randolph repor[t]: the blog edition

Ben's 2nd Birthday

2012-01-24T23:40:00.001-06:00

Basic Bulgarian with #1

2012-01-02T06:28:00.002-06:00

For those who don't know, #1 is my dad. When we asked my parents what they wanted to be called, my mom said Nana and dad said without hesitation, #1!. As a world traveler, my dad has picked up on many different languages. Here's his experience with Bulgarian.

What are you doing New Years Eve?

2011-12-31T13:11:00.003-06:00

We are doing absolutely nothing. We had no plans, nothing going on at all. It was a lazy day, watching movies, playing with ben, reading, and recording a song. Here's a happy new year wish from us.

Love the Lord Your God

2011-12-27T00:12:00.002-06:00

Last summer I made a post asking for help with an idea I had. We began putting Scripture to music a couple years ago as a way to memorize, meditate on, and engage with the Bible in a different way. Deuteronomy 6: 5-7 has been on my heart since the summer and I committed it to memory by putting it to music. I asked for people who wanted to participate by submitting recordings of themselves singing the chorus. Several people responded. We mixed it down and this is the result. Note: I have limited experience and skills with recording, mixing, producing, etc. so this is very much a demo, but I hope you enjoy it.

Those who contributed are: Will Phillips, Hope Gilmore, Leigh Ann Levy, Trevor Schuh, Sarah Schuh, and Bethany Randolph.

Thank you guys so much for helping out. This was a blast and I hope we can do more like this again in the future.

Gingerbread House 2011

2011-12-25T14:13:00.000-06:00

Ben Bulgarian Lesson #3

2011-12-08T13:28:00.000-06:00

Basic Bulgarian with Benjamin - Lesson 2

2011-10-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

Visa Renewals

2011-10-04T13:02:00.000-05:00

Basic Bulgarian with Benjamin - Lesson #1

2011-09-25T15:21:00.000-05:00

Update on Project

2011-09-18T05:15:00.002-05:00

Sorry we've been kind of scarce this summer. We will update on our summer later, but for now I just wanted to give you an update on the project I posted about back in June. It is almost complete. I am waiting for a few more submissions to add to the mix and we'll be good to go. After that I'll post it here. This project has sparked some other ideas that I'm considering. More on that later.

Some other great resources from other groups doing Scripture songs can be found below. These are our favorites at the moment.

The Rizers

Seeds Family Worship

I need your help.

2011-06-14T02:37:00.002-05:00

Hello all. I am recruiting for an idea I had. I recently wrote a simple scripture song and wanted to add some group vocals to a portion of it. I had an idea that other people could record the part, email it to me and I could mix them all together. I am not an engineer or anything so I don't know how it will turn out. It will be very much a demo, but it will be great to give it a try.

If you'd like to participate, send me an email and I will send you the song with instructions. This is for everyone, whether you consider yourself a good singer or not. In the end, it will just sound like a group of people singing together. It's not supposed to sound perfect. So get your spouse, kids, or friends and give it a try! Thanks in advance.

I will post the final product here and email a copy to all the participants when it's done. Looking forward to hearing all of your lovely voices!

Justin

A Glimpse of Greece

2011-04-04T13:10:00.002-05:00

If you can't see all of the video then click here.

A trip to the South

2011-02-26T09:50:00.003-06:00

Hey Everyone!

Recently we took a trip 2 hrs south of us to visit with a Roma pastor. We had a wonderful time visiting with him, his family and his church. Here is a short video of our trip. Most of it is the Bulgarian countryside. It is beautiful!

Thanks for taking a moment to watch!

More than Birds and Grass

2011-02-08T06:14:00.002-06:00

I received a very special gift the weekend we left home. My sister Heather, whom I love with all my heart, gave me a precious gift: a necklace she made. It is beautiful…I love the colors and the little bird that hangs from it. I can tell she knows me well because it fits my aesthetic perfectly. As I marveled at it and how long it must have taken for her to put it together (not to mention the cost and creativity she poured into it), she told me WHY she made it. She relayed her thoughts and concerns for my family for my family’s safety and provision in the years to come. But then she shared this verse (one the Lord mercifully set on her heart):

Matthew 6:26

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

-Hence the bird on my necklace.

My little necklace has brought this verse to mind more times than I can count. The verse says it all. I thank God for my sweet sister and the beautiful reminder of God’s sovereignty she gave to me.

