June 2023 Newsletter

A Week in the Life of Gary Shogren!

Come away with me on an adventure! This is not an exact 7-day period, but a composite of the things I do in any given week.
 
I Pray. 7pm is my time for prayer, and different days of the week have different themes. Thursday, it’s “Thanksgiving Thursday.” Tuesdays and Wednesdays, close Bible reading and prayer, right now through Ephesians. Along with this: since last year I have a monthly meeting with, not a counselor, but my “spiritual director”. This is an ancient discipline that evangelicals have recently rediscovered.
 
I Read. Quite a lot, actually! I normally read 4-6 books at a time, about half of which are theology books and the other half novels, culture, history.

The Tree of Knowledge sculpture

Among the books I have read, here are my favorites from 2022. My mp3 player reads to me at Planet Fitness. I also run an annual reading club in ancient languages. 2023 it’s (some of the) “Hebrew Poets and Prophets”. We have finished Jeremiah, now we’re in Ezekiel.
 
I Blog. I have two theology blogs, Openeyeourslord.com and Razondelaesperanza.com (“The reason for our hope”). Mondays I open messages and feedback and spend a few hours with them. Questions are almost always in Spanish. They range from, “can you explain the Greek participles in Hebrews 6” (hard one!) to “What do you think of this course about Christian chakras supposedly found in Bible?” (easy to answer!)
 
I Am in Touch with Spain about my New Book! In September, my publisher will come out with a collection of my essays: El Don del Espíritu y su Poder en la Iglesia (The Gift of the Holy Spirit and his Power in the Church). These days I have to answer a few questions from its editor, plus invite a friend to write the Preface. I am also writing the 1 Corinthians section for a new work Spanish, the Culture Study Bible, which will be full of notes on the ancient world. Example: what was the “meat sacrificed to idols”?
 
I Speak at a Conference. It’s 7pm their time, 8pm in Pennsylvania. Leaders of the Bible Society of Argentina had seen a blog post of mine, about the importance of Bible reading in our church meetings. My presentation lasted about an hour. I was pleased that over 300 listened in and we got a good response. I haven’t received the link to that video yet, but here is another, where I speak about 1 Corinthians – start watching at 4:00 minutes.
 

I Assure People I am not Retired. This week I turned 65! And no, we have no plans for retirement. However, one of the reasons we relocated to the US (not retired!): Medicare doesn’t work in Costa Rica but it does work in Pennsylvania.
 
I Teach at ESEPA. This after all is my regular job, my primary “hat”. We just finished off Greek 3 on Wednesday nights. Right now, I’m in my second week of teaching “Exegesis of 1-2 Thessalonians”, in which the students translate both books, analyze their teaching on the End Times, writing a major paper on 3-4 verses of the Greek. This term I am not teaching through Zoom. This not only helps me, but also my students: one is a missionary in West Africa, and our Greek class used to run from midnight to 3am his time.

I translate articles written by Cuban dissidents against the Marxist regime. My main political activism these days is translating articles to English, then uploading them for all the world to read on translatingcuba.com. Here is an older example that I did during the height of COVID. I work under a pseudonym, but I trust you readers not to reveal my secret identity! 🙂
 
Sundays! Half our Sundays we go to our local church; the other Sundays we visit our supporting churches to update them on our work and preach God’s Word. We just saw our old friends at Redeemer Bible Fellowship, north of Philly. When on the road, we listen to a book: right now, it’s Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers by Crystal Downing.
 
Dinner for our anniversary! We just celebrated 43 years. If you can remember when Mount St. Helen’s erupted, that was the weekend we got married.
 
Editing a Bible translation. This is my second major “hat”. You can read here about the SUN version for deaf non-readers. [SUN New Testament will allow millions worldwide to read the Bible – Metro Voice News] I was asked to do the final edit of the entire Old Testament – all 925 chapters – before it is published; working part-time, it took me about two years. I just finished Job. When I finish 2 Chronicles and the OT will be finished! As I work today, Yo-Yo Ma is playing a cello adaptation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Some principles I need to keep in mind for the SUN Bible:

* Don’t misunderstand the meaning! Example: Job 11:10 says that God “shuts a person up”, but in English that could mean two very different things! Does it mean (1) “God silences a person” or (2) “encloses a person”, for example, in prison? Time to go to the underlying Hebrew: the verb is sā·ḡǎr, which proves it’s (2). So the SUN will say “chain [a] person”.

* Today I was on Job 31:13 – “If I rejected the plea for justice from my male servant or my female servant when they complained to me…” Our SUN dictionary tells us how to express the word “complain” – we use two symbols meaning “sad” and “mouth”. “Mouth” is a square; you can figure out “sad”!
 

  
* Use Short Sentences! SUN cannot permit sentences longer than 7 words! Job 31:13 was particularly difficult – it is half of a sentence that continues on in 31:14a. In SUN, six sentences were needed to properly unpack one (31:13-14a) in English.
 
* Remember how Languages Work! Edit a new Bible version and you see why there can never be a perfect translation. When we are held up with a particular verse, three of us SUN workers might come up with three “correct” ways to say a thing! So, the next time you ask, “How come the NIV and the ESV differ?” have mercy on Bible translators – they are doing the best they can.
 
I Sketch out our June Newsletter. And so we come full circle! Some missionaries dread this task. We think it is important: to inform our friends, but also to help crystalize for ourselves exactly how the Lord is working. We send one every two months; and Karen and I swap off.
 
The day is drawing to a close, time to knock off work. What else happens?
 
Fix dinner. I’m the family cook. Not chef. “Cook.” As in “person who also happens to cook.” This week, Hoisin Beef with Vegetables; Western Omelets; Ground Chicken Stuffed Green Peppers. Given Karen’s very busy schedule, this is the main time we can hang out together.
 
Relax! Reading or enjoying a movie. Right now it’s the arty French films by Éric Rohmer. And some goofier ones. 1000-piece puzzles. Walk around our small town. More reading.
 
Thanks for hanging out with me! And for backing our various ministries!
 
Upcoming Presentations:
Our calendar is still flexible for this summer: we are still open for a visit on June 11, July 16, 23, 30, and some Sundays in August. Contact Karen at keshogren@gmail.com

We will be speaking at:

Paradise Bible Fellowship Church on June 4, Karen and Gary present their work at 9am andGary preaches at 10:15am

Grace Bible Fellowship, Quakertown PA, on June 18, 9am,
we will give a brief update

Tasker Street Baptist Church, Philly, on July 2, we will visit and
Gary will preach at 10:30am

Grace Bible Church, Souderton, PA, on July 9, adult class at 10:45am

Calvary Baptist Church, Riverhead, NY (Long Island), August 13,
we will present our work in Sunday School and Gary will preach

Blessings, Gary and Karen