First and Second Thessalonicans and the Epistle of Jacob

When doing translation work, I am dealing with several languages at once - Ikizu and/or Zanaki, Swahili, English, and Greek. It's easy to keep them all straight except when it comes to names. For example, sometimes if I am writing in English after having been reading Swahili, I will accidentally type "Yesu" instead of "Jesus." I always catch myself right away, and it's not a big deal.

However, the other day I wrote 1 Thessalonicans. It looked wrong, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong about it for a moment. I mean, Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus is called Ephesians, and his letter to the church in Rome is called Romans, his letter to the church in Thessalonica should be called Thessalonicans, right?

Wrong. You forget that this is English we're dealing with! The equivalent of Thessalonicans is what the people of Thessalonica are called in Ikizu, Zanaki, Swahili, Greek, and most other languages around the world (having not done a scientific study of it, I can't give a percentage of that), but oh no, not English. I looked up everything I could think of online that might be enlightening as to why good old English decided to drop a consonant out of the name, but alas, I came up with nothing. Nobody wants to admit the slip-up happened! In all fairness, it probably happened in the Latin Vulgate and good old King James carried the new name over. But as to why it has never been added back in, well, I should write Tyndale and Zondervan and complain!

 And as if that weren't enough to put poor English speakers over the edge, have you ever thought about the name James? Want to know what the name James is in Greek, Swahili, Ikizu, and Zanaki, and many other (sane) languages around the world? Jacob. Oh yes, Jacob.

In Greek, meaning the original New Testament, the name is Iacobus. The name came from Hebrew, where it was Yaaqov (think Yakov, which, if you say it aloud, is easy to hear is nigh about Yacob. Then you have to remember that English likes to turn Y into J). But, all that to say that Iacobus somehow because Iacomus in Latin, and then, English took that and ran far, far away with it. To keep things interesting, English decided that in the Old Testament we could keep Jacob, based on the Hebrew name, but that in the New Testament, we should have James.

If you want to see other "Jacob" names that have ended up in other languages that also got tweaked out by Latin, here's a little sampling: Jaime, Giacomo, Seamus, Hamish, Jack, and Diego.

As for me, if I ever accidentally refer to the Epistle of Jacob, forgive me. I was probably calling it that in Swahili earlier that day. If, however, I start talking about the epistle of Seamus, just send me on a vacation to Ireland, because clearly I need it!

*To be perfectly clear, I want to make sure everyone knows that I still fully believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and the accuracy of these translations!

Child Labor

In the fall in Pennsylvania, even kids have to work!

Freezing Fall Fun at Vale Wood Farms

In the corn box

I asked Zarya if I could take a picture of her having fun (she really loved this corn box, probably because it was semi-indoors and therefore less freezing), and she agreed, but said, "I'm not going to smile, okay?" I waited a little while, but she was determined to not smile for the picture. Crazy toddler! Anyway, her favorite thing was covering her legs in corn. Other kids were making corn snow angels and filling and dumping buckets; it was good fun for a range of ages. Jerod, however, was not allowed in the corn box, because he'd just try to eat the corn, I'm quite sure! The one problem of all of this corn play was when I helped her take off her shoes and socks later at home, corn fell out all over the kitchen floor. And it didn't end there; when she went to the bathroom, more corn came pattering out from inner layers. It was kind of like sand at the beach, except at least your hands feel clean after playing in it!

Brr!

Jerod had a slightly less exciting day. Not being able to walk is a serious hindrance to having fun. He liked about half of the hayride... His highlight was the chickens. I don't know why, but he burst out laughing when he saw them. Also, of course, he liked his picnic lunch. He's a happy eater!

As for me, my highlight was visiting with my friend Shannon! Second place has to go to the coconut ice cream we brought home with us. Yum!

Brownies in the Bathroom

I am not sure at what point one crosses the line between being reasonable and being ridiculous, but the other day I made brownies in the bathroom. Bathrooms are often associated with brown things, but brownies aren't the usual topic.

Jerod was asleep, and I was concerned that the noise of the electric mixer would wake him up. His room is almost directly above where I would normally do my Saturday afternoon baking. I was experimenting with whipping the butter, sugar, and eggs for an extended time after reading about something similar on a baking blog, so the mixer needed to run for quite a while.

We generally try to avoid getting too near the obnoxious end of things, such as refusing to flush toilets, talk, move, or breathe when a baby is napping. But two baby-free hours on a Saturday afternoon is pretty precious, and I was willing to be a little ridiculous!

Oh, and regarding the end result: I think it improved the brownies to do some extra whipping. It also made them larger, because of adding so much extra air to the batter. I ended up with an extra pan of them, in fact; it increased their volume that much. How obnoxious to have an extra pan of brownies...

One important way to pray for single missionaries (that you might not already be thinking of)

So, for an intro to this blog post, please scroll down and read the post about praying for married missionaries. This post is based on the same principle, but there is a different prayer suggestion this time around.

While there are a host of ways to pray for any missionary, a big one for single missionaries is their housemate(s) or lack thereof situation. Most all single missionaries can attest to the fact that it's hard to find and keep a good housemate. Missionaries move a lot, so keeping the same housemate for an extended period is rare. It's exhausting to be frequently changing with whom you are living! Living alone can be financially impractical or emotionally undesirable, although certainly some people enjoy it. However, depending on where in the world a missionary is serving, it might not be a option. Having a housemate with whom you do not mesh well is incredibly stressful, but your missionary friend might not be able to say this outright in a newsletter prayer request. So just because your friend never says she is having a really difficult time with her housemate doesn't mean she's not, and she might really appreciate your prayer support.

