"Therefore, I urge you, brethren, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Godthis is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will isHis good, pleasant and perfect will." ROMANS 12:1-2 Dear Praying Friends and Family, Moving again We have spent a very nice 1-1/2 years calling Yarinacocha home at the Wycliffe Bible Translators' center and living in a duplex right on the main road. They now are in the process of serious downsizing and there are fewer and fewer people here. They will be closing this center in a year or so and are looking at various properties in the city of Pucallpa. Some folks have picked out their own land to where they will be moving. So, we, too, have realized that again we must move. In that we are getting ready to go to Nueva Luz for maybe 6 months, and staying until the New Testament revision is completed with our three co-translators, we decided this was a good time to make plans for our inevitable move. The Wycliffe folks have given us a little study hall that we have had disassembled and moved to the land of a Peruvian friend, and put on a slab which we had poured. Much work still needs to be done, for it was only a 1 room study hall and we need to have 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom built in. The house will be our friend's when we complete our work in Peru, which we have anticipated will be in 2006. Our postal and e-mail addresses will remain unchanged, at least for now. We will still have access to help through Wycliffe, for which we are very grateful. Since we will be away from electricity, phones and e-mail for maybe 6 months, please do not send us any "FORWARDS" during this time. All of your regular letters, be they by e-mail or US mail will be very much appreciated, but we could have a great deal of e-mails waiting for us in 6 months if there are a lot of forwards, and really not even have time to read them. If you need to communicate regarding something urgent, contact our daughter Deborah Kolota at: kolota@earthlink.net and she will contact a friend here in Peru with whom we speak weekly by radio. We are really way out. Well, maybe some of you have said that about us for a long time! Revision process We have finished revising Revelation with Roberto and Waldemar and this was by far the easiest book to revise, and one that I always feel especially blessed by. We have also revised about 6 chapters of Acts and will continue on with that as soon as we arrive in Nueva Luz. One of my "on hold" projects has been a Cashinahua song book revision. In the process of doing the New Testament revision, we have made several alphabet changes that the Cashinahuas have needed. So we have wanted to get a song book ready with the new alphabet as a way to help the people get used to the alphabet changes. The changes are really quite simple: "v" has become "w" and "x" has been divided into "x" and "sh". "The secretary" sometimes still confuses the "x" and "sh" words, but there doesn't seem to be anyone jumping in to take my place so we laugh and go on. I spend probably 10-12 hours a day at the computer, I who had never used one until the summer of 1998! What's that about teaching old dogs new tricks? This song book was finally finished up 2 days ago and I had 25 copies made to take with us. The Swiss Indian Mission will be printing the major quantity of song books for distribution to the 17 Cashinahua churches in the 17 villages in Peru. We are grateful for the help of these dear folks. Advanced education Our co-translator Waldemar has a 17 year old son who graduated from secondary school in December and he has wanted very much to have his son Abel go on for further education to prepare for a career that will enable him to be able to earn a regular salary. There is a crying need for nurses to run the clinics in the area where the Cashinahuas live, and Abel has very wisely decided to try to get into a 3 year nursing course here in Pucallpa. The red tape equals the weight of the student, especially since Waldemar is trying to get him some financial aid and find a Christian family with whom he could board. On Sunday, March 9, we went to a church near the Instituto Tecnológico Suiza that he wants to attend. Much to our surprise and joy, there was a Peruvian missionary there who knew both Waldemar and Abel (having had Bible Institutes in a number of Cashinahua villages), and she greeted them by name from the podium, as "My friend Pastor Waldemar and his son from Balta). After the service we spoke with both the missionary and the pastor and they want to help Abel get into the school and find a place to stay, and see if they can help with a financial discount. Waldemar and Abel will be going to the Wednesday evening service tonight to see if they can line up housing for Abel and they are invited to the missionary woman's home for dinner on Sunday. Still much need to be finalized but we are very grateful for what the Lord has done for them so far. Up, up and away Dick will be purchasing tickets today for us to fly to Esperanza on Saturday, March 15th. Many of these flights get canceled because although there may be a full plane load to leave Pucallpa, there may not be enough passengers from Esperanza to make the flight profitable. So, one waits until the next flight, which they try to have on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We are praying that the Lord will allow us to go without delay, for we will be completely moved out of this house and have everything in a friend's basement until our new little house is ready, after we return to Pucallpa next time. Prayer requests
We want to thank you very sincerely for your loving concern for us and your prayers and financial gifts. You are the Lord's way of keeping us here. Please excuse our lack of personal communication with you while we are away, for there is no way to do so. May the God of all peace be with you in your daily lives. We pray for most of you every week Yours in Christ, |