Visiting Xanga

I'm back for a short visit. I think I kind of like the feel of Xanga compared to Facebook, as Esther said. Yes, we finally broke down and got Facebook, since just about all our relatives and a number of friends have it. If you want to keep up with the baby pictures and video clips, this is the way to do it now.

I have gotten back to Mom's letters somewhat since I last posted. I also scanned the Yagua O.T. portions and a Yagua hymnbook. In exploring ways to make them available, I have looked at Lulu, a self-publishing company on-line. Through them you can now get Yagua New Testaments, so I ordered two, as there were two versions offered, and I wanted to check out the quality etc. They came very quickly, and the paper is good quality. They are paperback. Although I suppose the quality is somewhat dependent on the choice of the person publishing.

However, I had a great surprise when I opened the second of the two books and found inside the vocal score to Princess Ida by Gilbert & Sullivan. I thought I would send it back to be fixed, but I've had such fun with it, showing it to people as the new Yagua NT I got, and watching them discover what is really in it. I guess that's one of the risks of publishing on demand.

It's been a long time. A good deal of that time has been spent in various ways connected to a friend who just moved up from Texas. Most of it was in helping run a Paltalk room that she runs every day with sermons and music. When she couldn't do it, I would help fill in, but I have also been spending a lot of time in the room, getting to know her better, and others who come in and out of the room. I can't keep on like this, however, because I have other things I need to do.

I also spent some time with her in various other ways, to help her get here and get settled in.

I finished scanning the book of my Dad's, and now it's my husbands turn to play book editor and lay-out person. I have permission to offer print-outs on demand with the proceeds to go to the Yagua recorded scriptures project. We are also making copies for the family, as it is out of print. (There are a few copies available on-line for several hundred dollars.)

In this beautiful weather, I managed to make myself go out and cut up tree branches for a few hours. I really felt it afterwards, so I guess I'm pretty out of shape, but my back straightened out pretty quickly, Praise God, and just some of my leg muscles are still a bit sore.

And there is plenty of garden clean-up to do, now that the weather's looking like spring. I feel like everything I had been doing is on hold. The letter project is several layers buried, the Yagua stuff has been partly buried, and now there are new things. I don't like this. I want to get back to the old projects and finish them.

Guess I've been out to lunch this past month. Seems like Facebook is the big thing these days, a lot of my relatives are on it, just about all my kids, and a surprising number of old folks. I haven't gone there yet. . . don't like the potential it has for consuming time.

Still sorting out info, pursuing leads, scanning a book of my dad's. Latest thing is trying to help my brother figure out some of the songs that Dad put in the with Scriptures for the Yaguas. He's trying to trace them so we can get permission to use them if we need to, or know that we don't need to. I have audio clips for them, and Sarah posted the ones Earl was still trying to trace. They are in Yagua, no supposedly about it. There is talking around it, I think explanations of the song, and perhaps the title in Spanish.

The Lord has been very merciful to me and healed me of a potentially serious condition. I have also felt more alert, more chipper, more youthful. He is also working in various ways in our lives, blessing and encouraging. I am ever so grateful to Him.

As Sarah mentioned, the weekend conference was uplifting. I sensed more unity than in the past, which is like balm to the spirit. The Lord was there. I feel a continuing sense of the Lord working, a growing hope in what lies ahead. There has been no let down after a high. It was not so much an emotional high as a sense of peace and healing. I have also been reading in early Acts in my Bible reading, which fits into the joy of expectation.

I believe the Lord is working among the young people, and it looks like they might be getting together more often in the future, and that more of them desire a spiritual meeting, and not just fun and games. That has yet to be fleshed out, but I look forward to watching the Lord work.

I have heard back from my intermediate source that the pastor of the Yagua village is willing to take players around. He talked about taking his father, who knows all the places. Yes, his father went around with my father many times. But he set dates for when he could go, and it will be a miracle for the players to be ready for him by Feb. 10. So I trust the Lord will work it out that he can go later, or work the miracle to have them ready early. As he said, the trip takes about two months. But since some others will probably be helping with a bit of the distribution, maybe he won't have that long of a trip. I don't know. The Lord will work it out.

The company is gone, quiet is restored, and some moderate things have been accomplished. I have organized my father's e-mails, noted that some are interesting, and read some that might pertain to current needs. Joe finished copying out all the files onto CDs, which include things of no use to me, but some of the things I would have thought of no use a few months ago, I have found useful since, so we just copied it all.

I have made a couple of contacts with people who are living in Peru who will most likely be helpful in the distribution of the players. Both intermediaries. The one wrote a letter for me that will be delivered by another to the pastor of the village Dad and Mom worked out of most.

I began looking through some file folders Dad had let me take, to find info to help a ministry to the Yaguas, and found a map and a listing of the places where Dad delivered New Testaments, and a description of different villages, though that is hard to read. That might be useful in delivering the players. The Yaguas are scattered widely along the Amazon River and it's tributaries, often only a few houses to a village. But a lot of them move a lot. There were also some other interesting items in the folders which I glanced over to varying degrees. I have a specific purpose now, and will look again later with more leisure.

Today I plan to look through more folders.