Since we’ve moved into our house, we’ve written a handful of Scripture songs to help us remember the verses we come across in our Bible readings. A couple of weeks ago a friend emailed us Matthew 6:25-34 along with an encouraging notes. In order to help us commit it to heart, we set it to music. ! Justin came up with a guitar line (sadly, we had to leave his keyboard at home) and I came up with vocal line. We worked together on the arrangement of the Scripture.

You can give the song (More than Birds and Grass) a listen by clicking here.

Hope you enjoy it and along with Benjamin’s baby sounds in the background, haha!

Ben's 1st Birthday

2011-01-29T04:13:00.000-06:00

To Customs We Go

2011-01-17T05:11:00.000-06:00

The Flip Side Trailer

2011-01-17T05:10:00.000-06:00

We made it!!

2010-12-17T23:51:00.007-06:00

Hello everyone! We wanted to let youall know that we have arrived and are
doing well in Bulgaria. We've been living with our teammates, Jon and Andrea
Dolan, and have loved every minute of getting to know them and their
awesome son better

With their help we have found a new home,

, bought a car (a blue Subaru Outback), gone to the grocery store and visited an international
bazaar (just a few of the great new experiences we are having!). We
couldn't be more grateful and are SO incredibly blessed that the Lord hooked
us up with such a wonderful family.

One of the biggest adjustments to living in Bulgaria (despi

te the 8 hr. time
change) has been the weather. It is about 27 degrees fahrenheit here and the
low tonight is only 9 degrees! Whoa! There is also about 3-4 inches of snow
on the ground, which is a complete shocker for two southerners like
ourselves.

(our yard in the snow!)

In fact, Justin shoveled snow for the first time the other day!

It sure is cold, but boy is it beautiful! We are living on the side of a mountain on
the outskirts of the city (Sofia, Bulgaria). We love it because the mountain
top (as well as our yard) looks almost just like the land of Narnia.

All of the food we have tried here so far has been delicious! We are
grateful to have great food guides in Jon and Andrea. They have wonderful
soups here as well as stuffed bell peppers and delicious cheeses (and too
much more to list!). We especially loved a traditional Bulgarian Christmas
food: the pumpkin Bonitsa (bahn-nee-tsa). It is a pumpkin flavored mixture
inside a phyllo dough crust. DELICIOUS!

We are able to get some familiar
things from home, most notably Tabasco sauce from Avery Island in Louisiana!
We couldn't believe it.

We have attended a small church plant with the Dolans for the past two weeks
and have enjoyed the interaction very much. The church is made up mostly of
Bulgarian nationals with an American pastor and Bulgarian co-pastor. Justin
even got to play the drums for church this past Sunday!

Well, that's all we have to share for now. Thank you for all the sweet notes
and emails. We are so grateful for each of you! More to come soon...

LOVE, Justin, Bethany and Benjamin

The Home Stretch

2010-11-01T15:38:00.006-05:00

Wow! so much has happened since our trip to D.C.
We have enjoyed time at home with my (Justin) parents in between trips.

One Sunday we all went to the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler.

At the beginning of this month we went to Madisonville, LA with all of Beth's family to have an early Thanksgiving since we would be planning to leave for Bulgaria around the usual Thanksgiving time. We had a great time visiting a nearby pumpkin patch, playing games, and spending time with each other.

A few days after we returned we flew down to Orlando, FL to speak at our organization's headquarters about arts work. We stayed with our dear friends, the Schuhs, whom we met at training camp two and a half years ago.

In other news, we booked our plane tickets to Bulgaria! We will fly out November 30. Our visas arrived yesterday! We can't believe it! There is still a ton to do to prepare to move. It is pretty overwhelming. We are so excited that the time is here to get ready to leave, but saddened at the thought of leaving our families. It's slowly becoming more real to us each day. So, as you can see, we've had a lot going on and still do. We will keep updating the blog at least once a month, more if possible, as we make the transition to Bulgaria and adjust to life there. Our teammates and friends, the Dolans, have opened up their home to us until we find a place of our own. So, that's all for now. Please stay in touch, as will we!

2010-09-29T09:08:00.016-05:00

Hello All!
We've cleared another hurdle toward getting to Bulgaria! We recently
traveled to Washington DC to apply for our visas. It was a wonderful trip
and we enjoyed every minute of it. Benjamin did excellent on the flights
which was a huge answer to prayer.

