NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Good news! The proofs of our two New Testaments arrived today from Philippine Bible Society (PBS) – about three weeks later than expected! But, they are finally here. Proofs are a rough printing used to check if everything is okay.

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.

Just a little update on the printing of the Manubu’ New Testaments – two of them – two different dialects. The Philippine Bible Society (PBS) has finished the films and are almost finished with proofs of the pages. If all goes well they will send them to us down here in Mindanao next week via a package service. We will then look over every page to double check the formatting and the sequence, and will read all 1000 pages of each New Testament to check for things such as misspellings and lack of a space between words. Carol has already found in our computer files one instance of lack of a space. We proofread both New Testaments as did a number of Manubu’ believers before we sent the files to PBS, but it is so easy to miss something in 2000 pages.

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.

It was scary to send our two New Testament Manubu’ translations off to the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) to be printed as real Bibles rather than the big, two volume laser printed ones we’ve had. It is God’s Word that we’re dealing with here and after weeks of complicated formatting and converting to PDF files for printing and proofreading over and over we still wonder if maybe some word or verse number or verse got lost somewhere in the process. Or will the inking be too heavy so it bleeds through making it hard to read or will the inking be too light? Will the printer somehow get pages mixed up? One shudders at the thought of spending $20,000 or more to have the Bibles printed and then find out there is a serious problem with all two thousand copies. But, we have done all we can and it is in God’s hands just like it has been from the first day we started translating over twenty years ago.

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.

We have finished proof reading our New Testament translation in both dialects . Carol expects to finish formatting the mountain dialect NT in about two more days. Gene has started scrolling through mountain dialect files to see if there are any problems in the formatting. Carol has already done this, but asked Gene to do it too as it is so easy to miss something that is misplaced. He has done Matthew, and the only thing he found was one place that just needs another space.

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.

It’s going slowly. That is, preparation for the printing of our NT translation. We had hoped to have it ready to print by the middle of this month, but proofreading is taking longer than expected. The Manubu’ language can’t be proofread as fast as English as affixation makes for many long words that can’t just be scanned briefly to see if the spelling is right. For example, the word bansagon which means to speak loudly, shout. When they say to shout at each other that word becomes migpamabawbansagonay. Can’t see at a glance if that is spelled right! Or how about panumananan – a sacrifice altar? We don’t find very many spelling errors, but have to check to be sure.

Gene is proofreading the mountain dialect and aside from just a few spelling errors he is finding a number of little things that need to be checked with translation helpers. Carol then fixes those things that need to be fixed in four different computer files that cover the two dialects. Then Gene checks to make sure that there are no mistakes in entering the fixes. After that is done Carol proofreads that book of the NT in the lowland dialect. We’re now hoping to have the NT proofread, formatted and ready to print by the end of July. Please PRAY for strength and perseverance and eyes to see (and to stay open – very easy to get sleepy) as we continue to proofread many hours each day.

Another thing that slows up the proofreading is that Gene has almost constant Malaria – especially bad every third day – so there are days where it takes a real effort to concentrate so he isn’t able to proofread as fast as usual. Conventional Malaria medicines no longer help, but he is able to keep the headaches and nausea from getting severe by using homeopathic remedies (which are almost depleted – we’re waiting for more from the States which should arrive in a couple of months). He has been to an infectious disease specialist, but she was unable to help. We’re looking for a real solution to the problem. He has the kind of Malaria which resides in the liver and periodically pumps the Malaria critters into the blood stream. So even if never again bitten by a Malaria carrying mosquito there is constant relapse of Malaria. Only one conventional medicine acts on Malaria in the liver, and it does not work for him and is also very toxic to the liver so shouldn’t be taken regularly.

He is presently drinking tea made from the leaves of the neem tree which has been proved to prevent Malaria, but it is questionable if it will cure it. One option is a homeopathic treatment of several remedies that has been recommended. Another is a clinic in Manila that integrates conventional medicine and natural medicine that has been able to help New Tribes missionaries with other kinds of problems that haven’t been solved in other ways. Both are expensive, and we hesitate to maybe waste money trying these alternative treatments. Please PRAY that we would find a solution or better yet that the Lord would just take the Malaria away.

