Author: Bill & Donna Davis

Palawano New Testament – COUNTDOWN

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We have a lot of news about the translation progress, so will divide it up over the next few updates…

PRINTING DEADLINE!
In September we met with the publishing department of SIL (i.e. Wycliffe Bible Translators in the US). They will do the digital typesetting of our Palawano New Testament translation and they will be the ones to work with the Philippine Bible Society concerning the printing. “All” we have to do is finish the translation and do the proofreading before printing.
This will be a HUGE help to us. We’re thankful for others in the body of Christ to help us in this way.
But yes, we said deadline… in our meeting with SIL, we set July 2012 as our scheduled target date to turn over the files to them for the typesetting. We think this is doable, but it will require a steady final burst of work between now and July.
The finished New Testament will have two columns, footnotes at the bottom, page-marking ribbons, a glossary of Biblical terms in the back, b/w line drawings and some color illustrations… just like a “real” Bible. (The photos here are of the Kagayanen NT, done by some friends of ours; we are using it as a model for formatting.)


We are currently in the process of deciding how many copies to print initially, and soon we will know the total cost of printing so that everyone can pray and get involved as the Lord leads. This is the grand finale of a big project that’s taken nearly 30 years to bring to completion.
God gets ALL the glory.
We are so excited to be this close to getting God’s Word into the Palawanos hands…
…which involves the later phase of Distribution. More on how that will happen in the next update!
PLEASE PRAY WITH US
  • Energy, health and wisdom
  • Continued pace in translation progress
  • Meeting our July 2012 deadline
  • Development of team to fund NT printing
  • Plans for distribution of NT
Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Good News and Better News

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Good News: Successful Translation Week

The week with our translation helpers went very well. Way beyond our expectations. We were able to finish ALL the material we had ready (nearly 800 verses of first draft, two steps covering the whole book of Mark, and much more!) The books of Romans, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and 1 John are ready to proofread a few times and then we can distribute some copies.

Ruben, the new kid on our translation helper block, fit right it, was comfortable working with us and the other guys, and he contributed a lot of good insight.

Best of all, we learned that our key terms are well-understood in his area’s dialect, so no changes need to be made to made the translation usable and accepted there!
Better News: Talking About Printing
We head to Manila tomorrow for some leadership meetings and while we are there, we will have an exciting, first-ever experience, something we’ve been looking forward to for the nearly 28 years we’ve been translating…
We will start making arrangements for the printing of our New Testament!
A translator cannot wait until the last minute to start this process, so tomorrow we will be meeting with someone from SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) to talk about what needs to be done for us to turn our translation over to them for digital typesetting next year. That has to happen before the book goes to the printers.
So tomorrow we will start to learn what reformatting we have to do, who we need to be corresponding with, what the time table might be, how to go about selecting pictures for the New Testament, and a lot of other important information. We will also get an idea of some of our printing options and what the actual cost of printing will be.
So it’s not the last minute, but maybe it’s the next to the last minute for us!

We’re excited. God’s Word is that much closer to being in the Palawanos’ hands.
Thank you for your part in this.

Pray with us

  • Praise for great week with the men
  • Prayer for our meeting tomorrow
  • For clear direction as to printing process
  • Favorable (read: expedited!) schedule

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Davis Update August 30

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HEY, JUDE!

This week we have 4 Palawano men here to help us work on the translation. Bill just finished going over the first drafts of Mark 11-16 and the whole book of Jude (all 25 verses) today. Yet to go… 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation. The men will also help him clean up the last details from Romans and the other books we had consultant checked in July so they will be ready to print.

Donna will be doing recording of about six chapters; another step in the process.

We’re excited to have Ruben Rensawi with us this time. He has not worked with Bill on translation yet. Ruben is from another area (a valley about 4 hours’ hike from our village down south.) He is a church leader in his area and the son of a Palawano that our former coworkers spent a lot of time discipling. So the fruit is in the second generation.

