Back from Liberia

00:00
Calvin Inman
In all aspects of it. At the end of the day, it’s people that are behind the computer being there. It honed my perception of what we’re really doing when we’re dealing with technology. We are working with God’s creation, and they are pushing forward his truth out into the nations. 

00:27
Rich Rudowske
Welcome to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. I’m Rich Rudowske. 

00:32
Emily Wilson
And I’m Emily Wilson. 

00:33
Rich Rudowske
And we’re going to continue with our series of back from certain locations. Right. This is back from Liberia with David Federwitz, our West Africa regional director, and Calvin Inman, who serves as our IT coordinator. They recently went to Liberia to work with the partners there, and we had a great conversation with them about the importance of that kind of work and being there in person. But before we jump into that, we want to be sure that you can find the Essentially Translatable Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. So, Emily, tell us a little bit about how one would go about doing such a thing. 

01:07
Emily Wilson
Well, if you have a smartphone, want to encourage you to go to your App Store. If you don’t already have a podcast app, that is your easiest means for being able to listen to the podcast back episodes because you might be receiving this in your email, but to be able to listen to all of the content, looking up Spotify, iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts, Audible, all of the different platforms that you can access podcasts on. We’re there. So want to encourage you to not only look us up on those platforms, but to also subscribe, because then you’ll receive an alert when there is a new podcast out biweekly. So want to encourage you to do that. 

01:54
Emily Wilson
And also, if you have any feedback that you would like to offer us, email us at info@lbt.org and share your thoughts of what you liked on the podcast, what stood out to you, and if you would like to hear more of a certain type of content. 

02:11
Rich Rudowske
All right, we’re ready to jump in and hang out with David and Calvin. We hope you enjoy this episode. So we are here in the studio today with a couple of our colleagues, David Federwitz and Calvin Inman. Great to have you all on the podcast with us, and welcome to the ET Pod studios. 

02:32
Calvin Inman
Thank you for having us. 

02:33
David Federwitz
Thanks. 

02:34
Emily Wilson
So we want our listeners to get to know you both. David, you’ve been on the podcast before, but Calvin, you’re new, so being able to share with our listeners a little bit about your background. What is it that you have had as an international experience to make Lutheran Bible Translators home and familiar. 

02:55
Calvin Inman
So my family and I have lived about 16 years overseas, and we spent about six years in Egypt and been about ten years in Chad, which is a little country, or a big country, close to Sudan. And we actually lived in a bush town about 16 hours from the capital, little dirt roads and everything. And were involved with well-drilling and sanitation projects, different training with others, and had an English center as well there. 

03:27
Emily Wilson
Wow. So, Calvin, it sounds like a lot of the work that you were doing being in African context, Egypt, being right there on the cusp of northern Africa, almost Middle east, but very much part of the experience that we’re going to be talking about today of Liberia is western Africa. So, David, share a little bit about what your international experience is. 

03:53
David Federwitz
Yeah. So, as you said, I was on the podcast a few months ago, but I was born and raised in Liberia, and I lived there until I was 18. And then my wife, Valerie and I, and our kids served in Ghana, which is also in West Africa. And we lived there in country for 17 years. So, yeah, I guess the better part of 35 years of my life has been spent in West Africa, and I still consider Liberia my home. 

04:21
Emily Wilson
So being individuals who have had to bridge between western/ North America and also all of the relationships, it is a relationship based society in Chad, and Egypt, and Liberia, and Ghana. And what is it about building relationships that is essential about the work that you do? So, just thinking about the hurdles of your role. So, Calvin, you are our IT coordinator. David, you’re our regional director for West Africa. So can you talk a little bit about the importance of relationship and relationship based society? 

05:01
Calvin Inman
Yeah, absolutely. So I think you kind of led to the hurdles that we kind of experience. I think we can all agree with technology. It’s changing at a fast rate, it’s growing at an alarming rate, and it’s actually kind of difficult to keep up with that. Even in being professional in the it world, it can be a little overwhelming. So coming from the western society, where western society is really based on a time based culture, and you kind of try to meld that into an African society, which is a relationship based culture, sometimes those two things don’t mesh too well a lot of times. 

05:42
Calvin Inman
And so the nature of our work there is the challenge of the hurdle of this is taking this technology and putting it in the hands of people around the world so that they can use this technology, these tools for the kingdom of God. And that’s a hurdle to try to bridge that gap into time based culture, to relationship, and how do we take this new technology and put that into the hands of these people? 

