missionary training

Meanwhile, Back on Palawan…

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…God is still working!

We wanted to update you on what God continues to do among the Palawano people where we worked for 30 years.

The New Testament is Being Studied

About a week ago, the believers in our former village organized a conference to study the book of Galatians for four days using the New Testament translation we gave them eleven years ago.

The Palawano Attendees of the Galatians conference

The church leaders invited our partner Tim to come and teach. Several Palawano men also taught during the conference…

  1. ABIL was a teenager when we moved to Palawan. He was one of Bill’s translation helpers for years, and one of the guys Bill helped to disciple. He’s been a leader and a teacher in the church for many years. He’s a fiery preacher.

  2. ARNEL is another one of Bill’s translation helpers. He was a toddler when we moved to Palawan. He grew up under Bill’s teaching and found his wife Arlen in the youth group that met in our house. He plays guitar and leads worship as well as teaching God’s Word in the meetings. Arnel is a quiet, thoughtful man, and his teaching is insightful and thorough.

  3. RESHAL is the son of one of our daughter’s friends. His mom was only about 8 years old when we first met her. Now Reshal has grown up, and finished high school (which was unheard-of not that long ago). He and his sister Melani even went to a Bible College south of Manila and got their teaching credentials (a first for the Palawanos in our area!)

    Now they’re both back on Palawan, teaching in the public schools in Palawano communities, and Reshal is also helping to teach and lead in the church. Reshal is gifted at developing sermons, and he can study the Bible in three languages as he prepares, which greatly enhances his messages.
Reshal Teaching God’s Word

The Galatians Conference

Reshal’s final message on Sunday was about Galatians 4. His message was very timely because another group has moved into the area which teaches that Christians are under the law and need to keep the Sabbath, etc. A number of Palawanos have been led astray by this group’s teaching.

Reshal’s message touched many hearts. This is an answer to prayer. In our last update we asked you to pray about this group and its false teaching. Reshal said he plans to keep reteaching the content of his message in the coming weeks because so many people need to be reminded of the truth that we are under grace and no longer under the Law.

We were told that the Palawanos thanked God and us for their Bible. One man there commented about the teaching, saying, “I couldn’t get enough!” Others expressed their gratitude to the missionary who enabled Reshal to get more training so he could preach that well.

It was humbling and encouraging to hear how God’s Word continues to bear fruit from the seeds we and our partners planted long ago.

The Palawanos Still Love to Sing

Tim brought a bunch more copies of the songbooks. The Palawanos still love to sing the worship songs Bill translated. The singing part of their church service can last a half hour or more!

Someone sent us a video of the entire group as they sang Keurem! Kekseg! (“Be Bold! Be Strong!”) And here are a couple screenshots of another video showing a group of a dozen kids clapping and enthusiastically singing Metaas ey Ngaran Mo (“Lord I Lift Your Name on High.”) Watching those videos brought tears to our eyes.

Kids Singing Their Hearts Out

Our Translation is “Going Wide”

One of our missionary coworkers works in another area where the Palawanos speak a different dialect. She has been using our New Testament translation as a base, and translating it directly into that other dialect. Their team is going through all the checking procedures to test people’s understanding and the translation’s accuracy. But she said only a few important changes have to be made to produce clearly understood Scriptures for that group.

Other Updates

GLOBAL TRAINING: You may remember that back in 2021 and 2022 Bill’s team worked hard to create 30 video courses on communication principles and worldview. Those courses were used as part of a two-year online program to train missionaries from “closed” countries, where no in-person training would be possible. These trainees want training in order to reach unreached people groups in their own countries.

We knew that those 30 courses were still being used, but Bill just learned about a new class will enter that training program. This class is the largest yet—SEVENTY students–and they are from nine different countries in Africa, central Asia, SE Asia, and the Caribbean. We’re so excited to see more workers trained and sent into the harvest!

BILL’S TEAM: We’ll update you next time on the language and culture learning tools they are developing.

