Technology - good, bad, and ugly

I remember the first online scam I received. It was from a recent professional acquaintance. It said Bill Gates was giving away his money; Microsoft was testing technology that tracks e-mails, so all I had to do was forward that e-mail, and I would get $125,000 for every person I sent it to. And I confess (hey, give me a break, I was in my mid-teens), at first I could hardly contain my excitement, thinking of all the troubles that money would solve for me. But by the time I finished reading the e-mail, I was thinking waaaait... this is too good to be true. I mentioned it to my Dad, who immediately scoffed, "That scam has been around as long as the Internet."

I also remember my first sexual solicitation online. I was even younger then; just twelve or thirteen. It came straight to my inbox, not the junk folder of the account my parents had just recently let me have. Fortunately, the subject line from the stranger was creepy enough that I didn't open it; I just told my parents, who even though they had known this stuff was out there, were troubled to see it reach me.

If you do anything online, you know how much trash is out there, of many kinds. Trash that can destroy your files, steal your identity, scam your friends in your name, addict you to the LED screen, and worse. Technology with all its implications is coming quickly into Africa too, and the parents are largely unprepared for it. Christie, our Nigeria director, has told us several stories to this effect:

An elderly woman came to my house in tears. “Welcome Mama”, I greeted her with concern, “what is the problem”? She narrated her story:
"We have been experiencing this problem of money disappearing in my family for about seven years now. Recently, the problem extended to our bank account. Somebody stole almost all our money in the bank, but after few days, the person texted us confessing that he has been the one stealing our money, even in the house. Christie, How? He said, he has been using spiritual means, using our son’s face to do the stealing. Christie, how possible it is to steal using somebody’s face?"
The woman does not know how ATM cards work because she is ignorant about technology. Apparently, their son stole the money in the bank using their ATM cards, since he was the one that activated the cards for his parents. He later sent this false confession to confuse his ignorant parents that it was somebody using his face in the spiritual realm to steal from his parents. It broke my heart to know that many parents are trapped by their children's knowledge of technology to practice evil. They are watching a lot of junks from the media and are taking advantage of their parents' ignorance to engage in evil acts.

Another incident was when a student stole my colleague's daughter’s cell phone and texted to all the contacts on the phone pretending to be the owner asking people to send him credit. Many people responded by sending credits to the thief, not knowing it was not the real owner that was asking for help.

Parents buy expensive technological gadgets for their children without knowing the uses, some use their expansive smart phones to watch porn movies, and some use theirs for one evil or the other. We were in the church service one day and a young lady was busy watching some dirty movies on her cell phone. Because I have knowledge about technology, I knew what she was doing. I rebuked her and reported her to her parents. They did not know she has been doing that, because she always told them she reading her Bible through her cell phone.

Women in Africa need to know to some extend how technology can help and destroy their children. They do not need to go to school to acquire some qualifications to do that.

With the Mothers and Media seminar, that is just what we hope to do.

New frontier!

Big news ...

Looks like I'm going to Zambia in April! :D

A long-time SIM missionary to Zambia has followed TEN3 for some time and has even attended one of our workshops. He now has told us he has people ready for our teacher and administrator training, to start offering our Computer Training Outreach. If you're new to my blog, the CTO gives students comprehension-based, multi-platform computer training, and a study through the Bible as a story, outlining God's plan of redemption with an explanation of how to be saved personally. So Anthony prepared to go in April. Then he asked Ray and me if we would consider going. He said it would likely be worth it for me to go just to meet the people, get a feel for curriculum needs there, and record their stories for TEN3. But then I asked if with that I could advance my main job, curriculum, by training writers. So Anthony asked Gilbert, the missionary there, if he knew of people who may be suitable to help us with this. For helping with computer curriculum, he said no, but for Biblical Health and Life Management curriculum, a whole host of people cam to mind.

