Volume 16, No. 2, June 2004
Everything is in high gear down here as we're putting together last-minute details for our trip. Thanks so much to many of you who have offered to host us, arranged speaking opportunities in your churches and helped us financially. We plan to be traveling from June 14 to August 14 in California and Wyoming, visiting with many of you and squeezing in sightseeing as we can. It's a short trip this time, but with Kirsten and Danny in high school, they can't afford to miss any time, so we fit our furlough in between school years. We look forward to seeing as many of you as we can, getting caught up on your lives and sharing with you glimpses of our life and work down here in Panama. We especially are excited about seeing so many of our family members this summer, planning to attend both Mortensen and Schroeter family reunions. Then there's bookstores, Dr. Pepper, cooler weather, American ice cream...
The first step in translating a given passage or book of Scripture is called exegesis (ex-eh-JEE-sis). This is a preliminary study to determine what the text means, that is, what the author was trying to say. Since neither of us is a scholar in biblical languages or textual criticism, we rely on translation helps produced by Wycliffe, the Bible societies and other groups. Nearly all of these helps are in English. However, a few are in Spanish, such as something called Translator's Notes on the Gospel of Luke. Bienvenido has been trained to use Translator's Notes and so is doing the exegesis and drafting of Luke. He uses a computer in his church office which is equipped with the notes, a word processor, and a special keyboard for writing Embera characters.
Last week he brought in his draft of Luke chapters 2-8 (we had done the first chapter together). In checking 2:21 and following, I realized for the first time that Joseph and Mary made two trips to Jerusalem (one for circumcision and the other for purification) and that Simeon was not a priest. How many times had I read Luke 2 and assumed Simeon was the priest presiding over the circumcision ceremony? This why we exegete a passage before translating it!
Pray for Bienvenido and his family. He is busy because he is the president of his church organization, very talented and therefore much in demand, and has lots of interests. He is considering making another trip to an Embera village in Colombia and he is also assisting Melio in teaching the Embera students at the school run by Youth With a Mission at their local mission base.
Bienvenido can translate Scripture quickly and well but pray that he would be careful and thorough. He and I agreed that drafting up through chapter 17 would be an acceptable goal for our planned return in August.
We've shared with you that Doug is on his furlough time now also. He recently wrote a number of prayer requests:
Thank you for joining us in praying for Doug.
Kirsten is finishing up school this week with several projects and the privilege of skipping final exams due to high grades. She's looking forward to the Student Leadership Conference on Medicine and Ethics she'll be attending this summer at San Diego State University. She also plans to take tours of each of the colleges she will apply to, plus look at some others along the way. She will be taking her first-ever solo plane trip as she travels from California to Michigan in July to meet up with her grandparents for some campus tours.
Kirsten is the one in white in this photo of graduating seniors at a church youth group banquet. [Click on image to see larger one.]
She sang in her youth praise band InDependence at a concert on May 30, Alive: 2004, at a Panama City theater. About 250 youth attended and a great time was had by all. Kirsten managed to get through all her songs despite a cold and sore throat. [Click on image to see larger one.]
Danny finished school two weeks ago and is presently enjoying the laziness of vacation. He won the History subject award for his school's secondary program, and missed the highest Academic Achievement Award by .4 points! He got honorable mention for yearbook and computer graphics work as well. He fills his vacation time with reading, friends and computer games. He is really looking forward to the cold weather in Carmel, California (with grandparents) where he plans to run around barefoot in shorts and no shirt, perhaps even plunging into the icy Pacific. (Here in Panama the Pacific is warm.) He is now officially taller than his mother (not including the hair). We'll see how he measures up to several other boy cousins he will re-meet this summer. He's the one in the middle in the photo with two good friends. [Click on image to see larger one.]
What Danny does when he has nothing better to do - take weird pictures of himself. [Click on images to see larger ones -- if you dare.]
Laura has only finished one quarter of her school year, which runs from March to December. She'll miss a whole quarter during our trip, but her teacher says not to worry. She recently missed a whole week due to illness, but is back on track. She's not so sure about our trip this summer, saying she will really miss her friends here and the warm weather. She's looking forward to seeing several of her favorite cousins again, like Sophie, Erin and Ella.
Laura has earned 16 Brownie Try-it badges this first year of Brownies. She looks forward to starting in again in August. Laura loves chinese checkers, especially playing her own version. [Click on images to see larger ones.]
Thank you for your prayers and your support. We will see many of you very soon!
In Christ's love,
Chaz and Helga, Kirsten, Danny and Laura Mortensen
Live Action at the Panama Canal