Thank You!

Dear friends and family,

     I'm writing this to say one big THANK YOU!!!! Because of your gracious support, I was able to raise $1345 for the African Sign Languages Bible translation project, and I received 2nd place out of 36 overall contestants in the individual fund raising competition. Together, the 9 teams that participated in the Doe River Gorge Race to 2025 raised $15,000 for the sake of the Kingdom! Your partnership is invaluable; please continue to pray for the African Sign Languages project.

     Last weekend was one of the most intense, challenging, and rewarding weekends of my life. In the course of 48 hours, we totaled over 15 miles of distance. We ran on the Appalachian Trail, biked mountains, crossed rapids, and communicated across a gorge with Morse code. We rappelled a cliff, kayaked a lake, climbed a massive tree, and zip lined through a ravine. We drank a coconut and, yes, we ate worms... and a stew of who-knows-what.

     We overcame our fair share of challenges, too. Twice we got lost in the woods; once we dragged a cramping teammate out of the road. However, despite blisters, bruises, cramps, and setbacks, we finished the race. We by far didn't win, but Christ our King did. He grew us as individuals, a team, and as servants in His Kingdom.

     At the end of the race, we finally reached the "Hidden Village." To get there, we had to pass through "border control"; for 10 minutes, we were harassed, threatened, and screamed at in languages that I didn't even know existed. We even had to convince them that we weren't communists... And they didn't speak English. To convince an Thai border control agent that you're not a communist is quite a difficult task to accomplish.

     Finally, though, we reached the village. We had 30 minutes to figure out as much of the language as we could. Ironically, the villagers were Kenyans (we were "Team Kenya"), and the language was Swahili. We gestured, pointed, and acted to learn as much language as we could. It was amazing! This was by far the most fun and exciting part of the race. Finally, we celebrated with a traditional Kenyan meal and a celebratory hymn of praise.

     The Race is over. The mission is not. There are still 1,892 languages in the world that do not have a single word of scripture. Please keep Wycliffe Bible Translators in your prayers as they fight to rid the word of this Bible poverty. Again, thank you, and God bless you all!

   

   

Playing the Keys

I take piano lessons once a week, and once a week I royally embarrass myself in front of a well-accomplished pianist. When I try to play a piece that Mr. Parrini (puh-ree-knee) has assigned, I often sound like a toddler banging on a plinky toy piano. Parrini can play the exact same melody and it sounds like heaven. All I can do is grit my teeth, listen to his advice, and bang out the piece "a little bit better."

If I actually play something well, I glance at him with a sheepish smile, eager to see if he'll offer the compliment that I would so like to hear:

"Guud job. You did that well. But maybe try. . ." In his distinct Italian accent, he verbally pats me on the back and gives me a firm push to do a little bit better. 

In this week's lesson, I made one quick comment, and it received a reply that applies to much more than just piano. 

Me: "Funny thing is, my mind is telling me exactly what to do. My fingers just won't do it."

Parrini: "Don't assume that just by looking at a page, music will be played."

He explained that learning piano is about developing mechanical response in your fingers. Even for "prodigies," the fingers don't magically know what to do just because your mind knows what they should do. Every pianist has to train their fingers to work melodies, harmonies, dynamics, articulations, rhythms, and countless other factors together to produce music that is pleasing to the ears. According to Parrini, the key is to slow down and learn to respond correctly to the music you see on the page or hear in your mind.

Slow down and learn. . . . 

How often do I bulldoze through life without learning to respond correctly to what I know is right? There is learning to be done in everyday situations, from mistakes and accomplishments and observations that I make in the little things, yet I dash by with my mind set on the big things looming on the horizon. Listening to my teacher talk, I was reminded that, plain and simply, you must walk before you can run.

I'll never learn a piece of music without first playing it at a speed that I can handle ("No no no, Aaron, you can't just THROW notes together. Stop, play it SLOWER..."). The song of life tends to come at us at a ridiculous tempo. Sometimes, we just have to relax, slow down, and learn the small things for the music to sound best.   

   

Ready, Set, Go!

    Hello everyone!
 
    Many of you know that I’m studying linguistics in college and that I’m passionate about bible translation. Sadly, there are still about 1,900 languages in the world that do not have any scripture in their language. A bible translated into the heart language of a people group allows people to hear God’s word in a way that they truly understand, and they can use written language to tangibly preserve their history, culture, and heritage.
   
     I’ve now been given the opportunity to help do something about this poverty of scripture! March 14-16, my team (Team Kenya, which is me and three others) will represent North Greenville University in Race to 2025: African Sign Languages. We’ll participate in an adventure race at Doe River Gorge in Tennessee, where we’ll run, hike, bike, canoe, rappel, and whatever else we have to do to locate a “hidden village” where villagers who speak an unwritten language will be waiting our arrival. Once we navigate the geographic challenges, we’ll have to conquer an even more daunting task: solving the linguistic challenges presented by the villagers (who don’t speak English). The course and these linguistic challenges replicate the physical and linguistic difficulties faced by language surveyors, the frontline workers of bible translation.

     Our goal is to raise $2,000 by March 7th to support the training of indigenous bible translators for African Sign Languages. The deaf are one of the most unevangelized and spiritually neglected peoples in the world, and these native translators have a vision to see God’s word accessible to deaf people all across Africa. To aid these sign language translators, Wycliffe has offered training and support, which is detailed further in the attached information page about this sign language project.
   
