Quick prayer request

I started the online application process for my visa several weeks ago. A visa to Nigeria costs $120, and last year I was able to pay via credit card. However, this year I tried several times and the transaction never went through. The alternative was to get a money order from the post office and send it to an office in Connecticut. So I did, and saw that it was delivered on June 4. But so far I still have not received the acknowledgment that the payment has been received. I sent an e-mail last Wednesday to the contact address they gave, and have not heard back from that either.
Please pray that my payment is accepted and credited quickly, and that I not be anxious about having to pay $120 again. I still am so eager to return to my friends and that inspirational hope I found last July in Nigeria. I can hardly wait to see all the Lord will do there!

Pages flying from processors to printers to planes!

Oops, so sorry to have dropped the blog for so long! I warned you I'd be busy!
Quick update on my progress:

• Orientation Guide done. Printing starts today!
• The Orientation Guide gives a great overview of TEN3's history, goals and calling. If you'd be interested in reading it, let me know!
• Principals Guide done, ready to be printed!
• Integrity Advance handout done. Will probably be printed in California.
• Writers Guide almost done. There's ALWAYS something to tweak with this one, so I'll probably wait until the deadline to stop working on it and call it ready.
• Material Development Guide much the same as the writers guide.
• Spreadsheet Essentials moving pretty fast. I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through it.
• Computer Essentials--Ray is still working through his pedagogical edit. Less than two chapters to go! Then I have some things to clean up on it.
• Bible course: George has it all written, praise the Lord! I've got to get to editing this one too, but it should go pretty fast.
• Teachers Guide: Please pray for Anthony as he works on this one despite many interruptions.

So my keyboard will be smoking for the next few weeks, but I'm enjoying it! So excited to have my tickets to go back to Nigeria purchased. Praying for the teachers, principals, writers and editors the Lord wants to work with us, for adequately prepared material, for open hearts and guided steps. Also still praying for the Transformational Education Center, which we are seeing as more and more critical to getting the 2-Year Tertiary Degree written!

Pressing on!

Praise the Lord that the TEN3 team has been given permission by the SIM Nigeria director to come to the country in August! It's looking like I'm going to fly out on August 3 and return on August 27. Praise the Lord also that I have been given enough one-time donations to cover the cost of this flight. Those of you who heard my report last year may remember that I went with six men. This time it's going to be seven men and me! Our new CEO, Claude Kennedy, will be coming with us. Some of the team members still need some gifts to be able to go, so I'd appreciate prayer for that.

In the meantime, I will be VERY BUSY preparing! A quick list of things I have to edit and publish:

1. The TEN3 Orientation Manual for all workshop attendees
2. The principals' introduction for the ECWA principals who will be there
3. The teachers' guide for the fifteen or so teachers we will train, God willing.
4. The Curriculum and Material Writers Guide for those who will be joining us as curriculum writers (we're hoping for about twelve)
5. The Material Development Guide for editors (I'd like to work with Ruth and train two)
6. Computer Essentials, our introductory computer course
7. Spreadsheet Essentials
8. Our CTO Bible course, which goes with the computer courses. This is a survey through the entire Bible as a single story.

Please pray for me as I work on all this, that I will be diligent and discretionary in my time, that my computer(s) will cooperate and not mess up the master documents as I update them, that I keep all the data together in the right places so that Ken will be able to package them correctly. Most of all, please pray that the materials and our presentation of them will be instrumental in transforming the hearts of educators and students to be like Christ.

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!