wedding & work update, change of address

Twelve Days to go!
Wow, only twelve days until Allison and I get married! We invite all of our friends to join us in "counting down the days" by visiting our wedding webpage. There you can read a little bit about each of us and how God brought us together.(http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AllisonBryant&EricPyle)We'd love for you to sign our Guestbook and RSVP if you're planning to come celebrate in Norman, OK. There is also information on the time, directions, and gift registries on the Details for Our Guests page.

Where has the time gone? Here have been some of the things occupying our time in the final weeks before our marriage: marriage counseling sessions and homework, engagement photos, gathering addresses for invitations, bridal showers, ordering my suit and having the pants hemmed, finding ties for the men to match the bridesmaid gowns, organizing the wedding music, ceremony and vows, picking out wedding bands, opening gifts, and writing thank-you notes. We still need to take care of many other details! Please keep us in your prayers!

Honeymoon Plans
Many of you have been curious about our honeymoon. We're going to Greece! Three nights in Santorini and three nights in Athens. Allison has already been trying to learn modern Greek through audio lessons. She really does have a knack for picking up languages. I'm impressed (and glad she'll be tagging along with me)!

My New Address: Eric Pyle, 602 Madison Ct, Duncanville, TX 75137-2537. Our first few months we will be house-sitting close to where I work. This is a tremendous blessing for us as we start our new life together financially and try to figure out a budget that will work for us in the upcoming year. I'm now in the process of moving. Allison has already found a roommate to take her place where she's renting. We covet your prayers for our new life together!

My Office Space
Our next corporate release of Fieldworks is expected to be available at the beginning of 2009. Our software development has moved from bug fixing to allowing some final improvements. Most programmers enjoy making improvements because you get the opportunity to make software do something that has never been done before. Wycliffe Bible Translators provide direct feedback for how we can make their work more effective and efficient. It's exciting to empower missionaries to do things with their knowledge of languages that they've never been able to do before with computers!

We recently heard the news that Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx), our Dictionary & Grammar tool, is now being employed for at least 24 language projects in Western Africa. Would you believe those 24 languages account for around 5 million people who have Scripture needs?

FLEx astounds some old friends. Kim and Tony, friends of mine from high school, are now Southern Baptist missionaries in Southeast Asia. Listen to Kim's response when she recently encountered our software: "I just saw your FieldWorks Language Explorer in action!! There is an SIL guy that is going to be moving [here] soon, and he is looking for a house. He just turned on his computer to show us how it works. It is amazing! [My husband] Tony is even getting ready to download it now. It was so neat to hear him talk about the program and then realize that it is the program you have been working on!!" -- Kim

Company Matching Gifts Program Now Available! Many of you may be able to obtain forms from your employer for matching your donations to charitable organizations. If you're interested in submitting a form to match your contribution to my ministry, please contact me for more information!

Yours eternally in Christ,
Eric D. Pyle

Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address : 602 Madison Ct, Duncanville, TX 75137 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200

the big day is coming!

A Match Made Under Heaven, July 5 2008, San Antonio, TX
Tonight, Allison and I sat down beside the Riverwalk. The stars had emerged to watch us from beneath the evening clouds after a calm summer shower. Allison, in the dark, only saw their usual twinkling performance. The stars, however, were winking at me knowingly. “I am so thankful God has brought us together. I think we would serve well together for His kingdom. I don’t want to imagine a future where that is not so.” Then I knelt. Taking her hand, I kissed it. “I love you.” With a gaze and a smile, Allison echoed the sentiment. It was our first exchange of these words. Reaching into my pocket, I retrieved for her the star I had chosen for her. “Allison Haley Bryant, will you marry me?”

Can you believe I'm getting married!? Thank you all for your perseverance in prayer for me all these years. God in the wisdom of His timing and love is wonderfully answering your prayers, far beyond what I ever imagined to think and ask for. Please pray for the planning and provisions for our wedding and future life together. If you’d like a wedding invitation, please let me know, especially if you’re out of town. The wedding will be in Norman, OK on Saturday, Nov 29. Stay tuned for further details!

