四十年來回顧與前瞻 — 半生承使命、再續待傳誰？

四十年來回顧與前瞻  — 半生承使命、再續待傳誰？

(謝謝香港靈光中文堂獲准自四十屆差傳年刊中轉載）                                           

四十年前還沒有信主，家裡也沒有信徒，宣教方面，本來沒有什麼好談。

但原來在我們孩提時代，在中西跨文化、種族和基督教會之間卻早已糾纏不分，相信不少香港戰後到七、八十年代的第一代信徒也有類似的經歷。感恩靈光教會讓我回望神的恩典與選召先於我在母腹時。

我家六兄弟姊妹都在橫頭磡區成長，曾經分別在天主教、基督教教會學校唸書。現在還未信主的大哥和五弟小時候曾在天主教學校唸書，其他兩位姐姐、六弟和我則在基督教的學校唸書。六弟和我當年就讀的天台幼兒院，聖誕節等日子，有些外國人（大概是美國人吧）會來探訪我們，還送一些很好的禮物給我們。後來才知道與我們在瓦努阿圖一起事奉的同事Greg Carlson在加州的教會多年來曾支持該幼兒院的事工。

母親說我少時多病，把我過繼給黃大仙。(後來我母親到黃大仙為我的翻譯工作求籤，求得第35簽–唐僧取經，天命不可違。很感恩，母親近年已信主，時為我們禱告)

生病時經常喝靈茶無效，就光顧附近的為恩診所（就是「為恩佈道所」）。還記得在候診的地方有一面鏡子，上面銘刻著「以藥石除病軀、藉主道救亡靈」。當時的主管美國宣教士文基信牧師（Carson Fremont），身高六呎多，經常伸出他的大手掌跟病人們握手，叫人信耶穌。小弟80年代透過到教會開辦的補習班、佈道會信主。信主後經常在為恩佈道所聽文牧師講道。 85年進入神學院以後，文牧師也成為我的老師。我在神學院上過他的課，其中包括社會學、羅馬書、加拉太書、個人佈道法等。這些科目的內容、記得的不多，當時的社會學和個人佈道法在今天已可能不合時宜了。但牧師對聖經的渴慕與研讀聖經的態度對我有很大的影響，至今還要多學習牧師的榜樣。去年有機會跟兒子拜訪在美國的文牧師，幾個月之後，牧師就息勞歸主了。

對我一生有深遠影響的還有多位宣教士老師。韓伯嘉院長六零年代接受SIL 的語言學和翻譯訓練，他當年打算到東巴基斯坦（現在的孟加拉）從事翻譯聖經的工作。只是拿不到簽證，他們一家就留在香港用約30年時間建立了五間堂會和一所浸信會聖經學院（後來的「中國浸信會神學院」）。他也是我的舊約和希伯來文啟蒙老師。我上了第一學期的希伯來語入門，之後四個學期，每學期一學分，他一對一授課。韓牧師要我翻譯舊約的部份希伯來文經文，當時不知天高地厚的我，傻乎乎地照做了。他的宣教課程主要內容是中國的宣教歷史、口傳差會來華史和分享他自身的經歷，以身作則，言行身教。聽到韓牧師的見證和教導後，我心裡想，我既領受了神藉韓牧師而來的教導與福氣，我是否可以圓他翻譯聖經的夢，續他未完成的使命呢。

1988年，隨神學院到澳門觀摩，我在馬禮遜牧師墓前立志從事翻譯聖經工作。當年參加學院舉辦的第二屆聖地之旅，參與福音動員會到臺灣短宣、精兵訓練營。後來又出席了恩臨萬邦的聚會，在戴紹曾牧師、蔡元雲醫生講道期間決志踏上宣教路，今年的華福會有機會跟他說一聲謝謝。在宣教營中溫偉耀博士講創世記12章，最近也有機會與他相認，他說他還記得那次的宣教營。還有周永健院長以耶利米為主題的講道（我的英文名字叫耶利米Jeremiah），加強我對召命的確認。這一切現在還歷歷在目。後來韓師母給了我一份美國威克里夫翻譯會的刊物和在宣教營的攤位聯繫了當年為香港威克里夫聖經翻譯會委員的羅曼華博士，及後得到袁沛充牧師引薦，內子慧好和我就開始成為「宣二代」，也開始了過去二十多年與聖經翻譯工作和靈光中文堂的這段「恩緣」。後事如何? 就是經歷神多年的恩典、慈愛、不離不棄、「添丁發才」、歲歲保平安。這些都在過去我們的代禱信和多年在宣教年刊中分享過，在這裡就不再贅述了。 

最近兩年，工場所在沒有變，但事奉的單位、方法、策略都有很大的變化。回港比以前頻繁，出差也很多 — 開拓了更多領域，參與更多不同的教會、機構、學術團體、培訓、會議 … 很多觀察、思緒仍有待整理。

總的來說，小弟對未來的宣教路向的看法是要走出知識型的宣教，謙卑尋求從上而來的智慧和對神旨意敏銳 — 聯繫全球，共用另類宣教資源，放下後殖民的包袱，超越後現代的迷思，植根本土，敢於付代價潤澤屬靈土壤，以聖經根本，為差會、神學院、教會領袖和信徒自己把脈。勇於承認過失、承擔責任，以基督為首、聖靈為導引，各按其職、各展所長，才有可能切中時弊、回復宣教團體、教會為鹽、為光、內聖外王、為祭司、為先知的角色，這是讓萬國、萬民、萬族、萬方尊父名為聖、天國降臨、父旨得成的基礎。

過去二十多年的宣教事奉，小弟參與過的領域有聖經翻譯、文字、語言學、宣教\跨文化、民族人類學、電腦、識字教育、領袖培訓、顧問、差會行政、社交網絡、動員、人工智能… 等項目。上司和認識我的好友曾經建議我考慮集中在某一、兩個領域來研究和發展，可能會有更大的成就。我覺得他們很有道理和智慧。只是我心所繫是以父旨為念，不是我要成就什麼，而是天父要用我一生來成就什麼。有人告訴我聖經翻譯很難，人工智能很難… 什麼什麼很難。文基信牧師曾說：「神的工作永不容易，但恩典夠用。」 我就一直邊做、邊失敗、邊學，靠恩典和眾聖徒的禱告得勝。多謝你們多年來與我同走這路。盼望我們都能效法基督以成就神的旨意，對我們的召命為我們的食物和滿足。他來了是要我們得豐盛的生命。豐盛的生命在於全心愛神、愛人、愛仇敵，全力以赴完成召命。

