2016 - The Williamson Year of Visitation

I saw on the internet something about 2016 being declared the Year of the Monkey. Not quite sure all that that means, but I guess some zookeepers have gotten pretty excited about it. The Catholic Pope recently declared 2016 as the Year of Mercy – a welcome pronouncement for us as the text of Luke's gospel and its many powerful examples of mercy will be given extra attention this year – hopefully using the new Gmz translation of these texts.

As I am reflecting on the turn of another year, and look ahead at what 2016 might hold for us, part of me optimistically sees it as a year of great progress, meaning, since moving our family last May the 50km up to where the project office is located, we have hit a settled into a new pattern of accomplishing the various stages of the translation project. Continuing this routine for the coming 12 months, I could easily see us take the project from another 20%-25% closer to completion. (that would be the completion of 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Peter, 1,2, 3 John and maybe even John's Gospel.) Yes, indeed, I look forward to looking back on the year 2016 as a year of great progress.

In our personal lives, 2016 is looking like a Year of Visitation. We are currently in Addis Ababa awaiting our first visitors in Grandma and Papa Rockey, coming for their second visitation to Ethiopia.

Yes, that is Baby Micah

Later in February, there is talk of the organization which funded the recording of Luke and Acts to make a visitation to the project to help promote and distribute the recordings. That will be a very exciting event, if in fact it happens.

In May, I have the opportunity to visit with SIL and Wycliffe people from all over the world at the international conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Apart from brushing shoulders with the top leaders in the fields of Bible translation and linguistics, I have the opportunity to visit with three friends from Moody, currently working in Chiang Mai. I wish I could take the whole family, but the busy conference schedule doesn't give me a lot of free time to be with (and help) Andrea and the kids. Plus another opportunity for family travel is penciled in for later in the year.

Within a week or two after returning from Thailand, we will likely be welcoming our next visitors in the form of two young ladies from Moody Bible Institute who will intern with us this summer. We are really excited about hosting some more interns as they add so much to both the project and our lives at home.

In September or October, there is talk of us visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Williamson in a "destination visit" at a cabin in the Pyrenees mountains of Spain, the generous owner of whom is a client of my dad's for many years. Visiting Europe has always scared the dickens out of us as the price tag is so high, but with connections like that, it's an opportunity we have a very hard time passing up.

Lastly, although still only in the "hopeful" stage, there is talk of my roommate from college flying over for a Thanksgiving-time vacation with us. 

2016, the Williamson Year of Visitation, is shaping up to be quite fun, assuming, of course, that God's grace is more than sufficient to carry us through!

Savoring the New Year

As I was beginning work on Friday morning January 1^st, many of you were counting down the final seconds of 2015. Old news for us as Andrea and I had celebrated (though in our sleep) way back while your bean dip was still cooling in the fridge.

Not that the event makes much of a stir over here in Ethiopia where they flip their calendars on the morning of Sept 11 every year, but as with most holidays Andrea and I try to do something "fun" or incorporate some reminder of home. If you ask me what things I most associate with a New Year's Eve celebration, the answers that first pop into my head are quite unusual. It's not the staying up late and watching the Times Square ball drop non-climatically an hour early for us in the Central Time Zone. It's not being with good friends, as I think last year was one of the only times I can remember ringing it in in such company. It's not even the ugly "sombrero" chips and dip tray my family breaks out on only this occasion.

No, the first things I think of are "The Blues Brothers movie" and a "cheese and sausage tray." Once upon a time, I remember my family watching the Blues Brothers movie on New Year's Eve. Then the next year, seeing that it wasn't programmed to be showing, we went to the local Blockbuster (remember those?) and rented it. And thus the association stuck in my mind. Well, we don't own the blues brothers movie over here in Ethiopia, so the closest I could get was in listening to the songs "Rawhide" and "Sweet Home Chicago." A poor substitution I know, I had to imagine Princess Lea unleashing her spray of bullets in the sewer followed by the nearly 3,000 Chicago PD cars piling up in the ridiculous final car chase. Sad.

 And so to make up for dropping the ball on the movie, I certainly enjoyed the cheese and sausage tray to the hilt this year, thanks to a summer sausage "log" we bought last March and the Wisconsin straight-from-the-factory blocks of cheese I carried back when I was last in the States. When combined with some crackers bought here in country, we had ourselves a true New Year's Day treat! And, trust me, things like this just taste that much better over here!