Prayer Update - Lynee's Mom in Glory

Lynée's Mom in the Lord's Presence
On May 28 when Lynée's mom entered a rehabilitation facility, we were thankful for her improvement and hopeful for recovery, but she declined after that point. On June 4 (a day after we sent our last update), she returned to the hospital, and on June 8 she was moved to a hospice facility. She passed away the next morning. She was mostly unresponsive and at peace from June 8 onwards. Her daughter and son-in-law from Chicago were able to see her before the end. A memorial service is planned for Saturday afternoon. Her obituary has been posted online.

The End of a Chapter
Her decline started on May 6 with dehydration. She was in the hospital or rehab from May 11 onwards. Thankfully she had only a little pain during this time and many family members were able to see or talk to her. We will miss her greatly but are thankful for the comfort and hope we have in Jesus. She would have been 90 on June 19. After Lynée's father died in 2024, she often said, "I want [your] dad ... but I can't wish him from Heaven" and now she has him.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement during this time. Please pray for the family in the days ahead and for Lynée and me as we seek the Lord for the next chapter of our lives.

Prayer Update - Lynee's Mom Recovering!

Recovery
We wanted to update you on Lynée's mom (Esther). She is doing much better. Thank you for praying. She was released from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility on May 28 (last Thursday). Please thank the Lord with us for His healing! (Pictured are Lynée, Don Paul, and Laurie.)

We had decided to start dialysis on May 21, but a last-minute check by the kidney doctor of her blood work showed her kidney function was improving. (This was less than two days after we sent our last prayer update.) The improvement continued for the next few days. Her pneumonia improved also. On May 27, her cardiologist was able to shock her heart electrically, and the Atrial Fibrillation stopped. The next day, she went to a rehab facility about ten minutes from us.

The Road Ahead
She is still quite weak after being in the hospital for 18 days. Physical and occupational therapy started Monday. Because of short-term memory loss, it is hard for her to remember where she is in the process of recovery and to maintain motivation for more than the current therapy session. She is eating and drinking better but has issues with nausea and lack of appetite. Her mind is clear enough now for her to stay by herself at night.

Lynée's brother and sister and their spouses provided a lot of help during this time. Her sister and brother-in-law returned to Chicago Tuesday. We are thankful Don and Ginger are still close by to help. Please keep praying for Esther and us.

Since we wrote the above, she has declined some. Her heart is back in AFib, and she has a bad-sounding cough. The rehab center is trying to treat her, but she may need to return to the hospital. We hope this is just a temporary setback.

Please pray for Esther
- That her heart and lungs would improve
- That she will begin eating better to build up her strength
- That she would be consistently motivated to work hard in therapy

Praise God for His marvelous work!

Ward News: Lynee's Mom in Hospital

Recent Travels
This will be a quick update, but we want to let you know what is going on. First of all, thank you for your prayers for my conference at the beginning of March and for Alan’s team meetings at the end. Both went very well. It was good to spend time with others pursuing the same goals (in my case) and with team members (in Alan’s case). Our extra time in Texas also provided a good break. Since then, we have been working at our jobs as usual.

Lynee's Mother
My mother (Esther Gross) has been doing fairly well, and even checked out mostly okay at her annual physical less than three weeks ago, but on May 11 she went into the hospital with weakness and Atrial Fibrillation. Now she also has pneumonia and partial kidney failure related to an antibiotic-resistant bacteria. We are thankful my brother and his wife have been sharing hospital duty. Up until recently we had hoped that she would recover. It is looking less promising now.

Decisions
Would you please pray for wisdom and strength as we look at some hard possibilities in the next few days? My sister and her husband are here from Chicago. The six of us are meeting with a palliative care doctor tomorrow morning (Wednesday) just to find out what things we need to consider. We would still love to see her healed here on earth, but we are at peace for God to take her home. We know she is in His hands and He numbered her days before she was born.

Thank you for your prayers, for your encouragement, and for the financial gifts you send to keep us going. And thank you for walking this journey with us.

Wards New: MK conference & TX visit

We hope you are starting to feel spring in the air. Our daffodils are starting to bloom (right), and we hope our cold weather is gone until next winter.

