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A ministry trip to proclaim his praise in the islands…

We’re going to two different islands to defend the church and to train missionaries. Wanna come? (okay, you can’t come this time, but please pray!)

First, we are going to our old island home, Palawan, to spend five days teaching Palawano men, women and youth leaders.

We have more information since we posted our Fire and Wolves update. Apparently, the cult has left, but a Filipino “pastor” has moved to our former Palawano village, and is wrecking havoc among the believers. He has split the church with a legalistic message, he teaches using “Taglish“ (i.e. a mix of Tagalog and English), and he is telling them to only use the English KVJ Bible.

(Oh, and just a reminder: Palawanos don’t speak a word of English, and most don’t understand Tagalog all that well. That’s why we translated the NT into Palawano for them.)

Well, he is also telling the Palawanos to burn their Palawano New Testaments (the #1 one way to get a translator upset.) Sadly, some Palawanos have joined him, included two of Bill’s former translation helpers. And at first, these men were saying they would not come to town to see us or to sit under Bill’s teaching.

We praise God that they have changed their minds and agreed to come. This gives us a chance to teach them with the others, and to correct the errors they’ve been taught. A total of about 20 Palawano adults and 10 youth leaders will be coming to our teaching sessions.

Next we will go to the same island in the Asia Pacific region where Bill went last October. Bill will be helping 2-3 Germans, 3 Indonesians, and 8 Indonesian tribal people in their language learning, so they can more quickly reach their goal of being able to make disciples in a new language among an unreached people group. If that sounds exhausting, you’re right–it is. In the process, Bill will be training consultants to provide this kind of help for missionaries.

More islands to come…

Stay tuned for updates on this trip and a growing number of future trips: we’re going to a conference in Colorado, and we have upcoming trips to South Asia, to another island in the Asia Pacific region, and to Thailand…

We’re grateful for all those who pray and give to make this ministry possible. And as our ministry rapidly expands, pray with us that we would connect with additional ministry partners–churches, individuals or groups–who share our passion for seeing every people group reaching in their Heart Language.

“…False teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock…” (Acts 20:29)

Wolves

The apostle Paul’s warning from the 1st century holds true for 2015. The Palawano church is under attack.

A Korean cult with false teaching has set up shop downriver from our village and has led some Palawanos astray–both believers and unbelievers alike. Upriver, a Palawano church leader who helped with the translation project has joined this cult.

A Filipino group with questionable motives wants to set up a church in our village, to claim our believers for themselves.

Vicious wolves, who don’t care for the flock.

 “Does not my word burn like fire?” asks the LORD. “Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes rock to pieces?”

Fire

There is a revival spreading among the Palawano young people. They can’t get enough of God’s Word as they study the Palawano New Testament.

At the same time, many of the Palawano church leaders are standing firm. A few men hiked downriver to refute the teaching of the Korean cult, and their teaching helped some to see that this new teaching was false.

Susing and Rinard also refused to let the Filipino church use their chapel for their meetings. They even refused to let them build their own church in the village (it helps that the tribal chieftain is a Christian!)

But these kinds of attacks will continue. So we need to uphold the Palawanos in prayer, and we need to teach and encourage the church leaders to stand firm in the truth. Missionaries cannot live in the village right now due to security concerns, so our partners are based in town and the Palawanos come to them for teaching.

Feeding the Fire

We plan to go to Palawan in February en route to another consultant trip to Asia Pacific. Bill will meet his former translation helpers and other leaders of the church in Puerto Princesa for a time of teaching from the Word, and to have a chance to encourage them and answer their questions.

Many Palawano young people will also come to town for Bible teaching. We want to turn them into spiritual warriors who know the truth of God’s Word and have a passion to defeat false doctrine by teaching the truth.

Pray for the Palawano church, for the leaders, for the youth… for all who hold God’s Word in their hands to devote themselves to the truth of its pages.

Pray for us as we prepare for this upcoming ministry trip to Asia.

Fire… to keep the wolves away.

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Join our team: Want to help with this trip or other ministry needs? Look HERE for ideas.

Bill is Back…

Bill’s new friend, Wana consultant Ribin

…and pretty much over jet lag. Whew! Thanks to all who prayed for Bill during his recent Asia Pacific trip. The smoke in the region did not cause breathing problems for him. His plane back to the capital city was not delayed. The trip was a great success, and Bill made new friends and ate some delicious spicy food.

Now we appreciate your prayers as we make plans for another trip (or two… or more!) to the Asia Pacific in the coming months to follow up on the need for more training for the consultants who help missionaries succeed.

EXCITING FACT: More and more non-Western missionaries are stepping out to reach Unreached People Groups! (And it’s part of our Bill’s new ministry to help them.)

CHALLENGING FACT #1: These missionaries tend to use different learning strategies than Americans and Germans prefer.

CHALLENGING FACT #2: There are too many of them for Bill to help individually.

What’s the Answer?

We need to adjust our training so that some of the language learning methods we teach are more natural fit for these learners and better help them to succeed.

And we need to train lots of consultants and language learning coaches so there is always someone available nearby when these missionaries need help and advice.

And that is why Bill went to the Asia Pacific region last month: to learn how to help these missionaries, and to spend time with consultants and those who can be taught to help others.

