After landing at the pilot’s airstrip, we then had a one hour drive to our guest house. The next day we drove to the city where our dentist is. The 61 mile road to the city is full of construction with lots of one way traffic and torn up road in between. But, we did manage to average 21mph for the trip. As we write this we are back at our NTM guesthouse and due to fly back to our airstrip soon. And this time Mahan should there at the airstrip to meet us with our truck – if the river isn’t flooded so high that the truck can’t safely ford it. And, if it isn’t raining so the plane can fly.

It is amazing how often over the years we have had a dental or medical need that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible just after getting back to our village. Dental work is quite inexpensive here compared to the States. For Gene to have a large filling replaced and to have a “wedge” made to help with his TMJ cost only about $200. But, to get to the dentist and back to our jungle village costs about $500, most of it in transportation cost. So cheap dental – once you get there.

That’s just a little insight into the life of tribal missionaries.

We don’t know yet what the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) has decided to do about the faint print on many of the pages of our translation of the NT in the Manubu’ language. We checked out the readability with Manubu’ believers, and they would like to have a better printing job done. We emailed that information to PBS. We have not received a response. A few days ago, after a number of text messages to the production manager, she answered saying that she had sent us an email with their response a week ago. We told her we had not received it. She said that she would send it again. We still haven’t received it nor answers to our text messages and emails about it. PBS has long had a problem with their email system so we’re not surprised. And the production manager doesn’t very often answer text messages either. She spends a lot of her time in meetings. Please PRAY that the issue of the poor print quality that PBS did will soon be resolved.

A while ago we asked you to pray for Jujin, a teenage young man who had been faithfully teaching children for about two years. A number of children have been saved through his ministry. We asked you to pray that he would not be tempted by the things of the world and peers who are either unsaved or not walking with the Lord. Unfortunately, he has stopped teaching and attending believer meetings, and like so many young men in our village, he has concentrated his life on buying an old motorcycle and driving it around unregistered and without a driver license. He also spends a lot of time in the lowlands doing things that he shouldn’t be involved in. Please continue to PRAY for Jujin, that he would see the futility of living life outside of serving God. It breaks our hearts to see a young man with such potential for the Lord having been tempted away from the things of the Lord.

Piduy and Pulding plan to do more survey this month of Manubu’ villages far from our village looking for potential villages to outreach to. Please PRAY for a safe and profitable survey. They will probably be gone on the survey for a week or more. It is so exciting to see them wanting to get God’s Word out further afield.

Also, please continue to PRAY for a vehicle for us for our time in the States starting late June through September. We need to book our flight to the States very soon as flights fill up months ahead, but our destination for the flight will depend somewhat on where the Lord provides a car for us. We would prefer something comfortable enough for long trips and not too expensive to operate. But, of course, we’ll take whatever the Lord provides. We will be having meetings from Maine to Florida and also visiting Missouri – so lots of travel.

The reason for that trip in our mud truck was to take some Manubu’ believers out to the highway so they could visit some Manubu’ villages off the highway to see if there are villages where the people would be interested in listening to the evangelistic phase of the teaching – and of course beyond that if they listen and believe. (We call that a survey).

Three Manubu’ Bible teachers, Piduy, Pulding, and Sagli plus another believer, Bugoy, who has relatives in a number of Manubu’ villages out that way, did the surveying. Because it rained all the time and because Bugoy became sick the survey lasted for only three days. They found that the villages they visited would not be prime places to start an outreach as the younger generation is losing their Manubu’ language. However, through visiting those villages and talking with people along the way they learned of many more Manubu’ villages which are further off the highway so have more potential for outreach and establishing Manubu’ churches.

The guys who did the survey are excited about surveying those other villages when dry season starts which is around mid March and including any more villages they hear of.

While the guys were visiting Manubu’ village we were looking over towns along the highway. As we are without partners now Gene has been having to spend too much time away from translation and Bible lesson development in order to maintain the truck, the airstrip 5 miles away, motorcycle, generator, river crossing raft, solar system etc. Plus handling tools stirs up the arthritis in his fingers, and he needs to save them for typing on the computer .