小弟未來兩年，主若許可，大概還會繼續在現在的工場。孩子高中畢業後，我們的事奉地方可以有更多的選擇，只是方向還未明確。如今人生中場，要多考慮聯繫、智取、策略、動員、使命承傳這些方向。

只是半生承使命、再續待傳誰？

普世宣教、訓練門徒、建立教會使命的接力棒，要交給誰呢？我有很多奇奇怪怪的意念、異象，誰來實踐呢？你是交棒者、還是接棒者呢？我們可以交給誰呢？不管跨越重洋，還是在學校、家庭和職場，誰願意去全力以赴，成全主召命呢？你願意嗎？

My first Indigitous Hackathon Experience 初次参与全球黑客马拉松

It is my privilege to join the Indigitous Hackathon with people from 28 cities of  different part of world. Quite likely our site have the largest number of Chinese speaking participants among all sites. Yes, part of my dream of GOSP4EL of global open source projects for evangelical laities(ordinary people). Yes, ordinary people are doing extraordinary things together for God.
This is my first hackathon and admire those young people slept very little and enjoyed hacking in last 40 plus hours.

My team, with two other college students, were translating and organizing the wiki page of GOSP4EL. I also tried to be more organized and posted some of my work and something that we learned and shared as resources in the Chinese context of our #hackathon. I am looking forwards for more input and sharing of resources/ideas from Global Chinese. Hopefully this can be helpful for the future events in Hong Kong, etc.

I posted two projects, GOSP4EL and COAD(Curriculum Of Asian Diaspora Christian) in indigitous.org. We only focus on GOSP4EL this time. Thank you again for team members of sister Zhang and Xiao Hong.

This is also a great time for networking and knowing some great people with the passion to serve God with their technical skills. Thank you for Ray and Nelson to share their skills, knowledge and passion for #indigitous. Thank you the organizers for their servant hearts, efforts and hospitality.     

嬰兒潮金齡宣教契機的迫切性

感恩去年參加金齡宣教營，希望各單位和參與者積極行動，華人教會的嬰兒潮金齡信徒出現于此時此地非偶然。機會不可再，白了少年頭，還能再走精彩人生下半場、承傳下一代、兩代。父子兵、祖孫兵完成上頭交付我們的使命。這個嬰兒潮金齡宣教的機會有其獨特性，一但過去、不能從來。怎樣進一步跟進、實踐金齡宣教。是一個迫切的課題，華人教會要講華人以外群體的宣教工作，不能再流于空談，金齡信徒能否繼續終生學習、把握先進科技、研究成果，用創新的方法來參與宣教。未來的宣教模式，重點不再是結構性勞動力的宣教，而是智慧型的宣教網絡。一切努力代禱、努力學習、研究和實踐。請多多指教。可以有什么具體的行動計劃、建議嗎？

垃圾還是活祭 Waste or Sacrifice

死亡的動物對你意味著什麼？ 我認為這取決於你在哪裡看到他們，祭壇或垃圾桶。 我們把自己當作活祭嗎？ 如果我們犧牲在錯誤的人手上， 像以利的兒子，那麼我們就是垃圾。
誰是祭司？ 這促使我思考唯一的大祭司和“信徒皆祭司”的重要性。 這就是為什麼我盼望GOSP4EL能動員平信徒。
今天帶著社會、教會領袖、祭司職銜的人不小，他們能把我們獻到至高神的祭壇上嗎？我們并不缺領袖，我們失去了方向和帶領者應有的質素。

What does dead animal mean to you? I think that depends on where do you see them, the altar or the garbage bin. Are we offering ourselves as living sacrifice? What if we were sacrificed to the wrong hands, e.g. like the sons of Eli, then we would be waste.
Who are the priests? This prompt me to think about the importance of the only High Priest and "priesthood of all believers." That's why I would like to see GOSP4EL engaging evangelical laities.
Nowadays there are many leaders and clergy with title, how many of them can offer us to the altar for the Most High. We are not lack of leaders, but direction and leadership.

Reflection on Moses's Leadership and Leadership in Open Source

Thank you for a colleague sharing his reflection about Moses's leadership and the transition. 

I observe that many good leaders or leaders that I appreciate do not want to lead, but was called to lead. Actually they don't have followers, but they facilitate others to follow the Great Leader.

I think Moses is that kind of "leader". I don't see Moses as a voluntary leader, he was kind of being forced to believe that he was the chosen one to bring the people out from Egypt and pass the Law to God's people. He didn't pass the leadership to Joshua, what he passed on is the instruction and example of an obedient followers of the instruction of God. 

Nowadays I fear that we have shifted the focus from God to the world and different idols in the church, Christian NGO, missions. Some of His people being either secularized by the world or scrutinized from the world. If I would choose some keywords or key term from Gods' people is not about leaders or leadership, but 'watchman', 'care overseer', 'servants', 'heirs', 'followers'(students/disciple/learner). In some chaotic context of chaotic the key words would be 'judge' and 'king'.

Open Source community do not have a very strong hierarchy structure, but at the same time we may have the conflict with extreme openness beyond the boundary of Biblical principle.

For an Open Source Christian community, what key words we would choose to describe ourselves, and how about the leadership?

溝通的學習和分享 Learning to Communicate 4F+3才-閑話

過去從事翻譯-跨語言文化的溝通，也學習溝通不但要合情合理，但更重要的是“文以載道“ Communicate with purpose/mission. 翻譯聖經跟講道一樣為的是為作者表情達意來改變生命。希望再這里也希望能與大家分享一點再溝通的學習。交流有最少四頻道4F;

1.     fact – 客觀事情、新聞報導 – 我看見 … 我聽見… 我讀到 … 為什么丈夫總是愛看新聞、讀報紙。(合理)

2.     feel – 主觀感受、藝術、經驗 – 我感受…、我覺得…、我體驗 …  為什么丈夫總是不明白 （合情）

3.     future – 將來期望、異象、夢想、行動 – 我希望… ,我想 …, 我希望我們 … 我想我們 … （文以載道）

4.     feedback – 回饋，溝通得到回饋和預期效果，才功得完滿。

Gossip  -- 閑話別人 -- 不要說別人閑話、特別不要論斷。以身作則比批评别人有效。表扬要公开或私下按文化而制宜。，

溝通的環境、條件， 三才 – 天時、地利、人和

良好溝通 = 3 才（ 天時、地利、人和） + 4 F （合情、合理、文以載道、預期回饋）– Gossip（閑話）

例子：

馬太福音 9:36-38 “36他看見許多的人，就憐憫他們；因為他們困苦流離，如同羊沒有牧人一般。 37於是對門徒說：「要收的莊稼多，做工的人少。 38所以，你們當求莊稼的主打發工人出去收他的莊稼。」不知道耶穌當具體怎樣說，只是馬太福音的作者就把祂的知、情、意都描述出來。翻譯\溝通要達成語用學（pragmatics）的效果或激發功能的對等（dynamic/functional equivalent）。希望日后大家能使用不同的頻道、在適合的環境、不說閑話、多說造就人和有正能量的話；并有榮神益人的溝通、交流。

Essence of a community -- sharing/love and communication in Christian Church?

