00:00:02 [Speaker 1] Good morning, everyone. 00:00:04 [Speaker 1] It is great to see you this morning for another edition of the faith stories class. 00:00:09 [Speaker 1] My name is Anne Marie Shambaugh, and, I think I know most of you, but if if not, I would love to meet you after class. 00:00:16 [Speaker 1] Glad you're here this morning. 00:00:18 [Speaker 1] I'm gonna introduce our speaker for the morning. 00:00:21 [Speaker 1] This is Bob Sterner, and Bob and his wife, Joyce, began attending Faith Church when they moved to the area from North Carolina about eight years ago. 00:00:30 [Speaker 1] They served in Indonesia with SIL and Wycliffe for thirty three years and their three children were all born there. 00:00:36 [Speaker 1] They live nearby with their daughter Julie and her husband Patrick who also attend Faith. 00:00:41 [Speaker 1] Their oldest, Daniel, lives in Fishers with his wife Elisa. 00:00:44 [Speaker 1] Is it is it is that how you pronounce it, Elisa? 00:00:46 [Speaker 1] Okay. 00:00:46 [Speaker 1] And their two grandkids. 00:00:48 [Speaker 1] Their son, Tim, and his wife, Mary, live in Illinois near Saint Louis. 00:00:52 [Speaker 1] I'm gonna pray for Bob, and then he'll get started. 00:00:55 [Speaker 1] Heavenly father, thank you so much for, this morning you blessed us with. 00:00:59 [Speaker 1] Thanks for bringing everyone here this morning. 00:01:02 [Speaker 1] I pray you'd be with Bob as he shares, about what you've been doing in his life over the years and, be with us as we listen. 00:01:09 [Speaker 1] I I pray that we could just hear what your spirit has to say through Bob. 00:01:14 [Speaker 1] So again, I thank you just for the this class and for this church. 00:01:17 [Speaker 1] In your name, amen. 00:01:19 [Speaker 1] Alright. 00:01:20 [Speaker 1] Bob, you're up. 00:01:22 [Speaker 2] Thank you. 00:01:24 [Speaker 2] I'm sorry Joyce isn't here. 00:01:27 [Speaker 2] Joyce has chronic fatigue and so she has missed a lot of services here at the the church. 00:01:33 [Speaker 2] She can't remember the last time she was at the church, but she is hoping to be able to come the second hour. 00:01:40 [Speaker 2] There's no way that she could be here all morning. 00:01:43 [Speaker 2] So we'll see what if the Lord enables her to do that. 00:01:47 [Speaker 2] She's very much a part of the story and that's why we went went with our with both of our names on the announcement. 00:01:55 [Speaker 2] It's been a partnership and she was very much involved in the preparing of the story that I'm going to read. 00:02:04 [Speaker 2] So, yes. 00:02:05 [Speaker 2] I'm just sorry that you can't meet her, but if she comes and you're around, you may get to see her. 00:02:14 [Speaker 2] Serving overseas was not as much a stretch for Joyce as it was for me because she went with her parents to Peru when she was five years old. 00:02:25 [Speaker 2] Her parents served with Wycliffe and translated the New Testament for the Yagua people. 00:02:31 [Speaker 2] When she was three years old, a picture of Jesus knocking at her heart's door prompted Joyce to invite him in. 00:02:39 [Speaker 2] Joyce's early MK experiences prepared her to be a loving wife, a caring mother of our three children, and a very supportive and effective partner in our ministry. 00:02:53 [Speaker 2] It is special to be able to look back on your life and see how the Lord ordered your steps even though you couldn't always perceive it. 00:03:02 [Speaker 2] His plan is often more creative and beautifully orchestrated than we ever imagined. 00:03:09 [Speaker 2] Today, we will look back at ways the Lord led and guided us sterners. 00:03:14 [Speaker 2] Psalm one thirty nine says, the lord is with us to do this even from our conception. 00:03:25 [Speaker 2] Verses nine and ten are particularly applicable to us. 00:03:29 [Speaker 2] If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me and your strength will support me. 00:03:40 [Speaker 2] I was born in Brooklyn, New York. 00:03:43 [Speaker 2] When I was five, my family moved to New Jersey. 