NTM Indonesia

Family visits

These past few months we have enjoyed spending time with many family members. Our daughter Michelle came down from Grace College for a month-long Christmas break with us. On Christmas Eve Debbie prepared a big Christmas dinner, and for the first time ever, we had both my parents and Debbie’s parents around our table for the big holiday feast! It was great to have so much of the family together. Then in mid-February Debbie’s brother Paul McDole and his family returned from Indonesia for a two-week visit with Debbie’s parents as well as with us. During that time our son Steve came down for a quick weekend visit. And of course we see Debbie’s parents almost every day since we live so close to them.

Christmas Dinner with our parents and Michelle!

Ministry Update

These past few months I have been reviewing Scripture translation from two tribal missionary teams in Indonesia. Soon I will be leaving to conduct on-site translation checks in both of those remote areas to ensure that the tribal language translation is communicating clearly and accurately to the native speakers of those languages. In the first location we will check much of Genesis as well as portions of other books which will be used in foundational Bible lessons for the new group of believers there. Our goal is to check over 1,200 verses. Then in the second language / people group we are preparing to check the entire Gospel of John. In each of these locations the people are very eager to have more of God’s Word printed and available in their own native tongue so that they can grow in their faith and learn more of his plan to redeem mankind. After I return from Indonesia I will have the opportunity to speak at a Missions Conference on the gulf coast of Florida.

All the McDoles plus Bob, Debbie, and Steve

Debbie continues to work two days a week as a caregiver for a senior citizen in the area who needs assistance. On the days she is not working she helps her parents, primarily by cooking meals for them. Her mom is now finding it difficult to speak, as the ALS (Lou Gehrig’s) disease continues it’s assault on the motor neurons in her system. In April Debbie will be participating in a fund-raising walk to benefit the ALS foundation as they work to provide assistance and also seek a cure for those who suffer from that disease. I would join her in that walk of course, but I will be at the Missions Conference that day.

Our Granddaughters – Maggie with twin sisters Katie & Jade

Challenges and Blessings

Although it seems that we face many challenges, we know that this is true for all of us who are still residents of this world while at the same time being citizens of heaven. We also realize that the Lord strengthens us through trials, and because of that we can be thankful and joyful in our circumstances. And of course we have experienced many blessings, certainly even more than we realize. One of those blessings is knowing that we are not on our own but rather part of a team that includes each of you who pray for us and/or support us financially. The Lord has placed each of us in the Body of Christ with a particular purpose in mind so that as we all function properly we can help each other to be effective servants of our King! Thanks to each of you for your prayers and partnership in the ministry to which He has called all of us!

Because of Calvary,

Bob & Debbie Clark

Steve & Megan with Jade, Maggie, & Katie

SUMMER NEWS FROM HOT FLORIDA

This summer has been a very busy time for us. Thanks so much for

your support over the past month through your prayers and finances. We are

enjoying our time with our daughter Michelle, daughter-in-law Megan, and three

granddaughters, Maggie, Katie, and Jade. Our son Steve was even able to come

and spend a weekend with us for the 4th of July. Our household has been

hopping for the past few weeks. Megan and the girls were able to come down for

a month and they have just over a week to go. Then they will be off to

Pensacola to be near Steve as he finishes up his technical training in Aircraft

Structural Maintenance as he  serves our country. He will be graduating on

the 4th of August. With the kids here I have been mainly cooking and keeping

up with the needs of three little girls. It has been wonderful to have this

time with our family. We are richly blessed.

Bob has been preparing for his next trip to Indonesia by going

over the tribal translations of Scripture portions in three languages. He will

be leaving at the end of August and will be gone for six weeks. During that

time he plans to check the work of three different translators. He also plans

to work on some of his own translation in the Tugutil language.

Michelle was not able to find a job for the summer so we have

been able to put her to work doing some data entry for us. She has been typing

in a tribal language – English dictionary. That has at least given her

something to do. We thank the Lord that her grants and scholarship amounts have

increased so she will still be able to return to Grace College this fall, even

though she did not find a summer job. She has work waiting for her when she

returns to Grace so that will be a big help. Thanks for your prayers for her!

Just yesterday I was able to go to Tampa with my parents for my

mom’s appointment with her ALS doctor. That went well and I was really glad to

be able to go with them. Please continue to pray for my parents as they deal

with this disease each day. Mom is slowly losing strength and that is hard on

everyone. We are blessed to be able to live so close to them. We thank the Lord

for working out all the details for us! As you know we were able to purchase a

house just three minutes away from them at the end of April. Again, we thank

God for His many blessings!!!

Ministry News Since we last wrote we have been able to visit four churches and share some of what God is doing in Indonesia. It has been nice to get out and see people who have been praying for us and supporting us over the past several years. Change is something we are very familiar with and the Lord has been leading us in a new direction over these past few months. Due to my mother’s health we are planning on moving to Sanford, Florida. This way we will be close to my parents and be able help out on a daily basis. Bob will continue to make trips to Indonesia two times a year and the rest of the year he will be working on translation projects from his office in our home. This seems to be a good fit for us so we have put a bid on a house in Sanford just a half mile from my folks. Please be praying with us concerning this house. We would like to be moved in by the end of the year, if not sooner, but the realtor thinks it may be February before everything is finalized.

We want to emphasize that Bob will be continuing his translation and consultant ministries, only the location will be different for the time being.

Thanks for your prayers for us during this transition time.

Because of Calvary, Bob & Debbie Clark

The Punan people now have several hundred verses of Scripture from Genesis in their language, the very first of which is above. Over the next two weeks I (Bob) will be on Borneo as we plan to check another 700+ verses, including more portions of Genesis as well as parts of Matthew, Mark, & Luke. Please pray that the translation check would go well and that the Word of God would have a tremendous impact on the Punan people’s lives.

Recently I completed the first step of translating the book of Daniel into the Tugutil language, and look forward to being able to discuss and revise the draft with translation helpers who are native speakers of the tribal language.

Debbie has been busy with helping oversee the culture- and language-learning process for one new missionary family and four new single missionary ladies who arrived toward the end of November. She also continues to give language proficiency evaluations for missionaries who are still working at gaining fluency in Indonesian before moving on to their ministries in other areas of the country.

Michelle is now in her final semester of high school – hard to believe how fast time passes! She continues to do well academically, and is excited about basketball season, which is now in full swing. She is a starter on the varsity team, and they are 3-0 so far. Yesterday they had their most challenging game yet, but pulled away with good defense to seal the 12-point win.

We are making plans for furlough, which begins just a few days after Michelle’s graduation at the end of May. We look forward to seeing many of you again soon!