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!

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!

the understatement of the day - dangerous curves ahead

Thank you so much for standing with us in prayer while we were in Bolivia! We had a wonderful time getting to know the missionary candidates who are preparing for service. They learned about literacy’s importance in church planting and discipleship and practiced writing primers and teaching them.

look Mom - no railing

After class was done we traveled to the other side of Bolivia to the Simba work to encourage the team with their literacy ministry. (For pictures of our harrowing trip along winding mountain roads, click on the Photos tab and then on: our last trip). God is doing exciting things in the Simba church. But with very low literacy levels among the Simba people, there are only a handful of people who can read and use the Simba Bible translation and study materials. Even many of the church leaders struggle to read the Word with comprehension. Pray that the team will have wisdom as they move forward with their literacy strategy – that every Simba person will have the opportunity to read God’s Word in their own language!

Simba-Guarani lady, Bolivia

We are very excited for the opportunity to train 22 Bolivian missionary candidates, begin equipping a new literacy consultant, and make some trips into tribal areas to evaluate and move literacy forward.

Most of us haven’t heard much about the country, but Bolivia is quite the fascinating place! The landlocked country could be summarized by the word “diversity.” Besides Spanish, Aymara and Quechua languages, there are 34 other officially recognized indigenous languages spoken! That’s quite a challenge for missionaries seeking to clearly communicate the most important Message of all time!

Bolivia has the largest deposit of salt on the planet. And under all that salt is the largest deposit of lithium in the world (used for batteries). Bolivia is located in one of the wettest zones – receiving over 8 meters of rainfall per year. This makes its tropical rainforests and wetlands full of life. Forty percent of all types of animals and plants in the world are found in Bolivia.

We should see some beautiful butterflies in Bolivia. It ranks 4^th in the world for the most butterfly species. Important exports are Brazil nuts, organic coffee and cacao. Bolivia has the two highest cities in all of the world – Potosí and La Paz. And we have a connecting flight in La Paz!  

We appreciate your prayers as we minister in Bolivia!

What does writing have to do with the Church?

Did you know that there are over 6,000 spoken languages in the world today, and only about half exist in written form? That means there are over 450 million people who still do not have a way to write their own language. This impacts the work of the Church because without writing, these groups do not have access to Bible translation in their own language! 

While in Colombia, one of teams with whom we worked is in the final stages of learning the tribal language. It’s one of those really difficult languages with tone, nasalized vowels, glottals and all kinds of headaches for linguists! The team was able to make huge steps forward on their orthography (alphabet), in preparation for literacy, Bible translation, and Bible materials. Pray for this team of dedicated missionaries as they finalize the last few things in their linguistic analysis and begin developing the literacy program next March!

May God continue to open His Word to tribal people around the world…who up to this point have not had access to this precious Gift!

For pictures of our trip to Colombia (including the Salt Mines in Zipaquira) go the photo tab and click on the album “our last trip.”

for another adventure!

This time we are returning to the lovely country of Colombia with its dramatic rainforests, mountains, and colorful cultures. We will need to pack warm clothes because temperatures in Bogotá will be cooler than most of the places we travel (44 – 65 F). But the delicious hot chocolate and Colombian coffee will warm us up! 

We look so forward to the fellowship with all our dear Colombian friends and co-workers and are thrilled for the opportunity to bring encouragement and practical help in the area of literacy. The motto of the team in Colombia is “boldly pressing forward!” Because of security concerns, the missionaries face great obstacles and risks, yet they serve faithfully in 10 different tribal groups. We are convinced of the great value literacy skills will be to these isolated tribal people.

Our three main focuses:

• To help teach the literacy course in their missionary training center. This prepares Colombian believers to join the work as tribal missionaries.
• To meet with tribal missionary teams, evaluating their literacy situations and giving practical help so that the tribal people may read God’s Word in their own languages with good comprehension
• To continue to equip literacy consultants

Will you join us in prayer?

• For safety in travel – for us and all the missionaries traveling out of their areas
• Good health during a hectic schedule
• For clear communication in Spanish – the vast majority of missionaries there are our Colombian brothers and sisters! This means that all of our meetings and classes will be done in Spanish.
• For wisdom as we teach the literacy course to the missionary candidates and also meet with the tribal missionary teams.
• For the country of Colombia. While there have been great strides in recent years toward resolving issues, there still are vast areas that are considered too dangerous to enter. This limits access to the more than 50 language groups that are still unreached and without the Gospel. Let’s pray that God will work in a mighty way that His Message can go out into these areas.

So as God brings us to mind during these next few weeks, we sure appreciate your prayers!

enjoying new friends, Arimtap

We had such an awesome time in Indonesia! We were able to work with 18 different language groups, encouraging tribal church leaders and missionary teams of the importance of literacy skills so that people can read the Bibles in their own languages. A great Bible translation will not have the life-changing effect that God desires, if no one can read It!