06:10
Emily Wilson
Can you share a little bit of an example of a time based tendency in a culture versus a relationship based tendency in a culture and how that tension can be at play? 

06:23
David Federwitz
Yeah, I think I’ll just use maybe a technology example picking up from Calvin. The focus is on the relationship, and it’s not on how much time is being spent in that relationship, but it’s just having the experience of that relationship, being together with people. And so we’ve all kind of gone through Covid, and so we have this experience of Zoom meetings and just connecting remotely. When I have meetings with Americans, Westerners, Europeans, and we have a meeting scheduled, and it’s a Zoom meeting, we hop online, we maybe say,”Hi”, or we maybe just get right into the details of the reason why we’re meeting, and it may be a half an hour meeting, and we may get done in 20 minutes. Okay. Because we’ve accomplished the task. 

07:18
David Federwitz
I will have Zoom meetings with West African friends and colleagues, and we will begin the meeting, and we’ll usually start with prayer, and then we’ll talk about our families, how everybody is in the family, and it may take us 20 minutes just to go through that kind of relational back and forth before we get to what I would say would be the reason for the meeting. And even in that meeting, I guess relational aspects of our work come out in that meeting much more so with my African friends and colleagues than it does with my American friends and colleagues. And so a meeting that may have been scheduled for a half an hour can easily take an hour, maybe even longer. 

08:09
David Federwitz
And as I schedule meetings and am doing things, that’s something that’s just kind of in the back of my mind, like, I’ll even tell my wife, okay, I have a meeting, and it’s with so and so that means we’ll probably finish early, or I have a meeting and it’s with so and so. So we’re probably going to be an hour and a half or 2 hours. 

08:27
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. Makes me think of the same thing in southern Africa where I was like, but they had another thing that would happen eventually. Somebody who’s, like, in authority will be like, yes, we’ve heard your greeting, and we know that you’re greeting us, too. And then they stop and get down to business. But it’s like… a long time before you get to that point. But, yeah, it’s so good. So you guys both went to Liberia then on a trip recently, and that’s what we’re going to focus on a little bit here again, David, having been born and raised there, Calvin, first time to Liberia. So tell us a little bit about the purpose of the trip and what were there for, the multifaceted aspect of it. 

08:58
David Federwitz
Yeah. So I really wanted Calvin to come to Liberia with his IT knowledge and everything. We work with a number of partners in Liberia. When we went, the focus was going to be with our partner, the Liberia Translation and Literacy Organization, LIBTRALO, and LIBTRALO is working in a number of different languages focused primarily on literacy and scripture engagement kinds of things. And so what happens is, in LIBTRALO, you have the everyday staff, but then you have people who come in from the different language associations to work on their own languages. And all of these folks have different levels of, I guess, technological ability. Very few people in Liberia have their own computers. Now, the world now as far as smartphone technology, it’s out there. More and more people are getting smartphones. Calvin will be able to tell you in a little bit. 

10:01
David Federwitz
Even with the LIBTRALO folks, maybe not even a handful have smartphones. They’re still using feature phones and things like that just because feature phones don’t need to be charged as often as smartphones. 

10:14
Rich Rudowske
Okay. 

10:15
David Federwitz
So that’s just a very practical thing. But also, smartphones are more expensive. The economy in Liberia is struggling. I guess my point is that in the United States and some of the other contexts where we work, people have a lot more technological knowledge and just kind of natural understanding. That’s not really the case so much in Liberia. And so when people are using computers to work on literacy materials, to keyboard stories and do desktop publishing and those kinds of things, that becomes almost a specialized role. People don’t necessarily just come with their sort of intuition. And so I wanted Calvin to come to Liberia to work alongside LIBTRALO, the folks in LIBTRALO, to just kind of build up their capacity in using computers, even in using smartphones, and understanding some of the problem areas. 

11:15
David Federwitz
With viruses, bringing in a thumb drive, a lot of people will have a thumb drive for their own files, but they stick it into somebody’s computer at home, they stick it into somebody else’s computer in a government office, they stick it into somebody else’s computer at work, and all of a sudden, that thumb drive becomes corrupted. And so I wanted, Calvin, just to build capacity and people understanding things like viruses and file management and things like that. 

11:42
Calvin Inman
Yeah, absolutely. Just going along that any type of trip like this that I take, you’re taking a lot of hours to get over there. My ultimate goal would be to empower the people that are there so that they feel equipped on their own to at least come to a point where they can handle a lot of technical issues that might come up. You can give somebody a fish and feed them for a day, but if you teach them how to fish, then you fed them for their whole life. And so my goal is just to really empower them to teach, to train, to show them what they can do on their own and then be in the background and just be able to support them in that way as much as I can. 

