TRANSLATION CHECKING
We were able to complete the comprehension checking of nearly all the books we had ready in early March. We will finish the rest in of Romans in May, meaning we’ll have all of Romans, Galatians, 1-2 Timothy and 1 John all ready for the final consultant check in late June or early July!

WHERE ARE WE NOW?
After the checking, we packed up and flew to California for the birth of our granddaughter, due on March 20.

We’ve enjoyed see our daughters and sons-in-law and our grandson Max and are looking forward to getting to spend time with friends, family and supporters while here for this quick trip Stateside.

A COMMUNICATIONS HEADS-UP
As of tomorrow (Thursday March 17) we will be offline for a day (or two?) while we update our computers. We can be reached our temporary cell phone number in the meantime

PLEASE PRAY WITH US

• healthy final week(s) for Elisa and the baby
• a safe delivery
• a fruitful time with those we see here
• Max’s adjustment to us caring for him
• Max’s adjustment new sister

Reaching Palawanos with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

TRANSLATION PROGRESS
We are so thankful for the progress this past few weeks. The Palawano translation helpers remained healthy, we had NO electrical outages (none… for three weeks straight!), we burned through massive amounts of translation, exceeding all our goals for the time. And best of all, the translated passages we checked had no major problems at all.

As always, Bill learned a few new words and grammatical tidbits. Stay tuned for a blog on that.

WHAT GETS DONE IN THREE WEEKS?
Donna worked with Susing and did the recording of Romans and 1 John. Bill listened to those recordings (sometimes after dinner in the evening) to be ready to discuss them with the men. Between Romans and 1 John, Donna took three days (yes, three DAYS) to renew the registration on our truck and to finishing changing the title into our name. Three days. Three. There just might be a blog in there somewhere.

Bill went over Romans, 1 John, Galatians and 2 Timothy with the men, comparing the original drafts with the recordings and making revisions. (now these books are ready to check for comprehension…)

Bill went over the first draft of Mark, getting through chapter ten (now those chapters are ready for Donna to record…)

But that’s just the translation!

While the men were up, Bill took them to meet with a local businessman to pass on their thanks for his help. His phone call moved the governor to follow up on building new school buildings down in the village. This meeting led to another with some officials who can help the Palawanos with some trouble regarding their land.

Bill also took the men to meet with a former missionary (Filipino) who had worked in our village. She had recently been involved with a government agency which protects the rights of tribal people. She confirmed that the Palawanos’ application for Ancestral Domain (ownership of their ancestral land) was approved! We put a lot of effort into this application and the survey of the land, etc., a few years back. Then we had been told it was denied, but apparently that was a lie, told by those who stand to lose money if the tribe gains control of their land. We are following up with the government agencies to get the maps and papers to prove this and to find out how the Palawanos can benefit from it.

Bill was also on the phone trying to deal with a situation where one of our Palawanos fell for a phone scam and lost a bunch of money. Another blog coming with details on that. Meanwhile, we have all the information now to turn over to the NBI (the Philippines’ equivalent of the FBI).

UPDATE ON OUR HOUSE IN THE VILLAGE
We sent some termite treatment down with the men, and some money to pay for some repair and replacing two walls (we learned that the previous repair was temporary.) Praise the Lord for a gift that came in designated for house repair which was just the right amount for all this!

PLEASE PRAY WITH US THIS WEEK

• thanks for good progress in the translation
• continued progress in the coming weeks
• health and strength for both of us

Reaching Palawanos with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

LOOKING BACK
2010 is nearly over and it has been a most eventful year for us.

FAMILY… Our family was blessed with two additions and happy celebrations. Our first grandchild, Max, was born on February 2, and we were able to be there for that special event. Then, in September we were back in San Diego for the wedding of our youngest, Bethy, as she and Ricky Cobabe started their new life together.

TRANSLATION… We are very thankful for encouraging progress in the Palawano Translation. This year we completed the translation and final checking of the book of Luke (a long book: 15% of New Testament!) and we finished the first draft and early revision of more than ten additional NT books totaling another 22%. On top of that, we took several of those books through the next few steps in the procedure.

MINISTRY… Our first-ever trip to Singapore, courtesy of NTM Singapore, was an adventure and the fulfillment of a dream we’ve had since 1987, after a short-term team of Singaporeans came to our Palawano village. We were blessed to be involved in a camp challenging young Singaporeans to take the gospel to unreached people in Asia.

CRAZY STUFF… It was stressful and difficult, but God saw us through having to evacuate our house and deal with the lingering health hazards of termite poison. We’re glad to be settled in and back to work.

We want to thank God for all he has done in 2010 and express our appreciation to you who have prayed and been a part!

LOOKING AHEAD
2011 will provide another welcome addition to our family–Max’s little sister! Elisa and Chris are expecting our first granddaughter in March. We’re praying for God to provide a way for us to be there for that.

We are laying out the plans for continued translation and some final checks to get additional portions of the Word of God into the Palawano language as we move closer to our goal of the completed New Testament.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

• praise for amazing blessings in 2010!
• continued progress in translation
• health, strength and wisdom
• provision for travel to be there for our granddaughter’s birth

Thanks for praying and standing with us in this ministry.