You could pray about:

• Getting along well with current housemate
• Having good local friends (it's fun to have friends all over the world, but you also really need some friends who live close to you)
• Comfort through all of the good-byes that come as a part of the missionary life
• Emotional fortitude when to starting over repeatedly

Two case studies:

Hazel Gray

This is Hazel, who has had nine housemates over the past nine years. She's said hello to a lot of strangers and good-bye to a lot of friends as she, and they, have had to move apart for various reasons. Married missionaries say good-byes a lot, too, as they and their friends have to move apart, but at least they have a spouse and perhaps also children transitioning with them. It's rough going for singles to find and keep good friends who live near them. 

Hazel was polite enough to refrain from telling me if any of those nine housemates have been rotten apples, but surely some in that mix have been a bit more difficult to live with. On the positive side, housemate number eight was particularly great, but moved out last month (to get married, so a good reason for losing a housemate, but still difficult). So now Hazel is with housemate number nine, and her life is once again in transition as she adjusts to a new person in her home.

This is my friend who is working in a closed country

This is my friend, whom we'll call Ruth. Ruth works in a "creative access" country in Asia, so I can't be putting details of her up on the internet. She's a missionary who has had some interesting living situations over the past few years - here are just a few: two women who were very good friends with each other and from a different country than Ruth; a pregnant young national living apart from her husband, and later she also lived with the newborn baby; a large national family in a very poor home; and by herself. She is currently living alone, but is expecting a new housemate to move in next week.

Ruth, as is the case with many other single missionaries, has no national counterparts. In the country where she works, women get married when they are young. There are no 30+ single women, except for widows. It can be difficult for nationals to know how to relate to someone who is in a category entirely outside their cultural framework. Sometimes there is not much in common to talk about with other women, and the attention she receives from men is not often of the type she would prefer. So, difficult housing situations aside, friendships are few and far between, too.

Do you have a missionary friend who is working in a culture very different from her own? (And I say "her," because the number of single female missionaries is drastically higher than the number of single male ones.) Perhaps she struggles with similar issues. Pray for her housing situation and friendships with locals!

So, when you think of your single missionary friends, pray for them as they go through the inevitable revolving door of housemates and friends.

One important way to pray for missionary families (that you might not be thinking of already)

Missionaries often ask people to pray for them. They put little lists of prayer requests in their newsletters, and they talk about building prayer teams to support them in their work. If you are like me, you really care about missions and missionaries and want to pray for them, but sometimes you just can't think of a thing to pray about - those little lists are out of sight and out of mind, and you can't remember for the life of you what their current challenges are, and so you pray something very general about God helping them.

I am certainly not advocating that you ignore lists of specific prayer requests or paying attention to what you missionary friends have asked to you pray about, but sometimes when you go to open your fridge you see the prayer card with your friends' smiling faces on it, you are reminded to pray for them, yet your mind is totally blank as to what on earth to pray about for them.

One thing I think most all missionary couples/families (to come in the near future: a blog post about praying for single missionaries) almost always need prayer for is for their time apart from one another. One or more member of missionary families is often traveling or living away from the others. Sometimes these trips are just for one or two nights and sometimes it's a long-term arrangement, but it's very, very common for couples/families to have at least one member away fairly often. 

So when you can't think of what to pray about, pray for them about their time apart:

• safety for the one(s) traveling and the one(s) left at home
• smooth readjustments to them being back together again
• comfort when they are missing each other
• friends and fun to fill in for missing family members
• protection from craziness - everything just seems to go haywire when someone is gone!
• anything else you can think of - there are lots of ways you can think of about how to pray for families being temporarily separated, since many of the issues are the same as ones you might have faced yourself when having a family member away

Here are two examples (among MANY - when coming up with my examples, virtually all the missionaries I know could have been used as good examples, since they all travel a lot):

The Gilmores - Tim, Chris, Camden, Tirzah, and Braden

The Gilmores might be on the extreme end when it comes to dealing with frequent time apart! Tim, Chris, and Braden (youngest) live in Tanzania. Camden lives in the USA, where he's going to college. Tirzah lives in Kenya most of the time, where she's attending high school.  

Tim is often away for a week or two at a time traveling for meetings or to go out to villages. Earlier this year Chris was in Kenya to teach an ESL class for a few weeks. Since Tim also happened to have to be away then, Braden had to stay with another family for a week because both parents were traveling at the same time! He has two siblings, but he often feels a lot like an only child. Camden can't fly around the world to be with his family for Christmas break or the summer, which is really hard on everyone. Tirzah loves her boarding school, but calling home is not the same as sitting down with your family for dinner every night.

You (probably) do not know the Gilmores, but I bet you do know a missionary family who needs prayer! Maybe hearing about this family inspires you to pray for your friends when they are inevitably apart.

The Heffts - Paul, Melissa, Josiah, and Anna

The Heffts live in the USA, but Paul works in Tanzania. That means three to four times a year, he is in Tanzania for about three to four weeks each time. Multiply that out, and you'll realize it's a lot! The phone and internet networks is not amazingly reliable in Tanzania (or many other places - chances are your missionary friends deal with this problem, too), and that combined with the large time zone difference means that they don't always get to call and Skype as regularly as they might want. 

Melissa knows all about what it's like to be a temporary single parent - a lot of work! And as for things going a bit crazy when your spouse is away, she's got some good examples of that one, too. Having one's routine and home dynamics change often, according to whether your spouse is around or not, is also stressful.

Earlier this year Paul also got to do the single-parenting thing, because Melissa did a typesetting course for three weeks. (That would be typesetting as in preparing translated Scriptures for publication.) Imagine a family without their wife/mom around for three weeks, and that should inspire you to pray!

Again, you likely don't know the Heffts, but think about the missionaries you do know - at least one of them travels a lot, I am sure. And I'm very, very sure they would greatly appreciate your prayers for their family in regards to that big aspect of their lives.