Ministry Updates

Spices and Thankfulness

Posted by
family-pumpkin-photo

Some Reasons We Are Thankful

Thankful for Pumpkin Spice

It is the season for pumpkin spice you-name-its (and we’re thankful for those!); but we are also closing in on the season for giving thanks in a special way. Since we will be traveling in Asia over Thanksgiving, here is our list…

Thankful for Ministry

We are so grateful for the privilege we have in being part of training students at Radius to go out and reach Unreached Peoples “in all the hard places.” We just finished up two weeks of Bill teaching 17 eager missionary trainees about how to communicate effectively in languages which are very different than English. We love investing in their lives and future ministries.

Thankful for our Family

We love our kids and grandkiddos, and are so thankful to be close to them (when we’re not gallivanting around the world). We staged our own home pumpkin patch for a family photo shoot, welcoming our newest little pumpkin Elias to join with big cousins Max and Myri. This may just become an annual event!

Thankful for Ministry… with Spices!

We leave tomorrow for Thailand and then on to South Asia. It’s a nearly 6-week ministry trip. Bill will be leading a weeklong workshop, training missionary language coaches, and helping missionaries learn some hard languages in needy places. And we will be thankful for the amazingly tasty spices of the cuisine in that part of the world.

Thankful for God Answering Prayer

We are only 34 days into our 100 Days of Prayer, and God has done some amazing things. We’re at least 1/3 of the way to our Level 1 goal for monthly support. We are humbled and encouraged, and feeling very blessed by many generous one-time gifts and several who have joined our ministry team as new financial partners. Several have become advocates, recommending us to pastors they know. We’re grateful for the Lord and for his people.

Keep praying! God is able to get us to our first goal and beyond!

Pray for safe travel and smooth connections–specifically no problems with our tickets or other bookings.

And please pray for Bill especially in the next 5+ weeks, that he will be a blessing and encouragement to those he ministers to.

May this be a season of thanksgiving for you, as well. We serve a great God who richly blesses his children.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

** No pumpkins were harmed in the making of this photo (although Elias did try to chew on a few)

 

Reaching the Unreached Next Door

Posted by

Punjabi Sikhs

 

sikh_man_agra_09

America (and California in particular) is home to many Punjabi immigrants who are members of the Sikh religion. Sikhs are not Hindus, and are often mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans and beards. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion which was founded in the 15th century in the Punjab region of India, and it is currently the 5th largest religion in the world, numbering around 30 million followers–more than all the Jews, Baha’is and Confucianists combined!

You have probably seen Punjabi people in your communities. If you are so fortunate, you have tasted their food (spicy and yummy!)

They live next door to us… yet as a people group, they remained unreached (~1% Christian).

Building Bridges

As we mentioned in a previous update, two churches in California have committed to reaching the huge Punjabi community in their city. The first step in reaching those nearly 40,000 Punjabi Sikhs is to build genuine relationships, to learn their language, and to understand them at a deep, heart-and-worldview level. The goal is to develop real, long-term relationships; not just “being-friendly-so-I-can-preach-at-you” relationships.

Punjabi woman

Baby Steps

Bill just returned from a follow-up trip to Central California where he and another consultant met with one of those churches to help them identify the most strategic neighborhoods and strategies, and to determine which of the many dialects of Punjabi would be the most effective for sharing about Christ.

Join the Team Through Prayer

Would you pray for the Punjabis to come to Christ? Pray also for those who face the challenge of learning the Punjabi language and building cross-cultural relationships.

And pray for Bill as he coaches them in their language learning.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

Photos from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Unported license: Yann (Punjabi man, 3.0 Unported license) and Raminder pal Singh (Punjabi woman, 2.0 Generic license.)

