As you reflect on the coming of the Son of God into the world, we thought you might enjoy this report:
When people in a church on the Cape Verde Islands heard the Christmas story, Luke 2:1-7 in their mother tongue, Kabuverdianu, here is what happened: As the pastor read, he paused and exclaimed, “It tastes so good, it tastes so good.” The translation team began to sob. A row of teenage girls stared at each other in wide-eyed wonder and then dissolved into a group hug. Eyes glistened with tears. As the last word was read, a spontaneous cheer erupted: “Amen! Hallelujah!” Go to bit.ly/VerdeCmas to read more details, and give praise to God for how access to His Word is developing in Kabuverdianu.
Please pray for this group as they get more of God’s Word in their heart language. And please pray for the many groups who have yet to have an opportunity to hear the Christmas story in a language they can understand.
Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Oct 2013 newsletter (pg 1)
iCHED Website Launched!
From January to May, my main task was working on my department’s web site. It provides helpful information to our missionary families as they raise their kids overseas. We want to help parents (and educators) teach more effectively, understand the unique challenges missionary kids have, and be informed about education options. We had provided much of this content previously, but it was spread across three websites to keep material separate that was more mission-related and inappropriate for those in sensitive countries. With password protection recently becoming available on our main site, we moved most material there. Now we have one place where our families are more able and likely to visit.
In addition to combining content, my manager and I had to deal with some challenging questions:
In Other CHED News…
Our teacher orientation in June went well even though we only had seven participants. All of those are serving now except for one who resigned. We also finished handbooks for our parents, for Wycliffe organizations in sending countries, and for our personnel administrators on the field. [Note: I have not had any new leaders come for orientation because the program is being redone. My future involvement is uncertain.]
Personally
Alan and I had a quick but good trip in July to see my immediate family while they were all together in Nashville, and I also took a few days to go to Arkansas to visit relatives. I have started working almost daily with Seth, one of the quintuplets who is a little behind developmentally and still on a feeding tube. Alan had colleagues come from the UK and Thailand for training and technical discussions.
We plan to be in Georgia November 3-24 for a missions conference (Nov 5-10) and to visit our ministry partners, family, and friends. If you live there, we would love to see you! We have three Sundays (apart from the conference) where we would enjoy visiting or speaking to classes, so please contact us if you would like us to come to your group.
This past year, God has met our financial needs thanks to those who give regularly and those who send occasional gifts. Our committed giving is currently $165/mo. short, but extra gifts have generously made up the difference. We are very thankful to Him and to all those who support us through prayer, giving, and other ways.
PDF
From January to May, my main task was working on my department’s web site. It provides helpful information to our missionary families as they raise their kids overseas. We want to help parents (and educators) teach more effectively, understand the unique challenges missionary kids have, and be informed about education options. We had provided much of this content previously, but it was spread across three websites to keep material separate that was more mission-related and inappropriate for those in sensitive countries. With password protection recently becoming available on our main site, we moved most material there. Now we have one place where our families are more able and likely to visit.
In addition to combining content, my manager and I had to deal with some challenging questions:
- What kind of navigation would work best for the material we have?
- How would it work to have some information available publicly and some behind a password? What material needed to go behind the password?
- What other material should be added to the web site?
“I absolutely LOVE the school profiles section! This might make it tempting for me to pray about our next Wycliffe assignment according to the places that have a school where I would like to teach and have our kids attend!” ~ Rachel
On Teaching a Younger Child a Second Language, “I love this article! It would be very helpful for teachers and parents in the international schools! Thank you for writing this article!” ~ Ana CelinaComments like these warm our hearts. Through your prayers and support, you too have had a part in this.
In Other CHED News…
Our teacher orientation in June went well even though we only had seven participants. All of those are serving now except for one who resigned. We also finished handbooks for our parents, for Wycliffe organizations in sending countries, and for our personnel administrators on the field. [Note: I have not had any new leaders come for orientation because the program is being redone. My future involvement is uncertain.]