Thank you to everyone who is on this journey with us. Alan and I appreciate each one of you, whether you care for us from afar, pray for us, text or email us, or give to us financially. We also are grateful to those who gave towards my dental work. I have most of my final crowns, and I should get my permanent bridge by the end of March. I am definitely ready to be done with the dentist for a while. 🙂

Workwise…
My department has great resources we put together years ago that help families deal with transitions. Now that we have missionary families serving from South and Central America, I created a Spanish version of one of those resources so they can use it too. This week I am attending a conference southwest of Dallas on the care and education of missionary kids - the same one I have attended the last two years. It will be good to see my team members and others in person and to get more ideas to better support our families and keep them serving overseas. We are glad to have a reason to be in Dallas and will be staying next week to visit partners and other people we know.

Alan had team meetings last week. Because they don’t have funding to meet in person, they met by video call for three hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings (Central time). They have to accommodate time zones from Alaska to Thailand. They will meet during the same time in the last week of March. Please pray for more quality discussions and ways to build up the team even though they are not together. They have a new director this year, who they are orienting and getting to know.

Thank you for partnering with us! We thought you might enjoy Wycliffe's 2025 video report.

Ward News: Giving Thanks in 2025

We hope you have things to be thankful for in this season. We are especially thankful for you and the way you support our work with Wycliffe! We are also thankful for several things that happened this year:

Travel to Georgia
We had a very encouraging trip to the Atlanta area to connect with partners. While we didn’t get to see everyone we would have liked to, we did have wonderful visits or phone conversations with many. I don’t know if you realize how much you all encourage us!

Trip to Asbury
Lynée’s participation with the student teacher orientation went well. There were 15 students, and she was able to connect personally with several of them. Her session went well, and it was good to see students excited about serving the Lord by doing their student teaching semester overseas.

Font release
Alan’s team released version 7 of the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek fonts that he works on. There were several enhancements to improve the fonts’ usability on mobile devices/phones. The support for New Testament Greek was also greatly improved.

College Prep Handbook updated
Lynée’s department has been updating a college prep handbook regularly for the last 20 years or so. This year they decided to move it from a PDF form that had to be updated all at once to Google Docs so that information could be updated at any time. This was a fun project that she enjoyed fitting in between her regular responsibilities. Check it out, especially if you have children getting ready for college.

Dental work
We found a dentist to do all of Lynée’s dental work, and she has had the first three crowns done. As you may remember, at Lynée’s last cleaning, they found she had about 10 cavities -- mostly on teeth that already had crowns. We looked for a different dentist with more experience, and on her first visit, he knew immediately what to do to stop the cause of all these sudden cavities and had several suggestions of other things to try. We feel she is in good hands. Now to schedule the next set of crowns, as well as a deep cleaning!

We hope you all have a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving with family and friends. Please enjoy this four-minute video about the Enga New Testament translation for the largest language group in Papua New Guinea.

Ward News: Trip to GA and Ten Cavities

We hope you are enjoying your summer. We have been thankful for a slightly slower pace but are ready for some cooler weather. We had a nice vacation in mid-May before the hotter weather arrived.

Visit to Georgia
Lyneé and I are planning to be in Georgia August 31 - September 14. We are looking forward to visiting friends, family, and many of the partners who support our work with Wycliffe. Our current committed giving is about 28% short of our Wycliffe budget, though thankfully, our twelve-month average is at 100%. We are currently scheduled to speak on the first Sunday during our trip and are interested in speaking to new groups who might be interested in our work on the last two Sundays (Sept. 7 and 14) or at other times. Please feel free to contact us (see below for details). We are very grateful to all the people who support our work through prayer, giving, and encouragement!

A Mouth Full of Cavities
During a recent appointment with our dentist, Lyneé found she had ten cavities, with most of them on teeth between the gum and an existing crown. Since then, she's seen a periodontist and a second dentist to get other opinions. She has taken good care of her teeth since she needed major dental work twenty years ago, so this was quite unexpected. We think it may be due to worsening dry mouth, receding gumlines exposing more of the crowned teeth, and a change in some things she snacks on. She's brushing even more and changing her snacks. Thankfully, she doesn't have any pain (yet), so we have time to work through the dental work and expenses. We do feel somewhat overwhelmed by this. Please pray for wisdom and direction in knowing how to proceed.

Wycliffe Work
After returning from our trip to Georgia, we are planning to go to Asbury University in Kentucky for a long weekend (Sept. 19-21). Lyneé will be helping with orientation for student teachers who will be doing their teaching semester overseas (similar to the event back in April).

