of alarm clocks and such

My kids have a favorite radio station and they always ask to listen when we are commuting back and forth from school. It isn't a Christian station - the organization Tim works with has an application in with the government and they are just waiting on final approval from the government... I think - and so sometimes we turn the volume down for a song or conversation (and then discuss why we needed to turn it down). For the most part, however, the station tends to be family-friendly, is great French practice and is often downright hilarious, especially when the radio hosts begin to share interesting tidbits they've run across in the news, on the internet, etc.

Such was the case yesterday afternoon on the way home from school.

Apparently, a study has been done about the most effective way to get kids out of bed in the morning. 

As a mom of more-than-a-couple-still-remaining-at-home and even with the heavy traffic through construction zones, I instantly tuned in to the conversation. For, as most mamas know, especially those who have teens, sometimes you literally have to grab that young'un by the leg and physically drag them out from under the covers for even a groaning/moaning response. This week, I became a 23 year veteran of this parenting gig, yet I don't have this one near figured out. So, I was all ears to learn what the researchers had discovered. 

One conclusion was that, especially for kids and teens, alarm clocks are simply not effective. Younger bodies sleep longer and usually much deeper than the old folks with whom they rub shoulders. It is documented that children and youth often (if not usually) sleep through alarm clocks, fire alarms, emergency sirens, tornadoes... Hence sometimes, one of our basement dwelling teens' alarms will wake me, all the way up on the 2nd floor, before it ever causes them to stir. 

Yes - I write truth - even if they later deny it.

I also know for a fact that every single one of my kids is delighted when I wake them up by quietly entering their room leaving the light off, sit on the side of the bed (or snuggle right down under the covers with them), stroke their hair, scratch their back, and whisper softly next to their ear. The researchers found that this method was not only more pleasant for the child, but that youth are awake, literally with in seconds, when awoken gently. Compare that to the minutes, on average, required to drag a child from sleep when an obnoxious, obtrusive and very loud noise began to sound. It's also important to include that the gentle, rapid awakening resulted in happier, more compliant little people in the morning as well.

Also interesting? A female's voice - a mother's voice - was the voice that was effective. Dad whispering just didn't have the same impact.

Interesting eh?

As I've been mulling this over, I was also struck by just how God often uses that same, gentle approach when waking us from spiritual sleep. 

Sometimes, it feels like I am slapped in the face with truth or a need to change. But more often, it is the gentle whispering of the Spirit when I feel wrapped in the love of godly, encouraging friends, a surprising comment from one of my kids hidden in the humor of our family life, a passage of Scripture that replays over and over in one of the songs we listen to almost every day, a simple word that repeatedly comes up in all of the above and other situations that reminds me to return to God's truth and His way.

This shouldn't surprise me. After all, the Word teaches that all the flashy, amazing and brazen have little effect if not also smothered with tenderness and love: 

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."

Love never fails. I don't think that means love is like a fairy godmother's magic wand... I never realized until just recently that I've always treated those words like that, thinking, "Just gotta love enough and things will somehow work out." Rather, I've now come to think it means that love just keeps on keeping on and keep on and keeping on. Regardless. Regardless of the result or lack of result.

And, I'm challenged once again, even though I always fall short, to love like that.

I can be okay with falling short because where I am weak, He is strong. I can also rest in the other verse that came to mind as I reflected on that alarm clock study: "Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me... my hope is in the Lord, forevermore." (Psalm 131)

photo credit: WORLDTHROUGH1EYE Monday Mornings via photopin (license)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Studio glimpses

A Wright Christmas 2012 ~ Come walk alongside... Just be with us, for a while…

A young Muslim friend of ours was visiting one the weekend. As we conversed, she made an unforgettably convicting point:

“Most Christians I know don't know how to really evangelize. They’d rather storm the gate and fix everyone instead of taking time to walk alongside, see and try to understand the world from a different perspective…. They are always sure they have all of the answers and are afraid to consider anyone else an equal peer.”

That’s pretty serious… Ignoring, dismissing or refusing to consider even its possibility is nothing less than negligent. So we dug deep and searched...

********

Please head on over to our ministry web site, Wrights Broadcasting Truth to Niger, to read the rest of our 2012 Winter prayer letter.

What a word picture to begin the New Year!

The nature of water is yielding,

and that of a stone is hard.

Yet if you hang up a bottle

filled with water

above the stone

so that the water drips

drop by drop,

it will wear a hole in the stone.

In the same way the Word of God is tender,

and our heart is hard.

So when people hear the word of God frequently,

their hearts are opened to the fear of God."

