Back from Host Country April 2016

The P People get their Bible!!

How thankful we are that the whole shipment of Bibles arrived nicely in our Host Country. Our great Lord-Owner-Boss did a lot of great miracles and it was such a blessing that he opened all the doors needed!! So yeah, what a thrill to receive the boxes, open them up, and see the Scriptures for the dear P people. They have received many different portions of the Scriptures down through the years but now they were receiving the finished product for the first time!! How we praise God that He so wonderfully went before us down through the years and opened one “Red Sea” after another for us in order to carry on and finish the project. All Praise and Glory be to our great God who commanded us to go!!

How Things Went

We were down there in our beloved Host Country for about 7 weeks. During this time we weren’t able to get out to the different villages but God made it possible for us to connect with several of the pastors and their wives out in town…..and it was to them that we handed over the Scriptures. We had many times of celebration, teaching and worship. And on top of this, we also got together with many of our believing friends at one of our main supporting churches. That was one long celebration as well, and included not only four different P pastors sharing from the Word, but also a grand fiesta with beef, a whole pig, and so much more!! Yes, it truly was a day of celebration for God’s bigness and greatness!!

We thank God for our Great Team!!

Since the beginning days of the work, there has always been a team working together to get the Gospel message to this People Group and to see New Testament churches established among them. Some of those beloved folks have left long ago but some of us continue to work together, all having different gifts that God beautifully blends together for His glory. We just want to thank the Lord for the great bunch of people that He has brought together to see so many different aspects of the work move forward.

And of course you all are a HUGE part of the team too as you pray and partner with us. Thanks so much for working with us to see God hugely praised and honored in and through this very special Ethnic Group!!

Some Sad News from across the Water

While we were still in SA, we suddenly got word that my dear dad had been promoted to Glory! Even on the morning of his passing, mom and he had had a special time of prayer and worship together…..but his body was worn out and at almost 95 years of age he entered Heaven’s gates! So we quickly changed our tickets and left early. How thankful we are for dad!! How we appreciate his love of the Scriptures, his sense of pilgrimage on this planet, his example of investing in eternity, and his continual encouragement to us to finish the task that God had given us to do. Yes, a dear soldier of the cross for sure! We will miss him….but praise the Lord for the huge HOPE that we have in Christ, of celebrating together in the New Heaven and Earth!! Would appreciate your prayers for my mom as she journeys on without her best friend..

Praise and Prayer

—praise the Lord for a great time with the people, and for the safe arrival of the Books, and for their distribution
—praise the Lord for the completion of the Translation Project!!
—praise God for His great sufficiency in everything, and for Him going before us and being our Chief Strategist at every turn
—pray for the Word of God to go forward with power and might, and that it wouldn’t return void, but would rather accomplish the things that the Lord purposes
—pray that the bilingual community accept the Scriptures too, even though they have been done primarily with the lingo of the monolinguals
—pray for God to do the “above and beyond” stuff in the lives of the bilinguals. Right now another new class is starting up in the Tree of the Food Village
—pray for our Host Country, that God would intervene, and that His Name would be highly glorified in spite of all the chaos and turmoil
—pray for us as we catch up on small projects, and then move on to more Curriculum Development for the P pastors, as they are wanting more teaching helps
—Jodi, our daughter, and her husband Brent, are missionaries in another host country, and expecting their first baby. There is the Zika virus there. Thanks for praying for their safety.