Bill & Donna Davis

PLEASE PRAY WITH US
We have been planning to travel to California to be there for the birth of our first grandchild (due Jan 22) and would appreciate prayer about the travel plans

We are thankful how things are coming together for this trip. God has already provided:

a place to stay in San Diego
one (or maybe two) cars to use while we are there
someone to housesit for us in Puerto
some special gifts so that now have nearly all we need for airfare

However, we were waiting to see what we could afford before booking tickets and now most of the dates are fully booked and waitlisted. Please pray with us for wisdom in making the right decisions here as to booking and pray that dates would open up with a confirmed booking that is within our budget or that God would provide, to give us more options.

Besides the potential inconvenience, another issue with waitlisted flights is that they often open up at the last minute and our mission office in Manila needs about a week’s notice to process our immigration exit permits. So please pray about the timing issues, too.

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Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

TRANSLATION UPDATE…

Thanks to the Lord, we were able to finish the comprehension check of the book of Luke with even a little time to spare! God graciously got Bill over his respiratory infection, and our two translation helpers, Nursalyn and Arlyn really put in the effort with hours of mentally taxing work so we could finish after losing two days due to sickness. We even had electricity all week long… praise God.

The book checked out well, too. No major understanding problems found.

Now we can relax a bit and think about Christmas, and joyfully ponder the Christ of Luke who in the space of those 24 chapters went from eternity past, to the manger, to the streets of the poor and needy, to the cross, to the tomb, to the right hand of the Father and the hearts of those who love him.

Looking ahead, please keep us and the Palawanos in your prayers as we partner together Reaching Palawanos in 2010.

WHAT A YEAR!
We praise God for all he’s done this past year. Here is a quick summary as we look back with praise and thanksgiving and look ahead with joyful anticipation…

FAMILY UPDATE…
Most recently, we just enjoyed a brief vacation and were blessed to have family visit us. Bill’s niece Melissa and her boyfriend Chris came over. And our daughter Bethy and her boyfriend Ricky came, too, overlapping with Melissa for one week. They were all here for Bill’s birthday and Thanksgiving. We were glad to be able to meet Ricky at last and really enjoyed the time with all the “kids.”

Max!! And of course, the other big news in our life is that Elisa is due with our first grandchild in January. Maxwell Olson Schlink is due on January 22 and we’re so excited we can hardly wait! We want to be there for his birth and are already checking for good deals on airfare.

OUR MOVE AND TRANSLATION UPDATE…
In January, following God’s unexpected leading, we shifted our base of operations to the city. God opened the way and we moved into a house and were able to get set up here for efficient progress translation project. We were able to buy a vehicle (necessary when in town) and the owners graciously allowed us to pay for it over one year. Praise the Lord, we just made the last payment this month, which will free up our budget quite a bit!

Our Palawano translation helpers are glad to come up on a regular basis and we’ve seen good results working here in town! We finished Ephesians and 1 Peter, and this coming week we will have Luke (2nd longest book in the New Testament) ready for its final consultant check. Meanwhile, we’ve gotten 1-2 Timothy coming along, as well.

MINISTRY UPDATE…
Bill has been able to help with regional leadership responsibilities over our missionaries here on Palawan. This has not taken much of his time and he does it mostly in off hours, after translating all day. Last year, one person was trying to handle all of this, but having Bill and one other man join the leadership team has really helped.Besides working on translation, Donna has been able to help with the work of several committees which give oversight to our mission home and planned our Palawan regional conference, and she is doing some of the mission’s regional bookkeeping.

HEALTH UPDATE…
Bill will need to get procedures done on his kidney stones. They bother him often, but so far no emergency or crisis. Lord willing, we can wait deal with them early next year, so it’s all during one year and we only have to pay the deductible once.

PLEASE PRAY…
As always, we need your prayers for us and this ministry. Please continue to lift us up to the Lord.Pray in particular for our final checking step on the book of Luke next week. We want to find any last portions which are unclear so they can be revised before we send the whole book to the consultant.Please also pray that Bill’s kidney stones would not cause too much discomfort or a health crisis until we are able to deal with them medically.

And we’d appreciate prayer for wisdom in planning and for God’s provision for airfare before Max is born, and for the medical expenses on the horizon.God is so good and this year once again has proven his faithfulness. And we appreciate your part in our lives and ministry, as well, as we partner together Reaching Palawanos.