A community is a group of people who have something in common. Beyond that they need to act for common good and mutually benefit each other, i.e. sharing. I think sharing is the foundation of developing love -- which is the Great Commandment for disciples of Christ and the churches. You may see a group of people called themselves Christians but live in some selfish ways and complaining why their churches are not growing. Actually sharing and love are the foundation. Some churches may have very sweet fellowship within the church, but the Great Commandment require us to go beyond our comfort zone, our geographical, cultural and ethnic boundary ... to make disciple of all nation/ethnic groups for Jesus Christ in such case we need communication not just our language but the languages of others.

I have been thinking as a linguist/translation practitioner and open source advocacy what are the significance of language/communication, translation and sharing economy. At one time people might wonder the ultimate owner of the cathedral building of Christian church. Nowadays while the crowds are looking towards the direction of the mega church, which is nothing wrong, if they can still surrender to Christ. However, it is more important to see the people are communicate and respect with others within their culture and beyond their culture to share Christ love and truth.

I think I can be very ignorant to persuade others to love their neighbor and reach the land of Samaria,even worse as I being an advocacy of open source in Christian church. It's really embarrassing that myself as Christians(esp. Chinese Christian) minority in the open source community. While some people not knowing Christ are sharing what they have with altruism and Christian churches are doing otherwise.

Recently I met a brother from Hong Kong who have been involved in promoting open source development in Hong Kong for many years and came to the Lord not many years ago. I think he is a great blessing to the Christian church. He is involved in the GOSP4EL(HK). Please pray for him and our coming GOSP4EL(HK) meeting on Sep 10, 2016.

Reflection of Glocal Chinese with 9th CCOWE observation

After attending twice CCOWE, I found the Chinese diaspora or oversea Chinese are both global and local phenomenon. Thus, I think the first character, "G", of GOSP4EL should be Glocal rather than global.

In last two CCCOWE, there was an English track congress parallel to the traditional mandarin Chinese track. At the same time, many of the participants are Cantonese speaking. Chinese churches are very complicated.

As I expressed my concern about the localized and indigenous development of local Christian community or materials, many of our English speaking friends are thinking about translating the text and materials. I think it is difficult to explain the Chineseness in term of origins, language, ethnicity and culture with all different combination of the above items.

I am glad to see world evangelism and global mission bring the unity of Chinese churches with global connection. I think it is also very important to let all distinctive Chinese group aware of their difference as strength and limitation, with the potential instrument to glorify God with Kingdom mentality rather than Great Chinese mentality. I think the path of all globcal Chinese church reaching overall global perspective with action is still quite long. As the old Chinese saying, "The path is long. You will certainly not able to get there, if you don't start walking."

I can imagine that is the same things for GOSP4EL, just even Hong Kong. I am glad to see some progress and the networking started expanding. The path is still long. My effort is just a token, I would like to see His Greatness will be demonstrate by His grace and obedience of others, laity and ordinary people.


On September 10, 2016, we are going to have the second GOSP4EL(Hong Kong) meeting.

https://www.facebook.com/events/291370867884029/

I certainly would appreciate your promotion, sharing and prayer.

Radical? From Offering, Commitment then Surrender

When I was a young Christian, I came across a Chinese Christian title "Commitment"  by Rev. So. I was not able to recall the details of the book. My impression is there is concern about Chinese Christians along with other growing Christian communities in different part of the world do not really pay attention to the cost of being disciple.
In 9th CCCOWE, we came across the theme, "becoming radical disciples of Christ". In one of the devotional session, Rev. Chan called for surrender as a decision of becoming a radical disciple of Christ. Isn't offering and commitment enough to bring glory to God? Maybe or maybe not. I am not God, I don't know. However, there can be a more radical way to worship God by surrender or even more radical but biblical sacrifice.

What does sacrifice means to us? The first meaning can be  someone or animal as sacrifice because of us. The second meaning can be we as the sacrifice because of someone. If Christ has been the sacrifice for us and yield to the Father's will, then what could be the sacrifice for God's glory and the people that He cared and love. I fear that I dare not to answer the question lightly. How radical should we be? Is why question a legitimate question for being a radical disciple of Christ? Is radical still rational? Why do we ask why?
What are the value behind our words and deeds? Do we have answers of these question? Do we prefer ourselves having answer or not? Why?

If Jesus asks me today, "Do you love me?" as He asked Peter thousands years ago.
I feared that my answer would be, "Lord, you know how much that I don't love you."
May God search our hearts and help us or at least myself to follow Him in ways of offering, commitment, surrender and different means in order to glorify Him.

""If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him." C.T. Studd

What are the keys? - from key terms in BT to returning the keys to the owners

In Bible translation, one of the key issues is about rendering of key term. How do we define key term. Key terms usually are those Christian or churches' jargons(e.g. church, christ, tabernacle, fellowship) which are significant in understand the theme of the books and the whole Bible.

Bible translation practitioners spend a lot of time and effort to find the best way to re-express these key terms in the target languages. One of the earliest steps doing so is to understand the meaning of the key terms.

In one of the devotional meeting of the 9th CCCOWE meeting in Taipei, the speaker Rev. Edmund Chan invited the participants to give back their keys to the owners. I have no problem with that. However, I have a number of questions, as I am asking about the meaning of these keys:

1. What are these keys?

2. Who owns these keys?

3. Why these keys are at my hands?

4. How do I relate with the owners?

5. What does the owner want me to do with these keys?

6. How can I make good use of these keys according to the owner entrusting them to me?

7. Should I keep the keys or pass them on to someone else? How?

I think some of the answers can be found in Rev. Edmund Chan's book, "A Certain Kind."

https://www.amazon.com/Certain-Kind-Intentional-Disciplemaking-Redefines-ebook/dp/B0162IRQUU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472645448&sr=8-1&keywords=the+certain+kind#nav-subnav

Thank you Rev. Chan. Sharing your insight.

