He is the Reason for the Season

He is the Reason for the Season!

I actually began seeing Christmas items coming out at the beginning of November. Thier Christmas trees are 2 and 3 stories high. There are nativity sets all over El Salvador and it´s wonderful to see, knowing that in some places in the states they are being outlawed. My prayers for each of you is that you remember why we celebrate Christmas, it´s not the presents but the greatest present of all, Jesus Christ. Make Him the reason you celebrate this year.

Presentation to Manos Mágicas

We were able to meet with the Manos Mágicas to share our DEMO with the woman who started this ministry for the Deaf. After our visit we went out for Chinese and discussed how we theough it went and what changes need to be made to our presentation.

Merry Christmas

Sunday we had an appointment to share our DEMO DVD to the leaders at the Tabernacle Church here in San Salvador. Please pray for those God calles to join Him in His ministry were receptive to what God is doing with TBLESSA.

Visit to Ahuachapán

Ahuachapán is close to the Guatemalan boarder. It´s an hour and half from San Salvador. They have a ministry of about 10 deaf in attendance. We arrived Sunday after church to share our vision for the bible to be put on DVD so the Deaf can understand.
José Eduardo presents the DEMO DVD, while Grisel shares the ministry needs as Violeta interprets. Great teamwork!









God touched their hearts and they are excited to hear our vision and would like to help us in our endeavor. Great beginning to some help from other parts of El Salvador.

TBLESSA

We continue our meetings every Saturday afternoon. We always begin with devotion, and then plan our next steps we need to take. Right now we are contacting different churches to visit where they have Deaf ministries.

Speaking Engagements - Conservative Congregation Christian Churches

Then Monday through Thursday I went to my Church Conference. This was the first one I´ve been able to go to in a long time.

I gave a seminar sharing about TBLESSA. I made some new contacts and pray that this will be a fruitful time.





One evening all the missionaries were invited in native dress to share about their ministry. I had fun meeting other missionaries. This is Lauren and Annie, when I left the states, they were little......not anymore. It was wonderful to see Pastor John and Kathryn again. I miss them. Didn´t get pictures of Josiah but he´s grown too.

Speaking Engagements - Eure Christian Church

There was not enough time Saturday or Sunday to visit 3 churches, so Pastor Michael Brinkley of Eure Christian Church, his wife Denise and their children and the Missions Chairman, Sallie Eure met me for lunch. There I was able to share the ministry and its needs as well as enjoy wonderful fellowship with some long time friends.

Speaking Engagements - Cypress Chapel Christian Church

Next church visit was with Cypress Chapel Christian Church, my home church. Sure made me homesick. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask someone to take pictures for me. A love offering was taken up and I had enough money to buy two items that were needed for TBLESSA:

1. External Hard Drive: 1 Terabyte
2. Bamboo: Electronic Drawing Board

In addition, two video cameras were donated to our team.

Speaking Engagements - Lynnhaven Presbyterian Church

First church I spoke at was Lynnhaven Presbyterian Church, my parent´s church. I began by signing a song while Lynn sang. This time however, I signed it in Salvadorian Sign Language.






A few from the Deaf Life Group were able to come and join us.

Thanks to Brenda and Wendy for Interpreting. Thanks to Scott (not pictured) for taking all the pictures.

Graduation Day

El Salvador








Honduras








Guatemala








It was a wonderful Conference. We all learned so much and are ready to get started on putting all the things we learned into practice. Pray for us.

World Deaf Day of Prayer and the Beach

June 13th was World Deaf Day. We attended my church, Iglesia Bautista Miramonte. What a blessing to have all the countries together to unite in prayer with the Deaf all over the World to pray for Deaf churches, leaders, etc.






























The following day we went to the beach and had a relaxing and fun day. Of course they had to have a game of "futbol". It turned out to be a beautiful day. We were worried it was going to rain, but it didn´t. Praise the Lord.

Community Check

Guatemala working on their story.








El Salvador was able to have a Community Check. This is where we invite the Deaf from the Community to come in and take a look at the video to see if it has all the requirements: To check and see if the signs used are clear or if there needs to be some kind of change, to check and see if it was natural so they could understand clearly what the story was about.

Then they would check our drawings to see if they wanted to add or take away from the pictures to make the story more clear.

Bible Translation in Progress

El Salvador with Lingüist Bob Van Zyl

After teaching us the importance of our videos having to have 4 qualities: Faithfulness, Clear, Natural and Acceptable, we broke up into groups and began working on our first story. We had to study the passage, figure out how the best way to sign it so that it would be clear and natural to the deaf who would be watching the video. Film it and make sure that it was faithful to the passage in the Bible.

Then each team would meet with Robert to make sure it was accurate.





Honduras

Principals in Bible Translation Course

We began in May preparing for Colombia to come and teach us in the basic principals of Bible Translation in Sign Language. Five from our team were able to attend the Conference. Others from our team came when they weren´t working or attending the University.

Left to Right: Toni, Grisel, Claudia, Violeta, José Eduardo


Colombia Team consisted of three very important people.
Left to Right:
Martha C. Vargas C. - Interpreter Advisor of Bible Translation
Robert Van Zyl - Consultant and Lingüist for Bible Translation in Sign Language
John Jaider Avila A. (Deaf) - Advisor in Bible Translation


Four countries attended the Conference: Colombia (who was teaching) Guatemala, Honduras and of course, El Salvador.

Each country had to have their own interpreter. It was quite interesting to watch. There were also Spanish and English speakers in attendance. As you can imagine by the end of the week, I didn´t know which language I was supposed to be using. Even the Deaf were mixing their Sign Languages. It was quite humorous.

Sean´s Experience

Sean was one of the team members that came with Wycliffe. He did a blog about his experience in El Salvador and meeting with our team. Please check it out at http://silatjunkie.tumblr.com/.

Wycliffe and SIL´s Visit

Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) came to El Salvador for a meeting. While they were here they were able to visit our team and see the process for Bible Translation in Sign Language.

The did interviews with myself and two of our Deaf team members, Jose Eduardo and Grisel.


We explained to them every aspect of the process. Beginning with examining the text, discussing the best way to sign it so that all Deaf can understand.

Finding pictures, maps or illustrations to go along with the text.




Then actually going to the filming of the story. We also have to take pictures for the Sign Language Diccionary. It´s a lot of hard work.






Only a few of the team were able to come on Saturday.
The rest of the team we met with and shared our vision for TBLESSA, Translation of the Bible in LESSA.

I love how God joined these two groups together. We will be able to use their experience in Bible Translation to help us.

The Bible into LESSA

We begin by picking the stories that we are going to video.


Then we teach the stories, explaining every detail.









Many times we have to go back to the Bible for clarification so that we make sure that linguistically we are correct in our signs.