Adventures in South Carolina

On my very first day in Romania (back in 2001) I was told that the key to living in Romania was to have 3 things: patience, flexibility, and a sense of humor. I’ve learned once again this week that this advice is not limited to when missionaries to go a foreign culture; it is just as applicable when people from around the world come to the US! This week I’ve had a lot of experience with these 3 things. I’ll get to that in just a moment.

I’ve spent the week at a Nazarene camp & retreat center just outside Columbia, South Carolina, participating in the Manual Translation Summit. There were 14 of us total, representing all 6 world regions of the Church of the Nazarene, working on translating the new edition of the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene and learning a new software program which will aid in future literature translation projects. I really enjoyed being part of such an international gathering. (The summit coordinator and I were the only Americans.)

And now, back to patience, flexibility, and a sense of humor. The first obstacle we faced was that the majority of our work was going to be done on the internet. But when problems arose with the internet service, we had to rethink our plan. We ended up sharing files via flash drives instead of through a network shared drive, and rather than all participants having internet access, there was just one computer per committee connected to the internet

The second obstacle was the weather. It is rare for South Carolina to get snow, so when they got 4 inches a couple weeks ago, that should have been it for the winter. But this week, they got a storm with a couple inches of sleet, followed by freezing rain, followed by snow. By Wednesday night, it was nearly impossible to walk across the campgrounds to return to our dormitory rooms.

That night, the power went out (including heat). It also meant there was limited water to use. We were able to use a generator to power our laptops throughout the day to get our work done, but we had to significantly modify our schedule. With no electricity by nightfall Thursday, the summit coordinator decided that we would spend the night at a hotel in Columbia. We probably could have “roughed it,” but the cold weather (even when there was heat) was very hard on those from tropical climates. (By the way, it annoys me that in February Wal-Mart carries summer shorts but not thermal underwear, as we found out this week!)

Friday morning, we worked in the conference room of the hotel until we received word that the electricity had been restored at the camp, so we returned. Then, to top it all off, that evening there was a 4.1 earthquake that was centered not far from us which we felt at the campgrounds.

Even with all these obstacles, we made great progress on the task at hand, learned the new software program, and enjoyed international fellowship with one another.

On Saturday morning, with all the snow and ice melted from just a few days earlier, and with the website saying my flight was on time, we departed for the airport. Once there, I saw that my flight to Washington, DC, was cancelled due to the weather in Washington, DC. After successfully rescheduling my flight for the next day, I returned to the campgrounds for another night.

I had purposefully scheduled a 2-day layover in Washington, DC, which would allow me to visit my parents in Pennsylvania, to bring an update to my home church on Sunday morning, and to share in a lunch with supporters from my home church.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at my home church, and missed the surprise birthday party they threw for my mom and me. Thankfully, though, I convinced the airline to postpone my return flight to Romania a day also, so I was still able to spend 2 days in Pennsylvania with my parents, including my mom's birthday.