Dear Praying Friends, I wish this were a personal letter for each of you but our days seem to run out before our tasks do. We thank each of you for your faithful prayer and gifts and for your love for us. REJOICE with us that the basic revision of the Kashinawa New Testament was finished by our team on July 29. The last book we revised was Jude, so let me share with you this wonderful message from him to us. It seems like such an appropriate conclusion: But you dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear -- hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. SOME SPECIAL LITTLE BLESSINGS: * Waking up early and hearing someone playing songs of praise on his guitar at 5 or 5:30 a.m. * Going to sleep with tapes of Christian music coming from neighboring houses * Seeing our neighbor Jose, who is a very old 50 or so, in his hammock working on the list of 35 memory verses from the new revised Scriptures. * Many of our neighbors (usually 10-12) joyfully participating in the New Testament Read-through and question sessions with those who have not yet heard the revised NT. Three families have come from distant villages to take part in this process. * Beautiful trees with vivid lavender and tangerine blossoms towering from the heights * The big ol' black vultures who we see mount up with wings like eagles and fly with ease far above the of everyday life. * Plenty to eat, be it all very much the same as the Kashinawas eat, and probably not much to your liking * Wonderfully dedicated men on our revision team who give all they have to be sure that the revision is as good as our Lord enables it to be * Seeing shooting stars in a clear jungle sky, and oh, the sun rises and sets with colors one only sees in calendars * Many dear friends, fellow believers, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandchildren, brothers and sisters to help fill in the loss we feel from being away from you all * The knowledge that we are right where the Lord wants us to be and that He will keep us here until His work for us here is completed * All of you who pray regularly/daily for us and support us financially WHAT'S NEXT? As I get this letter ready to send, we have completed the naive check of the whole New Testament and are preparing to leave Nueva Luz for now. Our revision team and we will head down river by canoe to Esperanza and from there Dick and Tufi will continue on down the Purus River to a town that borders with Brazil. They will try to make tentative plans for us to work in that area with Brazilian Kashinawas from distant areas where there are dialectical differences so that we can make the necessary changes for the Brazilian edition of the Kashinawa New Testament. They have a very different alphabet, which can be easily adapted via the computer, but the dialectical changes will require careful review. While they are off in the hinterlands, Roberta, Waldemar and I will return to Pucallpa and from there go to the Andean city of Huanuco to work with a translation consultant checking Acts through Revelation, the remaining 60%. This will be an intense time for us all. When the consultant check is completed, we will have key "terms" to check and shortly be ready to take our manuscripts to Bolivia for layout and typesetting. It is really getting close now. HOW YOU CAN PRAY * For the Lord's daily wisdom, grace, patience and strength to be upon each of us as we work together and travel down many tiring trails * For the families of Tufi, Roberta, and Waldemar as they are separated for quite some time * For the Lord to meet all our spiritual, physical and financial needs to complete the Peruvian NT and move on to the Brazilian edition.
Yours because of Calvary, - September 30, 2003 |