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Reaching Palawanos together with you,
-Bill and Donna

WORKING ON LUKE…

Yes, we are still working on Luke. But since it’s the third largest book in the New Testament, weighing in a 1,150 verses, it is no quick-and-easy task! But we thank the Lord we are making good progress and moving steadily toward the goal of finishing the book.

We have four Palawano men coming up today for a week of translation work. Bill will be getting the men to help him in reviewing and revising large sections of Luke which he recently drafted. Donna will be working with one of the men doing the recording (“oral drafting”) step of material Bill and the men revised last time. This oral drafting step is very important to getting natural language and flow in the translation.

PLEASE PRAY…

Please pray for health, strength and mental energy, for us and the men. This can be very tiring work and of course we have an enemy who hates to see progress made in translating God’s Word!

We hope to finish some really large sections of the book this week, so pray for steady, as well as fruitful, progress. Specifically, pray that we will find the perfect renderings of various concepts, that the oral drafting will produce long smoothly-spoken sections, and that the themes and “main points” of each passage will come through clearly so God’s message impacts the future readers as He intends it to.

Please continue to pray for those who were affected by the flooding.

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THE WORST FLOODING IN DECADES…

You’ve probably heard of the horrible flooding in Manila last weekend. And by strange coincidence, we were in Manila for shopping and meetings, instead of safe at home on Palawan. So we thought we’d tell you how it was for us…

God was good and protected us and kept us from going out on Saturday as planned. We might have gotten stranded in another part of town, or worse yet, stuck in a taxi halfway home blocked (or surrounded) by rushing water on all sides. We had to cancel several other planned engagements since we and the people we hoped to see were on opposite sides of the deeper water and flooded bridges.

For countless others, however, the flooding was a devastating nightmare. A number of people we know were affected, among them: one friend, our NTM Manila bookkeeper and his family, had 7′ of water downstairs for 48 hours, with their car submerged the whole time, while they huddled upstairs praying; one of our Filipina teachers who guides our new missionaries in their language study was stuck on a second story roof in the rain all night until she could be rescued by kayak; others of our mission’s Filipino office staff also lost everything but their lives. The stories are countless and we only personally know a few. Many families across the city actually did lose loved ones, including many small children who were swept away.

BACK ON PALAWAN…

We were able to return to Palawan on Monday and get back to work on the translation. Progress continues at a steady and encouraging pace. Next week Bill will have 4 men here to work on revising all the newly-drafted chapters he’s been working on. Donna will use Susing, one of the men, to record some chapters in the oral drafting step of the process.

PLEASE PRAY…

Please pray for health, strength and mental energy, as well as wisdom so that the week of work with the Palawano men will be very profitable.

Pray for those who were affected by the flooding and pray also that some other storms forming to the east of the Philippines will not bring heavy rain to Manila causing renewed flooding.

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Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

WORKING WITH TRANSLATION HELPERS…

Starting this week, Donna is spending 6 days of working with Lini, doing the recording of the middle chapters of Luke. This is a very important step in the translation process, and it is mentally draining work for both Donna and Lini, so please pray for concentration and endurance.

Donna is going to try something new this time… she will have Bingbing do some of the reading to Lini, since often it seems that after so many hours of reading, Donna’s voice gives out first, while Lini’s mind still has energy to continue. We’re hoping this strategy of using Bingbing will enable Donna to get more chapters done over the six days.

Lini’s husband Lito is here, too, along with a helper, finishing off the housing for our Translation Helpers. We’re enjoying having their youngest daughter Leah up here too. She’s such a cutie.

MEANWHILE, IN BILL’S OFFICE…

Bill will be continuing to draft the final chapters of Luke.

We’re excited to see this continued progress toward completing this long (but exciting) book!

PLEASE PRAY…

Please continue to pray for us as we push ahead in the translation. This week, pray in particular for Donna and Lini, and pray for Bill as he works to get more freshly drafted material ready to go over with the men.

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Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

Heart Languages

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language!

Author: Bill & Donna Davis

Davis Travel Plans

Checking of Luke …done!

Checking Luke …and more!

Translation Work: Luke

Manila Flooding

Translation Work this week

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