Newly designed mola for book covers.

If you’ve ever worked on a huge project for a LONG time, you know how wonderful it is to see things coming together! That’s how we are feeling about the Kuna literacy project.

Years ago we began developing a whole literacy program using all the things we’ve been learning about successful literacy training. Since it has not been our “full-time” ministry, we’ve worked on it here and there between other projects as we could.

Well, we are in the very final stages of editing and formatting in order to take it down to Panama in a few weeks to check a few questions we have, get some artwork done, and then turn the whole Kuna primer series into the printers! Woo-hoo!

Would you pray for us as we finish up the last details on this huge project? We are thrilled with the financial gifts that have come in toward the project. The Kuna literacy fund has received 77% of the total cost.

To follow the progress, please go to:  usa.ntm.org/projects/kuna-literacy

our precious granddaughter, Claire

Trust you enjoyed the holidays as much as we did! Time with family and friends is so special! We are absolutely loving being grandparents! 

We sent Reed and David (ages 3 and 2) one of those recordable books of the Christmas story. The other day they were listening to us “read” the story and Pam asked them who was talking. It was a page that Papa Jerry was reading and David reverently whispered, “God!”

Molly, age 4 has been asking when she can begin piano lessons with Grandma Joyce. Joyce told her that she would first need to know her letters. So later that day Molly took her Sunday school paper and wrote all the letters of the alphabet and gave it to David & Mari to show Grandma. Needless to say, Molly has now had two lessons and is doing great!

reading Psalms for the FIRST time!

We had the most wonderful time in Panama for the Kuna leadership conference. It’s always a thrill to be able to reconnect with our Kuna friends, study God’s Word together, sing and hear reports of how God is working in the churches. But the thing that touched our hearts the most was something that they carried back to their villages.

Our Kuna friends received the first copies of the newly translated books of Psalms, Proverbs and Exodus. Let that soak into your mind for a moment…Makes us want to shout each time we think about it!!!

Most of us grew up hearing “the Lord is my Shepherd…” We have had free access to God’s whole Word through multiple translations in our language (often sitting in dust on our bookshelves), digital copies if we prefer, and even apps that go wherever we are. Praise God that by 2013 the Kunas will have the whole Bible in their language! Pray for the final steps necessary to get things finished up and off to the printers.

A part of preparing for the Kuna Bible is literacy training. The printed Kuna Bible will be wonderful, but how will it change lives if people cannot read with understanding? Next year we will be working hard to get this important step completed. We invite you to participate by giving to the project. Together our small gifts add up. God has provided 64% of the funds! For information on the project, please go to usa.ntm.org/projects/kuna-literacy

For pictures of the conference click on the photo tab above and go to the album:

our last trip. 

Ever wish that you could somehow invest in strengthening the Kuna churches of Panama?

As you’ve gotten to know some of our dear Kuna friends, have you ever wanted a tangible way to reach out to them, to spiritually encourage them and their families?

 If so, we’ve got an opportunity for you!

The Kuna Old Testament translation is nearing completion. Just think of it! Soon our Kuna friends will be able to read the Psalms and all those wonderful Old Testament books in their own language for the first time! Well, that is if they are able to read! There are many who cannot read and will not have access to God’s Book.

A whole literacy program in Kuna has been developed with a series of student’s books, writing practice, comprehension drills, daily lesson plans for the teachers, flash cards, and homework papers. We are asking God to provide partners to join us by giving to fund the printing, travel and training of Kuna literacy teachers and a literacy supervisor. New Tribes Mission has approved the Kuna literacy project and tax-deductible receipts will be given for each gift.

So even if you are able to share only a small amount, would you please consider this need? As we work together it adds up and God’s Word goes out stronger and stronger. For more information please go to: http://usa.ntm.org/projects/kuna-literacy

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

There is great value in taking time to be sharpened, equipped, and refocused for the tasks God has called us to do. This guards us from becoming dull and ineffective. The annual Kuna leadership conference in Panama, held early in November is a “sharpening” time for the church leaders and their wives.  

Some specific prayer requests:

• Preparation of Bible study materials in Kuna for our teaching sessions. Pray that we will communicate well the things God has laid on our hearts.
• Safety as everyone travels – some are coming from jungle villages on horribly muddy trails. Others from island villages traveling in canoes on the ocean to airstrips where they will fly in. Then there will bus trips to get to the little town where the conference is to be held.
• Provision of finances for conference, food, printing and travels, including our own personal travel expenses.
• That God’s Word will speak to all of us with transforming power – each of these church leaders will be given Bible study materials in Kuna that they can take back to their congregations and villages. 
• For encouraging fellowship together – many of our Kuna brothers and sisters are serving the Lord in remote locations where they do not receive much encouragement. Many of them even face opposition for their faith.
• For wisdom as we present the upcoming new Kuna literacy program and teacher training to be held in 2012.

We appreciate and need your prayers!

Grandma Joyce and little Amelia

She’s here! Amelia Grace McDaniels was born on August 16. She is absolutely beautiful and already adored by big sisters Molly and Claire! We praise God for this miracle with David & Mari. Papa Jerry & Grandma Joyce can’t get enough time holding their newest little love!

Our family actually increased by 2 this week! The adoption of Ryan & Pam’s little David (age 2 yrs) was also completed. David Bravery Parsons makes them a family of six!

