May 2016 newsletter (pg 1)

Life in Dallas
The weather has been exceptionally nice for this time of year. We’ve had more rain and cooler temperatures than usual. The bluebonnets (wildflowers) that grow by the roads were beautiful this year, and we enjoyed a visit by my (Alan’s) sister’s family near their peak.

We appreciate all the prayers for my heart condition. Because the ablation didn’t fully stop the irregular beats, I’m currently on two medications (Flecainide and Bystolic). We are so thankful that my heart is beating steadily at about 65 bpm! However, one medicine is probably causing me to wake up several times during the night. On May 4, we rejoiced that my cardiologist didn’t detect any irregular beats on a brief EKG. He also cut the dosage of the problem medicine by half. Please pray I will sleep better. I see my specialist on May 27.

Display of Bibles at the NRSI 20-year celebration

This year we’re celebrating two 20-year anniversaries: one for my team and one for our marriage. During our team face-to-face meetings in January, we celebrated all that God has done through our group over these years. On the week of June 8, Lynée and I plan to return to the condo in Florida where we spent our honeymoon. Glory to God for enabling us to reach both of these milestones!

Work in Dallas
OpenType is the industry standard used within fonts to control such things as how accent marks are placed, how cursive scripts are shaped and connected, and how regional or stylistic variants for letters are selected. Over a decade ago, my team developed our own way to add OpenType to fonts, but now there are industry standard tools and formats. I’m trying to convert our Roman fonts to use these industry standards so the fonts will be more sustainable in the long term and be easier for others to contribute to. It’s intricate and detailed work. I’m thankful for a recent breakthrough in understanding how to proceed. Please pray for creativity, wisdom, and direction. These fonts serve millions of people who need a Bible translation.

Exciting Opportunity

We recently proposed some enhancements to OpenType itself. Below is the prayer request we wrote. “Please pray for efforts to enhance an important computer industry technology (OpenType) to better support complex scripts. Because of NRSI’s success in developing a similar technology (Graphite) and our overall expertise in minority writing systems, we have been invited to participate at the ground level in this effort. NRSI staff (Alan’s team) are working closely with those from Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies. Please pray that key proposals are accepted and that the work would be a high priority for those companies. The resulting improvements could have a major impact in enabling many languages that need Bible translation.”

Lynée’s group is now serving under a new personnel manager. While it looks like he’ll do well in this position, he is energetic and has a different way of working. They anticipate a lot of changes. Lynée is now starting to rev up for the next teacher orientation in early July. There are only twelve participants registered, so please pray for more, along with praying that all the details come together.

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May 2016 newsletter (pg 2)

Photo of former and current NRSI staff & spouses at the NRSI@20 celebration -- some of whom created the font used in the story below.

The Right Package
Imagine if the pastor preaching your wedding ceremony showed up wearing his college football uniform, complete with pads and a helmet. Your jaw drops. No matter how well he speaks that day, it wouldn’t matter. The shock of his attire would prevent you, or anyone else in the room, from hearing a word he said.

Sometimes, sticking to the expected format in a situation really matters.

It’s really not so different when sharing the gospel with people of another religion. We want them to hear that Jesus loves them more deeply than anyone they know, and we want them to experience the confidence of knowing that God will give them life forever.

We want them to hear the content of the message. Yet we have found that the format of the message really matters, too.

For example, we can’t simply show them a Bible that’s printed in the letters that you and I can read, even if it’s in their language. We’ve tried. They see writing in our letters, and a wall goes up. Many can’t read these letters at all, and even when they can, they’ve been taught to associate our letters with an increasingly godless Western culture. God would never speak to them in these letters, they think.

But over the last few years, a team has worked quietly to put the H* Bible into Arabic-style letters. And just now the breakthroughs are coming as the first drafts are being developed. A little over a week ago, I greeted a respected religious teacher in a village. I sat down and handed him a copy of Genesis 1-3 in this new format.

As it fell into his hands, he scanned the first page. His face relaxed and his eyes gleamed. He immediately began reading it aloud.

His friends who were sitting nearby craned their necks to see what he was reading. They pointed and helped him with difficult words. As he caught his rhythm, my friend’s voice became louder and more sure. He began smiling and gesturing emphatically as he completed each verse.

He finished the first chapter, others were following along, and I still hadn’t said a word.

I blinked. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Not only had this religious teacher gladly received the Word of God in this new format, but he began distributing the pages to others to take home and look through. As I left the village, men were gathered into little groups of 2-3, showing each other the Bible.

Would you join us in praying that the word of God in this new format would point many to the living Word -- to Christ himself?

(written by a member of a partner organization)

Thank you so much for your part in Bible translation. Through your prayers, gifts, and encouragements you are helping to give people the fonts they need for Scripture in their language.

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