Lots of lessons and blessings!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post! It feels good to have my laptop back in commission. God is still in the miracle business, and while He may no longer multiply fish, He DOES multiply small things like a check for shipping costs, into big things- my $800 motherboard for free under the last 3 months of my warranty! I think God does things like that just to: A) remind us He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, B) He still controls our vastly complex world down here on planet Earth, and C) is intimately acquainted with the minute details of the lives of His children (wait, didn't I just say something like that a couple months ago? God just continues to amaze me with His personal touch)

As to my work, I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through the Spanish courses, I just finished a 25 lesson series on Thursday and started in on a 24 lesson series after that. I feel a little bad for the Mexican gal doing my proofing- she has quite the mountain of lessons printed out and stacked on her desk ready for her to read. It appears a 3 book- 9 lesson course called "Spirit World" will be the first, officially print ready course in Spanish- a good feeling for me! I'll back up a second here- 2 weeks ago our proofer arrived, a really nice 23-year old girl from Alcupoco, Mexico named Iris. She went on a cruise for her 15th birthday and met her ex-boyfriend who witnessed to her and eventually led her to Christ and then encouraged her to come to the U.S. for college where she attended Pidemont Baptist with a major in missions- isn't it great how God works?! Please pray for Iris, she has to make A LOT of decisions in the next 2 weeks as to whether she is stayng and starting deputation or if she will seek ministry opportunities elsewhere. I hope she stays longer because I need a proofer for longer than two more weeks!

I also had the exciting opportunity just this past Thursday to teach a private art lesson to an 8-year old girl named Melia! She is the Busenitz granddaughter (the couple I am living with). I was invited to a family gathering two weeks ago and since I'm not sports inclined, I started drawing the old brick pump house in the backyard. Her mother saw my sketches and her daughter's interest and called me up! It's neat to me to see how that worked since I've been wanting to teach lessons but running into the roadblock of where I was going to do it. With Melia being a family member, it is logical for her to come over here. She's a bright little girl and she will catch on fast. Consequently, she's also left-handed, which makes teaching easier for this "southpaw" gal!

For those of you who know about my musical interests, fear not! Christmas cantata practice started at the church I'm attending down here and I plan on singing with them. The musical is called "The Road to Bethlehem" and I already have a few of the songs stuck in my head- a mark of a good cantata in my book ;) I've also decided to branch out and I'm going to start assisting the Sunday School teacher for the 9 and 10 year-olds at church. I'm anxious/excited to start, it will be interesting to see what God is going to do through that. One thing I've noticed since being here is that without being in constant contact with the world (actually, more like zero contact) I don't have the opportunities to exhort people and witness conversationally like I once did, so I'm hoping in at least some small way helping out with Sunday School will fill that void in my spiritual life. And speaking of church, it's almost time to leave! I love you all! God Bless.

lesson changes and changes that become lessons

I'm sure it's become apparent that I didn't fix my error that evening. So now I face the task of trying to encapsulate all the events of the last month into a blog entry that won't break the scroll wheel on your mice ;) To begin with, I have moved in with Fran and Gil Busenitz since Judy moving to Eatonton at the end of July. I know God wants me here because He makes no mistakes, and there are lessons in everything, though I must say it was quite an adjustment going from living quite independently at Dix Lodge with Judy and I here and there to the Busenitz, who are a sweet couple in their late 60's with a definite pattern for day-to-day life. So while I'm used to grabbing a bowl of cereal, mug of coffee, and my Bible and heading to my desk for devotions, I've adopted their pattern of half hour to forty-five minute personal devotions before breakfast, followed by hot cereal with toast and fruit listening to Turning Point on the radio. I've noticed that I get more out of my devotions now that they're more structured and my prayer life is more consistent, too- both things I've been desiring for a while even before I left to come down here. It's also been a lesson in humility, as Fran, sweetheart that she is, has pretty much taken over cooking and laundry- something I was actually really enjoying as part of my independent adult life, willingly submitting to the pattern of life in their household has been a process over the last few weeks, but God is working with me.

Now for the lesson changes...
Ray Walker, in thinking over this whole overhaul, has decided we are shuffling how the lessons are dispersed between booklets, which is good because it will save paper in the long run. This was pretty easy to do with the newer books, however, after weeks of avoiding it, I had to tackle the first series I worked on when I got here, because it too had to be shuffled around. InDesign files that were Quark files do strange things the more you copy and paste them- like odd text wraps and layers- it's made me feel like some kind of file detective or doctor, diagnosing the situation or hunting down the culprit responsible for the mysterious missing text in my caption boxes. I've uncovered most of the mysteries and so thankfully I won't have to spend too much time on that series the second time around.
On the end of the lessons I'm building up from scratch, I'm humming along quite well! Each book you do gives more insight into the best order to aproach things like adding text and images and fixing hyphenations, but I think each little tweak I make in the process helps me avoid doing things twice or the long way around. I have high hopes of getting through Spanish at least a month ahead of schedule, although be praying that the woman who contacted us from North Carolina will be able to move down here short-term and do our proofing on-site, because we can't print the re-designed work until we know all the text came over from the scans properly. There is also a distinct probablility that our office will be moving. Initially it was thought that we were safe from the demolition zone, but after the work team this past week gutted half the building (I'm thankful for noise-cancelling earphones ;) it became apparent at least one wall of our office has to go too. I had visions of sitting there working and a sledge hammer randomly crashing through the wall behind me, however they will move us before they start that.