Personally
Alan and I had a quick but good trip in July to see my immediate family while they were all together in Nashville, and I also took a few days to go to Arkansas to visit relatives. I have started working almost daily with Seth, one of the quintuplets who is a little behind developmentally and still on a feeding tube. Alan had colleagues come from the UK and Thailand for training and technical discussions.
We plan to be in Georgia November 3-24 for a missions conference (Nov 5-10) and to visit our ministry partners, family, and friends. If you live there, we would love to see you! We have three Sundays (apart from the conference) where we would enjoy visiting or speaking to classes, so please contact us if you would like us to come to your group.
This past year, God has met our financial needs thanks to those who give regularly and those who send occasional gifts. Our committed giving is currently $165/mo. short, but extra gifts have generously made up the difference. We are very thankful to Him and to all those who support us through prayer, giving, and other ways.
Oct 2013 newsletter (pg 2)
From the last few months...
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Saturday, October 19, 2013
Prayer Update - Oct 2013
Dear Friend and Family,
We hope you’re enjoying the change of seasons. It’s definitely feeling like fall here with much more rain and cooler temperatures. Today, we had a neighborhood cookout at lunch and were concerned it might actually be too cold at the start of it, but it turned out quite nice.
We've been very busy as we feel the “crunch” to finish things before a three-week trip. We will be participating in our home church’s wonderful missions conference in Atlanta during the first week of November. Then we will enjoy two weeks visiting people and groups who support our work in various ways and seeing family and friends. (We hope to see many of you!) We plan to spend Thanksgiving in Nashville on our way home.
Please pray for us as we work on a new presentation for various groups we plan to speak to. We want to inform people about our current work and communicate effectively -- it takes planning to use the available time well. Please also pray we can finish a newsletter before we leave.
I’m in the midst of a major undertaking at work -- one which arose unexpectedly. In late July, we were told our entire email system was changing. Since my department works on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, we use a different email program than most others. So, I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the transition as smooth as possible. A large group starts the switch on Monday. Of course, all this has been in addition to trying to make progress on a major update to our fonts and to helping another member of our team get up to speed on new font technology we hope to use in the future.
Thank you very much for your faithful support and prayers. You are part of the work God is doing around the world. Below is a prayer request for the spread of His Word in a dark place.
****
Lynee's mom grew up in an area of Africa where the Sango language was spoken, so this prayer item got our attention.
What is perseverance? Central African Republic. In 2001, one of the main translators of the Sango Bible was killed during a time of unrest. In the same year, doctors found cancer in the throat of another one of the translators. He died in 2012. The dedication of the completed Bible nearly fell through. Two days before the celebration, armed robbers entered the compound of the Bible Society. They stole some boxes of Bibles, ransacked all the rooms, and took all the computers and a car. The Bible Society and the Church decided it was essential to maintain the date of the celebration, June 30, 2013. And it happened. Pray that God will powerfully bless His Word to the people of this country.
We recently saw this useful infographic that summarizes the need for Bible translation and wanted to pass it along: visual.ly/bible-translation-needs-glance
In the Goodness and Greatness of God
We hope you’re enjoying the change of seasons. It’s definitely feeling like fall here with much more rain and cooler temperatures. Today, we had a neighborhood cookout at lunch and were concerned it might actually be too cold at the start of it, but it turned out quite nice.
We've been very busy as we feel the “crunch” to finish things before a three-week trip. We will be participating in our home church’s wonderful missions conference in Atlanta during the first week of November. Then we will enjoy two weeks visiting people and groups who support our work in various ways and seeing family and friends. (We hope to see many of you!) We plan to spend Thanksgiving in Nashville on our way home.
Please pray for us as we work on a new presentation for various groups we plan to speak to. We want to inform people about our current work and communicate effectively -- it takes planning to use the available time well. Please also pray we can finish a newsletter before we leave.
I’m in the midst of a major undertaking at work -- one which arose unexpectedly. In late July, we were told our entire email system was changing. Since my department works on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, we use a different email program than most others. So, I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to make the transition as smooth as possible. A large group starts the switch on Monday. Of course, all this has been in addition to trying to make progress on a major update to our fonts and to helping another member of our team get up to speed on new font technology we hope to use in the future.
