July 14, 2007
with no further ado...
Beloved friends,What a busy year! I hope your summer is being filled with God-glorifying and God-enjoying work and relationships, and that you're staying out of the heat and/or rain!
My July newsletter highlights a few of the things that have been occupying my time.
http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_jul07.pdf
Here are the headlines:
- Engaged in Holy War (devotional)
- Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx) continues to impress missionaries
- My annual thousand-dollar oil change (finances)
- Personal Files (dating, seminary, godparenting)
In His Spirit,
Eric D. Pyle
ps. If you're using Acrobat Reader 7.0, clicking on my email "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org" at the bottom of the pdf seems to result in "pyle@wycliffe.org" which is incorrect. Please use "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org", or better yet, reply to this email!
Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200
February 10, 2007
a new look for 2007
Beloved friends,
There are many good things to report for God's work in my life this past
year. My (1 page) newsletter highlights a few of the things worth bringing to
your attention.
http://www.opcnorman.org
Here are the headlines:
- Fieldworks Language Explorer 1.0 (FLEx) has been released!
- Fieldworks is Free!
- Seminary Bookmark
- 2006 Annual Report
- Check-IT-Out in Dallas (May 18 & 19)
If you've been following my past newsletters, you may notice
the new style. What better way to celebrate what God has done for us last year
and what He will do for the new year!
Serving In His Name,
Eric D. Pyle
ps. Before you forget, if you have a newsletter that you send out to
your friends and family every year, could you also add me to your list?
Or if your church has a newsletter or prayer requests you can share, I'd
like to receive those updates as well. I like to stay in tune with
everyone's lives as much as possible!
Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org
Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200
October 24, 2006
morning devotional for my software team
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who
has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given
a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
As we take a closer look today at all that we've been doing, all that we've accomplished, and how we can improve for the future, let's give thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Deism
is a constant temptation for us, as we walk in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to
walk in each day. Though we probably don't imagine God booting up
his laptop at
But what about all those things that seem to get in our way for doing all the good works we've planned? Surely, God is out to lunch when those happen! Those twenty emails that arrived after I just caught up. Those jira issues that seem to come in faster than we can fix them.
Our God is not just Lord of the finished product in all its glory, but over the entire process, however frustrating or time consuming it may seem sometimes. We want all that is glorious now, all at once, apart from inconveniences, apart from pain. Our Creator is not only interested in our software passing all the tests, but our very hearts. When push comes to shove, it is our attitudes and character that God gives priority in his heavenly triage. We need constant debugging. He has taken ownership over our development, even when He isn't to blame for the bugs we'd rather call "features" in our hearts, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
He is much more patient with us than we are with Him. He is a God who pleases to take His time. He took six days to call all things good, savoring the last day as best. He delighted in the development process, when He could have just clicked on a shortcut. His Spirit took over a thousand years to inscripturate the Holy Scripture. He endured thousands of years of rebellion until time was appointed to labor in birth with His promised Son. The Son learned the obedience of an eternal priest for us through the things he suffered. And it pleased His Father to take time to crush the Son on our behalf.
Look at the bigger picture now. The whole creation still groans with childbirth pains for our glorification. We are participants in that new creation, the regeneration of all things. Christ is the firstborn and His church is the center of that new cosmos to come. We are the temple from which His glory will fill the earth. Every day, new stones are being made alive, sons of Abraham, crying out, declaring His glory.
Programming should be for us an act of faith that God
is using to build His church. We are not just IT support. We are
Can't
you hear the Lamb in heaven breaking the seals of His scroll across the globe,
shaking all that remains to be shaken? (Rev 5:9) Countless peoples are
worshipping God in their own tongue. Praise the Lord!
September 17, 2006
We're getting close
I've had a dream--lexicography software with tools specifically designed to easily and efficiently collect data and develop a database. FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) is the realization of that dream. With tens of thousands of lexemes in a language, efficiency is not a luxury. The Bulk Edit tools in FLEx efficiently handle massive amounts of data. For the first time I have an easy to use tool that eliminates much of the tedium. Now I can concentrate on analysis and decision making. -- Ron Moe, SIL Lexicographer.
Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200
September 15, 2006
Culture shock
One morning early West African morning, Gordon, a co-worker of mine at SIL, arose to find his family had lost power to their house. He went outside to look at the teleophone poles. Behold: Not only had they lost power to their house, there was no longer any power line! 200 feet or more of power line had been completely stolen during the night!
Gordon phoned the utilities company. They said that their truck had broken down, so he'd have to pick them up if he wanted the line replaced. That's what he did. On their way out, Gordon, astonished by the stolen power line, asked the men, "Isn't it dangerous for people to cut a power line?" The utilities men knodded enthusiastically, "Oh yes. It is very dangerous. Half of the time when we come to replace these lines we find a dead man next to the pole."
Shocking story? Welcome to West Africa! Just goes to show how much we take our cultural infrastructures here in the US for granted.
June 17, 2006
how have i been?
Dear beloved,
In service to many who might be wondering "How have you been?", you may now read my June 2006 newsletter online:
http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_jun06.pdf
You can also find it as the latest communication highlighted on my webpage (which I've recently updated):
http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/#Communications
Thanks for your enduring friendship in Him!
Eric D. Pyle
Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address :
1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators :
P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200
February 4, 2006
2005 Annual Report (Wycliffe)
Dear friends and loved ones, this past year had plenty of good surprises:
In Giving
In
2005, God surprised me with two
new partners in giving. What a joy it is
to discover, apart from my prompting or their announcement, additional people
joining
our work for the vision of God's glorious future among the nations!
I was also startled to discover at the end of the year that giving had met 98% of my average monthly quota! What amazing team of supporters God has given me! Over half of the committments were completely fulfilled, and a few even increased their commitment or gave above their pledge. Praise the Lord!
| A few of my main contributers have notified me of not being able to continue the same level of support this coming year. Please pray that the Lord will provide more partners to help cover any deficits. |
|
I was able to present my work to a couple of church groups this past
year. Please pray for more of these opportunities to let others know about the
work I do. I have already spoken to a men's group in January at the
church where I worship. Everyone said it was very interesting and informative!
In Prayer and Encouragement
Toward the end of the year, I was overwelmed with the number of people who
told me they have been praying for me on a weekly basis, unbeknownst to me! And
looking back, I can see that God has surely provided for me in a number of
important ways, including work, school, and fellowship:
I really love the work I'm doing here; my fellow teammates are family to me!
Our team successfully completed the Beta of Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLex
for short). This is the Grammar and Lexicon tool I've been working on for the
past year. It is in the process of being distributed to field workers and should
be freely available to download soon. Pray that missionaries working in minority
languages would be able to use FLex for their language projects and will give
us helpful feedback so this year we can continue to make it more useful to
them.
In other news, I successfully completed two seminary classes this past year
taught by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. Seminary continues to be a rich and challenging
experience, and I trust that the Lord will bless my studies for the benefit
of his church. Please pray that I will have the time and money needed to complete
the 13 hours for a Masters of Arts in Religion over the next two years. (Classes
currently run $340 per credit hour.)
Church
worship and fellowship is a highlight every week. It's been amazing
to see so many families with children growing up in the Lord, and to
get to know some of them. I've also been blessed to get to know several
linguistics students and missionary kids (MKs) over the past year,
who frequent the cafeteria on campus. I've especially enjoyed
meeting with the MKs on a weekly basis to watch and discuss movies
that invite spiritual reflection. I've even had a few opportunities to
get to know some godly women this past year. You may continue to pray
for that as well, as I know a number of you have been! :-)
Yours by His faithfulness, Eric D. Pyle |
[View and Comment on my picture album of my
work environment:
visit EricPyle.shutterfly.com ]  "God's blessing Eric! We are so proud of you. Love, Gayle and Stan" |
September 27, 2005
we're expecting! (Wycliffe news)
Eric D. Pyle
Webpage: http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address: 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators: P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200