After a short ride on the metro we found our way to the Bulgarian Embassy.

It was such a beautiful area. We had so much fun walking by all the beautiful buildings
flying the flags of countries around the world. What a cool place! The
entrance to the Bulgarian embassy was down a little cramped alleyway and up
a flight of old metal stairs...not exactly what we had pictured in mind.
BUT, the lady we dealt with there was very kind and told us our visas should
be ready within forty days. We are assuming this is forty working days and
so hope(Lord willing) to have our visas in hand come November 10-ish.

While in DC we visited the Air and Space, American History and Natural
History Smithsonian Museums.

WOW! Those
buildings are chock full of such incredible artifacts and knowledge. We
could have spent weeks enjoying just those three museums. It was amazing!
Ben especially loved the dinosaurs at the Natural History museum...or should
we say the dinosaurs loved him!

We also visited Arlington Cemetery. What a beautiful and solemn place. it
was truly awe inspiring to see the resting place of so many of the men and
women who sacrificed their lives in service to our country.

We are so grateful to have had a little extra time to enjoy DC as a family.
We hope to go back one day when our kids are older and show them the heart
of their home. In the meantime, we look forward to making ourselves a
home in the heart of our new country, Sofia, Bulgaria. Hooray!

2010-08-23T13:34:00.003-05:00

We were BLESSED with a free gift of a week in Colorado at a Christian dude ranch named Wind River Ranch. It was a wonderful time to grow closer to the Lord and to each other as a family. We are so very grateful for this opportunity and highly recommend the ranch and its ministry to all of you. Here's a few pictures of the trip and if you're on facebook you can see the full album here.

Another big change in our lives this past month was my sister, Ashley, and her husband, Jacob, moving to College Station. Jacob got a job as the youth and young adult pastor there. Dad, of course, is delighted that they moved to College Station because that is where he went to college-at a little school known as Texas A&M (ever heard of it?) ;)We're sad that they're a little further away, but so excited for them.

There's also some progress on our process of getting to Bulgaria. More on that next time. Stay tuned!

Family Pictures and Pool Parties

2010-07-07T09:15:00.005-05:00

Wow, a whole month has gone by again! Time is sure flying by. We have been plugging away to finish an online course and working on our visa applications. We just sent our birth certificates and marriage license to Bulgaria where they will be translated and other documents prepared. At some point (hopefully this month) we should get the application documents back and then we'll need to book a trip to Washington D.C. to present ourselves to the embassy there. That's where we're at for now. We are looking forward to getting to Bulgaria and getting started in learning the language. We've been working on some simple words and phrases as we can. We found a great site called SurvivalPhrases.com. They have full transcripts of each lesson and have them available to download so you can learn on the road!

This past month we got to go back to Louisiana and visit Beth's family, who just built a deck and got their swimming pool up and running. As you can see we took full advantage of that. Ben loves the water!

We also took family pictures there. Here's a few.

Here are some Randolph family pictures that we took in May.

That's all for now. Take care!

Another new home

2010-06-08T10:26:00.007-05:00

We're becoming accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle. We have had many awesome opportunities in the past couple months to visit family and friends as well as speak at some churches. Poor Benjamin is in a new place every time he wakes up! He's been quite a trooper as you can see below.

We are now living in Longview, TX with my (Justin's)
parents. It's been great to spend time with family here. We are working to finish an online class and get our visa applications together. It is a long process, but we look forward to having it completed. Also to look forward to is a trip to Washington D.C. where we will present ourselves to the Bulgarian Embassy as part of the final visa application process.

In mid-May, we took a few days to vacation in Galveston with Beth's sister, Charity, and her husband, Will. We went to Moody Gardens and Schlitterbahn. It was an awesome time and got me in the mood for more water parks! Ben got to experience his first pool and loved it!

Last week, we were in Dallas helping out with a recruiting event giving people a taste of translation and linguistics. We went through this event two and half years ago and enjoy getting to talk to other people who are in the same place we were not too long ago. While we've been here Beth has lent her voice for a couple recording projects going on with some people we know here. We also finished the recording of a song that we wrote a couple years ago. It is part of Psalm 34 and you can hear it here

Thanks for keeping up with us. We enjoy sharing what's going on in our world. Until next time...