Spreading the Word

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Bill Teaching Missionary Trainers and Consultants

We’re Excited!

Recently we held a week-long international training event at Ethnos360’s missionary training campus in Missouri. Bill and his team taught about 50 people who came from around the world how to use their newly-developed materials for CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition). It was fun to return to that campus. We lived there in that scenic place for two years back in the 70s (one year as students, one year as teaching staff), and our first child, Elisa, was born during those years.

The Beautiful Lake of the Ozarks, Where Ethnos360’s Campus is Located
Attendees Came from All Around the Globe

What?

After years of development, Bill and his team are thrilled to be able to start making these long-anticipated materials available. They presented Engage, their new, comprehensive guide on how to learn a language and culture step-by-step. And they demonstrated Stages, the brand-new app that will make using Engage easier. This event was the first in a series of “roll-out” events to be held around the globe over the next year or two.

Who?

The 50 attendees represented 7 nationalities, a total of 8 missionary training programs, and 11 countries of service. They will all begin to use Engage and Stages to train new missionaries, and to help missionaries reach fluency in new languages and deep insight into the culture and worldview of the unreached people groups those missionaries minister to.

Five of the attendees were from our Spanish and Portuguese resource teams. They will be translating Engage and Stages into those languages to make them available to missionaries from 8 different countries in Latin and America and SE Africa.

Consultants, Trainers and Translators from our Latin American Fields

Why?

To communicate clearly and effectively evangelize an unreached people group, missionaries need to effective communicators of God’s truth. In order to do this, they must become highly fluent in the language of the people group, and they much gain a deep insight into the people group’s worldview. But learning an unknown language and culture is a challenge, since there are no schools or resources. It has to be a do-it-yourself effort that takes several years. Engage and Stages will help to make this daunting task a little easier and will make the task of training and coaching missionaries much easier, as well.

Stages, an App Like No Other

Attendees Had the Chance to Install and Try Out the Stages App

We presented the Stages app and then let the attendees try it out for themselves. They have been waiting for this tool! Many of the workshop attendees suggested some great new features, and they helped us find a few bugs or issues with specific devices. We really appreciated their help. There is no app that has anything like the features of Stages. It will be a huge blessing to missionaries in our mission and other missions as well.

What’s Next?

Since the roll-out event in Missouri, Bill and his team have been preparing for future events by finalizing and adding to some of their materials and including many of the attendees’ suggested new features to the Stages app.

Over the coming months, Bill and some others will also record online video training courses for both Engage and Stages, making it easier to train more people globally with a little less travel. Bill is also working with the various translation teams. In addition to Spanish and Portuguese, we hope to get Engage and Stages translated into Thai, French, Indonesian, Chinese, and possibly a few other languages.

Posting Training Videos Online Will Make it Easier to Train More Missionaries More Efficiently

Please Pray

Bill and Donna – Expanding the Reach of the Gospel by Training Others to Reach the Unreached

We appreciate your prayers for us, our health, and our ministry as we labor to get many more well-trained missionaries out in the Lord’s harvest fields reaching the Unreached! Health update: since Bill’s ablation, his heart rhythm remains steady and normal, and he has his energy back. We’re so thankful for this!

A Short Update on the Palawanos…

Ispiling Selling Us Some Chickens in 2006

Please continue to pray for the Palawano church. Bill is in communication with several of the believers, including some of the men who lead the church in our old village. They are currently studying through 1 Peter in the Palawano New Testament, and seeking to build unity in the church in the face of Satan’s attacks. Bill was particularly encouraged recently to learn that his old friend Ispiling was now a believer. Ispiling was a fun guy. The whole time we lived among the Palawanos, Ispiling loved to joke and laugh with Bill on our porch, and was always ready to help with any work projects we hd, but he was never open to the Gospel. Now in his old age, God has softened his heart and he is following Christ.

When God Has Different Plans

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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.