Dear praying and loving friends,
Two months in Lima have passed quickly. We were able to complete the consultant check of selected portions of the Old Testament on everything through II Samuel plus some Psalms. These OT portions we are translating should be about equivalent to the number of pages in the New Testament, quite a "hefty project" still. Dick is presently working on the first draft of II Kings. When that is done, Roberto and Waldemar and I will finalize I and II Kings and then continue to finalize the Psalms. We will just keep moving on with one book after another. We are due to again work with the translation consultant in Lima beginning May 30. We hear good reports about the functioning of the Kashinawa Bible Insititute on the Curanja River, 1/2 hour downstream from where we live in Nueva Luz. The Kashinawas are a young and needy church in many ways, but they have some strong leaders with a vision for evangelization of not only their people in Peru but also in Brazil, wliere there is a total of about 4,500 Kashinawas who have little contact with the Gospel. When the Brazilian edition of the New Testament arrives from Korea, this will be a great impetus for missionary trips, but a long, long way for them to travel. We would like to see the Kashinawa churches underwrite this missionary travel, but most of them are struggling with their own finances and they have not learned to step out in faith and give. We continue to teach and to pray that they will accept this responsibility. There are a few couples who are ready to go as soon as the Brazilian edition arrives. Today is Easter and I am remembering over and over again the greeting: "He is risen!" This is used very commonly among the Peruvian Christians on Easter. We were able to go to a wonderful Easter musical, "The Borrowed Tomb", and my co-translators Roberto and Waldemar were deeply impacted by something very different from anything they had ever experienced before, and really liked it. Many in the audience received Christ as their risen Savior after the presentation, and we all went home saying, "He is risen!" Those were the first words that came to mind as I awoke this morning. Such a rich spiritual heritage we have! It seemed a special honor this morning to fix breakfast for the Kashinawa men and then spend a nice long time in Bible reading and prayer with them before we all went to church. I write all my letters to you with deep gratitude for your love for us, for your prayers and for your financial support. This time we have been told by our Mission that we must tell you that our finances are in a very poor state. We very much need additional monthly support. We receive about 70% of our support needs, but we also need some special gifts to help clear our accumulated $8,000 red balance. These are funds that are essential to pay all the expenses involved in the Scripture translation: salaries, food supplements, and travel expenses for us all to come into Lima three more times for a Wycliffe translation consultant to check and give final approval of the translation. We would like to ask you to consider making a "Faith Promise" on our behalf until the translation is completed in December of 2006. A Faith Promise means that in faith, you ask God to provide the resources to give something extra. We believe you will be deeply blessed as you venture outside of your "comfort zone". You will find that the Lord will not let you down! We sincerely thank you for stepping out in faith and helping us at this critical time. You may want to use the section below to send to Mission to the World. They will send you a tax deductible receipt. May God bless you as much as He blesses us by your giving.
Yours in Christ, Mission to the World PC) Box 116284 Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
I would like to help in the support of Richard and Susan Montag in Peru:
_____ With a monthly faith promise pledge of $ _____ per month. I understand that I will receive a tax deductible receipt for my gift(s) from Mission to the World. Signed:___________________
Make your check payable to "Mission to the World" and mail with this to:
- April 18, 2005 |
By the time this arrives, we will be in the Kashinawa village of Nueva Luz. First will be a 22-hour trans-Andean bus ride from Lima to Pucallpa, then a flight from Pucallpa to Esperanza, and finally a full-day canoe trip to Nueva Luz, hopefully arriving in daylight hours. Sometimes we sleep overnight on the river bank but sometimes we leave early in the morning and make it in one day. Then the not-so-much-fun job of unpacking and getting set up again. We expect to be going full speed ahead on translation by Monday, April 11th.