We know that Ruben might give good input, as he is a strong believer with keen insight into the Word of God. He can give insight into how the translation would communicate in his area, as there are slight differences in the dialect. We want the New Testament to communicate and “sound good” to the widest possible audience. We also want him to feel ownership of the translation so he will use it and help to promote distribution when the time comes. He seems to be fitting right in with Bill and the other men and isn’t shy to contribute.

We’ve already learned of a couple word substitutions that would help in his area. And we’re particularly thrilled that a number of the key theological terms we are using communicate well to him!

SO PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

  • energy and wisdom
  • good progress in translation this week
  • no electrical power outages while the men are here



Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Translation with no Sting

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Translation Update
We’re thankful that Donna and Susing finished the recording of Mark 1-10. We didn’t expect them to get it all done, but they did! Now those chapters are ready for the next step.


Wasps!
We recently discovered a huge nest of red and black wasps way up in a tree in our yard. This aggressive species of wasps can kill a person (or even a water buffalo!) if the swarm attacks. A couple of Filipino men with experience in getting rid of these pests at church camps came and took care of the problem! No one was hurt (well, except the wasps, sorry– the credits cannot say “No wasps were harmed in the filming of this movie.”)

What’s Next?
Now Bill will continue to draft Revelation while he processes those recordings of Mark and gets ready for the upcoming consultant check of five other books in just a few weeks.

Pray With Us
Thanks for elimination of the wasp problem safely
Prayer for clear thinking and progress in translation


Reaching Palawanos with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Davis Update June 19

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BLESSING GALORE

Our heads are spinning: a new granddaughter, time with our grandson and kids, then straight to Singapore for two missions conferences, and now back to Palawan to dive into translation. And so many celebrations…

God blessed us by allowing us to be there for Myri’s birth. We had lots of special times with our daughters and the rest of the family, while getting to see friends and supporters and update them on our ministry.
Then, in Singapore we were absolutely overwhelmed with what God is doing there. God is stirring his church in that city to send out many missionary laborers into the Asian harvest fields in the days ahead. While there, we were also able to see three Singaporeans who had visited us on Palawan in 1987 on a short-term missions trip. We hadn’t seen any of them in 24 years!
We returned to Manila on May 31, exactly thirty years to the day since our first arrival there in 1981, when we were in our twenties with toddler Elisa in tow. As we look back on thirty years of ministry in the Philippines (and elsewhere), we can only say, “God is good.”
Now today, we celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary today. And it’s Father’s Day, as well. We are again thankful for God’s blessings on our lives as we enjoy our life together and the privilege of serving him.
TRANSLATION UPDATE
We’re digging into translation as we have a consultant check coming up in July, which will cover five books: Romans, Galatians, 1-2 Timothy and 1 John. Meanwhile, this coming week Donna will be working with Palawano helper Susing, having him record the book of Mark, while Bill continues to draft Revelation, as we push toward completion of the Palawano New Testament…
PRAY WITH US

  1. praise that the cholera epidemic is over
  2. thanks for 35 years of marriage
  3. good progress recording the book of Mark
  4. no electricity outages during Donna’s recording
  5. Bill as he works on Revelation

Reaching Palawanos with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Checking Romans

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“So, Arnel, what does it mean when Pablo says that we ‘died with Christ’ on the cross?”

Bill is back on Palawan working with Arnel (photo) and Joseph to finish checking how well Romans is understood. Paragraph by paragraph, phrase by phrase, we check comprehension of the passage. This the final step in our translation procedure.

When this checking is done, we will email Romans, Galatians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and 1 John to the translation consultant so she can prepare for the final check in July.

PRAY WITH US
We need stamina and sharpness of mind. We need wisdom. We want the book to check out well. Yesterday the electricity went off for an hour. Please pray this doesn’t happen as each lost hour really slows down the check.

Donna is still in California, enjoying a bit more time with the family and taking care of some matters there. We will meet in Manila next weekend.

Reaching Palawanos with you,

-Bill and Donna

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