And, please pray for Jujin. He is a new Manubu’ Bible teacher. He has successfully taught the 42 lesson evangelical phase of the teaching to a group of kids and is now teaching them the next phase of the teaching. He has been very faithful over his months of 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. So let’s build a fence of PRAYER around Jujin.

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In our last update we wrote, “Please PRAY for Mahan. He is one of our translation helpers and is also the Bible teacher teaching the believers here in our village. He is in the hospital. Has been sick for a number of days. They don’t know yet what is wrong with him, but a nurse thinks it might be typhoid.”

Mahan spent a number of days in a hospital and then a number of days recuperating down in the lowlands. He had no appetite and didn’t eat for days. But, two days ago he got his appetite back and yesterday was strong enough to return home, although still weak. Thanks for praying for him.

The final stage of getting our NT translation ready for printing is taking a bit longer than we expected. For example, just a couple of days ago we found that a key word that our translation helpers had given us just a few years ago and had worked with all the people it had been checked out with at that time, but upon further checking now we found that it means different things to different people! Gene spent a number of hours yesterday with translation helpers working to find a better word. That word now needs to be checked with translation helpers in the other dialect we work in which is 30 miles of dirt road away.

But, by sometime in June we should have it ready for printing. Please continue to PRAY for us as we determine what words to include in the glossary, the best way to explain chapter verse formats such as this verse and that verse or this verse through this verse and also section headings and cross references. We’re also working on maps of the area where Jesus traveled and also of Paul’s journeys.

Thanks for praying with us through all the years of working to provide a translation of the Word of God and Bible lessons for the Manubu’ people. When the NT is finally ready for printing there will still be years of work to do to provide more OT translation for them, a topical concordance, and other helps for teachers.

Please PRAY for Mahan. He is one of our translation helpers and is also the Bible teacher teaching the believers here in our village. He is in the hospital. Has been sick for a number of days. They don’t know yet what is wrong with him, but a nurse thinks it might be typhoid.

We’re hoping to have our NT translation ready for formatting in about three weeks time. It has been going a bit slowly lately because it is rice field preparation time so translation helpers haven’t been able to work every day and also because of their being sick. And, we’re getting tired from long hours so have had to cut back some on the hours we work. So, please PRAY for strength and wisdom as we work to get the Manubu’ translation ready for printing. There are still many odds and ends that we need to work on to make it the best translation we can possibly do.

We so much appreciate all who pray with us and also those who are able to partner with us through giving.

We praise God for the Manubu’ men He has raised up to teach the believers in our village (and elsewhere too). We just sit in awe as we listen to them explain scripture, puling together verses that the Holy Spirit has shown them that apply to what they are teaching. A few Sundays ago, Pulding was teaching and focusing on being ready for Christ’s return. He had a great illustration using a back pack. He said we like to hide our sins and it’s like we stuff them in a pack, zip it closed and hold it tight to us – only opening it to add another sin we don’t want to deal with and confess. Sometimes someone will come along and point out a sin to us, taking it out of our pack, but we usually just grab it back and stuff it again into our pack. He advised that we need to confess our sins and be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:6-10). He said that we need to be involved in each others lives and help each other to see our sin and confess it. If not, then when we stand before Jesus at the judgement seat, Jesus will dump those unconfessed sins out of our packs and all will see them. And he said, “Isn’t it better to take those sins out of our pack now and confess them than to wait until the judgement seat when Jesus will make them known?” The Bible teachers have been encouraging us all to be more involved in ministering to and caring for each other.

This is a picture of Pulding. He is also a great translation helper. [cid:7.1.0.9.2.20110331130554.034e21d0@ntm.org.0]

Please PRAY for all the Manubu’ Bible teachers. Satan sets all kinds of traps for them and their families so they will be caught in temptation and not be able to continue teaching God’s Word.

Yesterday we discovered a big problem with our solar electrical system we use to run all our equipment. We haven’t tracked down the source of the problem yet, but it looks like it might be the voltage regulator, but it could be the batteries that store the power. Please pray that we can figure out just what is happening. The batteries and regulator are special items for charging from solar panels that have to be bought in the USA and shipped so if either of them needs to be replaced it will involve several months of making do using a generator as we wait for replacements.