New home

2010-03-20T11:17:00.007-05:00

Well, we've been in Louisiana now for just over a month and Benjamin is loving all the attention he gets from everyone here. We've been working on an online class we need to finish as well as working on preparations to leave for Bulgaria this summer. One such activity which we wish we had more time for is to start learning Bulgarian. We are using a free language software from byki.com. It is a flash card system that teaches you basic phrases.

We also got to take a trip to the Alexandria zoo, which Ben slept through most of. Oh well!

We just got to Madisonville, LA for a week-long visit to Beth's sister, Heather, and her family. We'll have some photos of that next time.

That's all for now. Got to get back to work!

Meet our son!

2010-02-13T10:18:00.002-06:00

On Thursday, January 21st, 2010, Benjamin Owen was born weighing 8 lbs and 12 oz at Mansfield Methodist Hospital. We were blessed to have our parents and other family members as well as our home church pastors with us to celebrate his arrival. We thank you for your prayers for a healthy pregnancy and delivery. God has truly given us the greatest blessing we could ever ask for! Both mom and baby are doing well. We are adjusting to family life and loving every minute of it. We appreciate your continued prayers for strength and wisdom as we begin this new year as parents and prepare to transition to a new language and culture with our precious baby boy.

2009-12-08T09:18:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone, things have been crazy around here as we wrap up another semester. Just a couple weeks left! Time sure flies.

We just wanted to let you know that we have our official assignment! We’ll be working in Eastern Europe, based in Sofia, Bulgaria initially. We’re so excited to have some direction and a destination. We’ll be updating our travels here, but if you would like to learn more about the work we’ll be doing, please email us at one of the addresses on the side here.

Game plan as of now:
-Benjamin Owen will be arriving somewhere around the 25th of January! Here’s a nice profile shot of him at 27 weeks.

-Beth will be done with school at the end of this semester but I’ll take one more class in January and we’ll be leaving Dallas around Feb. 12th.
-We’ll move in with Beth’s family in Pineville, LA for a little while and then to Longview with my family.
-During that time we’ll be visiting our partners, families and friends, finishing a Perspectives course online, applying for visas, and hopefully getting a head start on learning Bulgarian!

That’s all we have for now. We’ll update after the semester is over. Gotta finish strong! Have a Merry Christmas!

-Justin and Beth and Benjamin*

2009-09-26T18:24:00.006-05:00

Hey, everyone! Here's what we've been up to this past month.

We're taking two classes right now: Research Methods in Performing Arts and Expressive Form Analysis. In these classes we learn to research different art forms, analyze them, and perform them. Though the work load is really challenging at times, we are loving it! Here are some pictures of us in action.

This first one is of the whole class getting ready to play metal anklungs from Indonesia.

The artist who taught our Visual Arts module in class commissioned Beth and me to create this piece. It was based on a tradition in Africa where instead of wearing wedding rings, the wives wear large metal things around their necks. We made one of our own that held special meaning to our lives. This exercise gave us insight into how artists can apply meaning to every aspect of their art and how we as researchers need to be sensitive to that.

Our friend, Jenny, came back to town to play some concerts in honor of the release of a CD by herself and others. Beth and I recorded a song on the cd as well and got to perform in some of the concerts promoting the cd. If you're interested in getting the CD, let us know and we can make it happen. In the meantime, you can go here to listen to some samples- The Bleatniks. Our song can be heard here- House of God, Forever.

While Jenny was here, she offered her beautiful harmonies on a song that Beth and I wrote last year, a rendition of Psalm 34. Be on the lookout for that this winter. Some of our musician friends will be dubbing some other parts later.

We also had the wonderful opportunity to participate in leading worship at a Korean missions conference involving three Korean congregations. We were specifically asked to "perform" multi-cultural worship pieces. We learned lots of ethnic worship songs from around the world and taught them to the attendants. It was awesome! We had a blast doing it and will have a couple more opportunities this semester to do similar things. Praise the Lord!

Most recently, Beth's parents came to visit and spent the weekend with us. We visited the planetarium and a Butterfly House in Fair Park. We had so much fun with them! Thank you for coming Pop and Sweetie!!!

As you can see, we've been keeping busy. Only a few more months until our boy arrives!

We miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!

-Justin, Beth, and baby Benjamin

Another session done.

