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Destruction Turned into Blessings.
Chinese Translations.
By Rev. Dr. Teresa Allissa Citro
"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
'I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.'"
Isaiah 48:17
Isaiah is one of my top three favorite books. I always find myself there. This verse hits home for me tonight. The word profit just jumped right out. I never noticed this word here before. How wonderful when the Holy Spirit leads us into an eye opening truth.
Let me share a terrible experience we had at LDW, the company I work for as the Chief Executive Officer. My team and I had just redesigned our website. This website took an entire year to be developed, designed, and uploaded. The content was writing in 48 languages. It was thousands and thousands of pages. I had cleared my schedule 80% to dedicate to this website. I met with countless professionals in education, medical, technology, and translators. Really, I was living and breathing the website. I worked myself and my team so hard.
Finally, it was unveiled. The world was talking about our website. I had an incredible, talented, and dedicated group of professionals who worked so hard to make our website exactly how I had envisioned it. Then, four years later, the unthinkable happened. The website was hacked and destroyed. We lost 80% of all our information. It was a devastating time. I couldn’t believe countless hours, days, months, and two years of my work just disappeared. We were working on the last project, preparing a peer-reviewed journal in Chinese. We had to stop what we were doing.
I remember this day. A frantic phone call from the Chair of the International Board of Advisory. Early in the morning, from Germany. “Teresa, I have terrible news. Our website is hacked. They destroyed 80% of our our website. We cannot recover anything. I’m so sorry.”
“God, I don’t understand.” Then to my staff, “What the heck just happened?” I was mad, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. My team was just as devastated as I was. Thank God we had some files stored; but the Chinese peer-reviewed journal and the translation had to be put on hold. I think I have complained about this at least once a week for last three years.
Let’s forward to April of last year. I received an email from an educational company in China. They wanted to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility of university students coming abroad to work in my office. My plate was really full; I wrote an email saying thanks for your email, but at this time our office is closed. Then, I felt in my Spirit, “Do not send that email back rejecting the students.” I was taken back. “God, I do not have time for this project. I have too much on my plate.” Again, “Inquire about this project.” So, I did.
I was so impressed by the director. I found myself saying, “Ok, I will supervise one-two students.” Then, I received the names of 12 students with a message to pick 1-2 students as we had agreed on. As I began reading, I was overwhelmed by how truly outstanding these students were. They had the most impressive resumes I’ve ever read, all very Incredible and talented individuals, well accomplished, intelligent, and inspirational. They were from all various academic backgrounds. I found myself sending another email out. “I love them all. I will work with all of them. Please set up a meeting as soon as possible.”
That was Friday night. Yesterday morning, I interviewed all 12 students. It’s like each one was picked specifically for what I needed, and then some. These university students have a resume as if they were already out in the workforce. They accomplished things that most people accomplish after graduation from college, not while they are still finishing their degrees.
What was humbling was not only could they help me with the translation of website, but one was a web designer and developer. Did you catch that? He will start developing and redesigning our website, while a few more will translate, a few more will help with the peer-reviewed journal, and two more will translate my children’s books, while others will coordinate the projects in the education field. Also, if that wasn’t enough, the company I’m working with will find the publisher to publish my books.
I just gave you a very vague and brief description here. The students are coming from the most respected universities in all of China. Some of the students are the children of chairs of departments in those universities. Now, this might not make sense to anyone but me. In order to publish a peer-reviewed journal you must work with the best professors in the best of universities. Here are those students from the most respected universities in China. Wow, God!
You remember how I said the word profit jumped out at me? So, what does this word really mean? Well, I’m going to discuss just one of its meaning. Payback. See, evil was done and yet it was allowed to happen. My website was hacked by someone who wanted to destroy a great work. Now, that which was stolen and destroyed came back better then what I had. Instead of just coordinating a online peer reviewed journal. We now have 11 other students who are going to take their passion and showcase it at LDW. I will get to work with ongoing students long after these projects are completed.
Truth is, God leads us. No matter what happens in life, He has better. That which is stolen, broken, and taken God brings it back double. In my case 12 times better then what I originally had.
Can I encourage you to wait on Him? May I remind you to stand your ground, remain at peace, and trust that He who began a good work in you shall complete it? Can I just speak life into the dead things in your life? Can I please ask you to never give up on the dreams you have? Can I remind you that He does things a thousand times better then you? And on His own timetable?
Listen, “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.”
Determine to be the follower and not the leader! He leads to greater places, unimaginative, unbelievable, and unfailing.
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