00:03:47 [Speaker 2] We worshiped in a small congregation that had recently left a mainline denomination that was abandoning the gospel. 00:03:55 [Speaker 2] Things I remember from that church are many visits from missionaries, Saturday morning readings of missionary biographies, and vacation bible school opening ceremonies that had a giant painted banner with pictures of Greenland, India, and Africa, all illustrating the first three phrases of the missionary hymn from Greenland's Icy Mountains. 00:04:22 [Speaker 2] However, even with such early exposure, it would be another twenty years before I would see it as God's leading me to missions. 00:04:33 [Speaker 2] Summer bible conferences were part of my parents' lives from the time of their courting. 00:04:38 [Speaker 2] These were a regular part of our family life as well. 00:04:42 [Speaker 2] From church worship services and special conferences, I developed a love for the spoken and proclaimed Word of God. 00:04:53 [Speaker 2] In school, I enjoyed math classes. 00:04:56 [Speaker 2] At Rutgers, our state university, I chair I chose to major in math. 00:05:01 [Speaker 2] I did well my freshman year in math and science courses. 00:05:06 [Speaker 2] However, the next year, I hit differential equations taught by a brilliant, but hippie type grad student who was hard to understand. 00:05:17 [Speaker 2] I became stressed and sick, and as a result, I withdrew my sophomore year. 00:05:25 [Speaker 2] I reapplied to Wheaton and was again accepted. 00:05:28 [Speaker 2] But there also, the Lord led me away from a math major. 00:05:32 [Speaker 2] I chose a bible major for the depth of its courses and also for the freedom it gave me to take electives like anthropology and sociology. 00:05:44 [Speaker 2] It's amazing how uniquely the Lord created each of us. 00:05:49 [Speaker 2] I couldn't imagine tearing down a model t t Ford and creating a beautiful new model as Glenn Deckard did. 00:05:57 [Speaker 2] In fact, for my first nineteen years, I didn't travel far from New Jersey. 00:06:02 [Speaker 2] I was content to be near home. 00:06:06 [Speaker 2] So, about every three years, the Lord chose to lead me on a new cross culture and travel experience to prepare me for Indonesia. 00:06:17 [Speaker 2] Experiences like being a camp counselor for boys from Spanish Harlem in New York City, singing in a concert tour of Northern Europe with the Rutgers men's glee club, spending a summer serving with a mission in Alaska, touring and taking Old Testament and New Testament courses for nine weeks in The Middle East, and finally, participating in Wycliffe's pre field training in Mexico. 00:06:48 [Speaker 2] At the same time, God was preparing Joyce through her experiences as a as a second generation MK in Peru, and through two very difficult boarding years while in high school in The US. 00:07:03 [Speaker 2] The Lord then provided needed healing for her family with her family at IU Bloomington while she was an undergrad and her dad worked on a PhD in folklore. 00:07:15 [Speaker 2] The Lord used that time to set the stage for her later degree in anthropology. 00:07:20 [Speaker 2] But importantly, he protected her from marrying a non missions minded fellow by means of a vivid vision of being suspended over the fires of hell unless she obeyed the Lord in breaking that relationship. 00:07:36 [Speaker 2] I attended the InterVarsity Urbana conferences in 1964 and 1967. 00:07:44 [Speaker 2] Even though Joyce was also there in '64, we didn't meet, but we were exposed to many worldwide ministries. 00:07:53 [Speaker 2] And the Lord deeply impressed me with the expository messages that John Stott gave each morning at each conference. 00:08:01 [Speaker 2] Those are the types of messages we hear at Faith when our pastors go through complete books like Galatians and Acts. 00:08:10 [Speaker 2] From Wheaton, the Lord led me to Dallas Theological Seminary. 00:08:15 [Speaker 2] If God was leading me to be a pastor, I wanted to preach expository messages as John Stott and others did. 00:08:23 [Speaker 2] And that was what Dallas said they taught. 