Appreciating Elik

Inviting interns into our home is at the same time exciting, but also a bit humbling as well. Sure, for a short time, it's not all that difficult to entertain a guest such that they get to know only your best side. But after a week or two, that not-so-glamorous side of our sin natures begins to surface: my defensive pride and tendency to withdrawal under stress, Andrea's final strands of patience running thin at the dinner table, Micah's boredom and curiosity combining forces to test boundaries, Grace's tired whine echoing throughout our house, and Lumi's persistent wails trying to alert us of teeth breaking through – and so, we apologized to Eric up front for the "real life" family he was about to experience this summer. Yea, its humbling, especially with an intern like Eric, who despite having his own space to which he could retreat (small though it was), he followed his drive for social connection by spending the majority of his evenings and free time with us. Don't hear me wrong, it wasn't that we wanted him to leave us alone, rather his presence with us, his eyes and ears ever-observing, ever-processing, ever-analyzing, whether he said anything or not, we quickly began to see ourselves through his eyes – and believe me, it wasn't always pretty. Informative, convicting, and a sanctifying tool in the Holy Spirit's hands.

 We find some comfort realizing that this character sharpening is reciprocal – in other words, over the course of a full summer, interns can't hide behind their "best-face" either. Facing the challenges of living in a cross-cultural environment, starved of English-speaking peers and dumped into the discouraging process of language learning, there is plenty of time to experience both the good and the bad days. As it was with Maateyos in 2013, so also with Eric in 2015 (or as Grace called him ‘Elik’). Humbled together, we opened our home and welcomed them into our lives, knowing that they would forever be a part of our family!

There is so much that we can appreciate about Elik. His love for people, his compassion, his strong shoulders willing to carry another's burdens, his sharp mind, his love for God's word and his thirst for knowing God and making him known, all these challenge me in areas where I feel weak. 

Recognizing ways in which our personalities differed challenged me to see the world through another set of eyes. Although I won't soon change from the task-oriented person that I am, I have a renewed passion to love and value the people through which this task is being accomplished. While I will still need solitude and non-activity to recharge after a stressful week of work, I realize how weekend activities can promote healthy engagement with local churches, shared memories with my family, and a much needed break to routine, especially for Andrea and the kids who stay at home all day, every day. And although I will likely never crave meaningful social connections as much as Elik does, I am seeing our relationships with others through a new lens, which allows me to appreciate them at a much deeper level. For all this and more that I continue to learn, I have Elik to thank. I thank him for being himself in our home: giving voice to his observations as well as to his struggles. It is through honest open communication like this that iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17).

My appreciation for Elik continues into the translation office. Despite never finding his groove in learning to speak the Gmz language (partly due to my failure to sufficiently help), Elik persevered enough to understand a fair amount of the language. It was on the basis of this understanding that he contributed to the project in a number of ways. He worked with the Gmz translators to draft a trilingual (Gumuz, Amharic, & English) children's book of the Easter story, which the translators are very excited to see in print soon. 

He transcribed edits for me at the writer's workshop with government language experts. He helped collect and analyze data, organize ideas, and format an academic paper on conditional clauses in the Gmz language. On the eve of his departure, he walked me through his work on this paper and together we reflected on how this study has already begun to inform our work and improve our translation of conditional clauses. 

Most of all, I appreciate Elik for his perseverance in wrestling against Microsoft Word in the process of formatting the texts of Scripture into three new booklets: Acts + 1&2 Thess + 1&2 Timothy/Titus/Philemon/James. 

Many of these texts have been translated for some time, but they have done the Gmz church no good sitting in our computers. Elik's formatting them into user-friendly booklets will get them into Gmz hands, heads and hearts in the very near future.

We thank you, Lord, for sending Elik into our family both as a friend and partner in the work of Bible translation. His unique personality and skill set contributed to our lives and the project in ways that were unexpected to us, yet we believe, intentionally planned in your wisdom. We pray for Elik and ask that you will continue to use his experiences with us this summer to shape him into the specialized tool you desire him to be, and guide him into the specific role you've designed him to fill…