April 2004

Dear Praying Friends and Family,

God makes each one of us different, and gives us each the gifts He wants us to have and to develop, but we all have special heroes in our lives, and beside my Savior, my hero has been the apostle Paul. Despite sufferings that most of us could never imagine going through, Paul was always honest about the difficulties he struggled with, but shared with us how through these sufferings he learned that:

• God's grace really was sufficient for him;
• That he could do all that was asked of him through Christ who gave him the strength;
• That God's grace was made perfect in weakness;
• That for him to die was gain, but to live was Christ;
• That absolutely nothing, no, nothing, could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus;
• That if you wanted to know how to live the Christian life, follow how Paul lived;
• And on and on we can go.

We have now completely finished the revision of the New Testament for the Kashinawas of Peru, and it has purely been by God's grace being sufficient each day, in His strength, because it was the most important thing that God had for us in this time of our lives, because God's love kept lifting us up in joy, because we wanted to be faithful to the Lord's calling, and because you have been faithful to the Lord and to us and have supported us with your faithful prayers and gifts. Thank you, one and all.

By the time this letter arrives, we will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia working with the Bolivian Bible Society on the New Testament manuscript layout so the Peruvian Bible Society can do the publication. I remember the intensity of this work when I worked on our original New Testament manuscripts in 1980 and we are expecting there will be many challenges ahead, However, our graitude to be to this step is so overwhelming that it feels "all downhill" from here. We are anticipating being in Cochabamba for six to eight weeks and then returning to Yarinacocha-Pucallpa to get ready to fly to Esperanza and on to the Kashinawa village as soon as possible. We have done a lot of shopping for the things we will be using as trade goods for our food and the work that is done for us, and everything has gone on ahead with Roberta and Waldemar and their families. They flew to Esperanza on February 29 and had to wait several days for the cargo plane to arrive with some of their and our cargo, but then they headed on upriver for two days to home sweet home.

We are anticipating returning to Nueva Luz as soon as we get back from Bolivia so we can begin the edition of the New Testament for the Brazilian Kashinawas, of whom there are about 4,000. We have several families of Brazilian Kashinawas who are coming to visit relatives in May and begin working with us on June 1. We are really looking forward to this. The alphabet for Brazil has 6 changes, which we will have to program on the computer, and then we will do a dialectical check. It seems like a straightforward project, and one for which many Brazilian Kashinawas are waiting with much anticipation to be completed.

HOW YOU CAN PRAY

• For the Lord's daily joy, wisdom, grace, patience and strength upon Dick and me as we work in Bolivia and upon the co-translators as they joyfully teach in their home churches again;
• For the Kashinawas in Peru and Brazil to be hungry for God's Word in their own language and to await it with joy, and for more and more to come to faith in Christ;
• For the Peruvian NT to be printed and arrive in Peru without delay;
• For the Lord to meet all our spiritual and physical needs to complete the Peruvian NT and move on to the Brazilian edition, and for the publication funds still needed for the Peruvian edition.

May the Lord's overflowing blessings be upon each of you. And remember with us as I John 2:6 says:
"Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

Yours because of Calvary,

Sue

For Dick and Sue Montag

Write to us at:
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Montag
ILV, Apartado 52
Pucallpa, Peru, SA
RMontag@mtwla.org or dick-sue_montag@sil.org