Swinging Through the Sunshine State

Scott Lindsey is doing the third leg of the Bible Road Trip. Read previous posts and view photos from the Road Trip.
Our second segment of the Logos Road Trip journey brought us from Atlanta down to Florida where we spent 11 days in the Sunshine State. The Atlanta to Tampa drive was the longest for our leg of the Road Trip… a ten hour drive with four kids is quite tolerable when you have an RV loaded with amenities. It is going to be hard to drive anywhere in the minivan when we get home!
Our first event was at Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Tampa. My dear friend, Pastor Earl Mason, did an amazing job of getting the word out about the event and we had a great turn-out. From there we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale where Coral Ridge was our sponsor. I have listened to the ministry of Dr. James Kennedy for many years and it was a privilege to introduce the congregation and people of Ft. Lauderdale to the amazing new tools in Logos 3.
The next morning the children got to swim in the Atlantic ocean for the first time. My five year-old couldn’t believe the ocean was actually warm. Swimming in Florida was fun but the kids were on the constant lookout for alligators after they read the sign at our Tampa RV park…notice how the two little ones do not want to be part of this Kodak moment!!!
Northland – A Church Distributed was our sponsor for Orlando. The 29 mile drive that evening from the RV park to the church took 2 ½ hours!!!! We made it to the church with about 10 minutes to spare. I think Mickey Mouse (not all the tourists) should be the one paying all the toll booth fees for everyone in Orlando!
Don Pederson was the elder from Northland who sponsored the event. Don is the coordinator for the New Tribes Mission Field Ministry Office with responsibilities which include evaluating all aspects of NTM’s church planting efforts with the goal of enhancing their effectiveness as a mission. New Tribes Mission is an international missionary agency with a ministry focus on evangelism and church planting among unreached people groups.
Don had this to say about Logos 3 and how he sees it benefiting missionaries worldwide:

“A key part of seeing viable indigenous churches planted among unreached people groups is the translation of scripture. Without God’s word in their language, believers are unable to mature in their faith, and churches never develop. The task of translating is a long and difficult one, taking years of dedicated work. Eugene Nida of the American Bible Society once commented that there is no task on earth more difficult than putting God’s Word into another language and culture in a way that is understandable and at the same time retains the meaning of the original text. There are three key elements in producing a good translation: understanding translation principles, having a high level of fluency in the target language, and the ability to to understand the original text (exegesis). In the translation process, a great deal of time is spent determining the exact meaning of the scripture portion to be translated. In the old days, this meant spreading a large number of commentaries, Bible translations, and Greek or Hebrew resources out and laboriously looking the relevant material up. Fortunately, this is no longer necessary. Bible software makes this process easier, quicker, and cheaper. The new Logos version 3 is the easiest and quickest way to do the necessary exegesis for Bible translation. Previously, it took a fair amount of learning and setup to work efficiently with Bible software. The new Logos automates the process and puts everything that a translator might need right at his finger tips.”

Bob very graciously gave the Lindsey family a few extra days off while in Orlando…although my wallet isn’t grateful in the least bit! We had a great time at Universal and Epcot. I was actually selected from the audience to be a part of the Animal Show at Universal. When I grabbed the microphone to talk about Logos 3 they kicked me off the stage!
After Orlando we headed to Jacksonville for our last Florida event. The morning of our departure we went to The Holy Land Experience. My good buddy Marquis Laughlin does work for The Holy Land Experience and gave us the grand tour. Marquis is the voice behind the audio version of the ESV and is an actor whose life’s work is enabling his audiences to hear, see, and feel the God of the Bible, through the words of the Bible. The Holy Land Experience is an amazing place! My favorite part of the afternoon was the 50 minute Scriptorium tour where the artifacts from the Van Kampen collection are on display. We learned how the Word of God has been preserved and transmitted through history. If you are ever in the Orlando area make sure and visit the Holy Land Experience.
Well, onto our last few weeks of Logos Road Trip. We’re heading to South Carolina and will post our next blog update soon…