I need to introduce you to one of my coworkers, SL. There are three of us who work on the linguistic research project for the Dong language, and we have spent much time together.

 

I have been to SL’s hometown, met his family, and watched him and how he acts in many different situations. The last survey trip was just him and me, so we were either traveling together, working together, banqueting together, or in the motel room talking together. I have a deeper understanding and respect for him now that he is more than just a roommate with whom I work. He is almost 60, a foremost scholar of the Dong language at one of of the country’s best universities, and all this from humble beginnings as a “counter revolutionary” assigned to teach middle school in the Dong countryside to students who now fill most of the important positions in that area’s local government.

 

He is realistic, open-eyed to the outside world, but has not quite figured me out. Never did a banquet go by (and that is saying something, since we had more than 10 in one week) that he did not mention my faith during dinner conversation; never did a night go by that he did not ask me some question or another about the way I lived my life. He does not say much, but is slowly building a picture of what my life is like. We have had some great conversations, many about the Dong way of life and their spiritual beliefs— he has been away from that for many years—and I do pray that God will work in his heart and give him a desire for a God that is in control, for freedom from sin, and the promise of life eternal with the God of creation.

• Please plead for God to work in Mr. SL and Mr.PYR’s hearts.

We have been going solid for weeks now on this linguistic survey and have more to go in this spurt of work. Where I live, I have to work two times as much as my two Chinese colleagues simply because I am the tech guy for the survey and spend much of my time archiving data, updating materials, digitizing recordings, and things of the like. On survey trips, we all have the same work load, and I can enjoy my surroundings when we have finished working for the day.

• Please pray that as we travel that I would continue to be used by God in the lives of my two colleagues.

I had such a good plan, but China does not have much mercy on our planning. I had begun to tell folks the survey had about a month left of travel and data collection, and after that, I would work on wrapping up the survey work.

 

Most of the southern Dong areas have been finished (except two quick locations), and the remainder is all in the northern areas. I just found out that SL, the colleague on whom all the northern research relies (because he is the only one on the team who speaks the northern dialect) will not be able to come down until later because he has to work at the university where he teaches extra this summer. So the biggest remaining chunk of the research waits till he comes.

 

I have another month to cram in one week worth of research with Mr. PYR down in the south, though there  is always plenty of archiving work to do for the survey when my colleagues are not able to travel.

• As for the survey work, please pray that I will be able to stick to the tedious (and rear-numbing) archiving of computerized survey files. Also pray that this last trip (sometime in the next three weeks or so) with PYR will be another opportunity for God to work on his heart; pray that God will draw him unto faith.