12:28
Emily Wilson
That really ties in with our more than words comprehensive campaign. And we have this category of capacity, and that is what it is about. Of being able to train and equip ministry entrepreneurs like LIBTRALO and language communities surrounding in Liberia, that they are able to not only innovate in problem solve, but being able to do it sustainably and in ways too with it, that it’s safe and they’re not going to be facing viruses or other hurdles, obstacles. So that’s awesome, seeing how it’s all woven together. 

13:07
David Federwitz
Yeah, I would just pick up and say the capacity kind of works. Both know, building capacity within our partners, empowering them, as Calvin said, but also building capacity within Calvin. So, for instance, Calvin, as our IT guy for Lutheran Bible Translators, he’s interacting with a lot of our partners, and he needs to understand their context, the environment that they’re in, the things that they’re dealing with, knowing the equipment that they have, so that as he interacts, whether it’s on the phone, whether it’s through WhatsApp, whether it’s through email, he has the capacity to understand what they’re dealing with and speak into whatever maybe problem or issue they’re having. 

13:58
Emily Wilson
Yeah. So, I mean, that really speaks into how essential it is for these kinds of trips to be made in person, because you can try to do it remotely and by video chat or by phone, or even email and screenshots or things like that. But being able to see the context, to have that relationship based, rather than a time based boom, boom. How do we make this the most effective, as it were? But it’s not effective when people don’t feel like their situation is being accurately understood or for just building a relationship of trust as well. This is their language, this is their culture. And being able to say, I have not only your respect, but also a welcome. The hospitality is so important in so many of the contexts where we serve. Being able to say, let me welcome you into this space. 

14:57
Emily Wilson
Let me get to know you, and you can get to know me, and let’s then solve issues together. So being able to see what it is that in person visit can do. So, can you walk us through the itinerary? What is it that you guys did during the trip and what stood out to you? 

15:17
David Federwitz
So, the itinerary is a little complicated in the sense that we arrived in Liberia, and the very next day, I left.

15:26
Calvin Inman
Ditched me, actually. 

15:26
David Federwitz
Yeah, I left to go to another part of Liberia and just left Calvin kind of hanging.  

15:33
Emily Wilson
First time in Liberia, and you’d like peace out? 

15:36
David Federwitz
Yeah, that’s exactly right. 

15:37
Rich Rudowske
Showed him where the good restaurants were. 

15:39
David Federwitz
Actually, I didn’t even do that. 

15:42
Rich Rudowske
They’ll take care. 

15:42
Calvin Inman
I was like, yeah. I said, I’ll figure it out. 

15:45
David Federwitz
So, LIBTRALO’s got a really great driver. And I said, all right, Calvin, you’re in good hands. Good hands. He’ll take you where you need to go and things like that. So I actually don’t know if going through the whole itinerary for the trip is as important as hearing about, well. 

16:09
Calvin Inman
You know, Emily, you kind of alluded to the fact, know, we could have done these trips virtually. I mean, just think about it from the western perspective. Can’t we just virtually meet up with them and talk with them? But part of the itinerary was actually being and meeting and seeing them personally. I struggle with talking to people on the phone. I can’t see their face. I can’t see their gestures and stuff like that. And so that first day of the itinerary, for me was just finding out who these people are and getting to know who they are, their background, where they live, their family, because once they start doing that, they start really opening up even computer problems, other problems that they’re facing. 

16:56
Calvin Inman
And towards the end of the week, then they’re actually bringing up all kinds of issues that they have never discussed with me over the phone. Even though I had met with them over the phone, they really started opening up with that. So I was in their office every day, just having a presence, taking care of backups for them or viruses that might have happened on their computer. And then little by little, translators would come in, the director would come in and begin meeting with me and just saying, “Hey, I’ve been having this issue on my computer. I don’t know if I did something wrong. Can you help me here?” So, yeah, it was a great experience. 

17:35
Emily Wilson
So you mentioned, Calvin, that as you started out with all of the role you had, this international experience. You had a heart for people to have access to God’s Word and being able to be equipped as well. But then over the course of your time in Liberia, what changed for you in how you approach your role, in how you see the work unfolding? 