Separating spirituality/Sanctuary from daily life

I have been busy traveling in last two months. Around April, I tried to slow down a bit and pay more attention to God's guidance in 50 days. There was no significant change, then I started serving with team but I realize that 50 days should not be the limit. I should always be alert and pay attention to God.

In CCCOWE the exegesis and devotion session of the first day, the speaker Rev. Edmund Chan of IDMC(Intentional Disciple Making Church) was sharing Psalm 73 and inviting people to the sanctuary and refuge. As in John 4 the place of the worship was no longer in Jerusalem nor certain mountain. Before I came to Taiwan for CCCOWE, I brought a booklet, "The practice of the presence of God" from South Asia. As I was asking advice about personal devotion with a founder of a theological college. His told me that his quiet time and prayer life is merging in his daily life. He was kind of surprise himself as he thought he didn't separate his daily ministry and devotional time. Yes, worship, devotion, meditating God's Words, ministry, serving .... should be involuntary part in our life. Yes, we should be aware that there are no different between the sanctuary, refuge, worship and the presence of God. I think the key is to worship with the Spirit and the truth.

Hong Kong Open Source Conference 2016 -- Great start

Yesterday I was attending Hong Kong Open Source Conference 2016. It's very exciting to see the community there with international participants from different part of the world and to see IBM and Microsoft's representatives there. Click the above link to learn more about the schedule and the topics.

 

I used to be very embarrass using Window OS in a open source community and it's great to see Microsoft move to the open source direction as well.

As in other conferences, the informational is high. I really appreciate the conferences as open source community seem have altruistic mentality and friendly atmosphere. I see a lot of young people and very energetic community of innovative mind. I love it and glad to be part of it.

I hope to connect more like-minded people in the community for partnership in GOSP4EL. I certainly would appreciate your networking and prayer.

How has God comforted in your pain? Presence with God Day 32 of 50

Pain is to live without the presence of God. One of the issue is that we have or we think we have pain killer to suppress to suppress such pain.


Is this a valid question? I am would like to spend more time be with God. Do I meet God or does God meet me? How do we meet? God's comfort to me usually through His Word, sometime through His people.
As I was trained in pastoral counseling in Bible college and being counseled about 30 years ago, one key thing that I learned is about self-counseling. At that time I don't think we use the term of EQ. Emotional-rational therapy seems work well to me, not necessary to other. I may need to update my self-counseling strategy. I have a question in my mind is that do professional counselor creating dependency of some kind of technique, knowledge, professional.

What is pain/suffering? What is the source of pain? How can it be handled? Who handle the pain? Why do we need meet God in our pain or God met us in our pain?

My family came across Rick Warren's sermon about how can we serve with those in pain. I think there are some good guidelines. How has God comforted in your pain?
Why did he have to comfort us in pain? He understand and care our pain. What's wrong with pain? He collect our pain/tears in a leather bag.

How has God comforted in my pain? He care, for that's His nature.
Pain is short and will end for His children.
Pain is misunderstanding and one day everything will be clarified.
Pain is conflict, and one day there will only be peace.
Pain is injustice, and one day the only rule is absolute justice and fair.

Psalm 126:5-6
We should have little concern, if we sow in tear. But what if we are sowing and caused other's tears of pain. Our moral rule and ethics is not merely cause-effect, but love, grace and truth. These are the nature of God. There we and God meet each other whether in pain or not should not be matter.

Hlaf way of the 50 day with intention coming closer to God

Thank you for remembering me. Time flies it is already half way since I would like to be intentional draw closer to God. I found out that working for Him as I thought was is much more then rest as He commanded.

I came across a couple sermon videos and articles/reading. I wish I can put down some of my notes an thought earlier. I just finished watching the video by Timothy Keller about "Faith and Work"
I found it is helpful to help me to rethink about work in three points:

1. Work is good,
2. work was corrupted, men in charge to bring glory to themselves(as Babel Tower event)

3. hope of work - Jesus' work and not ours.

I got another consultant invitation and need to prepare for the consultation coming week. My colleague is ready to work with me on TBTA Chinese next week. Plate is quite full again. I am still taking the course about "Lean data approach measuring social impact" I hope that I can put what I learned in context of Bible Translation. There are three modules, the first one about concepts about lean approach, which align well with human centered design. I think there would be other similar courses about that. It's not uncommon to have similar/common concept in the introduction of different courses sharing the similar goal and methodology, especially for NGO and social enterprise setting.
Exercise of preparing short survey is good, but working on survey questions would easily take long time, but good and right questions are crucial. How can we guarantee that?
I think some material about current technology can be helpful, especially if team project can implemented in a short time. Or else I fear that those technology of app would obsolete or outdated in a very sort time.

I didn't participate much in the forum discussion in this course.

My son will graduate tomorrow. I am expecting next few weeks can be quite busy. Hopefully I can have a restful spirit. I'll appreciate your prayer.

My news letter(in Chinese) just relieved yesterday through MailChimp. You're welcome to subscribe.
http://goo.gl/1o4anN

Being Aware of God Self and spiritual danger and Examining self - Day 7 and 8 of 50

Miracle and Being Aware of God

Yesterday morning I came across a passage about Peter's healing Aeneas and raising Dorcas from the death in Act 9. There can be a lot of discussion and controversy about miracles in different places. Here I think the most important is that the focus of the miracle is not for our curiosity, but for our awareness of the supernatural God with his power override the nature as His will. I did not come across the raising people from dead nor miraculous healing by myself. I think certainly God is able to choose to do this in whenever and wherever. With nature and our own experience, the miraculous moment is our awareness of God's presence, His Glory and Work.

Evening my family celebrate mother day with my children's mother, as I got back I was not feeling well. Then I went to bed early.

Self and Spiritual Danger Awareness

As I started deciding to come closer to God, I think there can be more obstruction, temptation, self-deception or destruction in the process. I tend to face more temptation to be angry and do what ever against holy life, the fruit of spirit and the characters mentioned in the Beatitude. Thus, I think I have to be careful and I think it is important to aware of this and aware of the dark-side of myself.

Temptation and Trial can come from self, from the circumstances, from others, or from the enemies. Knowing the source, can also help us to deal with the root of issues for longer term. Struggling with sin, temptation, trial and frustration is part of the journey of the rest of our lives.

On the other hands I think I have to be thankful for my sinful nature and dark-side and the potential temptation to be shone under the guidance of the Spirit. At the same time I have to be careful and tried hard not to following those traps. Thus, I would appreciate if you can join me in prayer for God's power and mercy over sin and prepare my day by day encounter with the presence of God.

