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Many Christian schools and colleges begin their daily classes with prayer. Some begin with song and dance.

Ken was in Nigeria last month teaching a very sophisticated Bible translation program to twenty-four Mother

Bible Translation class

Tongue Translators (MTT), many of which had received their first computer just the week before. He knew it would be a daunting task for the MTT’s to go from no experience to actually starting their Bible translation in this software in two short weeks, so they began each day asking for God’s help. Rather than a simple prayer of guidance, our Nigerian colleagues took a different approach – song and dance.

Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”

The one on the left is a village learning how to translate the Bible in his own language.

Follow this link  (https://vimeo.com/54242680) and you’ll readily see a multitude of Nigerian tribes represented as they stand and dance praising God in song and worship, thankful for new skills to begin typing their New Testament in their own language!

I am thankful that God understands and loves praise and worship from all nations, tribes, and tongues. I know you are too. Your gifts and prayers enabled us to serve our Nigerian brothers and sisters on this trip.

The computer lessons are short. They include instruction as well as videos. But the participants have a wide variety of computer skills. Like the last trip, some folks are using a computer for the first time! Praise God, there seems to be good understanding of Paratext, the Bible Translation software, that Ken is teaching several times a day.

The village chief (striped shirt) studies Paratext.

The village chief often leads the singing for their devotional time. When he starts dancing and singing, people start moving! Ken has video of the group. He told them that white men can’t dance and praise like the Nigerians can.

Can’t wait to see if we can learn something new! Thank you for your continued prayers!

You don’t know heat until you’ve been to the tropics! It’s not only the temperature, but the humidity. Ken reports that when he and his co-worker Russ were teaching, sweat was rolling down their arms and off of their finger tips! How draining it must be to live in that environment year round. But in spite of the heat, the work was accomplished! Thank you for praying! The workshop wrapped up Friday afternoon. Ken gave this account:

“Several people have commented how much they have loved learning the computer. One lady said she came here without a computer and had never touched one. Now, not only was she given a computer but she knows how to use it! She is so proud. It has fueled my fire but truly I’m exhausted.”

He also told me that one of the men working on his translation is a retiree. Previously, he let the younger folk in his church do all the work on the computer. He’s so excited that he is learning how to use a computer and utilize it to start his Bible Translation! How satisfying to have such a great ‘second job’!

Water taxi!

Right now, Ken and Russ are on their long trip home. It started with a three-hour ride to the water front followed by a one hour boat ride until they were able to start all of their flights home. Two “legs” of the trip are over with 4 more to follow. He arrives in Charlotte Monday evening. I can’t wait to see him and hear all of his stories.

Thank you for traveling with us on this most satisfying trip!

Sleeping quarters

On Wednesday, Ken finally arrived at his final destination. He spent the two previous days helping clean up viruses on computers while in Jos. The recipients were from 16 different language groups attending a workshop.

Here is a short account of his trip:

“We left Jos for Taraba at 8:00 this morning and arrived here around 4:30 PM. The drive wasn’t too bad. The Bible College we are staying at is something like 2 miles down a rain-erosioned dirt road off the main road. My room is small with a mattress on the floor and mosquito net covering it. There is a large drum of water outside of the bathroom where we will be dipping buckets of water in and showering via bowls of water poured over our heads. Same method for toilet flushing. No electricity but the generator runs from 7-10 each night. I can send/receive email though via a cellular modem. Mosquitoes are bad so I’m using repellant. The people are very friendly. I’ve attached a picture of my bedroom for the next 8 days.

We will be meeting Friday afternoon to go over next week’s schedule to maximize our time together but it seems that I am already planned to teach File Management on Friday morning. They are in the beginning stages of computer utilization.” (Most of these mother tongue translators are new to using computers so the lessons will include the basics like opening and closing windows, saving data, and things like that.)

Please continue to pray that all of the translators will make it to the training and that all of the hardware and software would work. It’s amazing how often things break down when we are trying to work on getting God’s Word into a new language! This work does not make Satan happy! Thank you for praying!

Driving home this morning, I came across another turtle trying to cross the road. With Ken’s image in my mind, I pulled over, ran back and helped it get to the other side. It’s just a small thing in the course of life. But I think it made a big difference to the turtle!

That’s how many of you minister to us each day. Sometimes it’s a prayer, an encouraging word or a financial gift. It may not be much to you, but it sure means a lot to Ken and I! Thanks so much for standing with us, sometimes rescuing us even when we don’t realize we need rescuing!

Just got a text from Ken. He has arrived safely in Abuja, Nigeria. Yay! He left late from Dulles, arrived late in Frankfurt, but had time to get to his next flight. Now he’ll get a night of sleep (they are 5 hours ahead of us on the East Coast), and then he said he was driving to Jos, 4 hours away, tomorrow morning. I’m not sure when he starts the 11.5 hour drive to the training site. I’ll keep you posted when I know more.

Thanks again for praying. It was such an encouragement to me to hear the folks from our church were praying him over. I know it will be also for Ken. Thanks so much!

Ken holds his passport and visa delivered from FedEx.

Ken’s passport arrived this morning. Inside his visa, good for 6 months, will allow him to travel to Nigeria tomorrow. He’ll be training mother tongue translators over the next two weeks.

 Thanks for praying. Now for the long trip across the world!

Thanks for praying! Ken’s visa is stamped in his passport and its being sent to us by overnight express. Please continue to pray that we get it tomorrow. It’s the last day before he leaves on Saturday morning. If he has internet connection, he’ll try to post some updates while in Nigeria.