The We-Wu Up To September 19, 2025

I dip my toe into the news off and on. I didn’t used to. As a student of history, I was more interested in the past. The distant past, actually - nothing sooner than 50 years ago. It wasn’t out of spite or anything. I just didn’t believe (and I’m still doubtful) that you could really gain a good grasp of an event or time period until a suitable amount of time had passed.

Also, if I spend too much time looking at the news, I get depressed.

In the last few years, though, it has been more difficult to avoid current events. History is made and forgotten in the span of a few weeks these days. And as I have been reminded by Elon Musk, of all people, politics in particular is going to happen to me whether I want it to or not.

But I don’t talk about it. Not much, and only in cases that are particularly difficult to ignore. My politics are a very small part of who I am, and I’m much more interested in what God tells me is true than what the rest of the world believes. I’m also a missionary and an employee, and while I don’t ever speak on behalf of my organization, I’m aware that I’m a reflection of it. Right or wrong, people will assume that what I say has the backing or support of OMS.

The last week, though, has tested me sorely. I have lost respect for so many people, gained respect for a few, and just generally been so disgusted and horrified and depressed that it’s been difficult to focus on regular life.

For the first time, I think I realized that there is a potential for violent response to the things that I write or say. Intellectually, I know there’s such a thing as martyrs. I know people have died because of their faith. But to my shame, I didn’t think about it happening in the United States. I assumed that people who disagreed with me would fight with words. I didn’t realize that bullets were now on the table.

This doesn’t make me want to speak less. It makes me want to speak more. More than ever, I believe that people are lost and in need of a Savior, but they are also in need of some kind of moral framework. Right has become wrong, and wrong has become celebrated in this topsy-turvy world. That needs to be addressed.

So if you start to see stuff you’re not used to me talking about, that’s why. If you disagree with my take, I’d love to hear about it and have a productive conversation about it. I think we should try to defeat ideas instead of people. I’ll try to do my part to stick to ideas and policies. I can promise you that I will never celebrate someone’s death or downfall.

Now, on to the regularly scheduled program. You can probably tell from the title that I couldn’t actually remember the last We-Wu we did, so I’ll just try to cover the last few weeks and hope that suffices.

Our work on Village Church Planting continues apace. I’ll try to delineate for you each aspect of what we’re doing.

Edition 1, Term 7-8 - We are finishing the first round of VCP in four languages. Translations are still coming in, and trainers are still working on finishing out this first round of education.

Edition 2, Term 1 - After all of the English and French students went through the first round of VCP, we took a look at the feedback and decided to make some revisions. In some cases, these are small edits. In other cases, we’re moving whole lessons around, deleting entire paragraphs, and rewriting others. These revisions need to be made first in English and then translated into French and subsequent languages. Our main issue is that this second round of training is coming up, and it’s taking longer than we hoped to get all of the changes made. (There are a lot of documents. A LOT.)

Phase 2 - Think of this as continuing education. Everyone who went through the first round of training is encouraged to continue spiritual formation and leadership development. In theory, this would happen concurrently with the second round of VCP training. These materials have (mostly) been written, but I am going through them to do editing and formatting.

All of these are happening simultaneously as we transition more of the oversight of VCP onto my plate along with T&M. Honestly, it’s been a challenge. I wasn’t involved in building the file system for VCP, so I’m definitely behind the curve on that, and there are just so many files! Every term, it’s something different, and while there is some crossover, it’s not across the board, so I’m doing my best to tread water while kicking away a few sharks.

(I’m still being cryptic about stuff outside work, I know. It’s not really relevant other than it’s taking up mental and emotional space. I’m working through it. This last week hasn’t helped, but I’m trying to compartmentalize things so I can keep work at work and home at home.)

That has been the majority of what I’ve worked on lately. Except for that one small thing about writing a speech for my 15-year recognition.

I have no control over my facial expressions.

Yes, I finally got it done the day before chapel. I definitely had to let the spirit lead on this one. If you’d care to listen to it, you can follow this link. As a bonus, you can also listen to my friend Larson celebrate five years with OMS.

Two other notable things this week. On Tuesday, I woke up to the building shaking.

We got new front steps and sidewalk sections! I do appreciate a smoother stride.

Secondly, I did spend most of Thursday away from my desk…

…because I was at the front desk! I was a temporary fill-in, and the headset didn’t actually work. But I answered 10 phone calls very professionally. And I let in a UPS driver once I figured out how the door lock worked.

I think that’s it. It’ll have to be because Sarah isn’t here to remind me of anything I forgot. She’s leaving me alone for a week so she can go to Mexico for some reason. Rude.

Take care of some small stuff. Watch out for big stuff. Don’t be afraid to talk about Jesus.

Bye!