Examine Self

I have been traveling quite a bit and I missed the Lord's table occasionally. However last Good Friday week because of my traveling, I had three times of lord's table in the Good Friday. I have been pondering what does it mean to me. I fear that we forget the meaning of something that we do in the routine of our every day life. The meaning of the Lord's table can be taken for granted without really think through it. Thus, I think that is something I will keep contemplating in next couple weeks. One of the highlight of my meditation about what happened during that week and the preparation of the Lord's table is about "we need to examine ourselves" I think in the couple of weeks, it is important for me to examine ourselves. In the whole journey of Christian journey, we may need to stop at certain point and really evaluate and examine ourselves before God. One thing that I am planning to do is to reread the book "If ... " by Amy CarMichael.
I hope you can also have a break and similar reflection opportunity. Please also pray for my reflection and my examination.

"Being Faithful to the Calling" Josiah S Mann Lectures by Rev. Siu - Day 6 of 50

I have just finished a series of 4 sessions with total 8 hours 2016 China Graduate Theological Seminary 萬崇仁教牧學講座 Josiah S Mann Lectures on Pastoralia. 

The theme is "Being Faithful to the Calling"

The topics are calling, pastor's personal growth-liberty with the expectation/evaluation from the congregation/public,  pastor and authority, pastor and ministry.

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（一）回歸呼召
萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（二）牧職成長－公眾評價中的自由

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（三）教牧與權威－從自處到相處

萬崇仁教牧學講座：忠於牧職呼召（四）教牧事奉－從耗盡到安息


Thank you for Rev. Gordon Siu S. W.'s sharing. I am still pondering a number of points. After being away from Hong Kong, I really appreciate this serie to help me understand some of the struggle of Hong Kong's churches through the sincere sharing, response and discussion about many relevant and practical issues. I haven't read Rev. Siu's book about the topics. I hope there can be more concrete Biblical ground for the practice.  I hope that I can learn more about theology, Biblical Studies along with these practical guidance and recommendation.
I think a number of issues is not just applicable to pastors, but also to the missionaries. A number of friends from U.S of other places have been asking me about the churches in Hong Kong, I think these series can be a snapshot for some of the essence of issues of Hong Kong's church from the perspective of pastoral staff and professors of the seminary. Rev. Siu already pointed out that the view of calling and calling as the admission requirement of Seminaries can be different between Hong Kong and the West. CGTS started with faculty trained in the West and planted the theological education institute in Hong Kong context. I hope the video of these lectures can have English subtitle for English speakers. I think the  global mandarin speaking Christians can also be benefit from it with Chinese subtitle as well.

I started with session 4 with the following observations:

1. Churches system mentioned seems to be rather top down. I just wonder whether that's because Rev. Siu's CMA denominational background.
2. Pastoral(Missionary) calling is special and superior than other calling to layman participating in ministry.
3. Pastoral with Christ-like characters, integrity and strong spiritual dimension are crucial for authority.
4. There  are crisis with the divided political opinion within the church, the authority of the church and pastors are being challenged.
5. Knowing self and understanding/empathy is crucial for the ministry and personal growth.
6. The difficulty is the reality of pastoral ministry by default. Pastor grow through the dependence upon God and going through the path of growing in the pastoral ministry.
7. Temptation and dark sides of human sinful nature, such as pride, jealousy, power/authority, unhealthy esteem, desire prevent pastor from serving faithfully.

I hope I can have more reflection in next coupe days or weeks.

Serving God, serving people or serving self -- Day 5 of 50

Every one being brought up with different background and one's own story. Our life may sharp our world view, and the way we interpret the Bible. Mission and calling is from the Bible, and yet we have to be careful about what we are doing or serving, even if we consider serving is our primary calling and mission.

How do we serve? I think we can serve though our profession, through our volunteer work in the community, ministry in the church.

I think before the question of how to serve, I think it is important to know what do we serve and why do we serve. And it is also very important to figure out the priorities in the lists that we serve. It would be great if we can get principle from the Bible to answer these questions.

Why do we serve?

I think it is important to have the motivation of love or motivation of God.

During the process of our services, I fear that we are intentionally or unintentionally led astray to serve ourselves, serve the people without the love of God, rather than serve God himself. How can we serve the invisible God? I think we can serve God through serve the people, but we can also serve the people or ourselves with merely the name of serving God and without God’s heart.

Are we serving because of fear or love? We can serve because we are afraid of the voters, of the congregations, of the leaders, of God. Can the fear of God be a kind of motivation? I think yes, but I think the fear of God can be a kind of motivation for us not doing something rather than doing something? I fear that fear someone other than God as our motivation can be problematic. I prefer not to say that fear of God is a motivation, but a kind of status of a godly Christian, but what motivates us to serve is the love of God, so that we can love the people and serve the people.

Whom do we serve?

One of my concerns of promoting crowd sourcing is that the crowd would be the decision maker together through collaboration. If the crowd is not godly but powerful, I fear that it will cause more destruction rather than construction. Please pray that while postmodern reality and context can confuse people, God will keep the next generation to read the Bible and understand it carefully and apply it in some relevant ways to glorify God.

I think the methodology and strategy is relatively less important. I hope I can commit more time to pray for the next generation and I will be able to spend more time to study and understand better God's word and hopefully I can pass that on. Sometime it is very scary to serve as Bible translation consultant for quality control and approve the publication. May the Lord have mercy to me and show me the way.

Indigitous.org -- Replacement of GOSP4EL Day 4 of 50

The Lord put all thing in His time.

Recently I am very excited to know the existence to indigitous
https://indigitous.org
This is a platform for Christian online collaboration free projects, which is very similar to the concept and core value of Global Open Source Projects for Evangelical Laities.
Please go there to have a look and see how can you contribute in different projects through online collaboration for mission and ministry.
I am so glad that it has Chinese interface. I hope there will be more languages interface be developed and the localization power will increase. e.g. adding Korean.
I would also like to see translation, Bible translation, Language technology will be added as the domains of projects/topics.
I would like to see more non-English development in the website and engaging more global South Christians and diaspora communities to contribute, so that we can foretaste the gathering of worship and ministry through multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-national collaboration. 

Calling to Minister/laity, Burning out and Rest - Day 3 of 50

I was listening and Watching a couple session of Rev. Gordon Siu's sharing in the areas of calling to the pastoring ministry, Burning out and Rest.
It is a timing lectures/sermons for me. I just wonder whether I am in a mode of burning out without noticing it.

