Wycliffe’s World Day of Prayer is today, November 11.  We would like to invite you—our friends, families, and readers—to join us as we pause to pray for Bible Translation projects and Bibleless people groups around the world.  Today is a day on which Wycliffe remembers how we began—with prayer—and we will continue only with prayer. To read more about the history of the World Day of Prayer and how it came to be, click here.

This year’s theme comes from John 17:20-23, as Jesus prays for all believers:

There are lots of thoughts tumbling around in my mind as I tried to decide what to write about this week.  I could tell you about that we are doing in school, how we are preparing to move to Germany, the million tiny details that are begging to be made into neat and orderly lists, and the preparation for our season of “lasts”, but as I sit here with a blank document open on my screen and a blinking cursor begging me to compose something meaningful, I feel conflicted.  I think maybe I will start with some history for today.

Many of you have not known us for very long, so you do not know the history behind our call to missions.  I want to go back to the beginning and share the “why.”  Dale will share his story later as well.

I grew up in a home with godly parents who taught all of us to follow God’s leading no matter the cost.  At the age of 15, I went on my first international mission trip to San Luis Potosi, Mexico with my church.  We had a great trip, did some hard work, and explored a beautiful city.  The last night we were there, we were standing in a public square reflecting on the city and the landscape.  As we stood there looking around, I clearly knew and felt that God was telling me, “This is what I made you for.”  In that moment, I recognized His calling and the tug deep within my soul very clearly.  At first, I thought this meant living and serving in Mexico.  I shared what happened with my youth pastor, my parents, and others in my life.

As I talked and prayed through this “call” experience, what came through was a clear call to missions, but not specifically to Mexico.  Attending Houston Baptist University and studying in the department of Christianity provided me with lots of opportunities to explore and learn about what serving God vocationally really looks like.  I also got connected to Wilcrest Baptist Church where I learned and experienced a biblical missional viewpoint.  In all of these places and more, my sense of calling was challenged and refined.  I know one thing clearly, I have been called to use all that God has given me to bring Him glory.  At Wycliffe Bible Translators, we have found a place to do that where we can add our talents and gifts to those of people around the world working together to bring heart-language scripture access to hundreds of millions who are still waiting.

Over the last 15 years, I have pictured what this looks like in different ways.  Should I go overseas straight from high school?  Should I use my newfound passion for business/marketing to get a PhD so I could teach anywhere and do tentmaking missions work?  Should we go immediately after we got married?  The Lord, in His ever-loving nature, has drawn me to Himself and given me time to grow, develop, and mature as He has shaped this calling in my life.  He has developed passions, talents, and abilities within me from all of the experiences up to today that He will use for His glory.  He has removed my need to be in charge of my life and brought me to a place where I can truly say, “Here I am, Lord.  Use all of me however You see fit.”  Ten years ago, I could not have said that in the same way.  Five years ago as I was struggling with a challenging one-year-old and two others, I did not understand God in the same way.  Last year, I had not begun the process of Partnership Development and the necessary faith-building that goes with it.  My faith was not ready to take this leap.

I hope that in five, ten, and fifteen more years I will be able to look back at 2013 Miranda and smile, thinking, “I did not know God then in the same way I do now.  I could not have begun to comprehend who He is in the same way.”  Right now, my heart echoes Philippians 3:12-14:

12Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

This is just a snippet of my story, but I hope you all have a little more understanding of where I came from and how God is leading me.

“How was I adopted? Where did you find me?”

The question, unexpected but not unanticipated, came from the back seat on a cool fall afternoon, as we were en route to a Cub Scout event to watch a soccer game at the local YMCA. We were listening to “I’m Adopted,” a song written for an adopted son on Randall Goodgame’s amazing Slugs and Bugs album Under Where?. The question was unexpected because—although we’d discussed his adoption with him many times previously—Wolverine had never previously expressed an actual interest in his story.