Thank you very much for your faithful support and prayers. You are part of the work God is doing around the world. Below is a prayer request for the spread of His Word in a dark place.
****
Lynee's mom grew up in an area of Africa where the Sango language was spoken, so this prayer item got our attention.
What is perseverance? Central African Republic. In 2001, one of the main translators of the Sango Bible was killed during a time of unrest. In the same year, doctors found cancer in the throat of another one of the translators. He died in 2012. The dedication of the completed Bible nearly fell through. Two days before the celebration, armed robbers entered the compound of the Bible Society. They stole some boxes of Bibles, ransacked all the rooms, and took all the computers and a car. The Bible Society and the Church decided it was essential to maintain the date of the celebration, June 30, 2013. And it happened. Pray that God will powerfully bless His Word to the people of this country.
We recently saw this useful infographic that summarizes the need for Bible translation and wanted to pass it along: visual.ly/bible-translation-needs-glance
In the Goodness and Greatness of God
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Prayer Update - Jul 2013
Dear praying friends and family,
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers for our teacher orientation that was June 23-28. It went very well. I had my times of stress, but the teachers walked away from it more prepared and excited for what is before them. One teacher said in the evaluation, "What I really wanted to get from this training was a better understanding of TCKs [Third Culture Kids/Missionary Kids] and the issues that they face, and that is exactly what I got!!!! I feel much better prepared to interact with these students and much more aware of the differences that I will be adjusting to..." You had a part in this because you prayed!
I also wanted to let you know that our website (which you've been praying for) has finally launched! Thank you for your prayers for that, too. There is a lot we can eventually add to it, but the new, reorganized site has now been released to the public. While there is a password protected part, most of the resources are available to the public. Check them out at www.iched.org and praise the Lord with us for the progress made.
We travel to Nashville on Wednesday (July 10) to visit my family for a few days. My sister and her family will be down from Chicago, and it will be the first time my immediate family has all been together (at one time in one place) in five years, so we're excited about that. Alan has a project he is trying to finish before then, so please pray for wisdom and creativity as he tries to understand and fix some problems with their web fonts (for publishing the Bible in regions around the world). Please also pray that he finishes this before our trip since he needs to do work on another project after we return and before his manager leaves for six weeks.
Thank you for standing with us,
Lynee
P.S. Here's an interesting link to daily prayer requests posted on the WBT UK website. All the requests from July 1-7 are related to Alan's work.
http://wycliffe.org.uk/give/pray/7daysofprayer.html
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers for our teacher orientation that was June 23-28. It went very well. I had my times of stress, but the teachers walked away from it more prepared and excited for what is before them. One teacher said in the evaluation, "What I really wanted to get from this training was a better understanding of TCKs [Third Culture Kids/Missionary Kids] and the issues that they face, and that is exactly what I got!!!! I feel much better prepared to interact with these students and much more aware of the differences that I will be adjusting to..." You had a part in this because you prayed!
I also wanted to let you know that our website (which you've been praying for) has finally launched! Thank you for your prayers for that, too. There is a lot we can eventually add to it, but the new, reorganized site has now been released to the public. While there is a password protected part, most of the resources are available to the public. Check them out at www.iched.org and praise the Lord with us for the progress made.
We travel to Nashville on Wednesday (July 10) to visit my family for a few days. My sister and her family will be down from Chicago, and it will be the first time my immediate family has all been together (at one time in one place) in five years, so we're excited about that. Alan has a project he is trying to finish before then, so please pray for wisdom and creativity as he tries to understand and fix some problems with their web fonts (for publishing the Bible in regions around the world). Please also pray that he finishes this before our trip since he needs to do work on another project after we return and before his manager leaves for six weeks.
Thank you for standing with us,
Lynee
P.S. Here's an interesting link to daily prayer requests posted on the WBT UK website. All the requests from July 1-7 are related to Alan's work.
http://wycliffe.org.uk/give/pray/7daysofprayer.html
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Prayer Update - Jun 2013
Dear Friends and Family,
We hope you're having a good summer. Thankfully it’s starting out cooler than usual in Texas. Highlights of this update include:
- Teacher orientation getting underway to support missionary families
- Providing complex alphabets on mobile phones to distribute Scripture
- Travels, family events, and a visit from parents
A Different Sort of Teacher Orientation
Teacher orientation is getting under way! All the staff leaders are in Dallas and the teachers are starting to arrive. The goal is to prepare the teachers to work with missionary children overseas so that the parents of those kids can continue to serve there. It runs Sunday evening through Friday evening.