Stress, Burning Out and Rest

I recalled reading a book by Rev. Philip Teng, in one incidence Rev. Teng asked him how did he handling stress. Rev. Philip's replied is "I refuse it."

I also recalled one of my teacher in SIL school told me that stress test might increase the stress. I think when we are coming across difficult time, we need to focus on God, and not the issues/circumstances and be self-pity.
Thus, I will suggest going/praying to God, physical exercise, changing your job/task of different nature, rest and seek for help. Humorous and laugh at yourself may help, if you are already good at that. I think that is kind of cliche.

I just wonder what are the burnout rates of pastors or missionaries. Which one would be higher?

Calling to laity

As I have been thinking the topic of engaging Chinese diaspora. Most of the people would agree all Christians have their calling. Whether the calling should be different from other calling, I am not sure. Based on the priesthood of all believers, I think all calling are equal.
Rev. Siu and the panel seem agree that the calling to be pastor should be different. I just wonder whether that's from their observation or there is Biblical bases.

I think many of the Christian institutes and organizations nowadays are build for some pragmatic reason and not necessary based on the biblical ground. Thus, I think we may need to reconstruct the structure of Christian church and organization but still make sure the function and essence of the Christians communities are still there.

One of the topic is about the persistence and continuity of the calling from God. Since the calling is from the sovereign God, He can choose to call for different role in different time.

Dissatisfaction with leadership and despicable me - Day 2 of 50

In the beginning of this year, I was asked to write about leadership based on the book of Jeremiah. Since then, I have been thinking what does it mean leadership.As I tried to do some work study, I think God empowered servant, rather than worldly leader.

As we are dissatisfied with a leader, we might find that once this leader was follower of another leader who disappointed her/him and he had a dream of being better leader.

Sometimes, we may see areas of the leader, government or authority above us have rooms to be improved. And I wonder, what would we be different in the place of the leadership with authority. We may be right to see a piece of structure need to be fixed, without understanding this fix associate with the whole architecture.

Who can see the whole picture of these global connection and the development through these history? If the road of leadership is the path of failure, the issue is not about who is the leader.
I am not sure how true is that "Absolute power would be absolute corrupt". Absolute is often a concept beyond reality. After these years of services, I fear that my observation is align with most of the time about the premise that power corrupt.

As Peter Drucker mentioned that if there is a position or job that no one can fit it well, the issues may not only be the people taking the position/job, but the one who define the job.

The authority or membership of church and NGO prescribe a perfect pastor/leader with our imagination and expectation from us,the fallen human being. I think that's one of the reasons why it is so difficult to find leader finishing their job well. I fear that the initial prescription or definition of leader can be problematic.


There is only the Architecture of the universe can lead with all knowledge and all power. There is only Father and one Teacher. We all are brothers and sisters. We all are fellow students of the Master knowing all.

What we can do is to serve the One by serving others. I don't think the world need more leaders, I think we need more humble servants, who are aware of their servant hood, brotherhood and studentship. Thus, you can see why I have the passion to mobilize laity and ordinary people.

At the same time, let's left up our hands and pray for those servants with authority, serving their follower well with wisdom for their making decision, trouble shooting, problem solving.

Calling to come close to God for next 50 days -- Day 1

On the 2nd day of the fifth month of fifty one year since I was born, in the evening I was walking with Loretta at the court yard of our residential areas. I found there was an urge for me to come closer to God in next fifty days, until my family going back to Hong Kong on Jun 22nd as planned.
This year will be a special year of my family, as my son will graduated from high school and leave the family for his studying in a university in Hong Kong.

Since my last half-marathon, I have been gaining weight and gaining more spiritual fat. I think it is time to focusing on God the Father, focusing on Jesus, focusing on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I hope in the coming 50 days besides my routine, responsibility of work and family, I spend my time to focus more on listening to God's word, pray to Him, communicate with Him. I would also like to spend more time to pray for His plan on me, my family and ministry and the development of GOSP4EL, or other things as the Spirit guiding. I think I also need more time to reflect about what happening and what I learned last year.

I would certainly appreciate your prayer. I'll try to write down my reflection and what I learned through this blog. In next 50 days.

I am sure His plan is give us hope.

Translating Apostle's Creed to all languages

I am not sure how much we can done with Vision 2025. However, I think translating Apostle's Creed can be more feasible strategy to provide the main frame of Christian faith in vernacular languages. The small size of text with limited semantic domain, may make the creed a good candidate for different degree of machine aid translation.

Once the ethnic-lingual communities have this frame work, they can start with contextualize/indigenous theology along with further exploring the whole Bible and advocating further direction for vernacular scriptural translation.

I am also proposing the develop semantic representation of apostle's creed(started from Chinese base and/or English base) for machine generation, e.g. TBTA. Anyone would like to help with Latin base semantic representation are certainly welcome.

How do you think? Anyone interested to suggested language projects or facilitate/assist for it?

Translation Psalm is difficult. How can volunteer help?

I share in FB about Psalm in the conversation between bono and Eugene Peterson.
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/slices/watch-bono-and-eugene-peterson-talk-about-psalms


Good Bible Translation have the quality of accuracy, clarity, naturalness, consistent and acceptability. At one time one colleague mentioned about the significant of literary. Some projects started and end with New Testament, and portion of the Old Testament. Poetry is certainly very challenging. Translating old testament literary require master both the source language Hebrew and the target language very well, plus. The artistic impact of the translation may be missed, as the translation team have so many different details and aspects need to attend to. If possible, I think relevance can be another feature with high priority for poetry/psalm translation.

If Bible translation required all different skills and need to pay attention to all these aspect. Can volunteer do it? Bible Translation seldom done by one individual without collaboration. Bible translation need team work. I am still thinking how can we collaborate and contribute Bible translation as a master piece of arts.

Some one may not able to translate it well, but with the sense of music and godliness, I think we together can make the difference. Bono is not a translator. His insight may help.

How GOSP4EL Create Value?

Currently I have been thinking about the role of NGO and self-sustainability. I think NGO and enterprise has to create value through their service and product in order to bring the impact to the community and society. However, NGO or enterprise generate revenue and profit only for its self-sustainability without considering the social responsibility and relevance but exploit global human resources can be an issue -- anti-social.