2009-08-20T10:04:00.010-05:00

Hey everyone, here's what we've been up to this past month.

We've been taking a class called Audio and Video Techniques for fieldworkers. It teaches us how to take good recordings in the field that will be usable and sustainable. Here we are doing some recordings in various environments...

This assignment was an outdoor interview.

This one was a radio drama. We recorded a scene from our brother-in-law's original Christmas musical, "The Gift".

Our final project was to record with video and audio a musical performance inside a Native American eepee. The teepee is part of an exhibit at the International Museum of Cultures on campus.

If any of you were following the blog the past couple years, you'll remember we went to a recruiting event in Orlando over New Years 2008. This was very influential in taking us on the path we're on now. We got to help out with a similar recruiting event here on center recently by doing music in the mornings as well as talk with the participants and answer any of their questions. It was great fun to meet and hang out with a great group of interested people.

We also had a BBQ at our apartments to welcome newcomers.

Lastly, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary on August 6!

That's it for now. Thanks for checking in.

Our baby!

2009-07-25T23:06:00.003-05:00

Here's our first home video of our baby at 11 weeks! Enjoy!

Announcement!

2009-06-18T15:55:00.002-05:00

Announcement!

We're having a baby! We found out last month that we are pregnant. We went to the doctor last week, and he said it looks perfect and the due date is set at January 25, 2010. We're so excited and blessed to have this gift. It really is the Lord's perfect timing. Please be praying for a healthy development and for Beth, too, as she's going through these changes to carry it. Here's a little snapshot of the baby.

2009-05-25T13:32:00.013-05:00

Wow, it’s been a while since our last update. We have been staying very busy here in Dallas. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to this semester…

Classes have been great. They encourage students to teach some days. Here’s us in action…

We got to study Korean in our Second Language and Culture Acquisition course.

We’ve enjoyed being a part of a praise team that plays at chapel on Wednesdays.

On a designated “no homework weekend” the school held their annual homecoming fesitivities which included a cookout and volleyball tournament between students, alumni and staff. It was absolutely freezing that day despite it being spring.

Another cool thing we got to sit in on was a recurrency training for ethnomusicologists to learn about expanding into working with other indigenous art forms. This is what we’ll be getting into starting in July. We explored various art forms like dance…

Drama…(here we are demonstrating improvisation)

And music. These people would gather in the evenings and share songs that they’ve learned from around the world and jam together.

We have gotten to experience some of the cool things that go on here in Dallas such as the Dallas Museum of Art and the 19th annual Asian Festival.

There’s so much cool stuff here. We hope you can come visit us. We’ll show you a good time, we promise!

We're in Dallas!

2009-02-05T11:28:00.001-06:00

Greetings everyone! Hello from Texas! We made the big move at the beginning of January and are already wrapping up our first session at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. It’s so exciting to be here. Thank you all for your prayers and support. School is intense, but we are enjoying ourselves and learning a lot. Here’s a little tour of our apartment so you can get a visual of where we live. Enjoy!

Mugshot

2008-10-30T10:55:00.002-05:00

Hello all!

The grand opening of Mugshot was great. Thanks to everyone who came out. Here's a video of Beth doing an Ingrid Michaelson cover.

Stay tuned for more!

We want to hear from you...

2008-10-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

October 2, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

We pray this letter finds you well on this beautiful Wednesday!

We are in the process of brainstorming our next newsletter and would like to include a Frequently Asked Questions section. We are so grateful for your partnership and would like to answer any questions you may have about our missions organization or our place within it. Would you mind emailing us any questions you may have? Don't hold back! :) Please ask as many as you would like about anything pertaining to this ministry. If we can not address them all this time around, we will include another FAQ section in the following newsletter and possibly here on the blog as well. So please take just a second and fire away some questions. Our email address is on the side there.

Also, if there is anything you would like us to focus on in a particular newsletter, please let us know. If there is anything you would like to know more about, or if you feel you have something you would like to share with us and our other partners, we want to make sure we provide that opportunity for you.

Thank you so very much for taking a moment to send us your questions and feedback. We are so grateful the Lord has brought us all together to bring his Word to all nations. We praise God for you and are continually lifting you up in prayer by name. Looking forward to hearing from you!