So, after more prayer and survey if it becomes clear that the Lord would have us relocate to another Manubu’ area where we can live in a town on the highway and have access to mechanics, carpenters etc then we would relocate. We would have to take at least one translation helper and family with us and support them as they would be away from their land. As our translation helpers are also gifted teachers of the Word of God we would want to locate where there are Manubu’ who want to listen to their teaching – hence the surveys.

We’re country people so prefer jungle over town. But, servants don’t say when or where so whenever and wherever the Lord leads we’re ready.

So PLEASE PRAY that as the guys do more survey in the coming year the Lord will lead them to Manubu’ villages where hearts are prepared to listen to God’s Word, and we would see many saved and go on to serve Him.

One idea the translation helpers have is to plant rubber trees and coconut trees on their land here so they will eventually have an ongoing source of income. Please PRAY that the Manubu’ believers here in our village would be willing to take care of the rubber trees, coconut trees and rice farms of the translation helpers who relocate with us if we relocate.

PRAY for safety for the guys when they survey as they will be traveling via motorcycle on the highway and some rough trails.

PRAY too for wisdom and endurance for us as we push on to do a final revision of our Bible lessons and then on to more OT translation and making a topical concordance and other study and teaching aides.

If the Lord opens doors for relocation we’ll be glad to do that. If he doesn’t, we’ll be content to continue on where we are now.

Isn’t it exciting to think that the Word of God might spread out now to Manubu’ in places farther away than every reached before?

We plan to be in the States July through September this coming year and are presently scheduling our visits to our supporting churches and individuals. Hope to see you then . Please PRAY for the Lord’s provision of a car good for a lot of traveling while we’re in the States.

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We have mentioned that while in Manila we would go to a clinic that might be able to help Gene with his chronic Malaria. We went there today and left poorer and praying that the remedies will work. Please PRAY with us.

We have mentioned in our last two updates about Telmon and his wife planning to move to the lowlands where he has been teaching the Word of God on weekends. They have started building a house there, and they plan to move when it is finished.

Mahan has had three sessions at the airstrip learning to drive our mud truck, and he has now driven it back and forth twice between our village and the airstrip on the old logging road including fording the river. He’s still learning where the wheels are tracking when driving, especially the right wheels, but he is doing well. A couple more trips and he will be ready to solo.

We’ll be flying out to our NTM guesthouse in town as the final proofs of our mountain dialect New Testament are due to arrive there tomorrow or the next day. The lowland dialect is scheduled to arrive later in the week. We’ll look them over to make sure the page margins are okay and then fly to the city and be there for when the printing starts. If there are no changes to make then the printing could start as early as Oct 24 .

While in the city Gene will go to a clinic to see if they can help with his chronic malaria. And our mission computer guru, Joe, who is at our mission office there in the city will work on getting our new Windows 7 laptop to network with our older laptops which have Windows XP.

So, please PRAY for safe travel, production of the New Testaments to go well, that the clinic will be able help Gene, and that Joe will be able to get the laptops to network.

In our last update (just a couple of days ago) we mentioned Telmon and his wife planning to move to the lowlands to teach the word of God (a different part of the lowlands from where Pulding goes to work with translations helpers). Telmon will be using the Bible teacher motorcycle to go between the various places he teaches. It would be a big help if he could carry fare paying passengers as the fares will help to pay the expenses of running the motorcycle and also perhaps give him and his wife a little income. However, Telmon’s class of driver’s license doesn’t cover carrying passengers for hire. So he will go to the Land Transportation Office (more than 3 hrs from here) with Pulding to see if he can upgrade his license to a professional one. It also may involve a seminar and test.

Gene has started teaching Mahan to drive our 4×4 mud truck. Presently, when we fly out to town Gene drives the truck to the airstrip 5 miles away, Carol drives the truck back to our village, and then Mahan drives her back to the airstrip on a motorcycle. The motorcycle trip is hard on Carol’s back. When we fly back to our airstrip from town, the whole process is reversed. It will be much easier if Mahan can return the truck to the village when we fly out and also come and pick us up when we fly back in. Mahan’s driver’s license covers his driving the truck, he just has to learn how to do it. In our western culture we grow up watching our parents drive so by the time we are ready to learn we have some idea of how it all works. But, Mahan hasn’t had that experience. So going from a motorcycle to a truck is quite a step. He’s not always sure which way to turn the wheel, especially when backing around in order to turn around. Fortunately, we have a long, fairly wide, smooth airstrip for him to learn on before trying the mud hole road and river crossing.