With seven participants, this will be one of the smallest groups they’ve had, which means they will have to do some things differently. (Usually they have about 20 teachers.) One of the cross-cultural exercises they do involves simulating an airport experience. The warehouse where they normally do that isn’t available this time, so they’ve had to set up in a different location. The orientation is a lot of work but very rewarding. Please pray that it prepares the teachers well and encourages them to grow.
A Special Font for Mobile Phones
On June 10, we released a “special order” font. This version of Charis (one of our Roman fonts) was optimized so that English text would be drawn on the screen twice as fast as before. Why would we do that, since we’re not normally that concerned with English?
Mozilla (the creator of the Firefox web browser) has created an operating system to run mobile phones (as an alternative to Android phones or the Apple iPhone) which should soon appear in stores. Their phones will use the same technology to display text that is used in Firefox, which includes software my group has developed to handle complex alphabets. The problem is that our software causes text to appear more slowly because of all the things it does to handle those complex alphabets. Unfortunately, even displaying English text is slowed down, which would adversely affect a lot of their potential customers. So, Mozilla was going to leave our software in place (for those who need complex alphabets) but have it turned off for most people unless we could speed things up for English. Praise God that we found a way to do just that! This means that complex alphabets can be used on those phones (where there’s a font) without the user having to do anything special.
Our hope is that these phones will serve well for distributing Scripture in minority languages and that the good support they will have for complex alphabets will encourage other companies to improve what they provide.
Other Happenings
Our trip to Wycliffe US’ home office In May went very well. We also had a special visit with my aunt who lives in Florida. Our vacation in Georgia afterwards was very restful and fun. Along the way, we also enjoyed my nephew’s high school graduation and my niece’s karate test. Lynee’s parents came for nearly a week after we got home. In the midst of their visits to ministry partners, we had a good visit as they stayed with us.
Thank you for your prayers, giving, and support. We are deeply grateful for those who enable us to do this work by God’s grace.
We hope you're having a good summer. Thankfully it’s starting out cooler than usual in Texas. Highlights of this update include:
- Teacher orientation getting underway to support missionary families
- Providing complex alphabets on mobile phones to distribute Scripture
- Travels, family events, and a visit from parents
A Different Sort of Teacher Orientation
Teacher orientation is getting under way! All the staff leaders are in Dallas and the teachers are starting to arrive. The goal is to prepare the teachers to work with missionary children overseas so that the parents of those kids can continue to serve there. It runs Sunday evening through Friday evening.
With seven participants, this will be one of the smallest groups they’ve had, which means they will have to do some things differently. (Usually they have about 20 teachers.) One of the cross-cultural exercises they do involves simulating an airport experience. The warehouse where they normally do that isn’t available this time, so they’ve had to set up in a different location. The orientation is a lot of work but very rewarding. Please pray that it prepares the teachers well and encourages them to grow.
A Special Font for Mobile Phones
On June 10, we released a “special order” font. This version of Charis (one of our Roman fonts) was optimized so that English text would be drawn on the screen twice as fast as before. Why would we do that, since we’re not normally that concerned with English?
Mozilla (the creator of the Firefox web browser) has created an operating system to run mobile phones (as an alternative to Android phones or the Apple iPhone) which should soon appear in stores. Their phones will use the same technology to display text that is used in Firefox, which includes software my group has developed to handle complex alphabets. The problem is that our software causes text to appear more slowly because of all the things it does to handle those complex alphabets. Unfortunately, even displaying English text is slowed down, which would adversely affect a lot of their potential customers. So, Mozilla was going to leave our software in place (for those who need complex alphabets) but have it turned off for most people unless we could speed things up for English. Praise God that we found a way to do just that! This means that complex alphabets can be used on those phones (where there’s a font) without the user having to do anything special.