We wanted to share this recent story with you about the impact Bible translation had in a community in Peru: Meet Amador

Ward News: Teacher Orientations & Team Meetings

Welcome to summer! We just enjoyed a visit from Lynée’s sister to celebrate their mother’s 89th birthday, and we are visiting Alan’s family this weekend. What we have been up to workwise is below.

Lyneé's Team 
Thank you for your prayers in April for my weekend with education majors who will be doing their student teaching overseas next semester. My sessions went fairly well, and the students said they found the weekend helpful. I found myself energized by getting to talk to young people who love the Lord.

My team's annual orientation for educators and others serving missionary families is happening this week in Waxhaw, North Carolina. We have only four participants, including one teacher who will be going to Papua New Guinea. The others will be helping MKs in other ways. Please pray they will all be prepared and equipped for the ministry God has called them to. My work preparing for the orientation was mostly done before this week, so I am not there. I did meet everyone over a video call.

Alan's Team 
My team had their yearly meetings in March. Due to lack of funding, the meetings this year were virtual and spanned time zones from Alaska to Texas to Thailand. We met Tuesday through Thursday mornings (Central time) for two weeks. Two new members joined the video meetings to get to know us. One has since started work and the other is still seeking financial and prayer partners.

Since several members are now working part-time (as retirees who still volunteer) and others will transition in the next few years, we had discussions about preserving and handing off the specialized knowledge and expertise my team has developed over many years. Future planning indicates 2027 will be the year that staff reductions start to painfully impact font creation. Please pray the Lord will bring more people to join our team.

We wanted to share this report of three Scripture dedications that happened in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea: The Dedications of the Jita, Zanaki and Tabo New Testaments

Thank you for your faithful support in many ways for our work with Wycliffe!

Ward News: Preparing student teachers

We hope you are eagerly anticipating Easter and enjoying a taste of spring weather! Today, Lynee and I drove from Nashville to Taylor University in Indiana. Lynee is taking part in a seminar to orient student teachers who will be doing their teaching semester overseas. There are about 15 teachers registered to come with several other organizations also participating. She will be leading two session tomorrow (Saturday) and interacting with the student teachers this evening through lunch on Sunday.

At 11:00 (Eastern) she'll be leading a session on "things" to take with you when entering a new culture (like humility, intentionality, etc.). At 2:00 pm, she leads a session on transitions that should help teachers understand their missionary kid students better and also prepare the teachers for their own transitions. Please pray for her sessions and for good connections. Aside from the valuable work these students will do, they are also potential teacher recruits. :-)

Thank you to all who pray, give, and help in various ways to enable our work with Wycliffe! We hope to send out a longer update soon.

Ward News: Update for 2024

Dear friends and family, Recently we have been encouraged to hear how rapidly Bible translation is progressing in Africa, especially Nigeria. Because of the engagement of local churches and several other organizations, the number of languages in that country that are waiting for translation to start has fallen from over three hundred to a few dozen! Partly because of this, the number of languages worldwide waiting for translation to start has fallen below 1,000! Just three years ago, there were nearly 2,000 languages waiting to start. However, the remaining languages are some of the most difficult to reach, so prayer and much work are still needed, and of course, the translation work that has started must continue to completion. For more details, see Bible translation milestone: Under 1,000 languages left to start by the Wycliffe Global Alliance. The memorial service for Lynée’s father was on September 7. We were blessed by the attendance of family and friends, especially those from out of town. Lynee’s parents’ pastor of seventeen years led the service. Several family members shared memories, and it was good to hear stories from others who knew him when he was still healthy. With the passing of Lynée’s father, a new chapter is starting in our lives. We are still helping her mother, but her needs are quite different. We’ve transitioned from the physical type of care her dad needed to the more emotional care her mom needs. She is grieving, which is complicated by her short-term memory loss, so she relives the grief repeatedly. Please pray for all of us as we adjust to this change and work through the sorrow of his passing. We are grateful for many things, but honestly, it’s been a difficult year. In addition to Lynée’s father passing away at the end of August, we also lost her parents’ dog at the end of May. Lynée struggles with switching her focus between her mom and work. I often feel sad and depressed. Life in this fallen world is hard at times, but we do find hope, strength, peace, and even joy in the midst of it through Christ Jesus. We’re thankful for Him and for a wonderful home close to Lynée’s brother, for generally good health, and for our partners in this work. I’m sorry we have not sent many updates this year. This update contains mostly personal news. We hope to send more work-related news at the start of next year. Thank you for praying and giving and for encouraging us through these challenges. We hope you have many blessings to be thankful for as Thanksgiving Day approaches. In the Goodness & Greatness of God