Last week we also had the "Go Tell" crusade here in Madison. It was an old-fashioned Billy Graham affair, and I had the privilege of helping with counseling for the people who came forward to make decisions. And while the crusade was primarily an outreach to the unsaved, I came away realizing how much I miss the opportunities I had to share my faith in day-to-day life when I was literally surrounded by non-believers for the majority of my life. It also made me realize just how many opportunities I had to share Christ that I didn't respond and how I hope I never take them for granted again. The last night was my best counseling night, I had two 15 year-old girls on of which re-dedicated her life Wednesday night and the other who re-dedicated on Saturday at the kick-off. I was excited to share with them the things I've been taught and have learned about how to grow closer to Christ. As I shared them, I was struck with how simple, and yet profoundly true they were- like the children's song we taught to the toddlers " Read your Bible, pray everyday, and you'll grow, grow, grow" And yet the everyday part of that is so true, the Holy Spirit needs building materials in our lives to build us into the image of Christ, and if we aren't giving Him a regular supply to work with, it makes His job that much harder and our lives that much less effective for Christ. Their names are Lynn and Shalie, and I've now added them to my prayer list right alongside Kayla, the 13 year-old granddaughter of Ernie and Peggy Hill at the mission. She just accepted Christ about three weeks ago while staying with her grandparents here and volunteering at the mission. While she's back in Florida now, I've made a committment to disciple and encourage her and just try to be a big sister for her, and I'm excited to do that for these girls as well. It's funny how I originally wanted to teach art lessons as a way of meeting kids to disciple or witness to, and how God has given me three girls this way that I have the opportunity to impact. I'd appreciate prayer for wisdom, compassion, and understanding in this. Keeping in touch with people is a sacrifice of both time and energy, and I'm learning day by day that ministering to people like this is what God has called all of us too just as much as He's called me to do graphics work here at Source of Light at this point in my life. I love you all, and I'm sorry this update is so late in coming- the bios battery on my laptop died now, too, and until I get it replaced, my free time to update people on-line is hard to come by. Thankfully Gil booted up the OLD Dell in the computer room and that is where I am currently. Praise the Lord He provides my NEEDS, not always my fast, Apple G4 laptop desires :) God Bless

Praises and prayers

I'm having some technical difficulties- I'll work out the glitches tonight- sorry! :(

Gifts, great and small

I thought I'd hand-write this one- just to spice things up:)
okay, here is their flickr address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27713438@N05/- I'm not sure if the pastor has posted more pics since then or not, but whenever you see me- that will be the group that came down.

Life, Death, and Definitions

This has been an interesting two weeks, a study of contrasts I should say. I have the bittersweetness of feeling very at home down here and this feeling of life and vitality coupled with the news of the tragic and untimely death of a very special young man I had the privilege of working alongside throughout choral and musical productions in high school. And in that vein, I have the conflicted feelings of settling here, but very much wanting to be home with the rest of our grieving community. To further complicate this emotional jumble, Amanda Miller, my best friend just got engaged- and I'm so happy for her! And while I can be ecstatically happy from Georgia, a part of me wants to hug her and jump up and down and "ooh" and "ahh" at her ring like best friends do. I suppose this is what they talk about when they say missionaries give something up- because so far I feel like I've been given abundantly more than I ever expected when I told the Lord I'd come down here for a year (or longer, if He sees fit.)

But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt God wants me here right now, all the pieces fit precisely in the timeline God ordained. We had our quarterly half-day of prayer today, my first (obviously) since arriving. It helped so much with my perspective on where the graphics work I've been doing fits into the grand design of things. Most days I know somewhere in the back of my mind that I have an integral part to play, after all, there was a need and that's why I came, but I don't here about it because like the diligent (some say work-a-holic ;) gal that I am, I only leave my office for lunch and bathroom breaks. So today hearing what everyone is doing and the impact our lessons are having all over the globe from our humble headquarters here in Madison helped refresh in my mind just why what we do is so very important. It also occurred to me (this is the definition part) that while I still want to write and illustrate my very own children's book, that God has a way of granting the desires of my heart- but they often come in different packages than I originally expected, what I mean is this:
As an illustrator, one of my great desires would be to a) publish overtly Christian children's books that Christian families can read together, that can get kids excited about their faith in Christ, or lead them to it perhaps. Also b) that I might be able to work in the secular industry in such a way that when,in our internet age, people see my work and look me up on the web, they could read my biography and see some of my other imagery and thus get them to think about Christ that way. Either way, my bottom line has always been that I might be able to use my talents in a way that I can impact the world around me for Christ. Fast-forward to today: I got the global vision again and realized that as I get files ready to print, or (my favorite) re-design old lessons to have more zing when they're re-printed, that while I may not be painting, I am indeed, still impacting the world for Christ through the talents God has given me. And wasn't that my desire in the first place? The problem is: will I let pride get in the way of my triumphing in the joy of this? After 4 years of having a successful illustration career drummed into my head and the object of being a published illustrator so firmly fixed in my mind as the measure of success- my pride wants to tell me I have failed, I am not a success, but if I re-wind back to my heart's desire, I see the REAL truth- that by using my graphics skills here at Source of Light, I am in all likelihood touching more people with the Gospel of Christ through my talents than even my most successful children's book ever may.

