Ministry Updates

God Works Long Distance

Posted by

Africa (w/out the Trip)

If you’ve been following our recent saga, you know we weren’t able to actually go to Africa as planned. So we can’t call this an Africa Ministry Trip. But Bill was still able to do the ministry part.

He pre-recorded his main introductory two-hour session last Sunday, once his cough was a little better. That way the Africa workshop attendees could watch it first thing Monday morning their time. (To do it live over the internet, Bill would have been teaching it at 1 a.m. San Diego time!)

Throughout the rest of the week, Bill was able to teach several sessions live (see picture below), and to answer their questions which he was getting by email. One of Bill’s teammates covered for him and did another session since Bill’s voice was still tentative all week.

Bill teaching via the Internet

A total of 58 missionaries attended the workshop. These included both Africans and foreigners. Most are on teams working to reach Unreached People Groups, and some of them are also consultants (or “coaches”), who are experienced missionaries who help others learn language and culture in order to succeed in their ministries. Bill and his team were teaching some helpful ways to learn culture and worldview to an even deeper level.

We’re not sure why God chose to change our plans at the last minute. It would have been so nice to be there in person interacting with everyone all throughout the week. But we’re grateful for technology, and the fact that Bill was still able to teach those sessions from a distance. We received some gracious and encouraging positive feedback about the workshop.

And we are so thankful for you and your prayers! Bill’s sickness lingered on, but was never very severe except for fever the ninth and final day.

Please Continue to Pray

Please pray for Bill and his team and they finish the development of the CLA (Culture & Language Acquisition) training materials and the mobile app to go with them and prepare for the global launch of these tools.

Lord willing, there will be more trips to Africa–and elsewhere–throughout the coming year as part of that launch, to get these tools into the hands of missionaries and those who train and coach them.

Pray, too, as they prepare and record training videos using these materials to train missionaries around the globe to communicate the Gospel clearly and effectively.

Need a quick update of what we’ve been up to? Click here to get up-to-date.

If you’re interested in partnering with us in this ministry, click here for more information.

—–

Africa map photo by James Wiseman on Unsplash, text added

Update on Cancelled Africa Trip

Posted by

Praise God our COVID tests returned as negative!

Bill continues to have chest-cold type symptoms. Please pray that he will get well quickly and that this will not develop into anything more severe. We’ll keep you posted.

Bill has been communicating with the hosts of the Africa workshop. He will do three sessions live over the internet by video conference, and the schedule was changed to allow for this in light of the 7-hour time zone difference. But he will prerecord his main presentation so that the workshop attendees can watch it on Monday morning Africa time.

Keep praying! We appreciate you all.

-Bill and Donna

When God Has Different Plans

Posted by

Thanks to all who prayed. We believe God heard your prayers and answered in an unexpected way.

Sick!

We were packed and ready. Our Uber to the airport was booked for 3:30 a.m.

But Bill had a cough and other chest cold symptoms all through the night. It was worse in the morning.

Then it was 3 a.m. and down to the wire.

We realized that not only would no one want to sit next to “that guy with the cough and sniffles,” but the airlines would never let us on board unless we lied. We could not truthfully say, “Nope, no COVID symptoms for the last few days.”

Changes

So we cancelled the Uber.

We cancelled the airline tickets, and wrote some quick emails to Africa.

It was so hard to push those buttons and cancel! There would be no going back after that. No way to change our minds. But it was the right thing to do, even if we didn’t understand God’s will. So we prayed and clicked those two icons.

“…you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.”

Ecc 11:5b NLT

We’re thankful that so far, Bill isn’t critically ill, although he fells pretty yucky and the flight-cancelling symptoms remain. He slept all day. We’ve booked tests for tomorrow to determine if he has COVID or just a cold. We’ll keep you posted.

Keep on Praying

So please continue to pray. Pray for a quick return to health. Pray for us as this is disappointing, and we hate to let people down. Pray for wisdom for the workshop organizers in Africa as to how to adjust to Bill’s last-minute cancellation.

Thanks for standing with us.

Good to be Negative

Posted by

Here’s a very quick update (you’ll see why it’s quick in a minute.)

We’re taking off on a ministry trip to AFRICA tomorrow! This is the first international trip we’ve taken since mid-2019 (Thanks to COVID). It’s Donna’s first trip AT ALL in about 2 years, and her first trip to Africa!

We’re thankful to the Lord for this ministry opportunity and for his provision of our tickets, a house (and cat) sitter, and so much more.

By the way, “negative” here refers to the negative COVID test results which the airlines required.

We’re EXCITED

Bill will be presenting to a group of about 50 African and expat missionary language and culture consultants. Bill will be updating them on some of the content of the CLA (Culture & Language Learning) program his team has been working on, and they will discuss with him how to best “Africanize” it. They want to continue to better help all their missionaries to learn culture and thereby to be effective communicators of the Gospel.

We’re TIRED

Packing and preparing for travel can be exhausting, but hey… we’re good at it! But this time it’s different. The hardest part is actually meeting all the COVID travel requirements for two airlines and three countries! We can’t believe the number of forms to fill out, copy, scan, upload (and sometimes re-upload, and re-re-upload) this trip involves. It’s taken HOURS. But we’re done and packing (the easy part)! We’ll be MORE tired when we get there (jet lag after 25 hours of travel), while teaching with jet lag, and then with a quick turn-around, a long trip and jet lag when we get home! (did I mention jet lag…?)

