Image from timeoutdoha
Doing Spring Cleaning?
Ready to get rid of some of your stuff?
Click on this link and we’ll show you an easy way for you to donate your stuff and help the work of Bible Translation.
Key Word Check
Checking for Key Words
This week Ken was able to help out during the translation process. His job was to make sure that all the key words in a certain passage are actually in the new translation and that they are translated properly. Just one step in making sure people have the Word of God in their Mother Tongue.
Some parts of this task are laborious…but it’s all worth it. Thank you for praying this week!
Touring Terraces
Everyone once in a while, Ken gets to be a tourist while traveling. Check out these beautiful rice terraces!
Sweet Notes
We recently spoke at a church in Pennsylvania which included speaking to a children’s group. Before we left the state two children gave us sweet notes. While they didn’t get our roles exactly right, we love the sentiment.
Like to Travel? Like to Serve?
Would you like to work with the kids of missionaries, missionary kids (MKs), overseas?
Here is an opportunity for adults to serve Wycliffe MKs through a VBS-type program.
Refuge 139 will be leading several retreats for Wycliffe MKs during their parents’ branch conferences in various locations around the world. We are looking for mature, Christian adults who love to work with children/teens. Come as an individual or bring a group from your church!
Mission . . .
supporting missionary families by ministering to their children through fellowship, worship, evangelism, prayer and Bible study
Your Trip includes. . .
pre-field material, in-country orientation/training, fun in-country outing, assisting with the Refuge 139 program, trip debrief by experienced Refuge 139 staff
Cost…
airfare + $1500 (includes room/board, in country expenses, visa, evacuation insurance)
When and Where:
March 18 – April 2: Cameroon
June 6 – 15: Nepal
July 21 – 29: Thailand (Full)
July 24 – Aug 4: Malaysia
March 2017: Papua New Guinea
For more information send an email to
Refuge139@jaars.org or call 704-843-6042
And now, a word from our President
Bum people of Cameroon
While we try to update and thank you on a regular basis, sometimes it is nice to hear from someone else.
Click here to watch a brief video from the President of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA, Bob Creson and his wife Dallas.
Traveling Mercies from a Merciful God
If you travel much, you become a person who prays. Although accidents can occur close to home, the very act of spending hours in a speeding car or airplane puts you at a heightened risk for injury or death.
Ken and I traveled up north over the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ve driven the 13 hour drive up to family a hundred times or more. Usually we get up early and plow through the whole day arriving just in time for dinner. For the first time, we split the trip up into two days with a much needed hotel rest in between. Ken has been so busy this year, that we haven’t taken much vacation together. It was nice to talk together off and on and relax a bit.
Part way into our trip, a truck drifted into our lane. Ken had been eyeing the driver because he had been weaving a bit, but when we went to pass him, he suddenly lurched over into our path. Ever the alert driver, Ken was able to jerk the wheel over and an absolute disaster was averted! That truck was inches away from our right side mirror. We both gasped and looked back to see the man trying to get his jacket on while driving. His distraction almost ruined a trip or our lives!
Ken leaves shortly for his next trip. It’s his last for this calendar year. As my neighbor said, “Well, my dear, there isn’t much year left, is there?” No, I guess not. He’s packed on the miles this year.
Safe miles. Traveling mercies. Each time I hear that he’s arrived safely to his next destination, I breath a prayer of relief. The same prayer goes up when he texts me that he’s landed once again in Charlotte.
With all the uncertainty in our world, I take each trip seriously. Some people have said, “I’ll be glad to hear when you are done traveling so much. You go to unsafe places.” Yes, but it’s in those very places that people need to hear God’s words in their own mother tongue so that their lives will be changed!
Thank you for praying for Ken this week:
1. Safe travels
2. Wisdom and clarity as he teaches
3. Changed lives for the participants and their safety too.
Photos: Typical view packing Ken’s tech gear before a trip and the new pastor and his wife from our supporting Michigan church. Click on photos to see the caption.
Typical view before a trip. Packing is a challenge with all the tech gear!
We met the new pastor of our Michigan church. Pastor Kevin and his wife are settling well!
Who Knew? Deaf People Need Bible Translations Too
Even though we’ve worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators for over 25 years, I had no idea that 1. There were so many languages for the deaf and 2. each of them need a Bible Translation. I thought they would just read from their own “mother tongue.” But their mother tongue is their deaf sign language! For a fascinating video that explains the process and a way to help fund these translations, please watch the video below.
From Wycliffe USA’s post:
“There are 978,000 Deaf in the Americas alone, but not a single, complete Bible translation exists for any of the 30 sign languages used across the continent. This video contains testimonies of how encountering the gospel in sign language has radically changed lives for Deaf in South America. Watch the video and then visit the Wycliffe Gift Catalog to support this sign language project and more!”
Click here to watch the video.
Look how far we’ve come!
Photo source: thinga.com
The data we carry on our mobile phones is equal to about 850 computers from the 1970’s! Can you imagine how that impacts Bible Translation? Our translators have so many tools at their fingertips and people from different language groups can now listen or read the Bible in so many ways.
Click here to see how children (humorously) respond to seeing and using a computer from the 70’s!
I love Technology!
My favorite man!
Oh, how times have changed! When we traveled 25 years ago after first joining Wycliffe, our family wouldn’t hear from us for 3-5 days until we had arrived at our location and set up our computer. But now, if Ken is traveling to a large city like he’s in now, we have so many more options.
Ken departed from Orlando, Florida early Saturday morning. He flew to Minneapolis and gave me a call on his cell phone. He texted me goodbye just before departing for Southeast Asia. I woke up Sunday morning to hear he had landed at the country next along the route. By the time I got out of church on Sunday morning, I knew he had landed because I was flight following, keeping an eye on his flight online (before and after church, of course!).
When I was sitting on the couch Sunday night, I got a FaceTime call, with video, from Ken who was starting his first day of work! Video! We don’t get that too often!
Technology is awesome (when it works the way you want it to!) and you have access to it.
Ken is on the other side of the world helping a group embrace some new technology in order to expedite the translation process. New tablets outfitted with an exterior keyboard will house the 51 newly translated stories which can be uploaded after checking to a website that anyone in the world can have access to. From there, each participant will return to their home country and continue to proceed with their Mother Tongue language.
Thank you once again for helping us to make this happen.Your monthly support and prayers allow us to keep the technology coming for our partners around the world.
P. S. The Enemy prowls around looking for whom it can devour…please pray for these participants the next two weeks!
The Haugh Herald 