So, please PRAY for these three guys. Pulding to get his license, Telmon to upgrade his license, and Mahan to learn to drive the truck – and for Gene not to panic when Mahan gets the pedals confused and the truck heads for the jungle at full throttle =-O. (Gene does for sure keep his hand close to the ignition switch ).

Two lowland Manubu’ Bible teachers, Dani and Charlitu, are hoping to be able to travel to the province of Surigao del Norte to talk with a relative of Charlitu’s and other Manubu’ about listening to the evangelistic phase of the teaching program. It is more than 200km from where they live. Please PRAY that they will soon be able to make that trip and that there will be many who will want to listen to the teaching. It would mean that at least Charlitu and his family would need to move there, and they would need either land or work or both in order to live there and teach. So, please PRAY for that too. It is more difficult for them to move and live 200km from home than it is for us to move and live across the ocean.

And there is another exciting development. A few months ago we featured in an update Telmon and Maricel. They had left a note to us saying (in Manubu’), “Older sister and older brother, we will have been married 13 years tomorrow, Feb 8. Help us by praying that we will be faithful to what God wants, and that Telmun will continue to spread God’s word because that is what he likes to do.” They are seeing answers to that prayer request.

While we were out in town for six weeks waiting for proofs of the New Testaments to arrive and then proofreading, the Lord enabled them to buy three hectares of land in the lowlands near Maricel’s home village which is not far from the village where Telmun has been traveling to by motorcycle to teach each weekend – a rough trip of about two hours each way. There are more and more people in that lowland village wanting to listen to the teaching of God’s Word, and Telmon is also teaching in another lowland village so it would be a big help if Telmon and Maricel could live there in the lowlands.

The Manubu’ don’t work fast on developing plans and carrying through on plans so it could take months or even a year or two before Telmon and Maricel actually move. Please PRAY that it will work out for them to move to their land and also have a way to earn a living there, at least until they can prepare and plant the land and have a harvest.

Isn’t it encouraging that we can bring our requests before the creator of the universe, and He answers according to His perfect will? He knows what is best for the accomplishing of His purposes and the perfect timing.

The past few days while waiting for the delayed proofs we have been once again proofreading the translation in our computer files. Any problem we find in the computer files would be the same as on the proofs. We’re not yet half way through. The only other problems we can think of which could be on the proofs which are not in the computer files have to do with page sequence or margins. We’ve already noticed with just a quick look at the proofs that a number of opposite pages don’t line up – one page being considerably lower on the paper than the other one.

So, for the next while we’ll be continuing to proof read and will check for any other problems that show up in the proofs.

Proof reading is hard on the eyes and very tiring. Please PRAY for the stamina needed to complete this task. If all goes well with our proofreading and then PBS preparation of the plates for printing it is possible that printing could start before the end of October.

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Here we are with partners Trev and Judy with the newly arrived proofs.

We’re so thankful for all of the prayers and gifts over many years that have led to the Manubu’ New Testament being well on its way to being printed. The Manubu’ believers are looking forward to having it in a real book form.

And we’re looking forward to translating more of the Old Testament as well as providing more teacher helps of various kinds for the Manubu’ churches.

Please PRAY for eyes to see any mistakes when we read through the proofs, and that we will be able to stay alert and awake while doing so. Spending hour after hour of reading we tend to get sleepy.

PBS says that after they receive the proofs back from us including any pages that we have corrected mistakes on it will be about two weeks before they start printing. We plan to be there when they start to consult on the inking level.

The 2000 New Testaments are expected to fill 80 boxes. We were a bit surprised to learn that the cost of shipping them from Manila down here to our guest house in Mindanao will cost $2,400! But, praise the Lord that a new gift of $5,000 for the New Testament project has just been given.

That should also help with equipment and materials for shrink wrapping all of the New Testaments that are not immediately purchased. (They will be sold at a very minimal cost of about $1 – it is best that people pay something for them). There will be more New Testaments than there are literate believers presently so it will be some time before all are purchased, hence the reason for protecting them against mold in this tropical climate by shrink wrapping.

We also plan to make available Bible covers that will protect their New Testaments from cockroaches.

