Wycliffe Banquet

Last night was nice.....VERY nice.  Mike had gotten us tickets for the Wycliffe banquet that apparently only happens every 18 months in Prescott [held at the Prescott Resort].  This was an Associate banquet where participants are presented with the opportunity to volunteer in one of the many legs helping the translators on the field who are working with great sacrificial delight to create an alphabet and put into words unwritten languages all over the world.  With videos we were all given an in depth view of what Wycliffe Bible translation is about and how just as important volunteers are in supporting fields of sorts.  None of the information was new to me, as this is the mission legacy I grew up in. It was fun seeing video clips of   familiar places in the Philippines, to hear my people talk of the impact of having God's Word in their language (in their  Filipino accent) and see familiar missionary faces from my childhood still working in the Philippines.  However, the most intriguing part was the new innovations being used as technology continues to evolve.  

It's always fun to sit at a well dressed table.  

Dori was hungry and that salad (of a big wedge of iceberg lettuce, blue cheese, bacon and ranch) was calling her name

I was looking forward to the coffee which didn't get offered until after the main course

So, obviously, it was intended to go with desert which stared at us almost the entire evening

The rolls were divinely warm, soft and light....

and oh so perfect with butter....

If to escape self-inflicted embarrassment, I would've asked for several baskets more

Mom was the table missionary celebrity.  This was the nice new young pastoral couple from the Covenant church just up the street and they were very much engaged in conversation with mom about her work and their love for Wycliffe.  Funny how you can meet people of mutual friends in these type of settings....friends working around the world.  

I didn't hear the entire conversations, but it was obviously all good.  Being one of two Wycliffe members in the room, she was later given the mic and asked to share where and how she has served the past 40 years.

Should've inquired as to what the heavenly sauce was so luciously draped over the chicken.  It was divine.

Mike and I really like wild rice....we were copaceticly happy.

Michael shared his testimony of how he came to Christ.  It was very interesting how his personality fit like  hand and glove with his desire to learn linguistics and be lead to a group of people that was so lost they literally lived and died by each other's swords.  Thus, the result of him taking in two teenage village girls who's father was killed (followed shortly thereafter by their mother).  Both of the girls have given him grand kids and he's been living among the people for over 12 years devoted to getting their language translated so they can read the Bible.  

Michael, an American, seemed so uncomfortable as if to feel out of place in his own country.  This is something that only fellow field missionaries can possibly fathom.  For they themselves have experienced the luxury of adapting to an overseas culture and meeting the locals at a heart level that is so foreign to the American culture and society.  I know, I'm an overseas missionary kid myself.  Not to carp on America in the least.  But having experienced the culture shock of coming back to America, I could see and feel it in his demeanor on so many levels.  I'm sure being oceans apart from his wife and family of four kids and two grand kids made it even more difficult.

There are still thousands of  people groups who's languages are not put on paper, written or translated.  Wycliffe needs the help of all that hear the call.