And when I really think about success, I find myself thinking about Matt. Because he was VERY fruitful for God's kingdom- it wasn't like he was a disobedient child God took home, on the contrary, he was a shining light. And so while to our human understanding it is completely baffling- in God's eyes, at age 22, before he began his career or got married, two of our biggest human benchmarks for success- Matt's life had fulfilled God's purpose, and his days here were completed. THAT really changes your perspective on success.

revisions, revisions, REVISIONS oh, and more revisions

I'm beginning to understand why Marianne said this would be a 3-5 year endeavor total, yikes! Don't get me wrong, I AM getting SOMETHING accomplished, but I sort of feel like I'm trying to move an ocean with a drinking glass. I'll elaborate-

Last week from Monday to Thursday I buzzed along like a happy little hummingbird fixing the "Country Called Heaven" course Spanish, other than some cantankerous fonts, it's really going quite smoothly. So I said to myself, "this is GREAT I'll get this whole course done by the end of the month!" however a little thing called revisions came creeping over the horizon. The first book took about 3 revisions- which now means we can send it to the Spanish speaking people at our Kansas branch to proof read- hopefully they will like everything and we can go to print (please, oh pretty please!)

I say this because the "Life of Christ" course in Spanish was designed when my parents were graduating from high school with paper and glue- the dreaded "paste-up" my professors all spoke of with a sort of hushed demeanor when chastising us for complaining about some difficulty with our computer programs. Anywho- there are NO digital files of them ANYWHERE, nada- zip. Which brings us to:

Heather's 4 Step Method for Text Extraction:
1. Scan each page of the document (with a really quite noisy scanner, Marianne agrees)
2. Once saved as a .tiff file (which is done in one fell swoop upon scanning) I drag the file over to the Acrobat Reader icon (this is what I love about Macs- instant file opening!)
3. OCR- this stands for Optical Character Recognition- which I believe is an art rather than a science, as artful borders, very large illustrations, small squiggly text, and the assorted é, í, ñ, etc. characters all confuse it.
4. I select the text and paste it into a Word document where I compare the text on my screen to the text in the book and fix the weird hieroglyphics so a normal (Spanish-speaking) person can actually understand them. I can now alt+e, e; alt+e, i, and alt+n, n, with great speed (where was this knowledge when I had Spanish class?!)

Okay, at this point I sit back, take a deep breath and smile- I have all the text necessary for one lesson booklet- Hey, it's a big deal to me! Now I can play :)
The only trouble is, after 2+ days of looking at one booklet in-progress, I can be totally, 100% convinced I have it formated perfectly- only to print it out and have Marianne and myself locate 10-15 rather obvious errors in about 5 minutes *deep sigh* so it's back to the computer. I've been assured this is normal, and it is why it takes so long to get this stuff done, but I'm astounded that I can actually miss that much- I spent this afternoon staring at a booklet I had already been over about twice with eyeball wrenching intensity- and lo and behold! I found about 5 more errors*
*error- in graphics work this can be a weird hyphenation, inconsistent spacing between lines of text, awkward spacing in between words, automatic vs. manual ...'s and in Spanish punctuation rules are just different to begin with, so I have to remind myself that the period goes outside of the quotes.

This is just one course in Spanish mind you, we have at least 3 more really old Spanish courses to do. After that we will update the Portuguese and then I think about 5 other languages after that- though they may not have the scope of lessons the Spanish does.

So to wrap up, my greatest lesson learned thus far is that, much like in my Christian walk, graphic design on this scale is a constant process of incremental improvement. I cannot expect to get it right on the first try, though I should always strive to, and sometimes it just takes the experienced eye of someone other than me to see where I have fallen short and then go back and make it right. Yes, I do believe God is teaching me patience, persistence, and grace via 40- year old Bible lessons in Spanish.

Well lets see now that I'm settled in

Hello to all of you who are probably wondering if I'm ever going to update ANYONE. Don't worry- it's actually been on my mind quite often over the past 12 days! The folks down here are great, so great in fact that they saw fit to play "pass the Heather" my first week down here for dinner so they could get to know me better. It was fun but very busy. That and I was living out of a suitcase for my first week- but I was happy to be with people and not in a new house all by my lonesome trying to guess if the food in the fridge was still good :|
But that is not the case today, last night after work I packed up my bags yet again and plopped myself back down in Dix Lodge in my basement room. Which is actually quite cozy with the little white light on, so I think I'll like spending my evenings here.