Ministry Updates

Step by Step

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Hanuman

Huge statue of the monkey god Hanuman in the square outside our hotel

Baby Steps

In November and December we took our first trip to South Asia, the region with the most Unreached Peoples Groups in the world. Thousands of unreached groups call this part of the world home. We were blown away by the vastness, the tremendous need for committed Gospel ministers, the poverty, the oppressive idolatrous false religion, the powerful anti-Christian sentiment of the government, and how much we have to learn to be the most effective in helping missionaries in this part of the world.

We were blessed and encouraged by the believers in some of the already-reached People Groups and their gracious hospitality, their love for the Lord Jesus, and their passion to reach the Unreached in their corner of the world! We also enjoyed some pretty amazing food and all the colorful beauty in the South Asian culture.

We helped four couples with their language learning (one South Asian couple and some expats) and Bill was training two consultants to coach language learners in the same way (one South Asian consultant and an expat.)

We were also able to reconnect with Singaporeans friends as we passed through their airport. Most of them were on a team that came to our tribe on Palawan in 1987. We hadn’t seen some of them in 30 years! The other friend we had met at missions camps in 2010.

Spices

Our South Asian host was ready to make every meal taste amazing.

Big Steps

While in South Asia, we were excited to be able to meet up with nine graduates of Radius International. We were part of their prefield training, when Bill taught them about how languages, language learning, and translation principles. Now they are in place, thriving in a very challenging context, and doing very well in language learning as they prepare for their future ministries. These Americans have left much behind and stepped out to do big things in the power of the Spirit to share about the Savior they love so much.

Painful Steps

While in Asia, we had to climb a many flights of stairs. Lots of them. Every day for 4 weeks. This took its cumulative toll and Bill got home in mid-December to find himself in tremendous pain and sometimes unable to even walk. The holidays made it difficult to schedule an appointment to see his doctor, so we went to urgent care first. Now, many weeks, 3 more doctor visits, a few x-rays and an MRI later, we know that his body took a beating and he has inflamed joints in his pelvis, swollen bone marrow, and a partially detached muscle (hence the pain, as you can imagine!) The pain clinic prescribed steroid injections. He just had the first injection on Feb 17th, and the next is set for March 3rd. If those reduce the pain as hoped, he will start physical therapy. Your prayers for a fast recovery are really appreciated!

Next Steps

In Asia, we were within sight of the highest mountains in the world, and in one location, we could see the hills of FOUR closed countries, each with many unreached People Groups. But to these unreached tribes, political borders mean very little, so they cross over from their closed countries to places where believers are waiting to engage them. The most exciting thing is how local South Asian believers want to reach those groups on their side of the border and these South Asians are asking for training in language learning and effective cross-cultural ministry. We want to help them!

So we have a number of potential ministry trips: follow-up visits to South Asia and to the islands of Asia Pacific, a workshop to train Singaporeans, trips to the Philippines and West Africa…

…but first we are getting Bill’s body ready to travel. He can’t be walking between airport terminals or dragging luggage around just yet. Meanwhile, he has his ongoing projects to keep him busy developing language learning materials and he’s preparing for some upcoming workshops and consultant training here closer to home.

Pray for healing, for God’s grace and provision, and for all that’s involved in the preparation of materials to enable many more missionaries to take God’s message to the world and to communicate it clearly in the Heart Languages of the Unreached.

Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

 

Spices and Thankfulness

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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

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Punjabi Sikhs

 

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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…

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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

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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

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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.

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