Baptism & Bible Translation in Chad

Dear Friends & Family,

Merry Christmas! We hope you're enjoying the Christmas season as we celebrate the coming of God's eternal son into the world. We returned home the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and put up most of our decorations last weekend. Below is a praise and a report on Bible translation for a people group in Chad. After that is a personal update about our recent travels and prayer requests.

Kuo baptism: Chad

One of the Kuo team's greatest joys recently has been the baptism of ten young people. Baptism takes place at the river to be witnessed by all. The person receiving baptism not only publicly professes his desire to follow Jesus; he also publicly renounces all alliances with the spirits that he once worshipped. For this reason, people say that if you are baptized, you will die. For the past eight years no one in this village has had the courage to be baptized. May the fact that these youth have not died be a continual testimony to God's power.

The Kuo team is drafting the last New Testament book. "We praise God for all the ways that He has helped us and ask for your prayers so that we may indeed finish well. There are still corrections to make, revisions of some books, key terms to verify, book introductions to write, a glossary to finish, and maps and pictures to choose. By the Lord's grace we trust that all these things can be finished before August 2012." Most of all, pray now that the Spirit of the Lord will give the Kuo people ears for His word and hearts that desire to obey.

Personal Update

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving and seeing many people during our recent trip but were glad to return home after 33 days of travel. We were encouraged at a week-long missions conference at our home church and were blessed over the following two weeks as we connected with many of our supporters, friends, and family in Georgia. After that time, we saw part of Lynee’s family in Nashville and Arkansas. There is never enough time to spend with all the people we love to see!

We are very thankful, especially with the hard times many people are having economically, that our financial support for the year has been good. Our committed giving is about $400/mon low, but occasional gifts have been making up the shortfall. “Thank You!” to all those who pray for us and support our work.

Please pray for us as we get back into our normal work. I am hoping to finish upgrading the system we use to test our fonts. Also, my globally distributed team will be meeting in Dallas Jan 16 - 27. Please pray for the planning and for the meeting itself. Lynee will be updating and expanding the website she set up to help missionary teachers and parents with children’s issues.

In Christ Jesus