May 14, 2004 Our Dear Friends who keep us here, My twelve hour work days are just not lending themselves to all the personal letters that I really want to write, so please accept this as if it were only to you. Most of you who receive my e-mails are in my weekly prayers. I have a page divided into seven sections with about 250 names (which always bring more family members to mind). I have a Sunday prayer list, a Monday list, etc, and an early morning hour is set aside daily to pray for you. Dick has a different list, but we both keep you in our prayers. Most of those on my list have been there for more than three years. And we know there are many of you who pray daily for us, and others who pray weekly or any variety of schedules. We are deeply grateful for your faithfulness to us and the work among the Kashinawas. We attribute the wonderful progress we have been making in translation purely to God's grace and the faithful prayers of you all. We deeply thank you for your part. He has given us strength beyond our years, a passion to revise and translate as much of the Scriptures for the Kashinawas as we can, and a desire to just keep on keeping on. "Go to the desk, sit down, and stay there!" An amazingly efficient plan when the Lord is in control! As of now, the luggage is coming out again and we are due to fly to Esperanza on May 22 on a commercial 18 passenger plane that goes every Saturday that the plane has a full load of passengers for both directions and is in good mechanical condition... It keeps our dependence on our Almighty and not on men for our plans. After landing in Puerto Esperanza, we will go on upriver to Nueva Luz by motorized canoe, hopefully spending a night on a nice beach somewhere in a lean-to with our hammocks and mosquito nets. Wow, is that nice! We are earnestly praying that by the end of May, a group of BRAZILIAN Kashinawas who understand the dialectical changes used on the more distant Brazilian rivers, will have arrived in Nueva Luz and be ready to begin the Brazilian revision on June 1. We estimate 5-6 weeks of work with them, and then the manuscripts will be ready for the Brazilian Bible Society to print the New Testament for the "Kaxinawá of Brazil", yes, a slightly different spelling. I anticipate going to Sáo Paulo, Brazil near the end of September to do the manuscript preparation with them and then the proofreading. They tell me to plan on a week to 10 days, since the manuscripts were basically readied in Bolivia when the Peruvian edition was done. We have just made alphabet and name changes, and anticipate only a few dialectical adaptations will be necessary. So, on July 24, I plan to meet the plane (that flies every Saturday that it flies!) and go to Lima to meet the visitors who are coming from the US to be part of our New Testament dedication and distribution in Balta on August 9 This is a day upriver from Nueva Luz, but where we had spent 12 years previously with the Kashinawas. The next morning, Dick and our Mission to the World Director will begin a trip of several days on the river, visiting the now under construction Kashinawa Bible Institute and they will end their trip with on 14th with "that Saturday plane". Or maybe with a mission charter on Monday, if necessary. While I work with the Brazilian New Testament adaptation team, Dick will continue on the Old Testament revision with a second team of co-translators. Two translation teams times two sets of expenses, but two times the progress, and we are really looking forward to this expanded adventure. If the Lord has shown us anything in our almost 3 1/2 years back in Peru, it is that He is the one on whom we depend for daily strength, guidance, wisdom protection, and ALL. Do keep on praying. And PLEASE DON'T SEND US ANY MAIL WITH ATTACHMENTS. THANKS.
With our love to each one of you personally,
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- May 18, 2004 |