Last time, I discussed my helpful, yet less than ideal, experience at the SBL regional meeting. This update will be more personal.

The next year will involve many changes for me and Corrie.

This is the first online announcement, and the three of you who read ThinkHardThinkWell get to be the first e-recipients of the good news: we are expecting our first child, a son, in July. I am as happy as a tornado in a trailer park, as are our families (first grandchild, first great-grandchild, etc.).

We are also moving. I finished my master’s in December, and we’ve been praying about the next step. I applied to several fully funded PhD programs, and received rejection letters from all schools. The logic was that we planned to do Bible translation with Wycliffe, but if I could get a funded PhD in the short term, that would help me in my work and give me something to work with when we come back from the field (in 20 years, or whenever).

But God obviously shut that door. I’ll admit it was hard, but I’m not taking it too personally. I didn’t have my hopes too high, because I really had no sense of my qualifications relative to other applicants. It’s also just a hard year for funding–many schools took only one or two candidates because of finances.

So, the plan is to have the baby and move to Dallas sometime in the fall. In January, we will begin studies at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, on our way to becoming fully supported members of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Our studies will take about 2 years, depending on how much I have to work. We will probably be sending out letters from time to time, so let me know if you’d like to be on our e-mail list.

Please keep us in your prayers–baby, move, missions, money, insurance.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

Next: ETS Conference with Bekah