We just added to that the idea that we could do a test run of Mothers and Media, which would be a technology awareness seminar for mothers in Africa. This is needed because while technology is flooding Africa, especially the youth, their mothers are largely ignorant of technology's capabilities and dangers. A Nigerian colleague has shared with us some heartbreaking stories that I'll try to relate in later posts about mothers being taken advantage of or unaware of what is happening to their children. So, with this seminar, we hope to give women valuable information to be more discerning about the technology that's quickly surrounding them. We anticipate this will also greatly increase demand for the CTO because they will realize they need to be powerful and discerning users of the computer. I am sooo excited about all of this!

Which means that before I get on the plane April 12, I need to republish the Curriculum and Material Writers Guide, get some copies printed, set up any laptops I get to take to the teachers in Zambia, put together curriculum for the Mothers and Media seminar (fortunately, I can draw from some stuff we already have), prepare for the writers training sessions, get anti-malarial medicine, paperwork and travel insurance, continue to seek regular supporters, and of course pray a lot!

Please join me in this:
*Pray for the administrators, teachers, and writers who will join us at the seminars
*Pray for good communication--we'll have an American and Nigerian team coming in to a Zambian audience, and even when everyone speaks English, you're still not quite speaking the same language...
*Pray for me to manage my time well as I get all this ready, and for my support to reach 100% so that part will become a lot more manageable

Confidence learned through suns and soccer balls.

I wondered last Saturday if any other missionaries use WolfRam Alpha to do their work. If they do, they're probably not asking it if the sun were the size of a soccer ball, how far away Neptune would be.

How the heck is that mission work?

Glad you asked.

In the past few months, the TEN3 curriculum department has decided we need to start writing BHLM materials ourselves. We ultimately want it to be owned and managed by Africans, so we were hoping most of it would be written by African educators. But thus far the unusualness of the program, our inability to pay writers, and severe difficulties keeping up communication with Africa have severely limited progress. So, we've decided that George, Anthony and I will write as much as we can, sending it to African volunteers for review, in hopes that as we students and teachers who go through our CTO catch the vision for transformational education (and communication with Africa improves), we will be able to give more and more of the work to God's people in Africa. We're also hoping to get a grant to have a long "writers retreat" in 2014 to focus on getting the BHLM done. (If you're confused by my acronyms, see my FAQ page.)

So, I decided to work on writing the topic of confidence. That is an important area to me because America has messed it up so much. Our schools and psychologists promote this hollow "self-esteem" concept that cannot give security and confidence, because it's based on self. Confidence comes from knowing God's love for us, and the fact that God wants us to serve Him, feeble as we are. I was using Psalm 139 and Nehemiah 1:9 to explain how intensely and constantly God cares for us. Science actually helps me put those passages in perspective, because when you really think about how big "the heavens" are, how hopelessly lost one could be in them, it's amazing to realize that God has promised that wherever we are, He will guide us. So, I used WolfRam Alpha to look up if the sun were the size of a soccer ball, how far away Neptune would be. The answer is 711 meters, or about 1/2 mile! Imagining being on a little planet in that size solar system already makes me feel small. And then to think that the nearest star is 4.4 light years away, that there are over 200 billion stars in our galaxy, each of which could have a solar system as big as ours, and then that there are around 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, shows us that we are just in a tiny speck in a solitary star's tiny space, in a tiny corner of the universe. And those verses tell us that if we were lost in the farthest reaches of the heavens, from there God would still be with us and bring us where He desires us. Now that's some blessed assurance.

Ping-pong balls and my job queue

I realized last night that I remind myself of a magician I once watched.

He had some cool tricks, some gospel messages, and some routines that were more comedic than anything. In one routine, he pulled out a ping pong ball and asked if we thought he could make it disappear. We all cheered, of course. He rubbed it between his hands, then drew his hands up to his mouth to blow on it, and repeated that two more times. After the third time, he opened his hands to show the ball wasn't there, and said, speech not nearly as clearly as before:

"Oh, yeah, shee? No ball!"

We laughed and clapped.

"Now how bany ob you thig I can make two ping pong balls dishappear?"

We cheered.

He did the exact same thing as before, and said, with cheeks suddenly much rounder, "I know wat you're thigging - wow!"

We laughed.

"Now how bady ob you thig I ca make tree ping-pong balls dichappeaw?"

We cheered.

And he did the exact same thing again.