 ~ Abba Poeman ~

Pray, as we begin this new year of ministry in Niger, seeking to make God's Word accessible and available through:

• Radio programs
• Radio preaching
• Audio/visual productions
• Post-dubbing of evangelistic, biblically based films
• Recording of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
• Preaching at church
• Teaching Sunday School
• Teaching Bible Studies
• Teaching women to read in their heart language
• Instruction from a biblical worldview and perspective in all subjects
• Building and deepening relationships

Pray fervently that His Word will penetrate and change hearts like never before, that His name will be lifted high in this parched, poverty-stricken land.

Wordless Wednesday

Wright's Broadcasting Truth to Niger, August 2011 Prayer Letter

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You;

My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”

~ Psalm 63:1 ~

“I shall rise from the dead…

I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of Glory, and shine myself as that sun shines.

I shall be united to the Ancient of Days to God Himself,
who had no morning, never began….

No man ever saw God and lived.

And yet, I shall not live till I see God; and when I have seen Him, I shall never die.”

~ John Donne ~

There is so much we could share in this letter… seems like a lot of “wonderful” has happened… and in that wonderful we see God’s grace and His hand so unmistakably, making us long for His Presence all the more. To be honest, there are times when this life is such a wonderful gift it is easy to wish it could go on forever. Remembering that this life is, however, only a foretaste of all that the Almighty has for our forever future, helps keep our eyes and thoughts continually heaven-bound.

One of the wonderful parts of this past month has been receiving visitors. First, Pastor David Warren, from our home church (Calvary Baptist, Midland, Michigan) spent a week with us, teaching an acting seminar that has greatly challenged and encouraged a local Christian acting group to consider the impact their ministry will have as they focus not only on material but on technique and presentation. The acting seminar followed a script writing seminar that Richelle was privileged to teach. While Pastor David was here, we also welcomed Richelle’s sister Julie and her daughter Leandra. Leandra will be spending the next 11 months with us in Niger and it has been a joy to share our ministry and home with them the past few weeks.

We also want to share a “finally!” wonderful: “Thru the Bible” is finally on the air in Niger. The possibility of airing this classic radio program (30 minutes a day, five days a week of systematic Bible teaching), was first presented to us back in 2002. We encountered problem after problem… difficulty after difficulty… yet by God’s grace Tim persisted and continued to look at opportunities and other avenues to broadcast this series. Last Friday completed the second full week of radio programs. After a long spiritual battle characterized by so many technological difficulties, it is a fabulous feeling to tune into the radio station every weekday evenings and hear solid Bible teaching floating out over the airwaves.

Radio ministry in a mostly illiterate country is an interesting paradox: We know intuitively... studies show... research "proves..." that radio is the most effective and efficient way to communicate crucial, life impacting messages to majority illiterate people groups, particularly when they are scattered over a large geographical area. And those words describe Niger to a tee.

The irony in this paradox is that the very illiteracy emphasizing the importance of radio often prevents us from receiving feedback from listeners, letting us know that programs, songs, or truths communicated through the programs we produce are touching lives, have been fruitful and result in God's name glorified.

Just this week, however, we received an awesome bit of encouragement...

Folks working in another W. African country (and not one just next door) contacted us via our web page, Wrights Broadcasting Truth to Niger. They explained that they had a Zarma man working for them and he was a recent believer, therefore could we send them a Zarma Bible, Zarma "gospel" music with parables and stories ("Trust" and "Choose" are the names of the two we sent) on cassette, and some literacy materials so they could teach him to read and truly begin discipling him. We gladly collected materials... then they had to be hand carried back to the States where they were mailed back to a W. African postal box and this family then came in from their place of work to pick them up there.

This past week, we received the following letter:

Dear Tim & Richelle,

Thank you for mailing the Bible and other Zarma items. We have received them.

I've started teaching him the letters and sounds, and he is excited that he will soon be able to read and write. He wants to read the whole Bible for himself.... I was surprised that he was singing along with some of the songs [on the cassette tapes]. He later explained to me that he had heard some of the stories while he was growing up. His father would turn on the radio in the AM to listen to news, then leave it on all day. He and his brothers would change the radio channels, looking for music. He had heard some of the stories told in parables (like the tiger wanting to be as powerful as the lion). He had also memorized some of the songs.

At that time he was a Moslem in a Moslem family. Only one of his brothers is... [a] believer at this time. His father would often leave the radio on and then leave for the day. The children would... change the channel to look for music and ended up hearing Christian programs and learning the songs.

Thanks for all your help!