Lynee's father is Home

Dear friends and family,

We wanted to let you know that Lynée's dad (Fred Gross) passed away on Thursday afternoon (August 29). He left this life sitting in his recliner in the living room holding his wife's hand with Lynée, me, and his daughter-in-law around him. At lunch time that day, he had swallowed some fluid into his lungs which hindered his breathing. That afternoon, Lynée noticed he was breathing rapidly then it slowed, so we gathered around to help. His breathing stopped, and he went still.

He passed away more quickly than we expected, but we are glad his struggle and weakness are over. He was no longer able to walk, but thankfully, he didn't have pain when he was sitting. The hospice care he received in his last month was a huge blessing to him and us. His sense of humor, his dedication to Jesus Christ and his family, and his willingness to help others characterized his life and will be well remembered.

Please pray for the family. We are hoping to have a memorial on September 7. There are many things to attend to now.

In the Goodness & Greatness of God

We're traveling tomorrow

Dear friends and family, We are leaving for Georgia tomorrow! We will be visiting with our ministry partners, family, and friends May 5-19. We are scheduled to speak on the first two Sundays of those weeks and have the third Sunday free for now. We are looking forward to seeing lots of people during this time and catching up on each other's lives and work. In March, Lynée and I both went to Dallas for two weeks. During the first week, the face-to-face meetings I had with my team went well. We made some important decisions and enjoyed being together. Unfortunately I had a cold much of time. In the second week, we met with the larger Language Technology group my team is a part of and heard about new software development being used on the field for Bible translation. Lynée visited with friends in the first week and, in the second week, benefited from attending a conference with other ministries who serve missionary kids. She also had good discussions with Wycliffe colleagues she rarely sees. Please pray Lynée's parents do well while we are away. We're grateful to Lynée's brother and his wife for helping with them, and we're thankful for the many people who support our work with Wycliffe. In the Goodness & Greatness of God

Ward News: BT in Nuba Mountains

Dear Friends and Family,

God is doing amazing things, and the gospel is reaching even hard-to-reach parts of the world — including the Nuba Mountains of Sudan!

The Nuba Mountains have long been an area of civil unrest. A cease-fire agreement was recently signed, and church leaders — wanting to take advantage of the time of relative peace — reached out to initiate Bible translation for the many languages spoken in the region. Today local churches are not just asking for translation — they are sometimes even starting it themselves!

“We want to do this. We can do this, and we will do this,” said Pastor M, one of the local church leaders. “The future is uncertain and we don't know what it holds for us, but there is opportunity for us to get started on this and what we need is for you to come train us so that we can train others.”

Nuba churches are committed to doing Bible translation as a ministry of the church, mobilizing volunteers for every aspect of the work. They are taking ownership and asking Wycliffe to serve in the critical roles of catalyst and training. Decades of expertise strategically position us to support local leaders in accomplishing their vision through technology, resources, and funding.

Over the next few years, Nuba churches have an aggressive plan for starting Bible translation in nearly 100 languages across the Nuba Mountains. In November 2023, more than 60 people from local churches in the Nuba Mountains received initial training to provide leadership to different aspects of the work, with further training to follow.

excerpted from To the Ends of the Earth: Bible Translation in the Nuba Mountains

Personal News
Lynée and I are planning to travel to Dallas for two weeks, March 3-16. My team is having our annual meetings for working on technical issues and strategic planning. Lynée will be attending a conference of Christian organizations that minister to missionary kids. Please pray for these meetings and that Lynée's parents will do well with other family members helping them while we are away.

