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.