That apply to individual as well. Human life with one's time is limited resources. How can we make good use of our time in order to create eternal value can be an important question about personal mission for every Christian or people who believed in life after death. With the great commission and great commandment with Christian value, Glorifying God by loving other, showing His goodness and sharing Biblical teaching through testimony of Words and deeds are all important.
As Christian NGO, I think that is also important to fulfill these missions and help our fellow Christians to serve other by create value towards these goals.
I hope that churches, different NGO and enterprise concern more about their social responsibility, relevance along with their accountability and effectiveness.

As a worker in an NGO/mission, I am thinking how can GOSP4EL to help.
I am thinking direct engaging laity as volunteer adopting direct sale model to reduce the cross of the NGO/mission. One of my concerns people with political ambition may try to rebuild the tower of Babel not for God's favor. Thus, I wonder whether a flatter structure（see mw work about value and pattern of Bible translation of post-colonial context) without much offer head charge and allow more collaboration and synergy to be good steward for God's mission.

Thus, we need to ask a couple questions:

1. How can volunteers be self-sustainable as a community of learning and practices?

2. How can a volunteer community create value?

3. How can we share resources to create value?

4. What values or impact we would like to see?

Myth of Engaging Volunteers

After trying to engage Chinese volunteers, I think I have the following observation and lesson learned:

Observation:

There are many gifted people available to be engaged for meaningful course

There are many needs that gifted people can help.

There are need to link them together but how?

Some volunteers are so specialized and not ready to change?

Self-learning, self-motivated and hacker mentality is important.

Diversity of ethos, languages, ideologies of volunteers make collaboration difficult.

Myth and Lesson learned:

1. Engaging volunteers is easy

Describe the task for employee is not that easy, I fear that it is even more difficult for volunteers without knowing much about their background.

Ability of matching the task with the gift of the volunteers is great gift.

Collaboration and need of coordination with all diversity making it even harder.


2. Chinese diaspora speak Chinese

I found many Chinese diaspora are very multilingual and have very high proficiency in English. I also find myself communicate in writing in English is much more easier than in Chinese, even though my English is broken, especially in the academic and professional domains.


3. Volunteers is free

I'm still pondering what Einstein say and Linus Torvads said.


"If there is no price to be paid, it is also not of value." Einstein


"Software is like sex: it's better when it's free." Linux Torvads.


Volunteer is not free. Serious volunteers commit and sacrifice their time, which is very valuable. Open source and other free stuff are free for the users to use, but other pay the cost of the labor without or with relatively low compensation to share their skills and time to provide the privileges that other can enjoy.
As NGO, I think we/they should be carefully accountable to their contribution. I don't know what kind of auditing system can audit volunteers resources. I think it is worth to explore. I think NGO should also allow volunteers to have more ownership and privilege of communication and decision making to the clients and also to the NGO.

Where to go from now?

1. Not to engage volunteer but to inspire what dreams they can own and achieve their dreams.

2. Knowing well the need and the way of self-sustainability or else engaging highly motivated financially independent volunteers.

3. Start from small. Small group and small task.

4. Make good use of social network.

Multi-lingual Collaborative Translation Platform developed in Japan and China

“大家翻译”志愿翻譯者合作平臺。小弟最近在一協作翻譯研究學術會議中遇到負責“大家翻译”的 Kageura 教授。他們翻譯培訓的公共平臺正在創建中。如果能夠是開源碼和開源數據就更好。

“大家翻译”是由情报通信研究机构语言翻译组和东京大学图书馆情报学研究室共同研究开发的项目，三省堂和国立情报学研究所连想情报学研究开发中心对开发项目予以了大力协助。

Tokyo University contribute a collaborative translation platform to bridge the language gap of the world. The platform's interface is multi-lingual.

http://cn.trans-aid.jp/index.php/article_list/recent

中國的譯言網

http://www.yeeyan.org/

In China, there is one web-site for collaborative translators(volunteer or paid), shall we consider to translate and share something meaningful to cross the language barrier and reach those need good message and good reading materials？

中國也有协助翻译的平台--译言网（收费的和志愿者都有），希望有更多、更好的翻译作品将好消息和好的读物广泛流传。

Is there any website like this in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau or oversea Chinese?

这样的网站，请问港澳台、海外华人也有吗？

What I learned from backup and restore: stop procrastinate, think more, write more, share more esp. on the blog

Many years ago, I met a Bible translation consultant and we talked about backing up the translation project data. He unbuttoned the shirt and pulled the CD out under his shirt ... He told me that is the way that he handled the backup. In addition he also send a copy of the data to somewhere else in his home country.

I was very careful handling Bible translation data when I was a project manager and advisers. Relatively I became less careful as I was no longer responsible for a specific project.

Recently I came across a number of issues and headache about backup and restore. The operating system being updated, the format of backup data may not be readable by the new system ... Most of documents can be recovered but not some of my work in my computer in last few weeks, Thank you for the cloud backup, most of my email communication are still there in the cyper space ...

Thus, the lesson I learned is not to procrastinate and try to write more on line and backup online. Thus after months of my last blog. I think I should think aloud in written form. Many of my ideas can be immature and not yet ready to publish. Life is a risk. Thinking is a risk. Sharing what you think could be even more risky.

One of my concern is that I see the need of Global Chinese but I was limited by my language proficiency, I speak fluent Cantonese, but I am not able to process Chinese as fast as English, even though my English is broken and can not be well understood by English native speaker. Most of the academic and profession vocabulary used by me are in English, as I was taught in secondary school using English textbook and vocab, but the class was explained in Chinese ...

Anyway, I admire people like Augustine, who wrote more than I read. I am pondering recently more on academic publishing -- how good is good enough, shall I focus or balance between quantity of ideas or quality of the writing in a ever changing world. Obsolete can be a scaring word but is the reality.

Thus, you may see me to share more often in the coming few weeks.
  

What should be translated first from the Bible?

What should be the order or priority of books of the Bible need to be translation?  

I think it is important to "do the right things' than “do the things right.' The right order is also important.

• One of the pattern is from the easiest to the most difficult. 

A number of Bible translation projects start with short narratives to more complicated epistle, than to poetry. With natural language generation project like TBTA,　I think Pauline logical epistles can be as easier as some narratives. BTW, some narratives in the gospels mixed with poetry genre can increase the difficulty of the translation. I think machine translation and NLP(natural language processing) may find poetry genre more challenging in general.

• Another factor is theological significance and relevance to the receiving communities.

One of my concern is that NLP methodology or other innovative methodology for BT is a  kind of experimental, I think it is important to have the foundation theological framework being translated first. Thus, I wonder whether we can consider the Apostolic Creed have a high priority, then we may consider translating the portions of scripture which are the bases of the creed. Then we may also consider to translate materials introduce basic ideas about the content of the good news and the importance of the Bible in order to build the community of the users. After that we can keep engaging community to use and participate in revision for TBTA or other BT products.

