On February 17th, I visited ECHO (Educational Concerns For Hunger Organization) to get an overview of their library organization, secure resource recommendations, and to explore potential for long-range expansion of H.E.A.R.T. Institute Library, Lake Wales.
ECHO a non-profit, inter-denominational Christian organization located on a demonstration farm in North Fort Myers, FL that exists to help those working internationally with the poor be more effective, especially in the area of agriculture. Their mission is to equip people with resources and skills to reduce hunger and improve the lives of the poor. Students from ECHO and H.E.A.R.T. Institute in Lake Wales FL often visit each other’s program.
ECHO Reference Librarian Jane Volker was very gracious in giving me a tour of their library, an overview of their cataloging system, organization, and collection procedures, and in sharing documents of key resources by subject area and more. More photos are posted in my Facebook ECHO Library Visit Album.
Our Titusville Spring Perspectives class was invited to join a prayer group which met last week at Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI) Headquarters to pray for oral missions. Orality is thought, and its verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population.
We ate lunch at Wycliffe Headquarters as Galen Miller introduced the StoryRunners, a mission of CCCI to help effectively communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to unreached people groups—even people with no scripture or written language. Following was a mini behind-the-scenes tour of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Back at CCCI, we went through the Jesus Film Project tour. I won't forget the "Wall of Honor" of persons who died in the process of scripture translation. More pictures and stories will soon be added to the wall.
A number of us in the tour group were moved to tears viewing a DVD depicting the impact the Jesus Film in a new language translation funded by one couple had on its first audience.
Lastly we had opportunity to purchase the Jesus Film and some other resources and a few more minutes of fellowship.
Wow! The day was too short. It only whetted my appetite to learn more about orality, Bible Storying and the various ministries and methods to reach unreached peoples.