"Oh, yeah, baeby! Tree ping-pong ballsh! Naw haw ma-ay ob you thig I ca make four pig-pog ballsh didappeaw?

We cheered.

And once again, he rubbed a ping-pong ball between his hands, raised it up to his mouth three times to blow on it, the third time opening empty hands.
Now, cheeks bulged out so far his lips could not completely close, he said, "Na I know wha yo tigig - dish ith da gwatetht ma-iciah evah! Na ha ma-y ob you thin I ca ma fibe pe po baws di-a-pewa?

We cheered.

"YOU'RE CWAZY!" he spat out.

I've started making lotion, since I have issues with the ingredients in most lotions on the market. So I started thinking, "I wonder if I can sell this?" And a couple I know has been looking to pay someone to help clean their house while the wife recovers from surgery, and I think "I could do that--help pay for my gas and other expenses." Then it dawns on me that I'm considering taking on a fifth job. And that's how the magician popped into my head.

In case you haven't been up to speed with the erraticness that is my life, I'll summarize my work:
1) TEN3 Curriculum department head. This includes revising and maintaining the Computer Training Outreach material, developing BHLM (see the FAQ page if you have no idea what I'm talking about), administration, training and working with writers, and figuring out the process for licensing it to schools.
2) SIM missionary. Includes communicating with people my need for support so I can maybe someday get a salary for job #1, as well as reporting to them for accountability and making sure all my logistics for travels are in order.
3) Substitute teaching in three school districts. It's quick payment that can go long-term but does not require specific time commitments that I couldn't make while needing to keep up TEN3 work and travel.
4) Helping a college bookstore during their rush periods. Basically, 4-6 weeks of 35-50 hours a week, then only an occasional day of work until the next rush.

I like to work, and I really like all my jobs. But my mind seems to be having trouble with all this gear-switching lately. So, I just have to wonder, will my forgetting meetings and leaving e-mails unanswered four days at a time pass as a phase, or am I just trying to fit in too many ping-pong balls? How crazy is too crazy?

There are a few things I might do to try to simplify my situation. Maybe I'm just not working hard enough at job # 2; after all, if I get all my support in, then I won't need job # 3 or 4 (or 5, for that matter ;) So I'm considering a special training/accountability program for missionaries raising support.

Also, we talked in our TEN3 meeting today about our hope that when we have enough students using our material, we can be product supported, as in actually getting paid for what we offer instead of from charitable donations. But it's hard to imagine that actually becoming strong enough to support us for a few years yet.

So most of all, I just need to pray, and ask your prayers as well, for the Lord to direct how I spend my time among all my jobs, to keep seeing to my needs, helping me to serve my best in all things, and bringing all TEN3 exactly where He wants us to be.

Thanksgiving

I really have such an amazing God.
Just a few things I thank Him for:

•  My family, that taught me to seek God, who still walk faithfully with Him, and who support me (especially my parents for still letting me live with them for free so I can have the next item).
•  My work with TEN3. If you read this blog much, I don't need to tell you how thankful I am that I get to be part of what God is doing in Africa!
•  The encouragement, support and guidance I get from many in SIM
•  My two other jobs (subbing and the bookstore) that help me stay afloat
•  Those who are supporting and will support me so that I can travel, have the resources I need to work with TEN3, and one day be fully supported!
•  My many friends whose love has forever impacted my life.
•  The many blessings that various churches have been to me.
•  Irish set dancing. Seriously, this is what God uses to keep up my physical and mental health!

And especially

"Once again I look upon the cross where You died,
I'm humbled by Your mercy and I'm broken inside.
Once again I thank You,
Once again I pour out my life." --Matt Redman

Language school ...

A typical missionary has to spend a few months at least in language school before going out onto the field. Of course, they really just barely get the basics, and must learn the rest as they go. So here I am, learning a new language. 

But wait, if you know much about my ministry, you'll be asking, "What language? You're trying to reach a whole continent where hundreds of languages are spoken!" Or maybe you're remembering I mentioned about a year ago that I'm working on French. Most sub-Saharan African countries list English and/or French as an official language. Well, yes, I still am working on Francais (slowly), but I am learning a new language too. One that can help me reach people of any people group. 

