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If you saw me, I’m sure you’d say, “Welcome back! How did it go?” And I would say, “Great,” and then be tongue tied.
I’ve been back 6 days now, and it’s high time I figured out what to say. One thing for this group: I have made the firm decision never ever again to promise that I would post in the Digging Deeper Facebook page while I’m there. For those who looked for news, I’m sorry. If you prayed for me, Thanks ever so much!
A big change for me is to have Hannah, Brandon, and our three grandkids in Jakarta. So Hannah would say, “When are you coming over, Dad?” And I always want to come. It’s a rather long trip to get to where Hannah lives from where my humble third story apartment is. Hannah’s upscale apartment complex has about 30 floors, and it’s in an area full of shopping malls and some of the worst traffic in Jakarta. So instead of taking a taxi for 1 hour and 15 minutes, I would hop on the back of one of the Uber-style motorcycles, and be there in 45 minutes instead. Most of the time the motorcycle ride seems quite safe, because we can only crawl along in the hot and smelly traffic. It’s always wonderful to see Hannah’s family! Their apartment building has a beautiful open air play park and swimming pool. So we had fun play times together. Brandon’s job is as a manager for a learning center for families of middle-eastern refugees stuck in Jakarta for processing, and that seems a perfect fit for his talents and training. He daily has opportunities for meaningful relations with the refugees who are being served.
The little Bible translation organization I started to support the publishing of our Plain Indonesian Scripture is no longer so little. Albata (The OurLanguage Bible org) has grown to having 10 people on our translation staff. We have gone from two full time employees to 5 full-timers. We have grown from having one project (the translation of the Plain Indonesian OT) to having three projects, with two more on the wings. So it was clear that I would have to let go of several things and give others the responsibility of managing those things. If you visit the dailybiblereading.info site, you can see pictures of them:
- One of our most talented translators, Paula, is now managing the Bible translation course we offer on-line. There are 14 active students in the course right now.
- A new member of our translation team is Awek from the province of Papua. Awek is his new name and identity. Previously his birth name was Wakinus, which in his language means either ‘dangerous bad guy’ or ‘murderer’. He is now spiritually, very much Awake. It was my pleasure to spend time mentoring him on this visit. In addition to working as a translator for our OT, he is managing a special project to revise a 30-year old New Testament for the Berik people. Berik is not his tribal language. Currently he is helping the team members to take our on-line translation course. Then he will help guide the members in revising their NT. And this is all with the goal that their NT can be recorded. Please pray for Awek, as this responsibility is by no means an easy one.
- Fenny, in Jakarta, is one of our Bible translators, but she volunteered to become our treasurer. We have now made her full-time, in recognition of the amazing work she is doing. She is one of those moms who can stir a pot, change a diaper, and work on a spreadsheet— all at the same time. She still is one of our most productive translation team members.
- Mr. J. is a new employee. He finished our Bible translation course a year ago, but I could not hire him back then. His two main jobs now are to manage the comprehension testing of our OT drafts, and to manage the adaptation of our NT for a different audience in Indonesia. Another side job for Mr. J. is that I hope that he will start representing Albata in seminaries and churches.
- The adaptation project I mentioned is being done by Mr. E., whom I have informally adopted as my son, because his own family disowned him. The adaptation is for people with his background who have become followers of Isa (the Arabic name for Jesus). This project has the potential to help millions of people in this country, and it is also a project that could cause negative publicity or worse problems for Albata. I ask you to pray for this project and for Mr. J. and Mr. E. who are directly involved. We anticipate that this adaptation of our Plain Indonesian NT could be ready to publish in six months.
- Balazi is our translation coordinator, and doing a fantastic job. He informed me that we are 53% through drafting the OT. His priority now is to help the team get everything edited and revised, and ready for Mr. J. to send out for testing.
- Daniel, our office manager, is kind of the glue that holds everything together. He makes sure our organization runs in a thoroughly legal way. He coordinates prayer groups praying for Albata. He is an expert at networking, so information and all sorts of requests come to him. Let me give an example: A church planting organization is having success in a previously closed and resistant area in central Sumatra. Could Albata provide 50 New Testaments?
In various family news:
- Balazi and his wife have a beautiful baby girl, who is their first child. I didn’t get to see her this time.
- Mr. J. and his fiancee are planning their wedding to happen during my next trip to Indonesia.
- Daniel and his fiancee won’t be far behind.
- After a nine year long wait, Mr. E. and his wife have been blessed with their first child, a baby boy, Yotham, whom I will meet next time I am in Indonesia.
