The Year in Review

When 2013 started I was working as a missionary to the Philippines with Wycliffe Bible Translators. My final assignment there was to serve as Director for the field organization SIL Philippines. That allowed me to participate in some remarkable opportunities. For instance, I was privileged to join the dedication ceremonies of several translated New Testaments.

Another highlight was leading the organization in a field conference just following the New Year. It was the first time we combined foreigners and national employees in the same gathering.

Later in the year we celebrated 60 years of SIL working in cooperation with the government of the Philippines. At the invitation of Brother Armin Luistro (pictured to the right), the Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd), we signed a new Memorandum of Agreement.

Among other things, the agreement clarified that DepEd education policies would use the language categories as documented by SIL in the Ethnologue.

As much as I loved my job as Director, this year marked the time to make a significant change. For several years I had felt that my calling was to encourage local congregations to worship in meaningful ways through the role of pastor. So in May I resigned from SIL. (My successor as Director, Jason Griffiths, is in the far left of this photo.) I became a certified candidate for ordination in the United Methodist Church and was granted a local license for pastoral ministry in the North Carolina Annual Conference of the UMC.

In June our family moved to Oxford, North Carolina, where I have been appointed to serve two congregations: Salem UMC and Harris Chapel UMC. This is a student pastor appointment, as I am also studying at Duke Divinity School, a United Methodist seminary associated with Duke University.

Life is very different this December 31 than it was one year ago. Hopefully this year will not require as many changes! But I'm doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing, and I consider it a tremendous blessing to serve these two congregations as their pastor. Duke is as challenging and inspiring as I had hoped it would be.