Our hope is that these phones will serve well for distributing Scripture in minority languages and that the good support they will have for complex alphabets will encourage other companies to improve what they provide.
Other Happenings
Our trip to Wycliffe US’ home office In May went very well. We also had a special visit with my aunt who lives in Florida. Our vacation in Georgia afterwards was very restful and fun. Along the way, we also enjoyed my nephew’s high school graduation and my niece’s karate test. Lynee’s parents came for nearly a week after we got home. In the midst of their visits to ministry partners, we had a good visit as they stayed with us.
Thank you for your prayers, giving, and support. We are deeply grateful for those who enable us to do this work by God’s grace.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
May 2013 newsletter (pg 1)
Fonts, Programs, Devices, What?
In March, my team held our annual meetings to plan for the year. As we considered situations around the world, a major emphasis emerged on web technologies (i.e., the Internet) and mobile devices (phones and tablets). There are numerous groups getting serious about publishing the Bible in those ways. So far, they’ve mostly succeeded in languages that use “easy” alphabets (see ScriptureEarth.org), but they need help in the “hard” ones. We’ve been working on this problem for several years, but there’s still a lot we need to learn.
One of the biggest challenges is dealing with so many combinations of operating systems (like Windows), browsers (Internet Explorer), programs (Word), and devices (smart phones). Testing our fonts on the key combinations is critical. Publishers who want to reach a particular language also need to know which combinations will work or what they can do to improve things. We’ve started developing some ideas to handle all this complexity. Some of that exciting work will fall to our font tools project team, which I’ve been coordinating since last year.
Personally, I’m hoping to start working in web-based programming. Think of reading your email using a browser with a service like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Do you realize you’re actually running a program in your browser instead of running one installed on your computer? I’m learning how to create that sort of software. This fits well with some of the testing we need to do.
In Other News
We’re planning to take a two-week trip May 9-26. The first week of the trip will be to Wycliffe USA’s home office in Orlando. The second part will be for vacation at a cabin in Dahlonega, Georgia. Along the way, we’ll attend my oldest nephew’s high school graduation.
Lynée’s team hopes to launch their website sometime in June (more on that later). Teacher orientation is scheduled for the end of June, though currently only six teachers have registered (with over 200 open positions). Lynée has been spending Thursday afternoons helping with a set of quintuplets whose grandfather was one of her teachers in Colombia. It’s one of the highlights of her week!
In April, we went through Wycliffe’s annual process of determining our financial support needs, which went up a bit. Thankfully, the committed giving we’re receiving has also risen. Overall, we’re $240/mon short. The unexpected extra gifts we receive make a big difference in covering this shortfall. We are very thankful to the Lord and to so many people who support this work through giving, praying, and helping in many ways.
PDF
One of the biggest challenges is dealing with so many combinations of operating systems (like Windows), browsers (Internet Explorer), programs (Word), and devices (smart phones). Testing our fonts on the key combinations is critical. Publishers who want to reach a particular language also need to know which combinations will work or what they can do to improve things. We’ve started developing some ideas to handle all this complexity. Some of that exciting work will fall to our font tools project team, which I’ve been coordinating since last year.
Personally, I’m hoping to start working in web-based programming. Think of reading your email using a browser with a service like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo. Do you realize you’re actually running a program in your browser instead of running one installed on your computer? I’m learning how to create that sort of software. This fits well with some of the testing we need to do.
In Other News
We’re planning to take a two-week trip May 9-26. The first week of the trip will be to Wycliffe USA’s home office in Orlando. The second part will be for vacation at a cabin in Dahlonega, Georgia. Along the way, we’ll attend my oldest nephew’s high school graduation.
In April, we went through Wycliffe’s annual process of determining our financial support needs, which went up a bit. Thankfully, the committed giving we’re receiving has also risen. Overall, we’re $240/mon short. The unexpected extra gifts we receive make a big difference in covering this shortfall. We are very thankful to the Lord and to so many people who support this work through giving, praying, and helping in many ways.
May 2013 newsletter (pg 2)
Below are two stories that highlight the use of web- and phone-based technologies in distributing the Bible in non-Western parts of the world.
