by Lori Urton

A lot of people ask us what Bible Translators do. Well, besides working on translating the scriptures, they wear a lot of different hats. We’d like to give you a list of hats that Chris had to wear while we were in Igoi for two weeks in April of 2010.

Maytag repairman – the kids had poked holes in the screen wire around the top of our laundry room. Rats took advantage of that and had a hay day in our laundry room. They were making nests in several places, and one of the nests was in my washing machine! When I went to use the washer, it wouldn’t run. Chris opened up the back panel, and sure enough, they had chewed the wires. Luckily we had the items on hand that we needed and Chris was able to get the washing machine running.

Screen repairman – the kids also had fun poking holes in the screens in several of our windows. They had almost torn off all the screen wire on Chris’ office window that is right off the back porch. They had also poked holes in two window screens off the front porch. Again, luckily we had the items on hand, and Chris was able to get them fixed.

Exterminator – four large geckos had decided that since we weren’t living in our house, they would. Of course, I encountered all of them but one. Chris was able to kill all of them but one, but we kept seeing his “remains” if you know what I mean. We usually don’t sleep under a mosquito net in Igoi, but we did for the two weeks we were out there. We didn’t want to encounter one of the geckos during the night!

Chris also had ants take up housekeeping in two of his boxes of books. I didn’t realize that Chris still had books in boxes in his office. One of those boxes was wrapped in plastic wrap and boy did the ants love that. Chris has dark curtains in his office so I’m sure the warmth and darkness was very inviting to those ants. They had laid eggs in the box and the books had molded, so Chris actually had to throw out two boxes of books that he uses for helps with the translation. He wrote down the names of the books that he lost, and we have a church that is possibly ready to help replace those books.

Plumber – we had some air in our water lines, and Chris had to get that straightened out. Just some small repairs and cleaning, and we had running water!

LP Gas repairman – someone had helped themselves to the gas bottle regulator that we attach to the refrigerator. We have a hose that runs from underneath our house into the kitchen and attaches to the refrigerator. Chris had unhooked the regulator and put the gas bottle in our laundry room. He left the hose and the regulator just hanging underneath our house. Luckily, we had a spare in the village, so Chris was able to get our refrigerator hooked up to use while we were in Igoi. He did have to be a plumber in that situation as well, as he had to take an O ring off of a spare sink valve to make the regulator work.

Doctor & Pharmacist – lots of people asked us for Tylenol and Grille medicine. We only had the Tylenol, but will take out the Grille Meds when we return to Igoi in late May. Grille is a fungus like ringworm that grows on the skin and your skin peels. Chris also had to put bandages on several sores and get them cleaned up.

Computer Geek – we had trouble getting our e-mails set up in the village, so he was busy trying to get that to work. Finally with some help from the Christian Radio Mission Fellowship, they were able to get our e-mails going.

We praise God that everything else looked good and worked. Sometimes after sitting for so long, things don’t tend to work. We are also thankful that we had the spare parts out in Igoi so that Chris was able to get everything repaired quickly. We are hoping now that Chris will be able to focus on his main job of Bible translation.