Thursday, June 16, 2016

DBRP_170BackHomeUpdate


Hi everybody,

I got home a week ago now, and have probably had my best time ever in getting over the jetlag from the 12 hours of time zone difference. I don’t really know exactly why it turned out that way this time, but I think it helped that I arrived here mid-day rather than at night.

If you are one of those who prayed for me while I was away, I would credit your prayers as the reason why this trip was my most productive ever.

A word of explanation for any new listeners who don’t know what I do: Our family went to Indonesia in 1983, with the hope of translating the New Testament for a tribe in the province now called Papua (then called Irian Jaya). We dedicated the Orya New Testament in 2005. Since then we have been working to make a more understandable, easy-language Bible translation into the national language of Indonesia. We published the New Testament in Plain Indonesian in 2014. That translation is now in its second edition, and our team is working on translating the Old Testament. It will take at least 7 years to finish the OT. In 2023 I will be 73 years old, so I am not sure how long I can continue to lead this project. (Pray for the Lord to supply someone to take my place!) More information about us is at the Our Story page of dailybiblereading.info. In order to do this work, 4 years ago I established an in-country non-profit organization whose short name is Albata.

For pictures, see our Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DBRPdiggingdeeper/

About 4 months ago we received a generous gift that made it possible to pay for 1,800 of our Plain Indonesian New Testaments, so I determined to be generous on this trip. When Albata’s operations manager, Daniel, suggested distributing New Testaments to rural areas of West Kalimantan, I was happy to agree. This is considered one of the most undeveloped areas of Indonesia, where many have very little income, and where we heard that many believers don’t have Bibles. Daniel made all the arrangements. Visiting there was fun, as was giving out 1,000 New Testaments. We also learned some valuable lessons about how to partner with pastors in such distribution, which will help us in future projects like this.

 While Daniel and Albata’s translation coordinator, Balazi, were travelling through some challenging terrain while distributing 800 New Testaments, I took the easy road back to the town and visited one rural seminary, 2 seminaries in town, and one Pastor Training Center about 5 hours from town. Giving New Testaments to 40 pastors at the training center was the highlight. These men are church planters. They know how hard it is to disciple new believers have difficulty understanding their Bibles. One man in particular, Yonatan, stood out to me because he was so enthusiastic and thankful. He has planted three churches, and is working on his 4th, which is still very small. He said, “Using the two different Bibles I have, I tried making an easier to understand translation of some important verses, but I could never be sure I got it right.” People like Yonatan work where there are no Internet connections and often no cell phone coverage. And imagine starting a church, getting it to the point where it could support you, then hearing the Lord’s voice telling you to move on to the next place.

One of my goals for this trip was to try to find good partnerships for distributing New Testaments in rural areas. (We can’t always go ourselves to such places!) We are making progress in this area. A good example is our partnership with the Christian broadcasting network called Heartline Radio, who distributed 160 or our New Testaments to southern Sumatra. Most of the NTs were again given to rural pastors. Having the recommendation of Heartline Radio is like having the recommendation of Charles Stanley or another famous radio pastor. I am confident those New Testaments will be well used.

We won’t get far in translating the OT if we only have two people working on our translation team. That was the situation when I started my trip to Indonesia. Now two part-time team member (Moms of young children) have rejoined the team, and three more ladies are taking our online Bible translation course. One man (a seminary grad) would like to join our team full time and he is also working on our translation course. Another man, a seminary professor, has joined our course and could give us very significant help as a part-time consultant to our team. Please pray that God will inspire and empower some of those taking our online course to finish it, so that they can join our team.

I am happy to say that our in-country non-profit organization has enough donors monthly so that we can pay the wages for the current team. I want that funds which support the translation team come from inside Indonesia. Please pray that the Lord will bring additional Indonesian donors to support the new translation team members I mentioned. An area where we would welcome outside help is in purchasing New Testaments for low-cost distribution in rural areas, hospitals, prisons, orphanages, etc. I anticipate that we will need to print more copies of the NT in September at an estimated cost of $11,000 USD for 5,000 copies.

There is another huge answer to prayer! The organization called Faith Comes By Hearing will send a field recording team to work with Kristiana and Pastor Agus (who are my friends in Bangka Island). Members of their church and other local Christians will be the voices of Jesus, Paul, Peter, Mary, etc. Please pray that this year, the whole New Testament will be recorded and available to YouVersion users and for distribution in other ways.

In another little bit of news: Our translation coordinator, Balazi, has just this week become formally engaged to a beautiful nurse and midwife whom he met while distributing New Testaments in West Kalimantan.

Thanks so much for praying for me, and my team, and my family. God answers prayer, and He is doing amazing things.

 


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