00:08:27 [Speaker 2] I enjoyed my seminary courses. 00:08:29 [Speaker 2] In my last year, I didn't sense the Lord leading me to become a pastor. 00:08:34 [Speaker 2] Because of my ability in Greek and Hebrew, I decided to attend SIL's training that summer after graduation to see if God was leading me to Wycliffe. 00:08:46 [Speaker 2] SIL's summer training programs were excellent for discovering the sounds and grammar of unwritten languages. 00:08:54 [Speaker 2] I did well that summer and I joined Wycliffe. 00:08:58 [Speaker 2] On home assignment five years later, SIL also taught me how to analyze the discourse structure of biblical passages and books. 00:09:08 [Speaker 2] That enabled me in the nineteen nineties to write a series volume on the structure and meaning of first Thessalonians so that colleagues can use that knowledge when translating. 00:09:20 [Speaker 2] SRL's training programs are now year round in Dallas and in Canada at least. 00:09:27 [Speaker 2] The next step after joining Wycliffe was to go to Southern Mexico for six months and learn how to survive in isolated and village conditions. 00:09:37 [Speaker 2] This was a big step in the Lord's leading because that is where I met Joyce. 00:09:42 [Speaker 2] I could have counted on one hand the times I had previously even thought of dating. 00:09:48 [Speaker 2] So the Lord had to do something special. 00:09:51 [Speaker 2] Due to Joyce's earlier vision, she asked the Lord to prevent her from marrying the wrong man. 00:09:57 [Speaker 2] She prayed that the right one would take initiative in asking to pray with her. 00:10:02 [Speaker 2] I was the first one to do so, confirming for her that I was God's choice. 00:10:08 [Speaker 2] The Lord helped me get past my reserve so that we could get to know each other. 00:10:14 [Speaker 2] Even so, in order to give Joyce's parents in Peru sufficient notice so that they could make travel plans, we managed to set a wedding date before we even mentioned the words love or marriage. 00:10:29 [Speaker 2] At that time, the Lord led Joyce in another special way. 00:10:33 [Speaker 2] Having grown up in Peru, she spoke Spanish. 00:10:37 [Speaker 2] It would have been logical to minister in The Americas. 00:10:40 [Speaker 2] But the Lord used Psalm 45 verses ten and eleven to redirect her thinking. 00:10:47 [Speaker 2] Here, oh daughter, and consider and incline your ear. 00:10:52 [Speaker 2] Forget your people and your father's house. 00:10:55 [Speaker 2] I had been thinking of serving in Nepal, but when we heard that an agreement had been signed to begin the work of SIL in Indonesia, we both immediately felt called there, even though we had no idea where it was on the map. 00:11:12 [Speaker 2] We were married in September 1971. 00:11:15 [Speaker 2] While waiting for our Indonesian visas to be granted, we spent eight months studying Indonesian at Columbia University. 00:11:24 [Speaker 2] The visas finally came and we left for Indonesia in June 1972. 00:11:31 [Speaker 2] Indonesia is as wide as The United States and is located South Of China and North Of Australia. 00:11:38 [Speaker 2] It is the fourth largest country in population and has more Muslim worshipers than any other country. 00:11:45 [Speaker 2] We were one of the first four Wycliffe couples assigned there, two of which were administrators. 00:11:52 [Speaker 2] Our leaders decided to start SIL work in the easternmost province, Irianjaya, now called Papua. 00:12:01 [Speaker 2] Joyce and I began learning the sounds, words, and grammar of Sobey, an unwritten language of about 2,000 people. 00:12:10 [Speaker 2] Our adoptive village father organized villagers that we paid to build a house for us right on the coast where we could watch God's beautiful moon rise over the Pacific Ocean through coconut palm trees. 00:12:25 [Speaker 2] Our sons, Daniel and Tim, were born that first term. 00:12:29 [Speaker 2] When Daniel was less than two years old, Indonesian doctors diagnosed his bruising and fever as possible leukemia. 00:12:38 [Speaker 2] The Lord led us to Singapore for a second opinion, and his timing was perfect. 