Difficult situations tend to present us with difficult choices.
The Translation Center at UKIT, for several months has operated in exile.
The University has been under turmoil for some time, strife between the Synod and the government leadership. I do not know you is right or who is wrong or if it can even be simplified that much. But because of the situation the Center hade to leave the campus and moved its operations to one of the staff’s homes. This was a temporary fix and came at a great cost of inconvenience and stress for the staff as well as other consequences.
However, through God’s providence the Center was given a place back on the campus in a good location for its offices.
It is a tremendous blessing and a tremendous task to relocate back. All the furniture, computers, books, files…everything had to go back. And the building itself needed some work. A carpenter did much of the basic work before the moving day.
There were still a lot of things that needed tending to, so we spent a few days helping the staff get everything ready. So, after visiting the Kindergarten that Friday morning, we began the exodus back.
Fortunately, despite the needs of the clove harvest, someone provided us with a large truck to move the furniture. Without this the task would have been impossible. There were several large desks, tables, several large bookcases and many chairs. Also, there were the laptops, PC’s, printers and all the obvious accessories. A couch and coffee table, water coolers, plants….all manner of things had to be trucked back across town and carried up the hill to the building. All of the reference books and many of the translated works along with other materials needed to be moved, thankfully the intermittent rain held off while they were being transported.
After loading the truck for the first trip, most of us climbed on top, to stabilize the load and hitch a ride to the office. As we road through town we were quite the sight….only laborers ride in the back of trucks…not office people, especially not westerners. After all was unloaded and the staff began to get things arranged and settled in, the office began to feel like their new home.
We had to spend the rest of Friday teaching English, and had other adventures planned for the weekend, but we returned on Monday to help wrap up the odds and ends of moving in. There were weeds to pull, windows to wash and some electrical wiring to be done. The roof needed patched and library books sorted. It was our pleasure to help the Translation staff get everything in order so they can resume their work. It was a good time of hard work and great fellowship.
And while there was still much work to be done by the time we had to leave for Bali, there had been a good deal accomplished as well. Moving is never easy, even under the best of circumstances and it was great to see God work out all the details of this move. So many details that none or even all of us could have put it all together.
Please pray for the translators and staff at the center. They are laboring to bring the Word to people who do not yet have it in their own language. It is long difficult work, mentally and spiritually tiring. But the result is of eternal importance.
