Update on our project

I know many have asked what we do here and how it is going. I still have to be a little cautious about what I can post on-line as far as details go, but I will try to share as much as I can as time goes on.

John is really running with the project. He is really supporting me as I put most of my focus during the day on our family and home school with the kids and as I minister through our home to neighbors and people we work with. (High school for Ike is really going to change the intensity of our school this fall!) So, he really does most of our "work" during the daytime alone at this point. We can join in in the afternoon, evenings and weekends. Once we have some stories going, I will be doing a lot of the behind the scenes work on the computer using the software we have to work with, etc. It's pretty detailed.

Right now, he has a team of 4 and they meet about 3 or 4 days a week for several hours. They are all nationals from here and from our people group (but they live in town here, not in a village currently). He has shared the vison with them and explained what we are doing. They are really excited about it and 100% behind it. They have spent hours talking through the Bible stories and deciding which ones will really address needs/issues culturally, etc. They have chosen our initial set and then have all looked ahead to what the completed set will look like when it covers the entire Bible.

John is really working with a good group. They have 8 names of people lined up to possibly help us get these stories crafted. Every time they meet, John can really see the progress and initiative they are taking to make this "their" project and not just "ours".

This past week they worked on getting all of the versions of the various passages recorded for the first few stories we will craft. It will all be done orally, so you start with oral---- not just show them a written version in spanish. They worked really hard on all of this. Now we are ready to actually meet with some bilingual speakers (spanish/target language) and have them listen to the spanish and then give the story back to us in their language. We will go back and forth several times on this, translating and back translating, until it is "perfect" and all of the keye elements, etc. are there. (We have some great software from Wycliffe we get to use to help with all of this, make sure every little detail is anchored to Scripture, etc.) We'll do this for about 60 stories. It's a long process for each story.

It's not a traditional storying project where you have an evangelism track, a discipleship track, etc. This is all one set with the same redemptive thread running through it. It is all in there together and builds on each other. It's an amazing project. We'll do an initial set of 15 or so --Genesis to early church-- and then go back and start filling it in with more stories until everything is covered. It's really fun to story through a ton of stories at once. In some of our trainings we have done that. At the end of the week, we take turns standing up one after another and we'll story through 20+ stories in a row. You kind of anchor each story to the previous one with a lead in. It's fun. For this last training we did the whole book of Acts. During the training before, we did from Genesis through Acts.

Anyway, I think I'm getting off track here............... (imagine that!)
So, John is doing great with the project. We have a team of helpers, and they are ready to officially do the first 3 or 4 stories.

We are so thankful for our team. They will be "out front". We really like that aspect. We don't want it to be something "we" are bringing. The gringo's religion............... We want it to be "their own". From them, by them, all based 100% on the Bible.

We go to Guatemala this week for our annual meeting. I think we'll be waiting until we get back to start recording the crafting. (although they did mention trying to have someone ready to start Monday. we'll see!)

Our goal is to have all of this completely done by next August (2009) or sooner. It's a slow process to get it started, but once it's going it gets easier--- you have people to help (that's hard to get at first), they know what they're doing so it gets quicker, etc.

We have to REALLY work on the language when we get back!!!