Thanks to Doug and the other interpreters!

He spent three weeks with visiting with over 20 missionaries. Most of the missionaries (and 3 of the consultants) were actually Wana tribal people from the Asia Pacific region who have left their homes and villages to reach other Unreached People Groups such as the Da’a, the Lauje and the Banggai.

Just like all missionaries, they have left their home culture and families; they face hardships and sickness.

And just like every other missionaries, they need help lots of help. Bill was able to give them some encouragement and a few language learning tips. But much of his time this trip was spent listening and learning what their specific challenges are.

Now he is busy working on some ideas for better training methods. Lord willing, both of us (Bill and Donna) will go to Asia Pacific together in February to implement some of these new training ideas and to continue to work on consultant training.

The smoke looks kinda like this

Smoke, Smoke, Go Away…

Today NO flights went in or out of the city where Bill is, due to the smoke and limited visibility.

He is supposed to fly Sunday morning early (that’s tomorrow morning for him there in Asia) to make his connecting flight to San Diego that same evening.

So please pray for rain, cleared smoked, etc., to enable him to fly as planned.

Here’s a bit of an update…

Around 5 p.m., Bill and his travel companion went to the airport and learned that the early morning flight of Bill’s airline HAD taken off this morning (they have more leeway taking off than landing). They told Bill that if the 10 pm Saturday flight from the big city was able to land, then his Sunday morning flight would likely be a “go.” As of 8:15 p.m., that flight from the main city to Bill’s island was 35 minutes under way!

So keep praying… things are looking encouraging.

Final Update…

Thanks for praying. The sky was clear enough and Bill’s flight was able to take off and get him safely to the big city where he will board his flight home to California tonight.

Pictures and lots of great updates coming soon from his consultant trip!

Bill arrived safely in Asia Pacific and was part of some meetings discussing how to best help non-Western missionaries with language learning. (Note: some of them are even tribal people reaching other tribes.)

We need to help these learners to reach a high level of proficiency in language and cultural insight so they can begin their ministries. Bill and ten other men explored questions such as:

Will the same language learning techniques work for them? Or else how can we customize the program to maximize their progress with activities that better fit their learning styles, educational experience (or lack of it), etc.? How can we evaluate their exploration of the culture if they were unable to chronicle their observations in a database or with lots of written documentation?

Now Bill is on another island. When he arrived, the smoke from the fires seriously reduced visibility, and was a real concern for his breathing. PLEASE PRAY ABOUT THIS! Meanwhile, God has sent some rain during the night. That will help alleviate the problem a bit. So keep praying with us.

Tuesday morning Bill and his consultant companions head into a tribe where 5 tribal believers are learning a language in order to reach a different tribe!

More news with photos soon to come…

What if you knew you probably had some good advice to offer, but didn’t even know what the questions were going to be?

…then you would be going on a missionary consultant trip!

What Are We Doing?

Next week Bill flies halfway around the globe to a country in the Asia Pacific region on just such a trip. He will visit three remote tribal locations, accessible only by helicopter, a first for him. (note: we are using generic terms like “Asia Pacific” online for the security of the missionaries there.)

The three missionary teams are just about done with tribal language study, just about done with culture study, and right on the cusp of being able to begin teaching God’s Word and presenting the gospel to three different Unreached People Groups.

Why Are We Doing This?

We do all this so Unreached People Groups can hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.

Missionary work is challenging and missionaries need help every step of the way: they need good prefield training; then on the field, they need help with language learning and cultural adjustments, help with planning the best way to communicate the gospel to a people group with no previous concept of the true God…

Just imagine if you had to learn an unknown, unwritten language well enough to present the gospel and teach your way through 2 Corinthians. Hard? You bet. You will need help.

Why were we able to minister effectively in the Philippines for all those years and produce a good New Testament translation? You guessed it… we had lots of help from consultants and missionaries who had “been there done that.”

Now it is our privilege to take our experience and provide necessary help for missionaries who are taking the gospel to places where Christ has not yet been named.

On this trip, Bill has been invited to travel with NTM consultants in the Asia Pacific region, helping them and working together with them to help three different missionary teams.

Why Are We Excited?

Three people groups are getting closer to hearing the gospel. That should excite anyone!

But on top of this, most of these missionaries are non-Western. Yes, in addition to two Americans and three Germans, 12 of the missionaries are from the Asia Pacific region, reaching Unreached People Groups right in their own country!

That’s not all… some of the consultants who will be traveling with Bill are actually TRIBAL men from the same Asia Pacific country. We met these men last March in Manila at our Asian Training Forum. They were brought to Christ and discipled by missionaries, and now they are involved in training others from their country.

We’re excited to see missionaries and being raised up from countries which were mission fields not that long ago. It’s our passion to help them preach Christ in the Heart Language of Unreached People Groups. And discipling some of them as leaders and consultants and missionary trainers is even better.

We hope you are excited, too. You are a part of this ministry as you partner with us!

Pray with us:

• Bill will face a lot of travel (international and in-country flights, helicopter, motorcycle, hiking…) and some of this will be physically challenging
• The climate may be a problem for Bill’s asthma, especially with the smoke from extensive fires in the region
• Wisdom in the consultant work, especially since much of it will be done through interpreters
• Donna will be holding down the fort alone while Bill is gone