What language is that?

Python! 

Ok, most of you are probably asking, "What the heck do you mean by Python?" It's a programming language - a way of designing programs on the computer. Rice University is actually offering a free online course (not for credit, of course, but legit if you just want to learn it) in Python, so I've been taking that for a few reasons:

• The Lord gave Anthony a breakthrough in training school administrators while he was in Cameroon last summer. We had been frustrating ourselves and our trainees by aiming a fire hose of information at them, trying to get them to absorb a new educational paradigm in two weeks of lecture and reading. One attendee pointed out, "You're not using your own model! If you were, you would be having us learn it by doing it and applying it to our current work." In Cameroon, Anthony realized a way he could teach them our educational model, get them excited about it, and at the same time teach them how to apply it in their schools by teaching them how to schedule and budget for the program using our model. He built a massive, complex spreadsheet for them to use for this. But that spreadsheet is problematic, so we really need to build a computer program designed specifically for this.
• We are going to want to develop courses on how to program. This will be useful for those who want jobs in IT or even certain administrative assistants. It can give us an attractive educational package by which we can share the gospel and disciple people while giving them the knowledge to use it powerfully in the business world, the church, the government, or wherever the Lord puts them. Now, it would be easier just to find someone else who can do this, but good programmers who would be available for this, and have the pedagogical giftset to write TEN3 materials, are scarce. So it would be good for me to know enough programming to contribute.
• It's beneficial to me personally. It's really fun, albeit sometimes frustrating. Granted, right now all my projects are designing games (see http://www.codeskulptor.org/#user5-qdFBY4LmKL-13.py for the latest one I did--just click the "play" triangle icon in the upper left-hand corner). But really, it is sharpening my logic/mathematics skills, which have been waning since I haven't taken anything requiring advanced math in four years. And I'm going to need to hang onto that if I'm going to help develop physics courses in a few years! 

I loved learning so much, I thought I'd never want to leave school. Well, after four years of honors-program college, I knew I did not want to spend the rest of my 20s hunched over academics--but I still did want to keep learning. I am so glad God has sent me on His Great Commission with an emphasis on the last part-- "Teaching them to obey all I have commanded you." A teacher must be a lifelong learner. Just what I always wanted to be :D

Staff retreat ... with pictures!

I had written basically what I wanted to say for my latest prayer letter, and then waited on Ray to share the pictures he took over the staff retreat, because of course prayer letters are always better with a picture or two.

Well, when I browsed through them, several of them pointed so tellingly to important moments in our conferences, that I thought, "Hey, I know! Instead of a pdf, I'll make a slide show! That will be cool!"

So I did, and then realized it was way too big for a lot of my recipients to possibly receive or open. Quite frustrating, but I figure I can give you a modified version of it here. Hope you enjoy:

We had traveled from every direction – Ray from California, Ken from Minnesota, Sam from Kentucky, several from the northeast, and of course me from Texas. One volunteer went from Asia to Canada to Charlotte in three days to attend!

Christie left her family in Nigeria to be with us for these meetings. Over the weekend, she learned her little Josiah, not even 2 years old, had contracted malaria.
We thank God that he recovered quickly.

We did some puzzling over where God is taking us, and how he's taking us there ...

and took an honest look at our failures ...

Prayed through some serious frustrations ...

And through that process, God helped us see what we can do better. Here Ray, George, and I are working on a timeline by which we hope to finish BHLM, and two other major projects, by 2015.

I love this picture, because you can see how much joy we have working together in the Lord!

We also made a timeline to be serving 100 schools in Nigeria and Cameroon by this time next year. Here I'm checking the system Christie will be using to make sure it has all the required resources on it. Each flash drive has the whole operating system, courses and resource materials on it.

We changed our structure to put some of our people more in their giftedness...

We restructured our programs a bit to make them more customizable to people's needs.
This brings to high priority some of the courses we've had waiting "on the back burner."

We also piloted a storytelling workshop, by which we want to extend our teaching ministry to the church in North America.

My favorite part is always the fellowship:

Even at the airport, we're still happily at work!