Allison and I both recently
graduated with Master’s degrees

"if you had thirty-two dollars..."

You've heard people ask, "What would you do if you had a million dollars?" Us missionaries apparently have our own "all too true" version of that question. Last week at a fiesta dinner for Ben Mikesell's thirty-second birthday someone posed the question, "If you had $32, what would you buy Ben for his birthday?"

One thoughtfully suggested he'd mail-order a Russian bride. (I wondered if that would cover the cost of shipping.) I imagined the book, Calvinism for Dummies. Ben actually seemed interested. Some said, "Forget Ben...I'd buy myself groceries" or "I'd buy some gas to drive back home."

I am graduating!

Dear friends,

Graduation announcement
I am happy to announce that I will be flying to Philadelphia to graduate on Thursday, May 22 from Westminster Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Religion (General Studies). Commencement details are online: http://www.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id=79 . Many of you know that I have been taking seminary classes part-time in Dallas since the summer of '99. It's hard to believe I've been a graduate student for nine years! "So, what's next?" My seminary education fits well with my current "career track" of assisting others with Bible translation efforts, even by software development. I don't have any major changes planned for the near future, but I am now at a point where I can consider furthering my education in linguistics in hopes to be of greater assistance. Stay tuned and in prayer!

Tool promises to yield more natural sounding Bible translations
This year I helped to implement a promising new discourse charting tool for translators. "The discourse charting tool will have a massive impact on the way we analyze texts. It's easy to use and it quickly shows us what we need to see. It will give us greater access to understanding what constitutes naturalness in a given language and that knowledge will have direct benefits in the smoothness and naturalness of our Bible translations." -- Danny Foster, Uganda-Tanzania Branch Training Coordinator (http://www.thetask.net)

New partners in Bible translation
Since the beginning of the year, I've been blessed to receive six new partners who are coming alongside me. In addition to the new partners, I've received a number of one-time gifts. Both are an encouragement as I continue to pray for God to provide the remaining $1000/mo for my monthly support quota so I may devote full time to writing software that assists Bible translation projects worldwide. The software I help develop is already making impact around the world, but there's still plenty of work to be done! Would you join with us in our hope to see the Bible written for millions of people that need it? http://www.wycliffe.org/Donate/MissionaryMinistries.aspx

Yours in His faithfulness,
Eric D. Pyle

ps. Did you know? Shopping at Kroger can help train future Wycliffe missionaries in linguistics! Follow the link below and print off the bar code for the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics so it may be scanned and registered with your Kroger Plus card: http://www.krogerneighbortoneighbor.com/pdf/10000080506.pdf (Only valid for stores in Texas and Louisiana.)

Webpage: http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address: 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators: P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200

2007 Annual Report

Dear friends,

Thank you for all your prayers and support in 2007! My Annual Report for 2007 is now ready for your review. Please take a moment to read how God has used your help last year and how He is calling me to further serve churches this coming year and depend upon His help.

http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_feb08.pdf
(also downloadable from my webpage)
http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/#Communications

• Fieldworks 5.0 has been released!
• Appreciation from our President
• Pledges met for 2007
• Important partnership needs for 2008
• Plans and prayer requests

Yours in His Kingdom,
Eric D. Pyle

ps. If you're interested in more frequent casual interaction, I'd love to have you as a friend on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Eric_Pyle/730925814

Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200

Thanksgiving newsletter

Beloved,

I have much to be thankful for this year. My Thanksgiving newsletter highlights just a few of them:

http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_nov07.pdf
(also downloadable here)
http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/#Communications

• Fieldworks Thanksgiving
• Book Ends (seminary)
• Check IT Out in Hudson Valley, NY
• Important new partership opportunity (financial need)
• Prayer requests

Thankfully yours in Him,

Eric D. Pyle

ps. If you're using Acrobat Reader 7.0, clicking on my email "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org" at the bottom of the pdf seems to result in "pyle@wycliffe.org" which is incorrect. Please use "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org".

Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/
Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061 (469-222-2865)
Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200, Orlando, Florida 32862-8200

with no further ado...

Beloved friends,

What a busy year! I hope your summer is being filled
with God-glorifying and God-enjoying work and relationships, and that you're
staying out of the heat and/or rain!

My July newsletter highlights a few of the things that
have been occupying my time.

http://www.opcnorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/newsletters/heart_lang_exp_jul07.pdf
Here are the headlines:

• Engaged in Holy War (devotional)
  
• Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx) continues
  to impress missionaries
  
• My annual thousand-dollar oil change (finances)
  
• Personal Files (dating, seminary, godparenting)

In His Spirit,

Eric D. Pyle

ps. If you're using Acrobat Reader 7.0, clicking on my email "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org" at the bottom of the pdf seems to result in "pyle@wycliffe.org" which is incorrect. Please use "eric_pyle@wycliffe.org", or better yet, reply to this email!

Webpage : http://www.opcNorman.org/Wycliffe/EricPyle/

Personal Address : 1520 Bradford St, Irving, TX 75061
(469-222-2865)

Wycliffe Bible Translators : P.O. Box 628200,
Orlando, Florida  32862-8200

morning devotional for my software team

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

As we take a closer look today at all that we've been doing, all that we've accomplished, and how we can improve for the future, let's give thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Deism is a constant temptation for us, as we walk in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in each day. Though we probably don't imagine God booting up his laptop at 8am every work day, sipping some coffee, and clicking on a shortcut on his desktop so that He can hit the beach for the rest of the day, doesn't our lack of daily thanksgiving suggest that we sometimes do?  We easily forget that God is  the Extreme Programmer.  The Spirit is always faithful to pair with us. Not one line of code is written, compiled, or executed apart from the Father's decree. The Son will not even let one single appointed whitespace or comment pass away until all is accomplished.  Think about all the things we can give thanks for, when we realize He is with us in all of this, for from him and through him and to him are all things .

But what about all those things that seem to get in our way for doing all the good works we've planned?  Surely, God is out to lunch when those happen!  Those twenty emails that arrived after I just caught up. Those jira issues that seem to come in faster than we can fix them.

Our God is not just Lord of the finished product in all its glory, but over the entire process, however frustrating or time consuming it may seem sometimes.  We want all that is glorious now, all at once, apart from inconveniences, apart from pain.  Our Creator is not only interested in our software passing all the tests, but our very hearts.  When push comes to shove, it is our attitudes and character that God gives priority in his heavenly triage. We need constant debugging. He has taken ownership over our development, even when He isn't to blame for the bugs we'd rather call "features" in our hearts, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.

He is much more patient with us than we are with Him.  He is a God who pleases to take His time. He took six days to call all things good, savoring the last day as best. He delighted in the development process, when He could have just clicked on a shortcut. His Spirit took over a thousand years to inscripturate the Holy Scripture. He endured thousands of years of rebellion until time was appointed to labor in birth with His promised Son. The Son learned the obedience of an eternal priest for us through the things he suffered. And it pleased His Father to take time to crush the Son on our behalf. 

Look at the bigger picture now. The whole creation still groans with childbirth pains for our glorification. We are participants in that new creation, the regeneration of all things. Christ is the firstborn and His church is the center of that new cosmos to come. We are the temple from which His glory will fill the earth. Every day, new stones are being made alive, sons of Abraham, crying out, declaring His glory. 

Programming should be for us an act of faith that God is using to build His church. We are not just IT support. We are Holy Temple support. Not only is our software development an act of mercy for missionaries, it is an act of war.  As technology has developed, so has the sophisticated tactics and defenses of our enemy. True, we are not on the front lines, but our tools are being employed for front line usage. Wherever there is development of literacy in the world, Scripture will continue to gain ground through the gates of Hell in hearts that hear.

Can't you hear the Lamb in heaven breaking the seals of His scroll across the globe, shaking all that remains to be shaken? (Rev 5:9) Countless peoples are worshipping God in their own tongue. Praise the Lord!