The Higby Herald - January 2012

Dear Friends,

With the torn up linoleum floor and broken shower, I would only give this hotel one star. Yet with all the excitement going on, I couldn’t be more oblivious to the accommodations here in Sandema.  It is a small town up in the northern part of Ghana.  For the next two weeks, the word collection workshop that we are initiating for the Bulsa people will be actively scooping up Buli words in the conference room down the hall.  They will also be adding the English meanings and entering them into the computer so that we will have a printed copy we can leave with them at the end, and an electronic copy we can put on the web for any and all to use. We have two main reasons for doing this:

1. To help the Buli language become formally recognized as an official language of Ghana. This would allow Bulsa children to be taught in their own language at school in addition to English.
2. To capture the new Rapid Word Collection process on video and promote it for language projects everywhere.  Remember, words are the building blocks for any Bible Translation effort.

Realizing that the average word list or dictionary for a minority language contains between four and six thousand words after years of work, we want to give you a front seat on the activity these next two weeks, starting now through February 3.  Updates will be sent with the word tally and progress each day from a cell phone on site. See the updates on the right sidebar of our website or if you have Twitter, subscribe to @DougWBT to get them directly on your phone or tablet.

I won’t say any more about what we expect or I’ll spoil the fun!  But I have to share this story as just a glimpse of how God’s presence has been evident each step of this trip so far:

In Washington, I asked the woman at the counter if there were any exit aisle seats left, but all were taken.  For $90 they would be glad to put me in Economy Plus with extra legroom.  “No thanks, I’ll take my chances” I said, and sat down to wait for boarding.  I think that what I meant (and should have said) was “No thanks, I’ll trust God for a seat I can fit in”.  Two minutes later I was called to the counter because “the computer wasn’t happy about something”.  Despite three clerks looking at the computer screen, they couldn’t figure out why my name kept popping up for attention.  One said to the other, “Do you know anything else I can try?”  I jokingly said, “Upgrade him to first class, that always works”.  They smiled wryly at me and told me I could sit down while they resolved the issue.  When I was called back up next, I was handed two new boarding passes for myself and my colleague, Art, for the Economy Plus section.  God’s faithfulness is just plain overwhelming!  I slept soundly on the overnight flight and was able to hit the ground running in Ghana.

Partners in the Gospel,

Doug & Priscilla Higby

Prayer Requests:

• The video team director does not have a visa for Ghana and will be boarding the plane to go there late today (18th) or early tomorrow (19th).  Actually, there is a booth to get a visa upon arrival in Ghana, but for some reason the airlines don’t know that and insist on a visa before allowing you to board.  Please pray that he will be allowed to board the plane so he can be on time to film the workshop.
• Praise God that the team of participants had been completely assembled before we arrived and are ready to be trained and get down to business.
• Pray for results that will make language projects around the world stand up and take notice of the new approach, for the benefit of both children’s education and Bible Translation.
• Lastly, we appreciate your continued prayers for our family during this wild ride of a furlough.  We have a lot more traveling to do, but for most of it, Priscilla and I will be together.  With gas prices so high, it is costly to get around. But we are committed to sharing news of God-at-work wherever we can.