• Parallel passages， e.g. in synoptic gospels, new testament quote from old testament

We may consider strategy for make good use of existing TBTAese, e.g. Luke, NT

• For marketing value and demonstration

I think it is important to produce a minimal viable product and outcome as showcase. I think the product is not merely the NLG text but the people being transformed/blessed via TBTA. Thus, what can bring the impact from a product have relatively short/reasonable time of cycle of production and evaluation?

• Divine calling for individual, 

Since TBTA practitioners consider our participation of TBTA as response to God's calling. I think it is fine to work for books or projects which is not logical from human's point of view in some cases.

• Engaging prayer team/network for every book and/or every TBTA project

As we consider TBTA and BT as ministry, shall we ask the pledge of at least a couple Christians or churches to pray regularly for the projects before we start a projects? We should be accountable to our prayer partners. How? We can launch invitation for prayer from facebook, linkedin or other social network.

The history((1983-2007) of my jorney with Computational/Language Technology

The following is my king of blog about the history and my path working with computer from 1983 - 2007, I am still very passionate about computational and Language technology. Thus, you know why I am working on GOSP4EL.

4th October, 2005(updated 15th October, 2005; 27th Nov, 2006; 5th June, 2007)

In 1983, I got my first personal computer, a Bondwell(HK made) computer with 64K RAM, using tapes player to read/load data and using a television as screen. I took a very short course of BASIC with Apple II computer then.
In 1983 - 1985, I was working as a supervisor trainee in different Government Civil Engineering project and I did not use computer much in that time. Then I went into B. school in 1985.

Later around 1988 onwards, I started using IBM-XT and AT in my work and study-- mainly for data processing("wordstar", "word perfect", "Lotus"), using 360K 5 1/2" floppy disk, Win version1/2 in a monochrome monitor. I also design and work on a library catalog system using DBase III. I also used my friend's Apple computer for processing data of questionaires for a project in the course of Ch. growth. After I finished my study in B. School then I work there for a couple years and taking two years evening course in foreign language and translation. I took a basic computer course (general operation and MS Works-- word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc),  the like minded teacher introduced PASCAL and LISP to me. That is my pre-SIL computer experience.

In 1993, I joined SIL and got my first lap top(Bondwell-386, HK made, using Dr. DOS, Window Vers. 3), started learning FindPhone, Shoebox 1.2 -2, FIESTA, CECIL box under Chuck Grime in Asia SIL. In those days, all these software were operated under DOS. And I'm so glad that I follow Chuck's advice using MDF and SFM, and I'm still using it now(2007). Around the Christmas 1994, I got a Toshiba Satellite 1910. And started my first dial-up connection with internet with Netscape browser and using CCmail.

In 1995 Feb, I started serving in Vanuatu. Thank Dan Garst hooked up the solar panel with my computer system in the village. I still remember those good old days; in those days without email I can concentrate on my language learning and linguistics research with Findphone, Shoebox, etc. Then later I spend US$400 2x CD drive and started using Translator Workplace(V.1),  LinguaLink (version 1) and Paratext(version 5).  I even try working with the Linguistic Workshop, and Anthropology Workshop with  a 486/200M HD. Can you believe that and imagine the speed? That is my first time I heard about Object Oriented programing with CELLAR. The workshops did not help much in my work but the process help me a lot in understanding  OOP. LinguaLink library has been very helpful.

In 1997, in Hong Kong I had my first contact with Linux, RedHat 6.  At that time, the installation has already been rather straight forward. However, the win-modem was an issue. When I was studying in Australia in 1998, I did not spend much time in Linux. And I were still using a Mono-chrom 33MHz Toshiba notebook.

In mid 1998 after after attending a conference of LFG(Lexical Functional Grammar), I flew back to Vanuatu.  Then I spend most of my time in a town of the biggest island in Vanuatu until 2003. I brought back the mother board from HK. Then I get the hard disk and RAM from Australia, power supply and the box from Vanuatu. I assembly a home desktop.

Around 2000, I got 3 CDs of Red-hat 7.2 from APC, an Australia computer magazine. Then I installed it into my desktop, however, the win-modem is still a hurdle. Besides, even thought the connection is possible, the internet fee was rather high through 56K modem. I also learn a Camel CD and the book "Perl in a nutshell" and learn a bit perl but not really do something serious. Then I got Visual.net and learn a tiny bit of C++(in 24 hours) and a bit VBASIC etc.

In 2002 a team with consultants and software developer came to Vanuatu for testing Fieldwork in the field during an anthropology workshop.

When I started working in EA in 2003, I am more serious about Linux and a number of colleagues are interested. Then I played around with different distro: Redhat 9, Fedora 1 & 2, Mandrake 9 and 10, Knoppix 3.x, and finally more consistent with Suse 9.2 and 9.3 recently.

In 2005 I was reading about basic TCP/IP and networking, VI(the book by Linda Lamb & Arnold Robbins, a Chinese version). I think the VI book spend many pages talking about different types of VI. On the contrast, I found the book by Vbird, a PhD student in Taiwan are quite helpful.(linux.vbird.org)

From September 2005, I have been communicating with a few Linux Fans to establish a local LUG. Thus, recently I am learning more about the basic study for administration. Look into /proc and /etc. I started learning iptables but still find it is rather complicated. I am hoping to get the B-edit working with Keyman for Linux. I would also like to see other SIL software working in Linux Platform. Now WINE may be a short term solution but I think the efficiency is not as high as I expected if running program via WINE.

In 2003 or 2004, there was a T-soft workshop. At that time we started using Computer Based Training, TW 4 and P'text 6. And I forgot when did I start using BART.

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27th Nov 2006
I haven't been working on Linux for a long time. I think it is better for me to start again. Quite likely I will start with Ubuntu again.
I am interested to see how it work with other SIL softwares, TW, paratext and the non-Roman script processings. Thus, I need to look into WINE or other emulators. Another things that I am interested in is online learning.
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26th May 2007
For a while I was working with Suse 10 and SME to set up server for groupware, apache. LAMP last year. And recently I just installed Ubuntu and tried Kubuntu and different things. I enjoy the Sudoku very much in Linux. And recently I am rather happy to able to run the Moodle in my desktop Apache 2 server, with two notebook clients of XP and Win98. Thinks go rather smoothly except the first time. I don't remember my pw and need to reinstall again.

to be continued ...