With Joy and Gratitude,

Justin and Bethany Randolph

2008-09-18T13:17:00.001-05:00

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to give you a quick update. We are staying busy. We spoke at several churches last month, and the Lord has brought in wonderful partners. We are blessed to have them. It is an honor to work with our partners toward the goal of providing God's Word to all people.

We’ll be working on another newsletter in the very near future so be on the lookout for that. If you’d like to be on the mailing list, shoot us an email. The link is on the left side of this page.

September 29th we take the GRE to get into the graduate school in Dallas. We are both nervous and intimidated. Please pray for us.

We have an apartment! We reserved our apartment at the Wycliffe Courts and move in January 3rd. We’re looking forward to it.

Justin’s parents are opening up a new coffee house in Longview and we will be playing there as part of the grand opening week. It’s called Mugshot Coffee. The show will be October 2 from 6-9. They’ll be donating 15% of their sales to different Longview area missions. Our night goes to Newgate Missions. Hope to see you there!

That’s all for now. Thanks for keeping up with us. Leave us some feedback. We’d love to hear from you.

-Justin and Beth

p.s. Where's Waldo? Can you find us on White Oak Baptist's mission board?

2008-08-19T13:25:00.015-05:00

Hey everyone! Here’s what we’ve been up to:

July 31- August 3 we went to Gulf Shores, AL for a little beach time. It was a blast. We went with Beth’s oldest sister, Heather, her husband and their two boys. Here are some pictures...

It was Hudson's first time at the beach.

Beth made a turtle.

Tourists.

Beth and Heather pretending to be sick, but they're really not.

The weekend of August 9th we went to Lindale, TX to play a show at Rockwell’s Coffee Brewery. Our good friend, Jarred McCauley, drove in from Arkansas to play as well. Thanks to everyone who came out. There were a ton of our friends that drove in to hang out and see the show, even our friends from training camp that have now started school in Dallas. Awesome!

Jarred McCauley, everyone.

Very attentive crowd! They're linguists so they gotta keep their minds sharp with word games.

The next morning we spoke at my sister, Ashley, and her husband’s church. Most of the guys from our old worship band from college came in and helped lead worship. I went back to my roots and sat in on drums. It was so much fun and so wonderful to see everyone again. We really miss you guys.

This past weekend we spoke at two churches. Both went really well. It's encouraging to see others catch the vision. We're very excited at even more doors opening from there!

Lots more going on. We’re certainly staying busy. Stay tuned for more…

Training Camp

2008-07-14T15:36:00.021-05:00

We got back a couple weeks ago from training camp. It was quite an amazing experience. We learned quite a bit and received some great training. Now we’ll be working hard on partnership development. Our first newsletter is done and is being sent out as we speak. Here are some pictures from the trip.

We took several classes in partnership development, spiritual hardiness, personnel connections, finances, orientation and others.

We had the privilege of meeting George Cowan, one of the first members. He worked with the group in Mexico that whistles that we talked about in our post from Total It Up.

At the weekly chapel meeting, all the training campers were introduced to everyone. We each sat at separate tables and people there came to meet us and pray for us.

They had awesome food there. The chef at the restaurant was a professional chef who decided to come and use his gifts for ministry at the center there.

One night the president of Wycliffe USA had us over for ice cream!

Beth and Ellen trying to sneak some of the president's fudge sauce. Careful girls, Mr. Creson reads this blog from time to time.

We had one weekend off so some of us decided to get together to have worship Sunday morning. It was great. Several people were musicians so we collaborated and led worship together.

We went to the beach for a couple of hours before it started raining on us.

Our last day there we had the afternoon off so we went to the Campus Crusades offices which are right next to where the Wycliffe USA offices are and took the Jesus Film tour. They picked me to demonstrate how a recording process would go. It was very difficult just to try and match up the words with the actor’s, not to mention trying to act. I threw acting out the door and put all my energy into syncing up with the actor’s lips. It was tough!

We met so many cool people who were starting out just like us. A couple nights we held some mixers to better aquaint ourselves with them. We made some great friends.

That’s it for now. Feel free to post any questions, comments, etc. Also, if you would like to receive our newsletter, email us. Our address is on the left. Thanks!

And it begins...

2008-06-06T11:01:00.008-05:00

Hello, all! We’ve been quite busy since our acceptance. Lots of things to do to get this started. We leave for training camp next week for two weeks in Orlando. We’re really excited about that.