R-

Isn't God amazing? The father in this family turned on the radio hoping to hear the news... and his children ended up hearing the best and most important "news" of all, and for at least two of his children, it has changed their eternity.

Please pray with us as we learn to choose to continually trust our God's faithfulness in cultivating the seeds that He allows us to sow, whether in person or via broadcast mediums and audio-visual tools... whether or not we hear of results this side of eternity… and that we keep our eyes fixed towards that goal.

All because of Jesus,

Tim, Richelle,

Brendan, Rebekah Joy, Nadia, Anna, Victoria, Jonathan, Elsie Mae and Mary Michelle Wright

Just an Act ~

~ a few pictures of Pastor David

and the actor's seminar that took place at the studio last week ~

~ and there are certainly more to come... ~

I'm a Seminarian...

Just kidding! Seriously! First I start writing about liturgy and then claim to be a seminarian?

No, I'm not switiching churches or demoninations... I was just looking for a play on words, thought I'd found one and then discovered that that word "seminarian" had connotations about which I was clueless! But I still liked it, so I figured it would be okay to use... with this disclaimer.

Last week was a tremendously busy week for me. Not only was I teaching literacy classes every morning, trying to keep the tribe focused on their daily tasks and accomplishing some home schooling, and working with my summer school student... I also taught "un petit seminaire," almost 14 hours worth, of script writing for the radio, and  that doesn't include "prep" time.

I REALLY don't consider myself a script writer... or even a writer per se. I do write... because I love to write. It is a passion of mine, a favorite form of communication and it helps me learn as well as process life. I love to use the written word as a vehicle to express what God is teaching and doing in my life, our family and in this ministry He's loaned us for this time. But I haven't studied writing "formally" other than English and Lit classes in school (unless you count classes that focused on writing long term goals, short term objectives and IEPs for my degree as a special educator), I've never made a dime off of anything I've written, and truthfully, what I know about radio script writing and adapting Biblical texts for audio drama is the little collection of knowlege from things I've researched, learned via trial and error, or just made up all on  my own and which seems to make sense and work.

So I was surprised when the woman who mentors the local Christian acting troupe, Messagers du Christ, approached me several months ago to ask if I'd lead a script writing seminar for some of the group members. I agreed (and then wondered if I'd lost my mind... my kids say I would if my head wasn't already attached to my body).

Depending on the day, the class had anywhere from 3-6 students each day and we discussed many topics, but particularly focused on the following:

• Is there a Biblical foundation for using radio theater and drama to evangelize and disciple?
• Where should we look for ideas?
• What are the essential elements of a play/radio drama? In particular, we considered the plot - with an inciting incident, a climax, a resolution and ending, characters - focusing primarily on the protagonist and the antagonist, integrity when developing dialogue and setting, and last, but not least, precision and integrity when determining and then presenting a theme without moralizing or preaching at the listeners.
• How do we authentically evaluate the scripts and dramas we produce? What type of attitude must we have with our creations when others critique what we have written?
• How do we determine relevant current issues and then develop scripts that realistically and authentically address Biblical solutions or responses to those issues?

Now, I'm waiting to hear their evaluation of how they felt the seminar went, and I figure I might get a chance to practice what I taught when it comes to  humbly receiving commentary, suggestions and criticism!

Ramadan, 2009 - God's Message via Radio (We LOVE this article!)

30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World

Ramadan 2009 / 1430: August 22 - September 20

God's Message via Radio in the Middle East

Sunday, 13 September

"Loving Muslims Through Prayer"

Testimony:

I am involved in Christian radio broadcasting to many Muslim countries. Sometimes the audience has the possibility to SMS, phone or write to ask for literature. However, mail packages containing Bibles are often stopped by the religious security authorities in various countries.

I met a listener who came under the protection of darkness after a four hour bike ride. He spoke enthusiastically about the radio broadcasts. He said that he wanted to study the Christian faith deeply (and honestly it seemed to me), so I gave him not only a Bible and study materials, but also the Jesus Film and other Gospel films. A few months later we met again. He asked for more books written by believers and videos. I was able to give him these things plus testimonies of Muslims who had encountered the Messiah. Unfortunately we had no time for a personal conversation. Is he a believer or still a seeker? I was unable to find out … this time.

Prayer Starters:

• May the Holy Spirit guide during telephone conversations and meetings with interested radio listeners. Pray for divine rendezvous (Acts 8:26-39):

"And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing."

• Pray that interested listeners, despite the watchful eyes of authorities, can receive Bibles, DVDs and other helpful material.
• Pray with your family for the family members of seekers who could be opposed to listening to Gospel radio and receiving Bible materials.

To read complete testimony