18:03
Calvin Inman
Yeah, that’s a really good question. Probably, I don’t know as if it would change, but maybe my perspective was honed in more and zoned more. You think about technology or it world, and you almost think of a guy that’s sitting behind a desk in a little hole. But in all aspects of it, in the end, whether it’s with networking or you’re developing a software or you’re just helping with PC support, at the end of the day, it’s people that are behind the computer, people who are created in the image of God that are that creation. And so I think being there, it honed my perception of what we’re really doing when we’re dealing with technology. We are working with God’s creation created in the image of God. These are God’s people, and they are pushing forward His truth, His Word, out into the nations. 

19:06
Rich Rudowske
Yeah. And David, you’ve been an advocate for a long time. If we need to get people into spaces with our partners, make sure they see, as you’ve already mentioned, this episode. So from this trip, and also just in your experience of doing that and bringing leaders or key partners or other folks into these partnerships, what do you see the benefit of that being? How does it change the partnerships? 

19:27
David Federwitz
I really am an advocate for getting, especially our office staff, from Lutheran Bible Translators to other parts of the world, to interact with our international partners. That’s really important to me because I said it earlier, I think Calvin is able to do his job much better because of his experience in Liberia. And if he goes somewhere else, to another country, that’s going to increase his capacity. One of the things that Calvin did on his last day in Liberia was he went shopping. So he went on a shopping trip in Monrovia, in the capital city of Liberia, just to see what kinds of technology is available and what the quality of that technology is. And that’s helpful because Calvin, one of his roles is to do purchasing for a lot of our international partners. 

20:20
David Federwitz
And so if he knows what is available to those partners in their context, he can recommend things to them that they can get immediately, or he can also know if the quality isn’t quite there. And so I think that was super beneficial and helpful just to build Calvin’s capacity in understanding kind of what’s there time and time again when we have people interacting with international partners, just the understanding of how we fit into God’s mission and our role in it and the role of our international partners and how we work together, I think it just expands our overall worldview. And I think it sort of lessens maybe how much we think of ourselves and how much we just appreciate that this is God’s work and God is working through each and every one of us. 

21:26
David Federwitz
And the other thing really like, and I think is really important for people to get overseas into the context where we work is like Calvin was, I think said so well already is just the relational aspect. The people in those contexts, our international partners, they value relationships so much, and they value their connection to us. And I think they more readily see this as God’s work and they’re a part of it. And then they get to see face to face who else is a part of it. And I think they just really appreciate that. I know, especially, like, in this specific case with Calvin, the LIBTRALO staff appreciated him so much, and I was just kind of taken aback and just overwhelmed that they got together and gave him a gift and they gowned him. 

22:25
David Federwitz
So they gave a kind of a traditional Liberian, they call it a gown. It’s more like, just like a big shirt made out of what they call country cloth. So it’s hand woven yarn and very colorful. But when they gown someone, it’s more than just, hey, here’s a shirt to wear. 

22:45
Rich Rudowske
Right? 

22:46
David Federwitz
It’s that they ask you to stand up, come forward in front of the group, and then somebody actually puts the gown on you. And in the process of putting the gown on you, they say words to you to express how much they care and appreciate you for who you are and what you came to do. And then in that gowning, there’s also then, like a hat that goes on. Like a guy, for example, a guy would wear a hat. And it was really meaningful to me that Calvin, in such a short time, he was there for a week, but in such a short time, had established such a meaningful connection with the staff at LIBTRALO that they decided to have this kind of farewell program for him, to gown him, to just kind of share with him how meaningful his time with them was. 

23:49
Emily Wilson
I think that’s really beautiful and powerful for our listeners to be able to see what it looks like in our ministry. Yes. We are doing Bible translation and engagement with scripture through literacy and audiovisual. And it. But that it is being in relationship that the Lord has called us to relationship with him, but also relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and how we can speak into the lives of one another and to be able to lift one another up, because I hear a lot of encouragement through that process and saying, we value you in this way and we want that relationship to continue. So want to also open it up for us to be able to ask our listeners to be praying for you and your ministry. So how is it that we can be praying for you, both? Calvin and David? 

24:42
Calvin Inman
Yeah, well, thank you. For know, when I was younger, the story of Solomon, I never really understood why he would ask for wisdom, and that always seemed kind of funny to me. As I get older, I realize I really need wisdom in a lot of areas, making decisions, but especially in the area of it. With so many things hitting our organization and our partners and myself, I really desire to have wisdom, to know all of these technology pieces and how they’re going to fit around the world with our missionaries, with our staff, with our partners. So wisdom from the Lord, as I’m making some of these decisions that he would give that. 

