking it a little easier this time. We do have a fun trip planned for this week – but more about that in my post next week. However, on Friday Joyce and I went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was a beautiful day, sunny but not too hot. We had been there before it was one place I wanted to see again. It is mostly outdoors among the cactus with about 2 miles of trails if you do it all. I did it all; Joyce didn’t. They have areas to see the kinds of animals typical of this part of the globe. They also have an aviary and an enclosure where you can get up close and personal with hummingbirds. Those were Joyce’s special areas of interest. We spent about 4 hours there. I was tired; Joyce not so much because she didn’t do a lot of walking; she watched the birds from the comfort of the covered patio!

A very sleepy coyote. Probably 3:00 was not the best time to visit him.

This is simply a view looking out over the landscape of the museum. The bird on the cactus is not real. Neither is the cactus. It hides a steel pole!

And now to the subject of what IS. Today we started a new language. It is very different than the other two and it is hard. It is Ozumacin Chinantec. I assume we (my compatriots and I) will get used to it and the seeing/listening will get easier. I started with Matthew about 11:30 and only got 3 chapters done. But starting with Matthew was good because there are all those names in chapter one. It helped me get oriented to the language but with words to help find where the man was reading.

The others thing that IS – weather. It is cold! All the storms that had previously been hitting California went to the north of us with maybe only a little cloudiness. The one that hit San Diego Sunday hit us early Monday morning. Lots of wind, some rain. And then the temperature dropped. Bitter cold wind today and it is supposed to get down to 29 tonight. Brrrr. The electric heater is going full blast and the propane furnace kicks on occasionally. But this will pass. It will be much warmer next week. Hope springs eternal.

So think of us as you bask in your nice warm rain.

Blessings.