What Are We Doing Lately? Lots…

Posted by

THE  PALAWANOS  NEED  MORE  TEACHING…

   …WE’RE  HELPING  WITH  THAT

WE’RE STILL INVOLVED WITH THE PALAWANOS

  • Ongoing ministry after 33 years of ministering to the Palawanos and translating the New Testament for them
  • Recently put the Southwestern Palawano New Testament (written and audio) into an Android app
  • Annual trips to Palawan for Bible teaching seminars to supplement our partners’ teaching
  • Working with our missionaries who are mentoring the youth: Bible study materials and online discipling
  • Helping missionaries learn Central Palawano and put our New Testament into that related language

 

 THE  WORLD  NEEDS  MORE  MISSIONARIES…

   …WE’RE  TRAINING  THEM

WE’RE TRAINING A RADICAL NEW GENERATION OF MISSIONARIES

  • Teaching language learning and Bible translation at Radius across the border – come along sometime!
  • These are young people who want to go to all the hard places to reach the Unreached
  • Serving as a language learning consultant for them as they get out on the field

 

MISSIONARIES  NEED  LANGUAGE  FLUENCY…

   …WE’RE  HELPING  THEM

WE’RE HELPING MISSIONARY LANGUAGE LEARNERS—AND THOSE WHO HELP THEM

  • Developing the DIY language learning materials all our missionaries around the world will use to be able to communicate the Gospel clearly and to disciple the Unreached
  • Teaching and leading language coach workshops in the USA, Thailand, Latin America, and more to come…
  • Doing online language coaching via Skype

 

NON-WESTERN  MISSIONARIES  NEED  TRAINING,  TOO…

   …WE’RE  PROVIDING  CULTURE-SPECIFIC  TRAINING

WE’RE WORKING TO DEVELOP THE TRAINING FOR NON-WESTERN MISSIONARIES WORLDWIDE

  • SE Asians including Filipinos, Chinese and Indians, etc., want to reach the Unreached
  • Two recent trips to Asia Pacific to help local believers reaching other tribes
  • An upcoming trip to South Asia to help our missionaries to begin training local Christians as missionaries

 

THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA  IS  REACHING  THE  UNREACHED…

   …WE’RE  TRAINING  THEM

WE’RE HELPING CHURCHES REACH UNREACHED PEOPLES… RIGHT IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

  • Training language learners so an immigrant Unreached People Group can be reached in their heart language

 

WE  NEED  HELP  TO  KEEP  GOING…

   …OUR  PARTNERSHIP  TEAM  IS  STANDING  WITH  US

WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

  • One upcoming ministry event is our November trip to Thailand and South Asia to train missionary language learners and consultants
  • International and in-country tickets needed for Donna (Bill’s tickets already covered)
  • Conference expenses already provided—praise the Lord with us!

Full Circle

Posted by

Another Palawano Translation?

Yes. Did you know there are THREE Palawano people groups on Palawan? Three related-but-distinct Palawano languages? It’s true. For security reasons, let’s call them Palawano 1, Palawano 2, and Palawano 3.

We did the translation for Palawano 1. Some friends with Wycliffe Bible Translators did a translation for Palawano 2. But Palawano 3 needs a New Testament translation. Actually, they have one–it’s 50 years old and no one can understand it, which is sad.

Another Palawano Translation!

Yes! We’re not going to do this translation. But we’ll be helping those who will.

Some missionaries have moved in among that third Palawano group. Graeme and Rachel are learning the language, and they plan to organize a translation team of native speakers and missionaries. The plan is to adapt our Palawano 1 translation into Palawano 3, and then check it and revise it so that it communicates really well.

We’re excited about this for two reasons: First and foremost, those Palawanos will finally have God’s Word in an understandable form. But secondly, we’re very happy to see all the effort that went into our translation have a wider impact.

Helping Translators Learn Language

In a recent post Then and Now, we talked about how our ministry has shifted to an international focus, and we explained how we are no longer involved full-time with the Palawano work. But we know we’ll never be 100% done with the Palawanos. Lord willing, we plan to return from time to time to do teaching from our translation as we did last February. In the past year we put the New Testament into a mobile phone app, and we are developing Bible teaching materials for the youth.

But… we’re “all about language learning” now, right?

True. And now our new ministry of helping missionaries with language learning has circled right back to Palawan. Bill is helping Graeme and Rachel as they study that Palawano 3. “Our” Palawano 1 is similar enough that Bill can explain things to them about the grammar and vocabulary, and it is helpful. Bill is pretty familiar with Palawano 3, as well. And this is Graeme and Rachel’s third Philippine language, so they are making fast progress.

Once translation begins, the plan is that Bill will help as a translation consultant.

Pray with us that language learning would progress well, and that the new translation team will be able to start soon. Pray for Bill as he helps Graeme and Rachel with the Palawano 3 language.

