I didn't realize how much I had allowed myself to worry about our trucking situation. Looking back I can see now that it was always nagging in the back of my mind. Every packing decision seemed to be influenced by our method of transporting our household to Waxhaw. I needed to nail some of the details down. So, this became my first order of business once I was on break for the Christmas holiday. Little did I know God would test me and teach me an important lesson in the process.

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Steve and Glenda were commissioned into full time missions ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translators by Unity Bible Church on November 22nd, 2009.

This October I was invited to attend my first missionary fund raising banquet. I wasn't sure what to expect. As I took my seat at the table Ron, who was sitting directly across from me, saw my name tag and said, "So, you're a missionary with Wycliffe?" "Yes", I said. Immediately he said, "Great. I have some questions for you." He explained that he was a doctor and had been on several short term mission trips to Uganda where he used his skills to help people with their medical needs as a way of opening the door to sharing the Gospel.

JAARS—like the translators we support—is guided by one overarching vision: to be a catalyst for changing lives through God’s Word.

In September 2008, a month after we'd become members with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Glenda and I took the boys to Rumford, ME for Missions at the Airport. JAARS was there with a short take off and landing plane and a helicopter. While we were there I took the opportunity to purchase a JAARS baseball cap.

In addition to addressing the primary issue of spiritual salvation by bringing the Gospel of Jesus to the developing world Bible translation efforts are impacting social justice issues such as literacy, cultural preservation, and health.

Recently I was listening to a panel discussion that included Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas. His church is on the smaller end of huge with about six thousand people.

Someone asked the panel, "Should we abandon the para-church ministries we're involved in and try to make them a part of the local church?" After some nervous laughter from the crowd, and the panelists, Matt said, "There are certain para-church organizations that the church needs that a church, no matter how big it got or how talented it got would never be able to do... I could get the smartest people we have [in our church of 6,000 people] and we're never going to be able to translate the Bible into some language of a people group."

Amber is a Wycliffe missionary working to meet basic medical needs in order to share the Gospel.