We praise God for a really successful conference April 25-27. The
church here studied Acts 1-6, hearing it in Palawano for the first
time ever! Six different men taught, some teaching for the first time
in front of the group. The older kids and teens were assigned to read
the passages to the congregation before the men taught, and they did
great! Kids, teens and some adults went crazy with the memory verses
Bill assigned! It was such a blessing to see everyone encouraged and
challenged by the boldness of the Spirit-filled apostles as they
preached of the resurrection they had personally witnessed!

Ruben, a Palawano teacher and church leader from the Megkalip area
north of us (Jim Wilson discipled Ruben's dad Taya in the 80's) came
for the first two days of the conference and gave a great message on
faith.

The weekend was topped off with a baptism, only two individuals, but
both special to us. Bingbing, one of Donna's faithful workers, was
baptized, giving a clear testimony of her strong faith. And Ula, a
young adult paraplegic, was also baptized. She's the reason our tribal
church has “handicap access,” something you might not expect! And her
sweet spirit is always so uplifting (she also memorized the most
number of verses, by the way.) Her wheelchair was carried down the
trail and placed in a few feet of water (her first time to ever be in
the river, she said), and the men baptized her.

This past week we finished the revision and rechecking of Acts 7-28.
Now we can do some editing and print books for the church!

Continue to pray for some issues within the church here. A couple of
individuals are nursing hurt feelings and it's hurting themselves and
affecting others, too. Basically the church is split down the line
between two family groups who are on the opposites of a struggling
marriage. Bill has counseled the couple, and various family members.
God seems to be working, but the enemy is looking for more chances to
destroy unity.

It’s 90 degrees in the house today. Could it be that dry season has finally arrived? Although the heat saps us, we pray that there will be a time of heat and the dry winds necessary for the Palawanos to burn this year’s fields. So far it’s been raining often and even on sunny days there just isn’t the blazing intensity and wind needed.

We are home in the tribe, and settled in again to our work here. Bill
is “cleaning up his Acts.” That is, all the issues that showed up
during the consultant check on the book of Acts need to be gone over
and re-worked. Some things he can do himself, and other items need
input and help from his translation committee of Palawano believers.
Then each change needs to be re-checked for comprehension, twice, with
two different individuals who haven't been involved in the process so
far. Bill is using Arnel, a young Christian man, and Nursalin, a young
mother. Arnel comes Fridays, Nursalin comes Wednesdays, and the
translation committee comes Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Bill has also drafted Ephesians, and is working through that at the
same time. The translation committee gives input into the draft. For
the next step, Donna takes what they have worked over, and reads it to
Rini, who then puts the meaning into her own words, which Donna
records. Bill then listens to those recordings to see what he can
glean in terms of more natural ways of expressing the meaning. Soon
we'll begin exegetical checking and testing for comprehension on this
book, as well.

And so the days go. Please pray for all these people involved in
helping us with this job. We depend on them! And for us, for daily
strength and wisdom.

We mentioned in previous updates that Bill might need a surgery for
his parathyroid gland. Further lab tests have ruled out the need for
that surgery. We are thankful for that news. Thanks for praying for us.

Right now our hearts are burdened for many needs among the people
here. Over the years, a number of key believers have been side-lined
from functioning in the church. There are many causes: quarrels among
themselves, distractions from the world, jealousy. We are praying that
the Holy Spirit would do a strong work among the Palawano believers
and bring them back into a vital relationship with Christ. We are
missing key members of the body here, and it isn't functioning as well
as it could. Would you please join us in praying for a revival among
the Palawanos? We would especially request prayer for Tirso and
Susing. Both men have great gifts God has used in the church here in
the past, but today neither one is plugged into the body. Tirso is
also a clan leader for an area called “Rora.” We would love to see
Rora come alive spiritually again.

Thank you for your part in Reaching Palawanos!

-Donna and Bill

Health and Ministry Updates…

In February, we had a THIRD blasting procedure done on Bill's kidney
stones. But once again there was no apparent result. Please pray that
the stones will either pass on their own (and without too much pain or
requiring an emergency flight out of the tribe) or that they will
simply “stay put” and let us get on with life! We've had about enough
of doctor appointments, procedures and all the delays involved with
that!

Also, the tests to determine the cause of the stones produced mixed
results and the doctors' final conclusion is that it is NOT related to
overactive parathyroid, so there is no surgery on the horizon.

Right now we are back in the tribe, translating Ephesians and Luke and
finalizing the book of Acts (fixing all the problems discovered during
the consultant check). We plan to have the Palawanos study Acts 1-6
during their upcoming annual conference the end of April. We trust
that the content of those challenging and exciting chapters will be a
blessing to them as they hear it in their own language for the first
time! On Sundays lately, Bill is teaching through Nehemiah and he
plans to resume his Saturday morning Bible Study soon, focusing on
training the Palawano Bible teachers.

There is a lot of sickness among the Palawanos lately. A very painful
stomach flu and a long-lasting chest flu have hit many of the small
children and babies and everyone is of course very concerned. We are
helping the clinic workers to deal with the complicated cases,
including some where pneumonia has set it. And there is always
malaria, which is very opportunistic and often strikes the children
when they are run down from other illnesses.

Meanwhile, it's been a very rainy beginning to “dry” season.
Personally, we are enjoying the more pleasant weather, but it is a
problem for the Palawanos as they are afraid they will not be able to
burn their new fields. Inadequate burning means lots of weeds, which
means a poor harvest and therefore a longer “hungry season” next year.
So pray with us that the Lord provides the weather needed to produce
food for the community.

And pray, too, that the Word of God will continue to bear a fruitful
harvest in the hearts of the Palawanos, and for us as we translate
more books in the coming months.

Yours for Reaching Palawanos,

-Bill and Donna

A follow-up with Bill's doctor revealed that the kidney stone which
was treated with shock wave blasts was not fully fragmented as it is a
very hard type of mineral.

So he will be having a second ESWL (blasting) procedure done on Jan
15. After that we can decide together with the doctor when we can
return to Palawan

Meanwhile, Bill is working on drafting Luke and other projects, and
Donna is continuing her work on Palawano language and other projects,
including a number of counseling interactions, while we are unable to
return home to the tribe.

Yours for Reaching Palawanos,

-Bill and Donna

While out in town we discovered that Bill had a stone in each kidney!
Praise God we learned this while we were in a place where we could
get medical attention. Our pilot is sick right now and unable to fly
so if the stone had caused an obstruction and we were in the tribe,
it would have been a real difficult emergency.

The stone on the right side was larger, so a procedure was done Dec 5
to break it into bits. That seems to have gone well.

Pending the full recovery from that, we will plan a second procedure
for the stone on the left side in the next month or so.

Meanwhile, Bill is working on drafting Luke, and Donna is continuing
her work on Palawano language and other projects while we are unable
to return home to the tribe.

Yours for Reaching Palawanos,

-Bill and Donna