00:12:44 [Speaker 2] Daniel began to again have fevers and was diagnosed with chloroquine resistant malaria. 00:12:52 [Speaker 2] We returned with a new drug that hadn't been released in Indonesia yet. 00:12:57 [Speaker 2] This drug proved to be a lifesaver for other families as well. 00:13:03 [Speaker 2] Shortly after we returned to Papua, Tim, then five months old, developed a bowel obstruction. 00:13:10 [Speaker 2] The Indonesian doctor who was trained in brain surgery in Germany did what he could with limited knowledge of infants, but Tim's skin wouldn't heal, and he had multiple surgeries. 00:13:24 [Speaker 2] Finally, his bowel ruptured, and late on Saturday afternoon, December 6, the doctor advised us to get emergency help in Australia. 00:13:35 [Speaker 2] Miraculously, the Lord provided permissions and flights, and within twenty four hours, we were in Sydney, Australia at a wonderful children's hospital. 00:13:47 [Speaker 2] In two weeks time, Tim's life was stable, and by late January, we were on our way to The US for Wycliffe counseling and visits to family and friends around The US who had prayed for us. 00:14:02 [Speaker 2] After a traumatic first term of moves every two months and a first furlough with much traveling, even to Peru to see Joyce's parents, we were ready to settle back to Sobey language learning in our second term, but the Lord had bigger plans. 00:14:19 [Speaker 2] We were asked to serve in Java on the other end of the country. 00:14:25 [Speaker 2] Joyce worked Joyce welcomed new members as guests in our home and oriented them to the country. 00:14:32 [Speaker 2] I visited Jakarta officials to process visas for our growing group and permissions for airplanes and radios for the teams in Papua. 00:14:42 [Speaker 2] Our daughter, Julie, was born in this second term. 00:14:46 [Speaker 2] Our third term had additional assignment changes. 00:14:50 [Speaker 2] We returned to the So Bay Village, but soon were asked to be children's home parents at the mission school our boys were attending. 00:14:58 [Speaker 2] By then, we could see that the lord was leading us to do things other than translate for the Sobe people. 00:15:05 [Speaker 2] I became one of the first Indonesia branch translation consultants to help other teams who had already begun to translate. 00:15:14 [Speaker 2] And as a branch translation coordinator, I built up the library so teams would have the resources they needed. 00:15:21 [Speaker 2] I compiled handbooks for translating and publishing, and I applied for funding for printing New Testaments. 00:15:29 [Speaker 2] Throughout our time in Indonesia, I checked translations of teams working in 27 different languages in three widely scattered provinces. 00:15:41 [Speaker 2] Until today, 70 New Testaments and three complete bibles have been published by our teams. 00:15:49 [Speaker 2] It's time for some breaking news here in our story. 00:15:52 [Speaker 2] I was reading the faith prayer sheet yesterday, and I noticed that Peg Schrum is the consultant for a language in Eastern Indonesia, the Aliyah language. 00:16:05 [Speaker 2] And that language is facilitated by, Mike, Mike and and his wife, and this is why I wrote my story. 00:16:15 [Speaker 2] But they work in the Alei language and it's a wonderful program. 00:16:18 [Speaker 2] I checked part of their new testament, some of the books in their new testaments. 00:16:22 [Speaker 2] Mike is now working on the Old Testament, and, he I think he's doing a shortened version of the Old Testament. 00:16:30 [Speaker 2] That means that, you don't translate every part of every book, but you pick out the best parts of all of them in the Old Testament. 00:16:38 [Speaker 2] So you have a shorter Old Testament. 00:16:41 [Speaker 2] And aside from that, this is a group that's interior. 00:16:45 [Speaker 2] So they have very little contact with the coast and with Indonesian. 00:16:48 [Speaker 2] They need God's word in their language, and he has a a bible school going on with each of the of the books that he translates. 00:16:56 [Speaker 2] So it's a wonderful thing. 