     I would appreciate your partnership and support in this endeavor. If you would like to support through giving, simply click on this link (Donation Form) (please write "Aaron J Harris: Team Kenya in the comments/special instructions box on the donation page) or download the attached donation form and mail to Wycliffe Bible Translators (the address is on the form).
 
     More importantly, however, please lift up this bible translation project and the deaf of Africa in prayer. God’s power to save is incredible and unending, and our obedience to His calling to take the gospel to the ends of the earth begins by placing the gospel within reach of the natives.     

Thank you, and grace be with you!

African Sign Languages
Donation Form (front) (Please write "Aaron J Harris: Team Kenya" on the "donation to support" line)
Donation Form (back)

Rejoice in the Gift

Satisfaction in humility is one of the greatest joys of following Christ. 

"However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." -Luke 10:20

Christ sent out 70 or so of His followers to preach and prepare the cities for His coming. Returning to Christ a little later, they were ecstatic that even the demons had submitted to the power that God had allowed them. However, Jesus reminds them that power isn't the most amazing part of the story: God's grace is. It's God's gift of salvation that they should be thankful for, not just the supernatural acts that come with His power. 

Of course, we are rightfully thankful for all that God does. Rejoicing in God's grace, though, brings the greatest joy. 

Human pride is never right. In humility we find satisfaction.    

A Quick Thought: Taste and See

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"

I've always related this verse with the satisfaction of trusting in God, the pleasure of knowing Him. Like a big, juicy steak, the assurance of trusting God fills and satisfies our souls. 

However, there's more to tasting than satisfaction. 

When you take the first bite of a delicious meal, do you throw the fork down and proclaim the meal finished? No! If one taste is delicious, you want another! Would a worn and hungry man be satisfied with a single bite of a hardy, well-prepared meal, or would he immediately desire more?

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Even a morsel of God's love, providence, and sovereignty is enough to set our souls to craving more.    

Desires

Much has happened since I last wrote on this blog, and there are simply not enough minutes left in my day to play catch up. I'm not even going to try.

I'm facing a workload like never before-worse even than last semester, which I thought at the time to be the most I could possibly handle. If you will, please pray that I will trust and rely on God's strength and grace will carry me through this semester. It's the only way that I'll make it (It's the only way any of us can make it), and I am keenly aware of my all-too-frequent attempts to take life head on by trying harder and harder in myself. It never quite works out, I always reach the same conclusion: We are made to let God work. That conclusion brings me to my point. 

The Lord is teaching me many things from the recent happenings in my life (especially from my relationship experience). However, there has been one theme that keeps resurfacing in nearly every conclusion, in nearly every thought or quiet time. For some reason, it's a lesson that, as we all seem to do, I have resisted over and over again. 

There is much joy, much delight, and much fulfillment in yielding to the will of our Savior. 

Why are our hearts so stubborn? Thank God for grace. In following His will, we find grace at it's fullest. There is grace for our mistakes, grace for our failures, and grace for our daily lives; however, in His will, amazing grace becomes unbelievable grace. By "His will," I do not mean some kind of mystic revelation of a life plan. Nor do I mean a vision of exactly what to do, say, or decide. I simply know that there are some things that we KNOW to be right. Especially putting aside all things selfish. By throwing ourselves on the power and grace of our God, we can do the things that we KNOW to be right. Step by step. Moment by moment. Thought by thought. 

Joy comes fullest with relying on God's grace. Joy comes fullest in following His will. Joy comes fullest in glorifying HIM. And that is why we are here. 

Stress, Friends, and a Birthday Party

This afternoon, after a stressful week and a particularly stressful morning, my friends reminded me of the comfort found in the blessing of friendship. 

My Hebrew test this morning was rough. Really rough. I got up at 6:15 to study at a coffee shop. The test was at 9:00. During the first few minutes of class, I began hearing sighs and under-the-breath groans from throughout the room. I soon added my own grunts of confusion and frustration to the chorus of agonizing Christian Studies majors. Between an extensive vocabulary section and a grammatically complex set of translation problems, that exam caused much intellectual weeping and gnashing of teeth. It was not a good feeling. 

Then, after my last class of the day, my friend Jason convinced me to come running-shoe shopping with him. I questioned nothing-it made perfect sense. We often run together and hadn't had any "bro-time" the past couple of weeks, so I was perfectly fine with spending a couple of hours in town with him. Why not, right?

Once we got to Traveler's Rest, however, Jason decided he needed to swing by Walmart to "look for some khakis". Then he had to stop and ask for directions to the shoe store. Well, he stopped at what happened to be my favorite restaurant in town. Rather naively, I still didn't catch on. The restaurant was dimly lighted, and the lenses in my glasses are transition lenses that make it difficult to see anything at all when a room is dark. Jason whispered something to the waitress and walked quickly down the hallway to the left. Slightly confused, I followed and...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" 

Gathered at the table were many of my best, closest friends. To their delight and mine, I was genuinely surprised! The stress of the day receded into the distant, murky ocean of my thoughts and emotions, and I was able to enjoy a splendid afternoon of fellowship. Hearty laughs, good food, and all the joy that comes with spending time with people you love ensued, and I was happy.

Thank you, Lord for friends. The to-do list will never go away. We will always be busy. We will always have stress. But God has given us the blessing of friendship, and that will be with us to the end. Thank you, Lord, for friends.