25:30
David Federwitz
Yeah. For me, the biggest part of my role as regional director is relationship management. That sounds terrible, actually, to think about managing relationships, and I don’t mean it in the terrible sense, I mean it in the very positive sense that relationships are very important to me. And I think relationships are necessary in the work that we’re doing, as we are all part of God’s mission. We want to make sure that we’re aligned and that we’re kind of moving in the same direction and working towards the same goals. And so, really, I need a lot of prayer as I interact with our international partners, as I interact with, well, just internally within Lutheran Bible Translators, as I interact with donors in the United States who are financially giving and are actively interested in the work that’s going, helping all of us. 

26:32
David Federwitz
We’re kind of coming from different cultural perspectives, and so our culture, our worldview is different. And that’s a good thing. It really is a good thing. I think it just shows the creativity of God, but in that, because of our different worldviews and our different cultures, sometimes it can create a clash. And so as I work with different partners and all these different relationships, I just ask for prayer that God would give me wisdom just to understand people well and then to be able to, as I see my role as a regional director, in some ways, okay, were with Lutheran Bible Translators. Right. In some ways, I’m sort of translating one culture’s worldview to another culture so that I’m translating more than words. Okay. There’s more than words in there. Okay. 

27:27
David Federwitz
So sometimes you have to understand what’s being said, that there’s something underlying that actually is more than words. It’s not just the words that come out of somebody’s mouth that are meaningful, but it’s what’s behind it. It’s that body language, it’s the tone, it’s the extra stuff that you just kind of know, the background information that you just kind of know. And just helping people understand each other, that’s a lot. 

27:57
Rich Rudowske
And we’ll definitely be keeping that in prayer. And thank you very much, both of you guys, for your service and God’s mission, for stopping in to tell us a little bit about the time in Liberia. And it’s really great talking with you. 

28:09
Calvin Inman
Yeah. Thank you. 

28:09
David Federwitz
Thanks. 

28:10
Emily Wilson
Thanks, gentlemen. So one of the things that I appreciated hearing from David and Calvin both was the importance of relationships in the ministry of Bible translation and just God’s mission in general. It is about relationship, and I have been with the organization for a number of years and have actually seen in myself a shift from time based, task based, to relationship based. And maybe some people would argue, like, oh, it’s not been that much of a shift, but being able to see the impact of sitting down with people and really understanding where they’re coming from, their context, their values, what are their struggles. That investment will actually transform then conversations. 

29:11
Emily Wilson
So Calvin, talking about facets that wouldn’t have otherwise been discussed if it had been a virtual conversation, but being able to meet family members, share food together, those are all really transformative aspects within God’s mission. Those little things that feel like our intangibles, they add up. That’s what the Lord created us to do, is to be in relationship. 

29:36
Rich Rudowske
That’s so true. And in today’s world with technology, there’s still going to be Zoom or teams meetings, but they’re going to be so much more effective now, interspersed in with periodic in person visits. And certainly, I’m sure Calvin would attest, as he continues not to connect with these partners, just even that one time investment of having been with them is just going to be so meaningful in these ongoing interactions. And I loved what Calvin said. Know, technology is all over the news right now, but at the end of things, behind every computer is a person, and that person is dearly loved by God. And those connections are so critical, like you said. 

30:16
Rich Rudowske
So yeah, just love the description of work and life in Liberia, but also really how the conversation just revolved around relationships and the critical component of that in God’s mission that’s never going to be replaced or supplanted by technology can be enhanced, but not replaced. 

30:32
Emily Wilson
If you want to support our partners in ministry technology, like in the work that Calvin is doing, equipping partners not only with the actual machines, the laptops, but also training with the software and working with these computers, want to encourage you to visit lbt.org/programs and you’ll find a program that is specifically called ministry technology. And we want to encourage you to check that out. Thank you for listening to the Essentially Translatable Podcast brought to you by Lutheran Bible Translators. 

31:14
Rich Rudowske
You can find past episodes of the podcast lbt.org/podcast or subscribe on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow Lutheran Bible Translators’ social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Follow Lutheran Bible Translators’ social media channels on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. The Essentially Translatable podcast is edited and produced by Audrey Seider. The Essentially Translatable Podcast is edited and produced by Audrey Seider. Artwork designed by Caleb Rodewald and Sarah Rudowske. Music written and performed by Rob Veith. I’m Rich Rudowske. So long for now.