Here he was, a month shy of 6, and now, finally, it became clear to him that his story was different from that of his other siblings. We’d been anticipating questions like these since the first time we held his tiny preemie body in our arms five Decembers ago. And still, despite the fact that we’d had literally his whole life to come up with answers, I was caught dumbfounded. Continue reading →

Beloved readers (all 7 of you!),

As we get further and further into what we’re doing with this blog, we occasionally find the need to change the way we do things. Sometimes this is because we want to take things in a different direction. Sometimes it’s because we’re just bored. And sometimes we discover that we need to make things more sustainable over the long-term. This is one of those times.

Up until now, we’ve refrained from discussing our kids on the blog in a very public way. That has been an intentional decision, based on both anecdotal and research-driven evidence, as well as  personal conviction that this is a good thing for our family’s security and safety. However, we understand that many of you love our children dearly and would be more than a little disappointed if we never talked about the really cool things they do, or the funny stuff they make, or their “creative” room-painting sessions, etc. This will only get more significant when we ultimately go to our assignment, and you don’t get to squeeze their rosy cheeks as often as you do now. Continue reading →

I am working on a post about the wonderful two-sided nature of partnership, building a partnership team, and how God is refining us in this process, but I was struck by the profoundness of this verse tonight and I wanted to share it with you.

Many of you have asked about how Wycliffe works. This video gives an overview of the steps involved in Bible translation. Please take a few minutes to check it out.

One of the many reasons we love being part of this organization is how accomplishing its mission impacts so many areas of a community. We are excited to be joining a team of people around the world who are working together in all of the different parts of this exciting task.

“Be still and know that I am God” Ps 46:10
photo by Dale Peacock

There are many things that I love doing, but anyone who has known me for more than a day would probably agree that waiting is not one of them.  My natural tendency is to act, plan, strategize, and “do” until something happens.  However, God continually brings me back to Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (ESV).

In the midst of my busyness, I am called to be still.  Sometimes, I watch my children attempt to sit still or wait for something they really want and it reminds me of what I must look like to God.  Their little bodies cannot stop fidgeting and they can’t seem to turn off their minds enough to relax, trust me, and be still.  This morning, I was making our favorite breakfast (peanut-butter-chocolate-chip baked oatmeal) and they were so eager to eat that they could not wait for it to come out of the oven.  They danced, stood around the oven, and begged for it to be finished.  So often, I do the same things.  God has something great in the works and I get so busy anticipating, planning, or “doing” that I fail to be still.

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For many of us, dandelions are simply a useless weed. We combat them in our yards; we stamp them out wherever they pop up, lest they infest our otherwise pristine yards with their ugly stalks and displace the more-favored green of our grass.

But it wasn’t always this way. As children, we didn’t see the weeds. We just saw the amazing, beautiful bright-yellow flowers poking up above the expanse. As a child, I remember picking these flowers (and lots more) to give to my mom—a “beautiful” bouquet of weed-flowers presented as my best to her, for her to cherish. In fact, our own children do the same for Miranda (especially the boys); they’re always on the lookout for weed-flowers for Mommy.

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Prayer is essential to all mission. William Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe, was discussing the history of Wycliffe when he said,

“We have advanced on our knees…There’s been a lot of action as a result of our prayers, but it’s been prayer that has solved the problems…It’s been through prayer that God has raised up recruits and supplies and equipment when it seemed hopeless. And all we could do, as it were, was to march around Jericho on our knees—just around Jericho. And then finally, the walls fell and we marched in.”

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One of the questions we get asked by a number of our believing friends centers around the task which is central to Wycliffe’s existence: Why Bible translation? Why not ________ (insert your favorite missionary-activity-flavor-of-the-month here) instead?

It’s a fair question, one which deserves a fair answer in return. As we mentioned in the Feast or Crumbs post, we are devoting our lives to the task of securing for others the same heart-language scripture access with which we are blessed for a few major reasons. And we think it’s pretty stinkin’ awesome.

Continue reading →