News in November 2019

Brian Heads to Gordon College

Back in September, Brian was invited to speak to four separate classes in the Sciences building of Gordon College.  This school is highly respected in New England, situated not far from Boston.

 

Wycliffe Bible Translators has a mobilization group that they send to various Christian campuses around the USA.  The mobilization team represents many disciplines, so there are field representatives from Language studies (think Linguistics) and Education, so in parallel to Brian's presentations in Language Technologies, others were engaging students in various campus buildings.

 

For myself (Brian) this was an exhilarating experience engaging the next generation to "sign up" for a career in Bible Translation, a world-wide movement.  For many technically minded computer science and engineering students, this is perhaps the first opportunity to hear that their unique and highly prized skills could be useful for Kingdom work.  They were amazed at the possibilities.  I gave my "technology testimony" many times, explaining how God tapped me on the shoulder, upon my graduation from Cornell University as an M.E.E..  It was encouraging to review my life thus far, and to see the fantastic ways that the Lord led in the past, to an exciting ministry in PNG, and a future with Him yet to come.  The same field adventures await these students, should the Lord lead them overseas.

A beautiful sunny day, in September before the Fall foliage changed on campus.

The Global Missions Health Conference

An attempt at Virtual simulation of an overseas experience.  Students get to walk through various AR/VR scenarios to get a taste of Third-World medical experiences.

We have now been back in the US for over a full year; well mostly in the US.  We are getting settled in our house, adjusting back to our home culture, and Helen still misses her work in PNG.  However, we both have work with Wycliffe/SIL that is good and fits well for us.

 

One of Helen’s roles is as a consultant and trainer to the medical staff at the PNG clinic. In this role she returned to PNG for 6 weeks early in the year – and will return again in Feb/Mar 2020.  Consulting is on an "as needed" basis and mostly involves e-mail advice on children and teens.  She did have one very interesting consultation while she was at the local gym on the elliptical, communicating with the clinic in PNG who had a sick child. WhatsApp and e-mails went back and forth as Helen both exercised and went on the internet to try and find helpful information. Helen has also enjoyed her role helping with the PALS (paediatric advanced life support) class at the CMDE (Continuing Medical-Dental Education) conference in Thailand, being the missions representative at the CMDA (Christian Medical-Dental Association) annual meeting and most recently, attending the GMHC (Global Missions Health Conference) in Louisville, KY.

 

The GMHC conference is a yearly gathering of all stripes of health care professionals interested in missions. It includes those already involved in medical mission work as well as others who are possibly interested in pursuing a foreign or domestic health care mission career.  It was a great time for both Helen and Brian and we were able to connect with friends and fellow clinic workers from PNG, as well as other friends from the CMDA.  Wycliffe had a booth there and we both spent some time helping to staff the booth and talking with interested persons about possible future work in Bible translation.

 

It was a great time of learning and fellowship and will be very helpful for Helen in her new role with Wycliffe.

 

Helen as also busy writing information pieces about immunization in her Wycliffe US role and helping Dr. Keith in Orlando with various medical projects and consultations.  She is also working on pre-field policies to help new missionaries and those returning from furlough to return to their work healthy in all areas of their lives, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.