So what have we been up to? I’m so glad you asked! We’ve been compiling our mailing list, filling out paperwork, ordering our Invitation to Partnership brochures, and speaking at churches. It’s early in the game so there will be more speaking gigs, Lord willing, between now and January when we start school in Dallas. (more on that later)

At the end of April we were introduced to my sister and brother-in-law’s church, White Oak Baptist Church, in my hometown of White Oak, TX. They let us speak for a few minutes about what we will be doing with Wycliffe, and later on they voted to support us! Praise God!

We’ve also enrolled in Moody Bible Institute. We’re taking Survey of the Old and New Testament courses via distance learning. We’re looking forward to this quite a bit. It’s nice to have something to study that you enjoy. So we’ll be working on that from now until we leave for school. Hopefully we’ll be able to get them all done before then. That’s the plan anyway.

On June 1, Beth and spoke at The River Community Church as part of our commissioning service. By commissioning us, the church is officially sending us off as their first missionaries. This is really encouraging to us to know that we have the support of our body behind us. We got to share the work that God is doing all over the world through Bible translation and the huge need there is for God’s Word to get into the heart language of all people groups. We have an audio copy of the presentation for anyone who is interested. Here are a few pictures from the service.

That’s it for now. Pray for our travels as we head to and from training camp. We love you all. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

We've been accepted! WOO HOO!!!

2008-04-16T15:53:00.003-05:00

We are now officially members of Wycliffe Bible Translators! We are excited and can't wait to get the ball rolling. Thank you to all of our friends and family who have been praying with us for the Lord's perfect will to be done. We really appreciate it and love you so very much!!!

What does acceptance to Wycliffe mean? Glad you asked! As of April 8, 2008 we joined Wycliffe as members. We have been assigned a Prefield Personnel Administrator, Ms. Jean Pederson. She is helping to prayerfully guide us into the right "jobs" within the organization. As previously stated, Justin is looking into Vernacular Media Services. Mrs. Jean is helping me look into Scripture Use. She is also sharing resources with both of us concerning an expansion of the Ethnomusicology program. The role is that of an Arts Consultant. (sorry....no long link here). Please pray for God's guidance for us and Mrs. Jean as we try to narrow down all of the wonderful options we have before us. We will be attending Training Camp at Wycliffe in Orlando this June 14-28. There we'll meet other folks who have recently be accepted. We'll receive training on lots of different things. It can't come soon enough!

Also, we wanted to let you know that as of April 8, 2008 we are now able to accept donations toward our careers with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Wycliffe is a faith mission meaning that all members make their living by personal support. All donations to Wycliffe are tax-deductable as we are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit mission organization. Wycliffe is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. If you would like to become prayer and/or financial partners with our ministry in Wycliffe, please contact us by e-mail. Our emails are on the left of the blog.

In closing...Praise God! He is the one true God and nothing is impossible through Him! Thanks for reading and sharing in our excitement with us. If you have any questions about Wycliffe Bible Translators send us an e-mail ! If we can't answer it (we still have a lot to learn), we will certainly find someone who can.

With Joy and Gratitude,
Bethie

The big interviews

2008-03-25T10:07:00.009-05:00

We headed to Dallas the weekend of March 15th for our interview with our personnel administrator. Normally there'd be two separate interviews for each of us, but Mr. Gustavison was nice enough to try and fit the 4 interviews into one extended interview.

We stopped first to see our friends, Brian and Bea Post.

Carle Gustavison, and his wife Victoria

While we were there, Hunter and Hannah took us around and showed us the town.

This is what we listened to while we drove around.

Thanks for stopping by. We hope to have some news about if we're accepted or not in a couple weeks!

Love,
us
Wiiiiii!

The Application Process

2008-02-06T10:08:00.000-06:00

It's been about a month now since we began the application process for Wycliffe. Here's a little bit of what's happened so far.

We did get assigned personnel administrator within a few days of our phone interviews. Introducing Mr. Carle Gustavison

He and his wife, Vicky, are both PA's in the Dallas office. They both served with Wycliffe in Papua New Guinea for about 13 years with Carle working in the Vernacular Media department there. How cool! That's what I'm (Justin) interested in doing. God certainly knows how to hook people up.

We recommend...

