My next trip to Indonesia starts on September 5, and I will be back home on the 26th of October, which will make 7 weeks total time away from home. I’m hoping that you will pray for me and Gale whenever the Lord brings us to mind.
Gale and I talk every day while I am on these trips. But it is not like having her with me. She is actually talking of coming with me in February next year. The reason is that now Hannah’s family is there in Jakarta, and she won’t let pain and fatigue stop her from seeing Ava, Joel, and little Devan. If you visit this episode at dailybiblereading. info, I will add some pictures of Hannah and Brandon’s kids. They also recently shared a video of the Roshan Learning Center, and I will link that also in the episode notes. That’s the ministry that Brandon is directing in Jakarta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKFy4xkJB1s&spfreload=10
Gale recently put pain and fatigue aside to visit Rachel in Tanzania for two weeks. I’ll include some of her pictures from there also, if you view today’s episode notes at our web site. Rachel has now wrapped up her ministry there and has just finished a 10 day cruise across the Atlantic in a cargo ship. Her own pain and fatigue haven’t taken away her adventuresome spirit! A prayer request for her is that the Lord would quickly add to her monthly financial support, so that she can quickly take up her new ministry in the Finance Office of Pioneer Bible Translators in Dallas. If you would like to help her, I’m putting a link in the episode notes here: https://pioneerbible.org/give/RachelFields
Recently the Lord has encouraged me by making clear to me that He is listening to my prayers, and the prayers of everyone who is praying for our work in Indonesia. That's why it is important that I keep you updated! The way the Lord recently encouraged me often seemed oddly centered in our church’s prayer room. I was there when
- Out of the blue on one of those occasions, I got a call from the leader of a ministry that produces evangelistic videos: Mars Hill Productions. God was in the timing of the things we discussed.
- Same place, the next week, I got a call from one of our significant donors.
- There again this week, our office manager in Jakarta started excitedly sending me text messages because a seminary had approached him wanting a Memorandum Of Understanding with our little non-profit organization.
It's exciting when God answers prayers! Again, thanks for praying for us.
Some of the things I am looking forward to in Indonesia include:
- Seeing Hannah’s family, as I said above.
- Almost as soon as I arrive I will travel to Papua— a distance like flying from New York to Los Angeles.
- I will spend two weeks in Papua, and the focus of that time will be recording the Orya New Testament. This was our first translation project in Indonesia, and that was dedicated in 2005.
- Later, on a little island called Bangka, we will have a 5 day workshop with our translation team. This is the first time that the team members from Papua will travel to another location. Two important topics will be 1) how to translate OT poetry (which we have so much to do!). 2) We need to split off some of our team members to focus on checking of our drafts with groups of ordinary readers. Please pray that these meetings will bring about better teamwork and better quality drafts of every Old Testament book— for the glory of God.
- It looks like I will be presenting at least three times in different seminaries on Bible translation, in two different provinces.
- Two of our members and I will be attending a conference focused on reaching the most unreached ethnic groups in Indonesia. We will be giving away a neat Android Bible app that contains our NT and plays the recordings of it. And we hope that the HOPE video in Indonesian will be ready to distribute at the same time. These will both be easy to share from one cell phone to another. Please pray that it would be shared, especially to people who are in more remote areas.
Let me explain a little feature in the YouVersion Bible reading app: If you get behind in your reading plan, it can become inconvenient to scroll back to the day number where you left off. On the page that pops up after you select your reading plan, at the top there is a little 3 vertical dot icon. Click on that and there is a choice that says “Catch me up.” This will make it so whatever episode that you last completed however many days ago will be the new current day location. The same ‘Catch me up’ link works also if you get ahead and want to shift your current date forward to the day you have just finished.
Who of you are Twitter users? I’m looking for people who would post once or more times per week there. So if you are active on Twitter, and if you would like to help other people find the DBRP, please message me via our Facebook group, or through the Contact link at dailybiblereading.info.
It is likely that no more NE series episodes will be released while I am in Indonesia. If you are interested in hearing about the strengths and weaknesses of different Bible translation types, you will be interested in podcast NE-DBRP_005C.
May the Lord bless you ‘real good’!
David's family was not mentioned, only because they are staying right in the same town as us. But some neat things have been happening with them:
L—>R: Jen, Luke, Laura, David
Laura is just starting flute, much to Grampa's joy.
And Laura was just baptized last month. Another joy!
Luke (3rd, with Eagle T-shirt) with friends from NewLife Ranch (summer camp).
Hannah and Devan
Hannah home schools Ava and Joel. Devan enjoys some parts.
Not a great picture, but just imagine what happens when they bring a blonde toddler into a mall in this country! Hannah said that Devan was entertaining the whole hall.
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