In the Faith, Hope, and Love of Jesus

Ward News: Trip change of plans

Dear friends & family in Georgia, We are disappointed that we have to delay our upcoming trip to Georgia. We had planned to leave today, but on Thursday evening, Lynee's parents tested positive for COVID-19. The short version is that since there are many unkowns, we don't know when we'll be able to come, but we do hope to make the trip this fall. We will communicate more details as things unfold. If we've already scheduled to see you, we'll be in touch to talk more. More Details... On Thursday (Sept. 7), Lynee's mom had a fever and scratchy throat, so we tested her for covid. The test was positive. So, we tested her father too, and he was also positive, though he had no typical symptoms. Lynee and I have no symptoms. Since we have so much contact with her parents, we certainly have been exposed to covid. We're mainly living upstairs apart from them and taking precautions when we need to help them. Since, during our planned trip, we would stay with my elderly parents and visit with many people, we can't make the trip until we're fairly sure we wouldn't be spreading covid. We don't know how her parents' illness will progress and when we'll be in the clear. We also need to coordinate with Lynee's siblings to care for her parents when we're gone. So, we don't know when we'll have a two week time when we can come to Georgia, but we do still hope to make a trip. Lynee's mom is doing fairly well. Thankfully her symptoms are only a low fever and some coughing. Her dad still has no symptoms. However, he did fall Tuesday night (two days before covid) and hit his head pretty hard on the bathroom floor. In the ER, we found he did not have any head injury, but he did need eleven stitches to close a cut over his left eye. Please pray for their recovery and that we would not catch covid. In the Goodness and Greatness of God

Ward News: Upcoming trip to GA

Dear friends & family in Georgia, We hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of summer time. Lynee just finished migrating her team's website (tckcare-ed.org) to a new platform. I've happily adjusted to working from my new office. We are planning to visit Georgia September 10-24 and hope to contact many of you then. We are looking forward to catching up with what’s happening in your life and sharing about ours. Please see below for our contact info. Additionally, we are seeking more people who will pray for or give to our ministry. Committed giving is about $1,500 per month short of our Wycliffe ministry budget (which includes our living expenses). Thankfully over the last twelve months, one-time gifts have brought up giving to 94% of our budget. We are certainly grateful to God for that and for all who support our work with Wycliffe! To help us meet more people who might support our ministry, would you please consider introducing us to new groups or individuals who might be interested in what we do with Wycliffe? Our trip includes three Sundays. We are scheduled to speak on the first two of them but the last one (September 24) is free. We also would be happy to speak with other groups or meet new individuals during either week. We recently saw this video about the impact of Bible translation. “Prosper Nongnidé, a Bible translation consultant and coordinator, grew up worshiping idols. Evangelists witnessed to him as a teenager, but he was reluctant to accept Jesus. He did, however, accept a French Bible from them. As Prosper read, he was impressed by how Jesus cared for and loved people. Prosper couldn’t stop reading Scripture and eventually gave his life to Jesus. But Prosper isn’t the only one touched by the power of Scripture: He tells a story of a king who was transformed after reading the New Testament.” (3.5 mins) In the Faith, Hope, and Love of Jesus

Ward News: Life celebrations

Dear friends & family, We hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of summer. We are glad for the cooler weather of Nashville compared to Dallas. Here is a quick update of our lives. Highlights In July, we went to Atlanta for a weekend to the celebration of life for a wonderful lady who finally went to glory at the age of 104. We also celebrated the first birthday of our great nephew — seeing both ends of the life spectrum on the same day! We were excited to see friends and Alan’s family at both events. We’ve had several guests come through Nashville for visits: Dallas friends, my aunt, and a couple that my parents have known for more than 60 years. We celebrated my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary! Challenges I (Lynee) am working by myself right now while my manager is on sabbatical for two months. I have a couple of deadlines I need to meet before the end of this month. My father is losing strength and weight. He’s had several minor falls lately. We are trying to find ways to help him. I am in the process of getting a dental bridge after a tooth on the lower right was extracted. We’re planning a trip to Georgia in September to visit partners, friends, and family. Please pray for the scheduling, presentation preparation, and opportunities to speak to groups. We really appreciated the response we got to our last newsletter! Please let us know how we can pray for you. In the Faith, Hope, and Love of Jesus

Ward prayer update - Upcoming travels

Dear Friends & Family,

We hope you are enjoying the start of spring and not suffering too much from allergies :-) . We are doing fairly well. Lynee’s father had two teeth extracted last week. He was treated for dry socket yesterday and seems to be doing better. Work to finish the space above the garage into a living area and office in the new house is going well. They put in the drywall today! Along with our regular work, we’ve been busy picking carpet, planning the storage cabinets, etc. The plan is to finish by the end of March.