Total it Up Orlando

2008-01-09T09:13:00.001-06:00

We just got back from Orlando last week for a week long event called Total it Up. It's designed to give you a taste of translation and linguistics for the Wycliffe Bible Translators. We've been looking into this organization for almost a year now and finally, God has given us direction and such a peace about working for this wonderful organization. What they do is translate Bibles to all the people groups that don't have one in their own language. We're so honored to be a part of such an incredible cause. Here are the pics and videos from last week. Please be in prayer for us while we go through the application process.

we're pretty excited to get there.

stop for lunch in somewhere, florida

this is at the wycliffe usa headquarters on the same grounds where we were staying. each crayon represents a people group that still needs a Bible in their own language.

this poster is a current list of each people group and their locations.

at the wordspring discover center interactive museum. each mannequin looks like a certain people group and you can hear each one say John 3:16 in their language. above them it shows what it looks like written out.

they are shading in the ten commandments in hebrew

this is an example of the complexity of translating the Bible. this certain language has around 20 different words for "carry".

a tonal language

an example of how "jesus loves me" is translated into a different language

page from a Bible translation for a people group in Hawaii. hilarious

beth and i had the opportunity to lead worship in the mornings before we got started. here i am preparing for the last day's worship with our new friend nathalie, from france.

a couple nights, we all got together to hang out, worship, and pray together. it was a wonderful time.

our classroom where we took classes in phonetics, grammar, phonology, anthropology, language learning, translation, and others.

hanging out with the professor

one of the teachers, lloyd, taught us the song "rejoice in the lord always" in munsing, which is a language from the area in papua new guinea, where he served for many years.

group photo

final thoughts

ti-red

For more information on Wycliffe, go here

We'd love to tell you more. If you have other questions, feel free to email us.
Justin-justinglennrandolph@gmail.com
Beth-bethanyjrandolph@gmail.com

The Cruise!

2007-07-26T09:10:00.000-05:00

Buffet!

Our room

Don't worry, we didn't need them.

yummy food

Nassau

Our boat

Dad got some cool shades that turn blue in the sun. He was proud of them.

It's a monkey!

Pirate night

More buffet!

The real Flying Duchman from the Pirates movie

Castaway Cay

What? More food?

We passed the time while it was raining by playing some ping pong.

A flower, or watermelon?

Animator's Palate

Disney World!

2007-07-19T09:54:00.001-05:00

here's a few highlights form the disney world trip.

this was a street magician at downtown disney.

he stole my dad's watch!

hannah and hunter on the buzz lightyear ride

high five, buzz!

dad, put our name under the "new baby" family since we had just found out that hannah was pregnant, but they couldn't spell it right. they came out looking for the nubab family. oh well.

teacups!

minnie mouse's house

mickey!

epcot

these were all made from flowers. it takes years for them to grow and get it just right.

the jammitors

a rock band called off kilter

tight fit. 7 people in all if you count hannah's baby

mgm studios

at the backlot tour, one of the stops is to show you how some movie magic is done. beth, hunter, hannah, and i were the chosen volunteers to act out a scene from a battle at sea. here, hunter is the engineer.

then the enemies attack and the engine gets flooded. hunter had about 1,000 gallons of water dumped on him!

i was the captain and beth and hannah were my deck officers. look how good they clean the ship.

fire in the hole!

it's hard to tell, but mom was one of the extras for the indiana jones stunt spectacular.

the lion king show at animal kingdom

planet hollywood on our last night together.

the magician who stole my dad's watch.

at the crystal palace in magic kingdom. the slogan of the trip (at least as far as my dad and i were concerned)...BUFFET!!

the jamitors.

hope you enjoyed it. there were plenty more pictures, but it's a slow process getting them up here. stay tuned for cruise pics.

Arkansas

2007-06-29T08:12:00.000-05:00

here is the first segment of our vacations...arkansas!

vacation

2007-06-13T14:54:00.000-05:00

we've just gotten back from our wonderful extended vacations in arkansas, disney world, and the disney cruise. we have a lot of catching up to do with work, but check back in a week or two and i'll try to get some pictures up by then.

justin

Camping

2007-05-22T10:28:00.001-05:00

We went camping this weekend with our good friends, Hannah and Hunter. Beth's parents gave us a tent as a wedding present that we have yet to use so it was long overdue. Here are some pics from the trip.

New House

2007-05-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

2007-05-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! This blog is set up for you guys to keep up with us and see what we're doing. Stay tuned for more!