Through Readily-Accessible Media
God’s Word is reaching people through a variety of media—not just print anymore. In 1997 Alexander and his wife went to work on a translation project in a restricted-access country in Africa. In 2009 they began a website where speakers of that language could download scripture texts and recordings, and they produced files that could be stored on cell phones and MP3 and MP4 players. They uploaded them to YouTube.
For a while their website averaged between 500 and 1,000 hits a month and about 25 downloads. They were happy with that but wondered how to reach even more people. In March 2012 some co-workers from a partner mission organization decided to experiment with placing Google ads pointing to that website for one month. The cost was $500. By doing this, every time someone searches for the language name, an ad offers them a free download or a viewing of the JESUS film in that language. At the end of the month, the results were amazing.
There had been 15,000 hits on the website and 750 Scripture products had been downloaded to computers and cell phones! The ads continued, and in September 2012, there were 42,000 hits with more than 4,000 downloads. It seems that the longer the ads run, the more momentum picks up. And since downloads are quickly shared from one phone to another, there really is no way of knowing just how many people are receiving God’s Word. But it’s a creative and effective way of making God’s Word accessible to the speakers of this language. Pray for continued funding of this project. (from JAARS’ Rev 7, Winter 2013, pg 14)
Celling the Word 1
What’s the big attraction about cell phone Scriptures? “Any method we can use to spread the Word of God is great,” says Rani, who adds that the Indonesian Bible is already available on hand phones.
Most everyone, especially the younger generation in Timor, seems to own a mobile cell phone, which are often more dependable than traditional landlines, says Rani. “People rely a lot on mobile phones here, I guess, in this part of the world.”
According to some sources, cell phones outnumber landline phones more than four to one here. You don’t have to look far to see the technology’s influence. Across the sprawling Christian University campus, dotted with palm and coconut trees, a group of students sits on the edge of a cement-walled flowerbed. As they laugh and chat with one another, virtually every one has their eyes and fingers locked on their phones.
Several of the students to whom Rani downloaded the Kupang Malay New Testament are quick to explain their interest in having it. “We take our phone everywhere: on the public transportation, at home—so wherever we are, we can read it [God’s Word],” says one female student. “And especially since it’s in the Kupang language, it’s easier to understand.”
1 An excerpt—read the entire story here: http://www.wycliffe.net/stories/tabid/67/Default.aspx?id=2277
PDF
Through Readily-Accessible Media
God’s Word is reaching people through a variety of media—not just print anymore. In 1997 Alexander and his wife went to work on a translation project in a restricted-access country in Africa. In 2009 they began a website where speakers of that language could download scripture texts and recordings, and they produced files that could be stored on cell phones and MP3 and MP4 players. They uploaded them to YouTube.
For a while their website averaged between 500 and 1,000 hits a month and about 25 downloads. They were happy with that but wondered how to reach even more people. In March 2012 some co-workers from a partner mission organization decided to experiment with placing Google ads pointing to that website for one month. The cost was $500. By doing this, every time someone searches for the language name, an ad offers them a free download or a viewing of the JESUS film in that language. At the end of the month, the results were amazing.
There had been 15,000 hits on the website and 750 Scripture products had been downloaded to computers and cell phones! The ads continued, and in September 2012, there were 42,000 hits with more than 4,000 downloads. It seems that the longer the ads run, the more momentum picks up. And since downloads are quickly shared from one phone to another, there really is no way of knowing just how many people are receiving God’s Word. But it’s a creative and effective way of making God’s Word accessible to the speakers of this language. Pray for continued funding of this project. (from JAARS’ Rev 7, Winter 2013, pg 14)
Celling the Word 1
Most everyone, especially the younger generation in Timor, seems to own a mobile cell phone, which are often more dependable than traditional landlines, says Rani. “People rely a lot on mobile phones here, I guess, in this part of the world.”
According to some sources, cell phones outnumber landline phones more than four to one here. You don’t have to look far to see the technology’s influence. Across the sprawling Christian University campus, dotted with palm and coconut trees, a group of students sits on the edge of a cement-walled flowerbed. As they laugh and chat with one another, virtually every one has their eyes and fingers locked on their phones.