Lynee and I will both be traveling this coming week. My team is having face-to-face team meetings in Waxhaw, N. Carolina this year. The meetings are March 14-23. I’m planning to lead four sessions. We have a new director, Steve Dyk, and a new member, Emily Roth, who some of the team will be meeting for the first time in person. While I’m gone, Lynee will be visiting Dallas. Her team is having meetings March 19-21. She’ll actually be in Dallas March 14-22, using the extra time to visit friends. Please pray our team meetings are productive and fruitful and that we’ll have clear direction from the Lord in the decisions we make.

Recently we heard some great news about new technology being used to translate Scripture into deaf sign languages.

A new form of motion capture technology can now transform the way we present Scripture to a person who is Deaf. Dubbed “Chameleon” by its creators, the technology features a digital avatar — or animated character — who signs the Bible to the viewer. Sign language Scriptures are delivered in a video format, with someone signing the translated message in the unique sign language utilized by individual people groups. The Chameleon technology captures the movements of a person signing Scripture and converts their appearance to an avatar.

For more details on how this is done and why it helps Bible translation so much, please see http://bit.ly/DeafBibleTech.

Thank you for your part in this work. We so appreciate your faithful prayers, giving, and support!

In the Goodness and Greatness of God

Celebrating Easter Around the World

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Easter! We pray you have a glorious time celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Wycliffe recently posted an article describing how Easter is celebrated in countries around the world. For example, “in Ethiopia, Christian churches celebrate Faskia, which is the 55 days leading up to Easter. Faskia is actually a bigger deal to people than Christmas, and that’s why it’s celebrated longer than our Easter in the U.S. … The night before Easter, Christians have a vigil that begins somber; but when morning comes, dancing and music break out. Families and communities spend Easter Sunday at church services and in homes, eating and celebrating.” See the post for more examples.

Work Updates
In February, my team and I (Alan) released a new version of our Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek fonts, which are used around the world where Bible translators need European-style alphabets. This version works with an online service, called TypeTuner Web, which can customize certain letters based on the needs of particular regions for specific letterforms. Settings for various letters can be specified for the Andika, Charis, Doulos, or Gentium fonts, and then custom font files can be downloaded, installed, and used in older programs. (This service exists so that software which doesn’t itself support choosing the needed letterforms can use the right ones.)

Last month the parent newsletter Lynee helps produce featured ideas on how to talk to kids about difficult events (war, evacuations, transitions) that are so prevalent in the world today. Please pray for her team as they reconsider how to best support educational staff overseas in light of changes in her group and the world.

Personal Update
We are still house hunting, but since there are not many houses on the market right now, it doesn’t really feel like we are. But things are still working fine at the current house. Lynee's parents are doing fairly well (no broken bones!), which gives her more time to work. Some weeks are busy with appointments for them, and others only involve routine help around the house. We hope to visit Georgia in May and plan to send more news soon.

Thank you for your prayers, your gifts, and your encouragement. We could not do this alone!

Teacher orientation has started! Update on mom and a font release

Dear family and friends,

For the first time, we are experiencing the start of summer here in Tennessee. It’s certainly milder and wetter than what we’ve been used to in Texas. We’re continuing to search for a larger house to share with Lynee’s parents, but the housing market is at a historical level of craziness, so we're trying to wait patiently to see what God will provide.

Alan’s fonts released
My team has released a major new version of our Roman fonts! There are quite a few additions and changes which Bible translators and others around the world will hopefully find useful. One of the biggest changes won’t be visible to users, but it’s quite important. The whole system we use to create the fonts was changed so it’s easier to maintain and to “pass on” to the next generation. Please rejoice and give thanks with us! See software.sil.org/gentium/release-6-000 for the official announcement.

Lynee’s mother home
Lynee’s mother is home from rehab after breaking her right hip in mid-May. She is doing fairly well -- all things considered. She’s using a walker and has a physical therapist coming twice a week. A nurse practitioner is coming once a week for four weeks, which has been very helpful as her mom transitioned to being at home after nearly five weeks away. God has provided. Please pray for complete healing for her and wisdom for Lynee to know how best to help without creating unneeded dependency.

