The following is just a note on what's up for this week, as an example of what's going on lately in addition to, and as a part of, continual Bangla learning:

I'll try my hand, (or brain and mouth), at preaching twice in Bangla again this month. Basically I prepare almost word for word the entire sermon and then preach it. Someone helps me translate it from English first. My own translations would still turn out mostly unintelligible because of word order and style differences. Then I read it/preach it as best I can. A certain illusion occurs when preaching like this. It appears that I know more Bangla than I actually do. Since I'm using sentences constructed with the aid of a translator--sentences I couldn't possibly construct myself yet--it seems that I'm rather accomplished in Bangla. Of course this illusion is quelled rather sharply in any post-sermon conversations:-) Nevertheless, the last time I preached in Bangla I did break off of the manuscript on a few very short occasions, which at least granted me the confidence that not every word needs to be in place beforehand.

In addition to preaching preparations, I'm planning on two out-of-town visits for Bangla, culture, and church exposure. The first one is just for a day with a friend. We'll go to his hometown for the first-year death anniversary of his father. For Christians it's a time to remember their loved ones and pray for the surviving family members and descendants.

After that I'll head to a conference for a couple hundred pastors from the Assemblies of God congregations. This will be a great opportunity to meet pastors and promote CCTB, as well as get a huge earful of biblical Bangla. A pastor from New Zealand is the guest speaker, so I'll get the benefit of hearing it first in English and then translated into Bangla.

In addition to this, I'm helping to facilitate the initial Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) conference in Nepal. This is a really exciting opportunity for equipping both pastors and lay leaders in churches in the basics of pastoral ministry, such as stewardship, preaching and teaching, pastoral care, etc. The genius of TLT seems to be twofold: First, it uses SMART goals so that participants create action plans to carry out what they have learned and provide accountability to the group. Second, TLT is designed to quickly attain a life of it's own after the materials have been translated and the initial trainings have been completed. Then a TLT institute in the new country, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, will carry on the continue expansion of getting training throughout the country.

The first module has recently been translated into Bangla and is underway in Nepali. As a result of this upcoming training, thousands of people will benefit in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Thailand. More details in a few weeks.

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