Home away from home...Karao

Imagine that your work place is three and a half hours from home. This work place, sometimes a home away from home, is a tiny rustic shack tucked away in a valley with steep hills and a white-water river running close by. Outside your dinning room window is a lovely view of lush green rice terraces and the opposing valley wall. But not all is tranquil. Pigs, along with their aroma, live but a stones toss from your front door. The chickens that live under your house are clearly seen through the gaps in your wood planked floor, smooth and glossy from years of waxing with rough coconut husks. The adjoining lean-to which houses your "squatty-potty", is also shared with neighbors. Hot water is available, by heating it on the stove. Electricity, although available, is not terribly reliable and this house must be "down the line" as it only provides you with 211 of the usually supplied 220 volts. How long would it be before you began scouring the classifieds?

This 'home away from home' is going to be 'HOME HOME' to Bible translator Sherri Brainard this coming July after the Bagabag center closes. So Sherri is doing everything she can to get her simple residence ready for full time work/living.

Rodney, with colleague Tad Wulliman and workman Dionicio (Dye-oh-niece-ee-oh) took Sherri out to Karao this month for a very long work day of preparing her village house for future living. We installed two 'kit' bookshelves (made in kit form because they would not make it upstairs fully assembled), one kitchen cabinet, a spice rack, and chest of drawers...along with many other miscellaneous tasks like relocating electrical lights/wiring or shaving wood from her door so it will fully open without binding.

But Sherri's "shack" is merely a means to an end...that end being transformed lives of the Karao people, from having God's word in their language. Please pray for Sherri as she prepares for the next 7+ years, completing 36 years of Bible translation in the Philippines.