And for all who had a part in seeing our translation completed for Palawano 1, rejoice with us about the added fruit of seeing God’s Word more easily put into another Palawano language.

God’s Word is life. It’s eternal. Nothing matters more than getting his Word into people’s Heart Languages.

Partnering together, we can get this done for his Glory!

 

 

Image credit: Palawan mother and child. Photo by Norm Rice, former missionary to the Palawanos.

A 40-Year Adventure Continues

Posted by

Wedding Invitation crop moreThis isn’t a ministry update… then again, it is. Read on…

 

Bill writes: About 41 years ago, this kid (me) asked his best friend, who also happened to be the most beautiful girl he’d ever met (Donna), to marry him and she said yes. A year later we got married and started the most amazing adventure together: 40 years and counting.

40 years. We can hardly believe it, yet looking back we see the evidence that we’ve done four decades worth of living…

Two beautiful daughters, a couple of awesome sons-in-law, and the world’s cutest grandchildren.

A life full of memories and joy.

And the Word of God in the Palawano language.

We started out with two things we were not going to let go of: God, and each other. And while it’s not always been easy or even fun (life never is), it has been awesome, and worth it all. And mostly fun! We called everything we went through “adventures.” And like hobbits, we knew that adventures can sometimes be uncomfortable–and sometimes they were. They might even make us late for dinner–and they often did. But they were also delightful.

The photo is our wedding invitation photo taken in San Clemente Canyon January 2, 1976. And even that was an adventure. I was home on an all-too-short Christmas break, we were planning a wedding, and we each had one parent in the hospital. We were late for dinner a few times.

40 years. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I can’t, of course, but I will sign up for another 40.

I thank God every day for this beautiful woman and the life God has given us… now, looking back… and looking ahead. I am blessed.

Happy Anniversary, Donna! It’s been a wonderful life and there’s much more to come.

bill signature

Missionary Language Nerds, Unite!

Posted by
Plow

Why did it take snow plows to get a bunch of missionaries who mostly serve in the tropics all together for a conference? Read on…

Help!

Missionaries who desire to reach an Unreached People Group face a daunting task. Not only must they live in an unfamiliar context and endure an extreme (read: hot!) climate, they must learn an unknown language and culture on their own.

They need help.

Who You Gonna Call?

That’s where guys like Bill come in. We jokingly call them “Missionary Language Nerds.” They are actually a bit strange—they really love languages and language learning (note: many people don’t!) They are the language learning consultants and coaches who help missionaries to succeed.

And this is how God has designed the church. We are a body, each with different gifts. We complement and help one another.

But guess what—even the helpers need help! It’s a huge challenge to help missionaries to learn unknown languages. Each missionary is different; each language is different; and of course, the consultant often does not know the languages the missionaries are trying to learn.

So the helpers need to help each other.

ICLL… Just What The Doctor Ordered

In April, we were able to attend the ICLL (International Congress on Language Learning) in Colorado. Bill was in heaven… not only because we were in the Rocky Mountains in the springtime, but because he got to spend a week with 84 other missionary language nerds who are on the same page as him, who think like he does, who are facing the same challenges.

2016-4-16 RMNP16-Bear Lake

Answer: ICLL was held high the Rockies this time. Pretty, but brrrrr…

Since 2001, we’ve been able to attend ICLL 5 times (it is held every three years.) Networking at these congresses is always encouraging and helpful, and Bill was on the planning committee for over 14 years. The language consultants converge, learn from each other, and are able to borrow ideas and solutions that have worked for others.

Bill presented two talks at the ICLL: How to Help Mixed-Culture Teams, and How to Help Non-Western Language Learners. Both of these were well-received and generated lots of helpful discussion. He learned from other presenters’ sessions dealing with aptitude, coaching methods, and more.

14 attendees at ICLL were from New Tribes Mission, so Bill took the opportunity to get them together a few times to get their input on the international language learning training materials he is developing.

And while we were there, Bill was able to get a committee together to plan the 5th ACLL (Asian Congress on Language Learning) where we will gather language nerds from all over Asia to network and help each other.

Missionary Language Nerds. We help missionaries communicate Christ clearly.

…and we help each other.

And you help us too, through your prayers and partnering with our ministry.