For updated pictures on the family, go the the photo page and click on the album titled Family.

Anelio & Silverixia

We have such a great respect for so many of our Kuna brothers and sisters in Panama! Anelio & Silverixia are a young couple that were sent out as missionaries by their church to a village upriver. You may remember that in 2009, while returning to the village where they minister, they lost their 3 year old son in the flooded river. God has used their faithfulness in spite of many hardships to win many to Christ.

A church has been established in the village. Every Saturday Anelio has also been traveling upriver with some of the new believers to the next Kuna village to teach “God’s Book.” The chiefs are asking Anelio and the church leaders to come for some official meetings the end of this month. They would like to have  a couple move into their community to dedicate more time to teaching literacy and the Bible.  Pray for God’s wisdom, provision, and timing for this open door. What a bright spot to remember that God’s Word is still going out to new areas!

Edelfonso & Jerry

Hello from Panama! The checking of the Kuna literacy materials has gone very well. The Lord’s timing is so perfect! The Kuna Bible translation team has recently made some significant changes in the spelling of certain words and hyphenation. Since the literacy program’s main focus is to equip people to read the Kuna Bible, we want to make sure it completely follows the spelling and punctuation used in the Bible. Had we finalized the literacy books sooner, they would not have been correct. So we just have to smile at God’s amazing timing.

We were able to visit with Pastor Edelfonso. The Kuna believers stood with him and the children as they adjust to Eneida’s death. His oldest daughter Yanera and her husband, who have one child of their own, have moved back into the village to help Edelfonso with the eight other children. We were concerned that this would be a heavy load for her at 23 years old. The believers have come to help Yanera with all the tasks she has inherited – hand washing clothes in the river, bringing firewood for cooking, cutting platano, etc. And this testimony of God’s love is touching some of Edelfonso and Eneida’s unbelieving relatives.

Edelfonso’s father, a chief of the village, has always opposed the Gospel message and the believers. But God is using Eneida’s death to soften his heart. Recently, while visiting in the city, he attended a Kuna church with Edelfonso. He listened to the teaching and later told his son, “I am close. I believe this is God’s Book.” Other unbelieving family members in the village are asking questions that show they are contemplating the Truth. Many are coming over to Edelfonso’s house to listen to the audio Kuna New Testament.

So Edelfonso asks us to join him and his children in prayer that God will use their life to bring many more to Christ. As Edelfonso told us with tears in his eyes, “This is something for which Eneida and I have been praying for a long, long time. If this is what it takes to bring others to Christ, then may God’s name be made great in our pain.”

For pictures of our time here in Panama, go to the photo tab above and click on the third album, “our last trip.”

reading the Word

The countdown has begun! Next week Joyce & I travel back “home” to Panama. So much has happened in the lives of our Kuna friends since we last saw them – the flooding and devastation, intense pressure on the believers to return to the traditional ways and forsake the Bible, a dear friend’s death, the Old Testament translation nearing completion! It will be so good to have time together to rejoice and grieve. Plus we have a lot of work to do!

The Kuna literacy program is ready for its final check and then printing. This means there are 6 primers, each with detailed daily lesson plans for the teachers, student writing practice, worksheets, extra reading practice booklets. Would you pray with us that God would multiply our time and allow us to complete all this checking and editing? Pray that this literacy program will be used by God that the Kuna people will be able to read and love God’s Word in their own language.

Please also pray that we will be an encouragement and blessing to our Kuna friends. We look so forward to hearing how God is faithfully working in their lives and churches.

The Kuna ladies sent a message to us that made us smile. They have lost the recipes that Joyce had given them for desserts, especially the banana bread and squash bread. They need these recipes as the churches in several of the villages have purchased little stoves and would like to make the goodies for activities as well as to sell to support their missionary outreaches. In the absence of measuring cups, the recipes were written using tomato paste cans as the standard measurement – something they all would have!

So as the Lord brings us to mind, please hold us up in prayer. There is a lot to do, but we can hardly wait!

We’ve been explaining our ministry focus on literacy and some of the key elements that keep us busy. In our last post we looked at the importance of missionaries finding a good orthography and how alphabets are not simply “one size fits all.” (Now if you aren’t much into grammar, this part might be boring to you…but don’t you dare skip it! Keep reading so you know how to pray for us and the missionaries working with all the different languages).

After a good alphabet has been chosen, and before teams begin actually writing their literacy program, they need to organize all the linguistic information (this is the grammar stuff). We need lists of all the vowels and consonants, as well as diphthongs (two vowels that make one sound; such as boy, eye) and consonant clusters (consonants that blend into one sound; like gl, str, or –ng). We need to know which letters occur most frequently in the language because those letters would give us the most useable words for brand new reader to practice reading. We’ll need a list of every punctuation mark used in the language. Again, languages are not “one size fits all.” Quotations can be shown in many different ways. ¿Just how will questions be marked?

These lists are used by the missionary teams and consultants to make sure that every possible thing that will be written in the language is covered in the literacy materials. We want the people to be able to read God’s Word with great comprehension! And even punctuation is part of really understanding what is written. So that’s how it all fits together – with the goal of having great readers with great understanding of the Most Important Message ever written!