Friday, May 16, 2014

Bibles in Siberia

I regularly read blogs about lives being transformed by the translated Word.  I really can't picture what it is like in -40C weather, but I loved this story of how God used a truck accident in Siberia to get Bibles to one community.


Thank you for praying for the two Connection programs in May.  The Lord used your prayers to keep us all healthy and give us great conversations with those colleagues from around the US and the world who came to Orlando.  Please pray that He will continue to encourage them and renew them as they prepare to return to their tasks accelerating Bible translation.

Today, I leave to drive for Indianapolis.  My nephew will graduate from high school on May 23.  I'll be attending at Faith Church on May 18 and 25 and at Village Life Church one of those evenings.  Then, I'll be with my family for a good ol' Memorial Day cookout before heading back to Florida on May 27-28.  I would appreciate your prayers for safety and for good reconnecting while I am there.  I hope to see many of you as we worship together.

Friday, May 2, 2014

More Than Many Apples

Recently a very old man came to Mark Woodward's compound in Tanzania, selling apples. They were not very good apples, and they were very small.

First Mark said, “No, Father [a term of respect for an older man],” but he wanted to encourage the man, so Mark told him he would buy one apple.

“Take two,” the man said. “They are very good apples. I raised them myself.”

So Mark took two apples, but paid him for three. Then Mark asked him, “Father! Do you go to church?”

“Yes, I go to church,” he said.

“Father, do you know Jesus as your Savior?” Mark asked.

“Yes, I know Him,” he said.

“Then I have a gift for you,” Mark told him. Mark went back into his office and got the Gospel of Mark in the man's language, Kinga. The man thanked Mark and left.

About ten minutes later, there was a very loud knocking at Mark's office door. It was the man, holding out to me a big pile of apples in both hands.

“You must take these,” the man said.

“Me? Take your apples? No! Why?” Mark said.

“You must take them. The book! The book you gave me. It blesses my heart! I will keep it always. I have no way to know what such a book is worth. Truly it is worth more than many apples.”  (Story source: http://everytongue.co.uk/blog/2014/04/worth-many-apples/)


I am so grateful for your continued partnership in prayer and with your gifts for my Wycliffe ministry.  God provided much encouragement and refreshment in the past two weeks with visits from three different gals.  I am thankful for times to step away in the midst of what continues to be a very busy season of ministry.  I also praise God for your ongoing prayer for the disciplines of life in the midst of the busyness.  I think somehow I expected God to reduce "the busy" - but instead, He is giving much grace and opportunities for new growth (and others to come alongside in new ways!) in the middle of it.  That must be the way I learn best!

These next two weeks, we will host 48 other missionaries and 21 missionary kids (MKs) in programs designed to celebrate and care for them and to connect them with resources as they serve in Bible translation.  Thank you for your partnership now with them, as together we ask God to impact those just like the Kinga man with the translated Word.