Teacher Orientation happening
This week, the orientation for educators serving missionary kids overseas is happening in person in Orlando. We mention this every year, usually a few weeks beforehand, but this year, we regretfully didn’t let you know in time to pray for preparations. Thankfully everything came together okay, even though Lynee had to deal with several other stresses. Orientation started Sunday evening (June 27). Please pray the participants learn and experience everything He has for them during this week.

We thought you might enjoy an article about two teachers serving in Mexico. FYI, both of them went through teacher orientation :-) . See bit.ly/MexicoTeachers

In the Goodness and Greatness of God

Hip replacement for Lynee's mom

 Dear friends and family,

We wanted to share some timely personal news with you. My mother (Esther Gross) fell about two weeks ago and cracked her hip. We decided with the doctor to wait and see if it would heal on its own, but Friday, May 14, it broke the rest of the way through, and she ended up having a partial hip replacement on Sunday. They had her sitting and standing on Monday and sitting in a chair on Tuesday, but then she started battling nausea and digestive issues - a lot. She continued to get weaker until today, May 22, when she started to seem more like herself. She’s scheduled to go to a rehab facility on Monday. We would appreciate your prayers for her, especially that she would stay motivated to work hard at getting better.

We would also appreciate prayer for us. I’ve spent several nights at the hospital and will continue to spend time with her - I'm happy I get to spend this time with her. Pray I can balance staying with her and fulfilling my work responsibilities that are increasing as we get close to our teacher orientation at the end of June. I’m so thankful that my sister-in-law is here to share in the care of my mother. We are also thankful that God brought us to Nashville when He did.

Alan has been there for me and my parents as he works to finish up the next font release, hopefully by the end of the month.

Bible translation IS going forward despite all that is happening in the world. Here’s an exciting article we saw recently about using mobile phones for sharing Scripture. One thing needed for that purpose are keyboards for minority languages...

Smartphone keyboard ‘a gamechanger’ for Mbelime language: https://www.wycliffe.org.uk/resources/press-releases/smartphone-keyboard-mbelime/

Thank you for your partnership with us! We appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and giving. Let us know how we can pray for you.

Happy Easter! (and our move to TN)

Dear Friends and Family,

“Happy Easter! He is risen; He is risen, indeed!” We pray your celebration of the resurrection is joyful and spiritually renewing. We are enjoying the arrival of our first spring in Nashville and the opportunity to be outside in nicer weather. We hope you too are enjoying the retreat of winter.

What? You moved? Yes, we moved to Nashville October 27 where we lived with my (Lynée’s) brother for four weeks before moving in with my parents. We needed to clear out some space in my parents’ home first. We also sold our townhouse in Dallas during this time.

What is your life like living with your parents? We eat some meals together and are always welcome to join them in their living room. I have my office in what was their office but which is now our living area where we have our TV and two comfortable chairs to sit in. It’s also the guest room.

Are you settled in for good? No, we are currently working with a real estate agent to find a larger house that is closer to my brother’s home. We have several parameters we are wanting in our future house, so it may take a while.

What are you looking for in another house? We need a house that is larger with two separate living areas, that has a master bedroom on the ground floor, that has few or no stairs leading to the house or the garage, and that is fairly close to my brother so it will be easier for him and his wife to help out.

What have been your biggest adjustments so far? Lynée - trying to work with added distractions, not all of them external. With added responsibilities involving my parents, my mind is sometimes going in many different directions at the same time. Alan - I miss working in my old office with coworkers around me and also the relaxing/enjoyable routines I had in Dallas.

Are you still able to work? How has it changed? We are still doing the same work with Wycliffe. We got a taste of working remotely before the move, thanks to Covid. But it is still different. I actually have better working space than I did at our old home, but I miss the quiet of the office and the ease of concentration and getting all my work done at one time. Alan is working in a bedroom in my brother’s home because there’s better space for him there to have an office, but we look forward to when we are in a house large enough for him to work where we live.

Did Alan’s team get the new version of the Roman fonts finished? With the move and other factors, they did not get the beta test version of the fonts done before the end of the year, but they did release them March 17. (You can see the Gentium test release at bit.ly/GentiumBeta2).

Thank you so much for your support of our work, especially during this time of challenge in the world and in this major transition in our lives. Please enjoy this look at how Easter is celebrated around the world at bit.ly/WorldEaster.

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