00:16:57 [Speaker 2] So so Pam Schrum is doing a wonderful job, and she's probably doing that by, Internet, WhatsApp, maybe Zoom, checking that language. 00:17:10 [Speaker 2] And we have what we call the a global consultant pool, and that's people who are not working in the country where they used to work or they're working in another country, and they can be a consultant and help. 00:17:22 [Speaker 2] So, Mike probably gives Pam his back translation in English because she doesn't know Allie. 00:17:31 [Speaker 2] And so that's the breaking news from yesterday. 00:17:35 [Speaker 2] The Lord led Joyce to earn master's degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan and in servant leadership from Azusa Pacific University. 00:17:46 [Speaker 2] She then helped teams understand the ethnography and folklore of the people for whom they were translating, and later served on the branch administrative team. 00:17:58 [Speaker 2] Loss of visas caused us to live in The Philippines from 1994 to 02/2002, and we continued our work by traveling into Indonesia. 00:18:09 [Speaker 2] I should I could all I should also say that we've continued work with another group of people from another part of Indonesia who also had to go to The Philippines. 00:18:18 [Speaker 2] So I worked with a whole group of different translators up in The Philippines. 00:18:22 [Speaker 2] Joyce became ill, unable to work, and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. 00:18:31 [Speaker 2] Here's another little break in our story. 00:18:34 [Speaker 2] She was in an admin meeting, and, the they were they were discussing things, and all of a sudden they heard Joyce, but they didn't see Joyce. 00:18:43 [Speaker 2] Joyce had gotten down on the floor so that she could lie down. 00:18:46 [Speaker 2] And she was still interacting in the conversation, but because of her chronic fatigue, she was on the floor. 00:18:53 [Speaker 2] The Lord led Joyce Oh, the Lord told Joyce that her future role would be as a prayer warrior, which seemed very unlike her gifts and caused a heart struggle. 00:19:03 [Speaker 2] Over time, the Lord provided rest, revitalization, new medications, lessons in prayer, and the strength for her to serve as SIL regional director for Maluku, for Maluku, for the Malukan Province. 00:19:20 [Speaker 2] So we went back, we moved back to Indonesia for our last three years there. 00:19:24 [Speaker 2] Since then, since we've returned to The States in 02/2005, Joyce has been fulfilling the Lord's promised role of prayer warrior. 00:19:34 [Speaker 2] We now reach an application point in our story. 00:19:38 [Speaker 2] Why do we do the work of bible translation? 00:19:41 [Speaker 2] We know the answer. 00:19:43 [Speaker 2] It's because the bible is God's primary way of communicating with us. 00:19:48 [Speaker 2] It is his truth, capital t, not our truth or someone else's, small t's. 00:19:54 [Speaker 2] Jesus said two very important things at the beginning and end of his ministry on earth. 00:20:00 [Speaker 2] When tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he quoted Deuteronomy eight three. 00:20:05 [Speaker 2] People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 00:20:11 [Speaker 2] Three years later, when Pilate asked him if he was a king, Jesus replied, you say I am a king. 00:20:18 [Speaker 2] Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. 00:20:24 [Speaker 2] All who love the truth and recognize that what I say, love the truth, recognize what I that what I say is true. 00:20:32 [Speaker 2] End of quote. 00:20:34 [Speaker 2] God's truth is the only reliable source and secure foundation for our lives, especially now when our world and nation are rapidly secularizing. 00:20:46 [Speaker 2] So how has the Lord led in my daily walk and hearing from him? 00:20:51 [Speaker 2] Early on, I started reading scripture books in chronological order. 00:20:55 [Speaker 2] In 1984, I heard of a new publication, the narrated bible in chronological order and I asked a colleague to bring a copy to me from The States. 