Several of the students to whom Rani downloaded the Kupang Malay New Testament are quick to explain their interest in having it. “We take our phone everywhere: on the public transportation, at home—so wherever we are, we can read it [God’s Word],” says one female student. “And especially since it’s in the Kupang language, it’s easier to understand.”
1 An excerpt—read the entire story here: http://www.wycliffe.net/stories/tabid/67/Default.aspx?id=2277
Friday, April 5, 2013
Ward Prayer Update - Apr 2013 (Travel for my aunt's funeral)
Dear Friends & Family,
We do pray you’re enjoying the spring where you are and that you had a glorious celebration of Easter remembering the resurrection of Jesus. The hope His resurrection provides is especially poignant for us now. We received word this morning (Fri) that my aunt (Betty) passed into His presence around 9:30 am. Before she died, she was in a nursing center attached to a hospital for six weeks and in hospice care for a week. We remember her with great affection and will be traveling to Georgia tomorrow for her funeral on Monday to celebrate her life. Please pray for safe travels.
My team meetings in Great Britain went very well. I returned on March 23. We really felt God was guiding us in the strategic discussion we were having. We were able to meet with several key people who also “happened” to be there for other reasons. One of our main focuses was on how to better enable Scripture publishing on the Web and on mobile phones (which are so common in many parts of the world that need Bible translation). We also felt good progress was made on some difficult technical areas. And we had a great time seeing each other face-to-face. I made an online photo album (16 photos & 1 video) to share some of the trip. Thank you very much for your prayers!
Please pray for more teachers to serve overseas in the coming academic year. Currently only two are registered for teacher orientation in June (with four more as possibilities). There are open positions for over 200. Teachers play a key role in allowing families to serve on the field.
We are very thankful for the team of people who support our work. Thank you for praying, encouraging, giving, and helping us in many ways!
In the Peace and Hope of Christ
We do pray you’re enjoying the spring where you are and that you had a glorious celebration of Easter remembering the resurrection of Jesus. The hope His resurrection provides is especially poignant for us now. We received word this morning (Fri) that my aunt (Betty) passed into His presence around 9:30 am. Before she died, she was in a nursing center attached to a hospital for six weeks and in hospice care for a week. We remember her with great affection and will be traveling to Georgia tomorrow for her funeral on Monday to celebrate her life. Please pray for safe travels.
My team meetings in Great Britain went very well. I returned on March 23. We really felt God was guiding us in the strategic discussion we were having. We were able to meet with several key people who also “happened” to be there for other reasons. One of our main focuses was on how to better enable Scripture publishing on the Web and on mobile phones (which are so common in many parts of the world that need Bible translation). We also felt good progress was made on some difficult technical areas. And we had a great time seeing each other face-to-face. I made an online photo album (16 photos & 1 video) to share some of the trip. Thank you very much for your prayers!
Please pray for more teachers to serve overseas in the coming academic year. Currently only two are registered for teacher orientation in June (with four more as possibilities). There are open positions for over 200. Teachers play a key role in allowing families to serve on the field.
We are very thankful for the team of people who support our work. Thank you for praying, encouraging, giving, and helping us in many ways!
In the Peace and Hope of Christ
Saturday, March 9, 2013
The NT Spreads by SD Cards in Africa
Dear Friends and Family,
We wanted to share the following news with you about the great progress a couple we know is seeing in Bible translation in Cameroon. Below that is our personal update.
Mofu people use New Testament (NT)
For 32 years Ken and Judy Hollingsworth worked with the Mofu-Gudur people, doing Bible translation and literacy.* There is much for which to praise God: translations are being used; the New Testament in audio version, which became available on Proclaimers in 2009, has been listened to by over 22,000 people; there is growth in the church with over 217 new Mofu believers baptized in 2012 and about 80 scheduled for baptism at Easter. Pray for the five-man Mofu translation team. They hope to train more team members soon to speed up translation of the Old Testament.
*The completion of the Mofu New Testament was celebrated in 2008. The 5000 New Testaments were sold out within six weeks.