Please PRAY

We’ll update you when we get back! In the meantime, please pray for:

  • health during and after the trip
  • safe travel and smooth connections
  • clear-headedness (minimal jet lag)
  • a successful and fruitful workshop

Thank you for partnering with us in reaching the unreached.

A Time to Heal

Posted by

Donna Broke Her Wrist!

This is a quick update so you can be praying. The title of this blog comes from Ecclesiastes 3:3, which came up in Bill’s morning reading schedule the day after Donna’s accident, reminding us that God is in control, and that he does provide healing.

Last Thursday, we were looking up into our backyard elm tree. She backed up to get a better view, and tripped over the end of a low broken brick planter, fell backwards onto the concrete of the patio, and broke her left wrist. We’re very thankful that she didn’t hit her head or fracture her hip or her pelvis, etc. It’s also good that it was her left wrist.

So instead of a quick trip to Costco together, this meant over 8 hours alone in the ER for Donna. Bill could not accompany her because of COVID-19 protocols. The doctors got the bone set, rechecked the alignment with a CT scan, and Bill was able to pick her up and take her home.

This morning we saw the orthopedic surgeon. The break would heal without surgery, but the surgery will give a better result–more range of movement and less arthritic pain, plus less time in a cast.

Our surgeon is the orthopedist for the San Diego Padres, the Seals (our local hockey team), and the San Diego Ballet Company. So he knows his stuff. We’re thankful for that.

We appreciate your prayers for Donna during the surgery, and for her healing and recovery afterwards.

For those who want a little more detail, we’d like to share this excerpt from Donna’s CT scan results, as they express it so much clearer than we ever could:

There is a comminuted intra-articular fracture of the distal radius with transverse and longitudinal components with extension into the radiolunate, radioscaphoid, and distal radioulnar articulations. There is trace residual dorsal angulation and displacement. The fracture additionally extends through Lister’s tubercle. There is a mild to moderate radiocarpal joint effusion with 2 tiny bony fragments adjacent to the dorsal scaphoid that could reflect articular bodies from the radial fracture with small ligamentous avulsion in the differential.

As a translator, Bill could not resist putting that quote in, since it’s supposedly in English!

Updates on Donna’s surgery and some exciting ministry updates coming soon. Stay tuned.

image creator | stockdevil | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto | ©: stockdevil

Talk is not Cheap

Posted by

Talking is Important.

Missionaries need to talk… fluently! They have an important message to communicate. And it takes years of hard work to gain that fluency.

That’s why Bill and his team are developing the updated Engage culture/language acquisition (CLA) how-to materials, and the Stages CLA app. We want to make the task easier by providing tools for missionary language learners and those who help them.

COVID Hasn’t Stopped the Talking

Recently Bill attended an online conference for those from many mission agencies who train or coach missionaries in the area of language and culture acquisition. ICLL (the International Congress on Language Learning) is usually held face-to-face. But COVID-19 didn’t prevent everyone from coming together virtually to learn from one another!

Over 280 people attended the conference. The attendees from our mission alone represented 8 different nationalities, and they minister in 22 countries. Many of them are training missionaries to reach even more countries where Unreached People Groups are waiting to hear the Gospel.

In a virtual break-out discussion room, Bill was also able to tell several other mission agencies about Engage and Stages, and there was a tremendous amount of interest.

Bill has been Talking (a lot)

In the weeks since ICLL, Bill has interacted with so many people as part of his consultant ministry.

We’d like to tell you about some of those conversations.

Bill has been communicating…

…with a German ministering in South America who helps missionary language learners.

…with an Australian who wants to keep her mission informed about the upcoming release of Engage and Stages.

…with a Brazilian who asked Bill for help and resources so his team can train their Brazilian missionaries to use Engage and Stages to reach the unreached tribes of Brazil.

…with our friends in South Asia, talking about how to help them use the Stages app as they train local workers to reach the unreached there.

…with the American computer programmers who are adding exciting new features to Stages even as you read this update.

…with some Americans in Papua New Guinea who are testing out an early release of the Stages app in order to give our team vital feedback.

…with a South African who is overseeing the training of African missionaries who come from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. He wants to be kept updated and to have Bill’s team provide help so those African missionaries can use Engage and Stages to reach the unreached peoples in Africa.

…with a Canadian in Ontario, and some Americans in Missouri. We’re planning to provide a week of training for them as they prepare to launch teaching Engage and Stages in their respective missionary training programs next semester.

This coming week, Bill will host two online video conferences to debrief our 40+ ICLL attendees to discuss how to apply what they learned in the online sessions.

We’re excited to have a part in providing help and tools for missionaries, for those who train them, and for the language coaches who enable them to succeed.

Jesus Told Us to Talk

All this is to enable more missionaries to…

…talk. To communicate clearly.

To “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”

Talk isn’t cheap. It can mean a lot of hard work. But when the Gospel is what you want to talk about, it’s worth every effort.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Heart-Languages-Slogan-heart.png