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

THANKFUL
This week, as usual we are focusing on many things we have to be thankful for. During this stressful time of being moved out of our house, we are particularly thankful for a nice guest house where we can stay, helpful friends, God’s many provisions and blessings, and especially all of you who are praying and sending us encouraging words.

Here’s an update.

BUGS
The work is done at the house, but it still smells like termite poison. A little less than yesterday, though. So it’ll be after Thanksgiving (at the earliest) before we can move back in. We’re hoping that in a few more days the smell will be gone.

MUD
A big problem is our access road. It’s an unpaved dirt lane, and it’s the only way for us to get to the street or from the street to our house. The construction crews have totally trashed it recently with heavy equipment, softening the road and creating big holes. It’s WORSE than when we left the house. So far their answer has been to pile a foot-thick layer of soft dirt on it! It’s already a mess and there is a risk of our vehicle getting stuck. With another hard rain like we’ve been having nearly every day, it will be totally impassable. We’ve talked to our landlord and she will complain to the engineers overseeing the construction again.

Culture note: Not only is it the landlord’s responsibility, but it’s the Filipino way to file a complaint indirectly through an intermediary. It might cause shame or seem overly confrontational if either of us spoke to the crews directly.

What would really fix the problem is for them to scrape it back down to the hard undersurface and to spread crushed rock on it. Please pray that they will do this, and respond without taking offense, so that neighborly relationships can be maintained. We can’t really move back home very easily until the road is fixed.

MEANWHILE
Just to keep us flexible and to show his sense of humor, the Lord allowed the bathroom plumbing in our guest home room to disintegrate last night, so we had to pack up and move to another room this morning, including all our translation set-up, food in the cabinets, a full fridge, etc. Thanks to our partner who tried so hard to fix it without us having to move!

Yes, we’re still smiling (in between sighs), but pray for us. We’re feeling a little borderline overwhelmed here.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

• termite poison smell to dissipate quickly
• for our road to be fixed without incident
• that we can move back into our house soon
• rescheduling of Susing’s translation work sessions
• good progress on translation while we are out of our home

Thanks for praying!

Reaching Palawanos together with you (just from a different location this week),

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

TRIALS of TERMITES, TRAILS, TV – TRANSLATION…
It’s a week for us where everything seems to start with “T.”

TERMITES…
We noticed some evidence of termites in our house (very common on Palawan!) So we notified the property manager. She looked at it today and is going to schedule some repair by her carpenters, and an exterminator will come and treat the perimeter and parts of the house with termite poison.

This is a concern to us. Bill’s asthma is doing okay lately, but he reacts very severely to the odor of chemicals like bug spray, kerosene and gasoline, etc. (He even avoids the soap aisle of grocery stores.) We will pack up the food and utensils in the kitchen and pack up our bedroom and move to NTM’s Guest Home across town. We will stay out of the house for a week or so. Hopefully the smells will be gone by that time. We don’t want to return to having asthma attacks like he was having a few years ago.

TRANSLATION NEWS
The work with Lini went well. Donna got completely through Galatians with her and they were pushing ahead into Romans. We had planned to have Susing come up next week to finish Romans with Donna. But that is on hold while our life is packed up in plastic bags and boxes and we are living in a single mission home room. We will continue drafting Mark and doing other translation work while we are out of the house and reschedule Susing’s trip as soon as we can.

TRIALS OF TRAIL AND TV
A hardware store is being built on the highway near our house and the unpaved lane which is the only access to and from our property is what the construction crews are using to get to the site. Their heavy equipment is churning up our lane and with all the heavy rain lately, we’re afraid our vehicle will be stuck in the mud one of these days!

The smallest “trial” of all is that our TV died. But we usually prefer to read in the evenings, anyway. Plus our cable provider cancelled the Food Network, which is about the only channel we ever watched, anyway. And it certainly didn’t help our diet to watch that!

PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

• termite problem to be resolved without asthma attacks!
• that we can move back into our house quickly
• rescheduling of Susing’s translation work sessions
• good progress on translation while we are out of our home
• construction to be completed soon (maybe they will gravel the road?)

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook

LINI IS IN TOWN…
Donna is busy this week working with Lini on the recording step of translating Galatians and Romans. Lini was Elisa’s childhood best friend in the tribe. So it’s a joy to work with her now that she’s a young mother of three, since we’ve known her for her entire life. She brought two of her children (our Palawano “grandchildren”) to Puerto with her.

RECORDING TRANSLATION…
The recording step is an important part of getting the Palawano Scriptures to sound natural and to flow smoothly. It is also a very intense task, mentally taxing with lots of speaking out loud. So Donna and Lini need extra energy to keep going all week.

KEEPING IT GOING!
Pray with us that the electricity will stay on every day, so the computers, lights and fans, etc., keep working while Lini is here. We are also asking the Lord to keep the technology (the aging Mac and iPod used for recording) cooperative. These tools are a huge help in the translation process compared to the typewriters and cassette players we used in years past. Now we’re really dependent upon them!

SO PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

• strength and wisdom for Donna and Lini
• successful recording of Galatians and Romans
• electricity to stay on; computers and iPod to work
• Bill as he drafts Mark and works on other books

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK
Bill and Donna on Facebook