Our partners, Trevor and Judy, have been out in town for a few weeks while Judy recuperates from surgery. Tukid, a Manubu’ believer, also needs surgery. We really depend on Tukid because he helps Trevor by arranging for work crews and helping overseeing all the maintenance and projects we have done in the village and at the airstrip, and he gives us cultural advise so we don’t make too many blunders. It looked like a good time for him to have his surgery while Trev and Judy are also out in town and can help him go through all the various steps in the process of getting the help he needs. Tukid can speak a limited amount of the language used in town, but doctors and hospitals are very much beyond his understanding. Tukid’s surgery has been postponed once already but is now scheduled for April 5. PRAY that it happens then and is done well, and PRAY for a good recovery.

To make matters worse, we haven’t been able to connect to our usual internet server. Please PRAY that our internet server is fixed soon. We need it to ask the New Tribes tech people some questions to help us find the problem with our solar charging system. We are sending this update via a prepaid internet connection, but it much more expensive.

Maricel represents our village to the government. She came yesterday to have us scan a form and print some copies of it. As she was leaving to go home she left a note on the counter in our office. The note said (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. I thank God because he has given us peaceful living from the time we were first married until now. Even before when I wasn’t yet a believer. Thank you for praying. Telmon and Maricel.”

Isn’t that cool? Telmun has been a Bible teacher for many years now. When he married Maricel she wasn’t yet saved. But, Telmun’s older, unsaved brother chose Maricel for Telmun to marry, and Telmun didn’t dare go against the wishes of this aggressive brother. But, after they were married Telmon taught her the evangelistic phase of the teaching and she believed. PTL They have been a good example of a couple who love each other and the Lord, and who are doing a good job of raising their kids in accord with the scriptures. So please PRAY for what they have asked.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary on Feb 6. PRAY for us too – that we would always be faithful to the work that God has given us, and for strength and wisdom as we work on the final revision of our Manubu’ New Testament. We’re hoping to have it printed this coming summer.

Greetings. A belated Merry Christmas. With the kids here in the Philippines on vacation, and the kids out in the towns and cities crowding into the internet cafes and on their home computers our internet server has been jammed up so email not working real well. We spent Christmas here in our house in the Manubu’ village in the jungle. Celebrated with a lunch of pork chops and homemade cheesecake .

There was another reason also to celebrate. Sagli and Aylu’, the two Bible teachers still teaching at the village we call 50, arrived for a visit with the believers here. And with them came a whole bunch of believers ranging in age from kids to an old man. These believers hiked with Sagli and Aylu’ for two days to get here to our village. They are from a village we’ll call Mahay. We had never before met these believers. With them were Astun and his wife. Astun is a Bible teacher there at Mahay. We had a great time visiting with Astun and his wife and getting to know them. What an encouraging time to see all these believers who are a result of Manubu’ believers reaching out with God’s Word.

You may remember our often asking for prayer for Pablu and his family who started an outreach in the lowlands about 3 years ago. He now has some help. Tilmun, one of the primary Bible teachers here in our village and sometimes a translation helper is now going down to help Pablu each weekend.

Pablu is teaching the evangelistic phase to about 30 people. They have demanded to be taught every night! So Pablu is quite busy. You may remember that a few months ago that a group of believers from our village attended the wedding of one of Pablu’s sons there in that village. The unbelievers there were so impressed with the behavior of the believers from our village that about 30 of them said that wanted to listen to the teaching. Those are the ones that Pablu is now teaching.

Tilmun teaches the people there who are believers as the result of Pablu’s earlier ministry. They are very keen to learn and are willing to listen for hours to the teaching of the book of Acts. Pablu and Tilmun are, needless to say, very encouraged – and so are we.

One of the Manubu’ churches in the lowlands is planning to teach the evangelistic phase of the teaching in a village we’ll call Valen.

And there are other outreaches going on and planned.

Wow, lots of teaching of Gods word!

Please PRAY for all the Manubu’ Bible teachers and the ones they are teaching. For steadfastness for the teachers. For the unsaved to be saved. Those saved to be growing in their relationship with the Lord. PRAY for strength and safety as Tilmun travels to the lowlands each weekend. It is a difficult motorcycle drive with lots of deep mud holes, and Tilmun is not a real experienced motorcycle driver.

And please PRAY for God to raise up more Bible teachers.

Thanks for being a part of what God is doing here through your prayers. Won’t it be exciting to meet in glory these Manubu’ people you’ve prayed for?