Ken took 100 mini-SD cards to a meeting of ASEMTRAB*. Scriptures and hymns were recorded on the cards. As the electronic cards were fitted into cell phones and activated, there were many excited exclamations of "This is what I’ve always wanted" and "Mofu is the best language. We have everything in our language." By "everything," they meant the New Testament with extra Bible study resources (glossary, topical index, Bible timeline) which other groups and even most French Bibles do not have, as well as the audio New Testament on Proclaimers and now on mini-SD cards.
*ASEMTRAB stands for "Association des Eglises Mofu-Gudur pour la Traduction de la Bible." This means "Mofu-Gudur Association of Churches for the Translation of the Bible."
Personal Update
On Monday night, I will be flying to Great Britain. My team is having our yearly meeting at the Wycliffe centre there [Mar 12-22]. Because so many of my teammates work remotely, it was more economical to have the meeting there rather than in Dallas this year. The greater interaction possible in face-to-face discussions makes us more effective in strategically planning for the coming year, working on difficult technical problems, and renewing personal relationships. Please pray for the Holy Spirit’s direction and enablement in our time together. I will be especially involved in sessions on developing software for creating and testing fonts. I’ll also be the note-taker for most sessions.
Lynee and her manager have been working hard on the web-based resources they provide for teachers and parents serving overseas. They have mostly finished with the content and are working on the design of the site and the technical details of restricting access to certain pages (for the benefit of those in sensitive locations). They are thankful to have a few talented people helping with several of these things. Please pray for wisdom, creativity, and that the results will be helpful to those needing this information.
Thank you so much for your partnership with us in prayer, encouragement, giving, and many other ways! You are part of the team bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In the Grace & Love of Jesus
We wanted to share the following news with you about the great progress a couple we know is seeing in Bible translation in Cameroon. Below that is our personal update.
Mofu people use New Testament (NT)
For 32 years Ken and Judy Hollingsworth worked with the Mofu-Gudur people, doing Bible translation and literacy.* There is much for which to praise God: translations are being used; the New Testament in audio version, which became available on Proclaimers in 2009, has been listened to by over 22,000 people; there is growth in the church with over 217 new Mofu believers baptized in 2012 and about 80 scheduled for baptism at Easter. Pray for the five-man Mofu translation team. They hope to train more team members soon to speed up translation of the Old Testament.
*The completion of the Mofu New Testament was celebrated in 2008. The 5000 New Testaments were sold out within six weeks.
Ken took 100 mini-SD cards to a meeting of ASEMTRAB*. Scriptures and hymns were recorded on the cards. As the electronic cards were fitted into cell phones and activated, there were many excited exclamations of "This is what I’ve always wanted" and "Mofu is the best language. We have everything in our language." By "everything," they meant the New Testament with extra Bible study resources (glossary, topical index, Bible timeline) which other groups and even most French Bibles do not have, as well as the audio New Testament on Proclaimers and now on mini-SD cards.
*ASEMTRAB stands for "Association des Eglises Mofu-Gudur pour la Traduction de la Bible." This means "Mofu-Gudur Association of Churches for the Translation of the Bible."
Personal Update
On Monday night, I will be flying to Great Britain. My team is having our yearly meeting at the Wycliffe centre there [Mar 12-22]. Because so many of my teammates work remotely, it was more economical to have the meeting there rather than in Dallas this year. The greater interaction possible in face-to-face discussions makes us more effective in strategically planning for the coming year, working on difficult technical problems, and renewing personal relationships. Please pray for the Holy Spirit’s direction and enablement in our time together. I will be especially involved in sessions on developing software for creating and testing fonts. I’ll also be the note-taker for most sessions.
Lynee and her manager have been working hard on the web-based resources they provide for teachers and parents serving overseas. They have mostly finished with the content and are working on the design of the site and the technical details of restricting access to certain pages (for the benefit of those in sensitive locations). They are thankful to have a few talented people helping with several of these things. Please pray for wisdom, creativity, and that the results will be helpful to those needing this information.
Thank you so much for your partnership with us in prayer, encouragement, giving, and many other ways! You are part of the team bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
In the Grace & Love of Jesus
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