Great reading that will help TEN3

A fantasy writer has agreed to have the proceeds of her next 100 book sales go to TEN3:
Partnership with TEN3 - Pen Dragon
If you like to read good imaginative stories, here's a way to feed your fantasy need and help TEN3! :)

Good news stateside

I mentioned in my prayer letter that God is answering some prayers stateside to allow TEN3 as an organization to move forward. I'll explain a little more about that here.

One of the many reasons I greatly appreciate my team is the prevalent heart of servanthood among them. Anthony, Joe, George and Ken all have so much wisdom and experience with missions in Africa, they are more than qualified to do the administration for TEN3. Yet they only do because they have to--what they really want to do is just teach and disciple people. The time devoted to these administrative requirements of a cross-continental organization is actually something that has been slowing down TEN3's work in preparing our student, teacher, principal and consulting material. So we have been praying for somebody who wants to help us bear this administrative legwork. Official acceptance is pending, but we have somebody who wants to do this for us! Praise the Lord!

Also, TEN3 is very close to getting our 501(c)(3) status, which will make contributions to TEN3 tax-deductible. Now, to be clear, SIM is already tax-exempt, so donations to us as missionaries through SIM has always been deductible. This is for TEN3 raising funds as an organization for our projects, including our workshops, the Transformational Education Center, equipment and more.

With so many doors opening in Africa and the ways the Lord is empowering us here, we believe that our time is now! Please pray for an extra measure of wisdom and guidance for all of us, and for the funding for our projects and for us as missionaries, that we may be unhindered in bringing the truth of Christ to Nigeria and all over Africa.

He is risen!

Following directions we don't understand

This morning I helped one of my team members, Ray, with his work on our computer material. Ray, who normally uses computers on a pretty limited basis, is our pedagogical editor for Computer Essentials. This means he is taking the course to test it out, and makes notes where he has trouble, and adds edits and questions to help our students.

We talked over Skype this morning because he was having trouble with a section on how to use GIMP, a graphics program. He was almost through the section, but was unable to fill his word path. So I explained to him how to set the foreground color and use the bucket fill tool. He did and said nothing happened. He must have misunderstood one of the instructions, I thought. So he sent me his file and I tried it. Sure enough, the words remained colorless. So we opened a new file and walked through the process together. This time we got it to work.

Curious, I went back to the original file, wondering why in the world the fill color wasn't working. Then I checked the layers box and noticed the View icon was off. The layer was hidden. As soon as we set it to View, the color was there. Ray had done it right all along; he just couldn't see it!

I compare that scenario with life following God. He gives us instructions and we try to follow them, but then things don't seem to work out. That's when I start second-guessing myself. Did I really make the right decision? Do I really understand what God wants me to do? Am I messing up God's plan for my life? These are actually times of blessing, because it leads me to examine my heart, my motivations and desires and assumptions. I discover things I have let come between me and God.

Even then I don't really understand why things aren't working out. But sometime afterward, God does something to show me that, at every step where I tried to follow Him, God was leading me to right where He wanted me. I just couldn't see it then.

Praise for progress; prayers for peace

I never would have pictured myself in a technical computer job. I would have thought it too tedious for me, and I hate it when electronics don't cooperate. Nevertheless, the Lord has given me a meticulous and analytical mind, and it's been good to apply it to get better results in my job. A few years ago Anthony set up an extension with a menu to set styles, stand-out boxes, reminder icons and more. When I first started working with him in August of 2009, I didn't even know what a logical attribute was, much less a macro. Now I'm able to use both AND put them in the extension, so I can send it to the rest of the team and to make their work formatted just like mine. It's pretty exciting to have the opportunity to learn so much without any formal training. I pray that I'll be able to teach many workers in Africa with the same patient mentoring heart as Anthony has taught me.

On another note, please pray for Nigeria. The first of three days of elections this month was supposed to be Saturday, but has been postponed to Monday (which, accounting for the time difference, will start about three hours from this post). Elections in Africa tend to be very volatile times, and this postponement has already got tempers flaring. Please pray that the people of God will be the presence of the Prince of Peace there, and that leaders of vision, wisdom and integrity will be elected all over Nigeria.

Thanks to all who read this for your care and prayers. May you have a glorious day!