We traveled through quite a bit of the country with 28 airplane or helicopter rides. Thank you so much for your prayers! Each tribal group we were with had their own unique situations, and we sure were leaning hard on the Lord for His wisdom to give practical help. God gave us great health and safety as we traveled (even as we ate all sorts of new and “interesting” things).

We met a whole new set of friends and coworkers in Indonesia. We worked most closely with Darryl and Kyla Palmer. Kyla is the literacy consultant for the field of Indonesia, and we want her to have everything she needs for her ministry.

There’s no way we can even begin to tell you all the stories of how God worked, but perhaps a good way to summarize is to share the words of a Punan tribal church leader named Kesi who attended the literacy seminar. He became convinced of how important it is to teach and read in the language that speaks to the people’s heart. Returning to his village he said,  “I have studied the Indonesian language translation of Genesis for many years. But it wasn’t until this last month when I read the whole book in my own language that I can say that I really understood it.” In another language group the missionary took our suggestion to develop more booklets for the people to practice reading and has already written 10 new stories! The improvement in reading skills will soon be very noticeable.

It’s good to be back, but we are so thankful that we can invest our lives that tribal people all around the world can read and grow through God’s precious written Word!

for pictures of the adventure go to our photo page and click on Indonesia!

It is a location known for amazing diversity in wildlife, plants and scenery. There you will find the world’s largest lizard, the Komodo Dragon; the world’s largest snake, the Reticulated Python; the world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia; and the world’s largest bee, the Chalocodoma Pluto. 

So…did you guess Indonesia? Joyce and I can hardly wait for the opportunity to work with the missionaries and the tribal churches. We will be there from April 5th through May 14th.

Please pray for:

• The details of traveling…flight connections, physical stamina for the 13 hour time zone change, paperwork and customs in different countries with different languages!

•Prepared hearts for us and those that we will be serving (missionaries, tribal church leaders, consultants). How we want to be instruments that God can use to build His Church among tribal people in Indonesia! Please pray for God’s wisdom as we listen, learn and minister.

•And for the Kuna churches in Panama as they continue to send their own missionaries into unreached villages. We just got an update from Kuna co-worker in a new work where God’s Word is changing lives. Please also pray for the ongoing final revisions of the Kuna Old Testament translation being worked on by our dear friends and coworkers, Keith & Wilma Forster and the Kuna translation team.

We need and are counting on your prayers!

Anelio, Silverixia & family

About two years ago a young Kuna couple were sent out by their church to work as missionaries in an unreached village upriver. This was a complete miracle as God opened doors that were previously completely closed to the Gospel.

In these first years of ministry in the village, Anelio & Silverixia have faced opposition and hardship. At first people didn’t want to hear God’s Book. They ridiculed, humiliated, and opposed Anelio & Silverixia in every way. But eventually the children of the village began showing interest in hearing God’s Book and began listening to the chronological Bible lessons. Little by little adults asked for Bible teaching until there were about 80 adults hearing God’s Word and over a hundred children.

Now there is a small group of new believers in the village who are taking stands in obedience to Christ, refusing to participate in the village drinking ceremonies. This puts them under intense pressure from the village and their families. They have to pay monetary fines. They are accused, questioned and threatened. Most of us cannot even imagine the pressure they live with each day. And yet this little group of believers stands tall for Christ, “counting it ALL joy!”

Would you pray for Anelio and Silverixia as they lead this little, hurting flock? Pray that they will have God’s wisdom, peace and strength. We will be meeting together in November for the annual Kuna leadership conference. Pray that they and other Kunas ministering in difficult locations will be encouraged and prepared for their ministries. 

When people think of key activities involved in tribal church planting the list often covers things like Bible translation, evangelism, Bible curriculum, discipleship, and leadership development. We would like literacy to be added to the list because…

1.     Of all the possible methods to record the most life-changing Message of all time, God chose the written form to preserve His Word. We believe everyone should have access to His Written Word in their language!

2.     When people can read God’s Word for themselves, they are not dependant on others to hear it. Just think of how many times God has reached down and encouraged you by the exact verse you needed while reading the Word!

3.     The truth of the Word is protected. No matter what teaching comes into the area, people can go back to the Written Word and check it out.

4.     Important truths of the Bible are not forgotten or overlooked. People can remember a lot, but it’s unrealistic to expect that everything will be remembered and passed on to others.

5.     Personal spiritual growth is accelerated. People can study the Bible all through the week and don’t need to wait for the next scheduled public meeting.

6.     Literacy invests in the potential of the Church! Reading and writing skills equip everyone to serve in broader ways. They can work on the Bible translation team, develop Bible studies, share words to songs or prayer requests.

7.     In many locations where there has been little or no interest in Bible teaching, literacy teachers found open doors to provide classes. God has used the relationships built during this to open doors to the Gospel!

8.     Printed materials can go places and reach people in ways that individuals may never be able to. Books have been called the “tireless teachers” and are an amazing tool God has given for the growth and expansion of His Church!

So why are Joyce & I so excited about literacy? Because we believe in the power of God’s written Word to change lives! We are thrilled to be serving in the area of literacy, that God’s Word might be opened to every tongue, tribe and nation!