00:21:07 [Speaker 2] F. 00:21:08 [Speaker 2] Lagard Smith, a law school professor is the narrator. 00:21:13 [Speaker 2] He ties scripture passages together with running commentary and does a masterful job of combining parallel passages. 00:21:22 [Speaker 2] This is especially helpful in the Pentateuch with its many scattered references to the same laws, sacrifices, and feast days. 00:21:31 [Speaker 2] It is also helpful when the same people and events are mentioned repeatedly in the historical books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, and in the Old Testament prophets. 00:21:45 [Speaker 2] Smith also arranges topically things like Proverbs. 00:21:50 [Speaker 2] The study bible is so engaging that I use it each year, but I had to make adjustments so that I didn't wait until the last three months of the year to read the new testament. 00:22:02 [Speaker 2] To do this, I glued four ribbons into the binding as placeholders, and I read a Psalm, some Proverbs, and Old and New Testament portions each day. 00:22:14 [Speaker 2] The Lord Joyce reads the same four categories each day in a one year Bible, and has the narrated Bible on her iPad as well. 00:22:23 [Speaker 2] She also reads relevant articles and devotionals the Lord leads her to. 00:22:29 [Speaker 2] Harvest House is the publisher of the narrated Bible. 00:22:33 [Speaker 2] In 2020, they may have renamed it the daily Bible in chronological order. 00:22:39 [Speaker 2] The narrated Bible doesn't have map, doesn't have maps in the back. 00:22:46 [Speaker 2] In 02/2013, the Zondervan Essential Atlas of the Bible by Carl Rasmussen was published. 00:22:53 [Speaker 2] It is concise, easy to use, and follows very well the storyline of scripture with detailed maps, photos, and historical information. 00:23:03 [Speaker 2] I mentioned earlier the influence John Stott had on me at Urbana. 00:23:09 [Speaker 2] In 02/2006, he published Through the Bible, Through the Year. 00:23:13 [Speaker 2] It's a book of three sixty five one page pastoral insights for short passages that can give you or your family an overview of the biblical story from Genesis to Revelation. 00:23:28 [Speaker 2] If one begins reading the book in August, the devotionals through Advent and Lent are very appropriate and rewarding. 00:23:37 [Speaker 2] I have these three books here today if you would like to see them. 00:23:43 [Speaker 2] Wycliffe work is broader in many ways than when we served. 00:23:47 [Speaker 2] Expanded use of AI, video translations for the deaf, and church based translation are just a few. 00:23:55 [Speaker 2] Here is how our Wycliffe US director, John Chestnut, expressed it in April. 00:24:02 [Speaker 2] Today, bible translation is carried out through multiple approaches, each essential to the broader mission. 00:24:09 [Speaker 2] While Wycliffe has historically been on the ground doing the work directly, we are also increasingly serving alongside local churches and partners to see scripture translated. 00:24:22 [Speaker 2] As more churches take ownership and bible translation continues to accelerate, Wycliffe's role continues to expand, including equipping and supporting others in the in the movement worldwide. 00:24:37 [Speaker 2] Decades of expertise strategically position us to serve in multiple ways, providing technology and other resources, offering funding, and facilitating training. 00:24:50 [Speaker 2] This strengthens the local church's ownership of the work in their communities, countries, and even entire regions, while continuing continuing to allow Wycliffe staff to faithfully follow the calling God has placed on their lives to serve in global missions. 00:25:07 [Speaker 2] Finally, here's a fitting prayer I encountered recently. 00:25:13 [Speaker 2] Father, we rejoice. 00:25:15 [Speaker 2] You've opened our eyes, and now we see your fingerprints all over our stories. 00:25:20 [Speaker 2] Thank you for your perfect timing, your gentle leading, your undeniable power, and your miraculous ways. 00:25:29 [Speaker 2] We praise you for being a God who reveals himself to those who seek.