Our translation team plus a few other friends
So what do I think about all this?! Why do I get tongue-tied? It’s like, “I’m not cut out for this!” In all my work experience, no one ever tapped me to become a leader of anything. “Lord, what are you doing?!” Please pray for wisdom for me, and for all those who are now leading various parts of Albata. Please pray that the Lord will keep us from making mistakes, such as growing too big too quickly.
In September when I arrived in Indonesia, I had $700 which had been donated specifically for giving away New Testaments. But it wasn’t nearly enough. I made five presentations in 3 seminaries or Bible colleges to a total of 1200 students. But there were events I didn’t attend. So we either gave away or will deliver a total of 2000 NTs. The NTs we give in Bible schools will be used all over Indonesia as these students take on ministries outside of their schools/seminaries.
I love giving presentations in such seminaries and Bible schools. The students get excited about having a Bible they can understand. One of the first things I do in my presentation is to ask, “Who of you heard about the Plain Indonesian NT before this seminar was announced?” This time, almost no one in the three schools had heard about Albata or our NT. That saddens me. But the next question saddens me even more: I ask them to close their eyes, then say, “If you have read the whole Bible in an ordered way, both Old and New Testaments, raise your hand.” It saddens me when in a group of 300 seminary students only three raise their hands. After that question, I’ve got them! At that point, they are all ready to admit that Indonesia needs an easier to understand NT!— and one that God’s people would enjoy reading.
Some of you may remember the prayer request about selling 9000 New Testaments at subsidized prices. I gave the prayer request that the subsidized amount would be all sold by mid-September. That didn’t happen. But the subsidized amount will probably be sold out by Christmas. Please pray that the donor who gave the subsidy program will want to extend the program, or that God will bring another donor for that.
I would like to see Albata distributing 400 New Testaments for free every month. If you would like to help Albata give New Testaments for free or provide them at subsidized prices, there are specific ways to donate for that if you are in the USA, and other ways if you are in other countries. So if you would like to help with New Testament distribution, please write to me using the Contact link at dailybiblereading.info, and tell me where you are located. I will send you the list of different options.
Now a few pieces of news about the Daily Bible Reading Podcast:
The DayStarters series was put on-line to help Hannah, who is home-schooling Ava and Joel. She wanted a seven minute reading to start their school day. This series is just a republishing of the NT portion from the GNT podcast series. It turns out the DayStarters series has been more popular than the full-Bible series using the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. But I have not been intending to expand this series much beyond mid-December, or about half of the NT. So I would be very interested in hearing from you listeners. Should I add some OT readings? Should I publish the whole NT in this way? Note: The issues released this year will continue to be live.
The GN and NL series re-released this year will also continue to be live next year and indefinitely in the future. But next year I won’t re-release them. Using a large number of podcast apps, anyone— beginning on any day, can start that series at episode 001 and continue on through a year. (The best ways to listen are NOT Youtube and Facebook.) Next year I will focus on releasing the NET series. This will be on an occasional basis and I expect it will take me several years to complete the series. If you have listened to the DBRP this year, I recommend you do something else next year. But I invite you to keep coming back to listen to the NET series.
November and December are the best months to promote the DBRP. The main way that the DBRP is promoted is by YOU, each individual listener. Here are some things you could do:
- Very few people have rated the DBRP at iTunes. You will help people to find the DBRP if you go to the link in the episode notes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/daily-bible-reading-podcast/id755647888) and give a rating.
- Please share an episode of the DBRP in social media.
- I will release an invitation podcast for 2018 in December. Please send a link to that episode to your friends with a word of recommendation.
- The Holy Spirit is the One who led you to become a listener this year. So most importantly: Please pray for the Holy Spirit to use the DBRP podcasts in a way that most glorifies Christ in the life of each listener.
Our daughter, Rachel, is back from Tanzania. Our main prayer request for her is that doctors will find better treatments for her symptoms, some of which have changed. At this point, she is not able to travel around in order to discover the needed financial support which God will supply for her future ministry with Pioneer Bible Translators based in Dallas.
Gale’s sister Mary Jo came to visit while I was in Indonesia. They did amazing things together (way beyond Gale’s normal limits, but ya gotta push past the pain sometimes). Then Gale went back home with Mary Jo so that Gale could visit their parents. Then finally, Gale went for a short visit to see her 98 year old aunt near Rochester NY. So when I came home, Gale had only just two days before returned from NY, and she is still recovering from all that she did.
Many thanks for praying for me and Gale, and our family.
Thanks for listening, and may the Lord bless you ‘real good’!
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