While waiting for the proofs and then the printing we’re working on revising Acts Bible lessons in light of some new vocabulary used in the finished New Testament translation. The lessons are quite long so we are also trying to shorten them and also break them down into more lessons. Please PRAY for wisdom from above as we do this.

We’re thankful that PBS has been moving right along on preparing for printing. Thanks for praying with us about that.

We flew out to town from our tribal village this past Monday and sent the disks with the files and a laser printed copy of each of the two dialect translations to PBS in Manila. They said that they will have proofs for us to look at in about three weeks, and about two weeks after we have approved the proofs they will start to print. So we are staying at our NTM guest house here in town waiting for the proofs to be ready. When the proofs are ready we will fly to Manila to look at them and probably stay in Manila to see how the first pages look when they come off the press. Then we will return to our village. When the printing is all done and the covers have been put on PBS will ship them to our NTM guest house. PBS says that from start to finish should take about three months.

Please PRAY for the Philippine Bible Society as they print these Bibles – that all will come out well.

We’re not idle while as we wait here in town. Gene is setting up a new laptop with all the software we use. He is finding that there is quite a bit of our software that won’t work because the new laptop has Windows 7 while our software was for older versions of Windows. So he’s already spent hours on the internet looking for replacements. Please PRAY that he will be able to get everything working well. It will probably take a week or so to finish it.

Carol is also busy on her computer updating our data base with changes we made while preparing for printing.

Please also PRAY for Dani. He is a Bible teacher at one of the lowland Manubu’ churches. He is thinking about starting a new outreach in three villages where the people haven’t yet had influence from outside religions but are still appeasing spirits. PRAY that he would go ahead with this outreach, if the Lord wills, and that there will be a good response. As we’ve explained in the past, it is a many month – actually a many year commitment to teach through the evangelistic phase and then to continue teaching those who believe until there are Bible teachers and church leaders raised up from among the men who have believed the gospel of grace and are saved.

If it were not for people like you who pray and give there would not be Manubu’ believers, and there would not be the scriptures in their language. We trust that you too are rejoicing over what God has done – and will continue to do.

The lowland dialect NT has been slowed up a bit because we’ve decided that because there are areas of the lowlands that haven’t yet been reached where some of the words are different than the areas already reached it would be good if we make adjustments in our lowland translation to accommodate those other areas. We are still researching words. They will be put in parenthesis and placed after the lowland words that are already in the translation so for some words there will be two words, one in parenthesis. Like this: “pigyotajan (nahagu’).” Anyone reading the translation will be able to read the word that relates to their dialect. Pulding and Mahan will be going to the lowlands tomorrow to check words in a couple of villages. Please PRAY for wisdom as we decide just which words need to be included as alternates in the translation.

Gene is busy cutting paper. No, not dolls. The Philippine Bible Society (PBS), which will be printing our two NT’s, requires both PDF files and a copy on paper. So Gene is cutting pieces of paper 5 38″ x 8 14″ out of sheets of 8 12″ x 11″ paper. We only need 2,400 of those pieces of paper! Our paper cutter will only cut through six sheets of paper at a time so it is going to take awhile!

Our goal is to have everything ready to take to the printer by August 15.

In our last update we asked you to pray for Jujin, the new Bible teacher who has been very faithful teaching kids the evangelistic phases of the teaching. But, he is a teenager (19) so subject to all the peer pressure and worldly things that Satan could use to draw him away from serving the Lord. He has missed a couple of teaching sessions lately and will also miss teaching this coming Saturday as he is in the lowlands having helped to raft logs down river to sell. He did not arrange for someone else to take his place teaching before he left for the lowlands. Please KEEP PRAYING for him.

HOT OFF THE PORCH

We have mentioned many times how disappointing it is to have school teachers teach reading in our village but using languages that the children don’t understand. Rare are the ones who learn to read. Two school teachers who just started here in our village a few weeks ago came this evening and are excited about using our literacy material to teach the children to read and write in their own language, Manubu’. So, tomorrow we’ll be printing 43 copies of the first literacy book in the series.

We pray that you too are excited as you see the fruit of your prayers and giving. Completing the NT is a major milestone. But, it is not the end – still much to do in providing the Manubu’ churches with teaching and learning materials.