A Rest – We had to have a few days rest when the check was first finished as we were exhausted so we went to Cagayan for 3 days, caught up with some friends, went to the dentist and got purchased food and supplies as we normally only get to do this every 1-2 months.
More Checking – The team of translation consultants are very experienced in doing translation and they went through our translation of Luke with a fine toothed comb, and at the end of the check they had come up with a list of things that they wanted us to consider and look at some more – mainly in the area of the use of figurative language. The work of going over each of the suggestions and considerations that they asked us to and also writing a report about our findings to the consultants has taken us about 2 weeks to complete. Part of the checking process that we did was to make up a questionnaire which we sent out to a wide variety of people – from 10 – 60 years old, schooled and unschooled, saved and unsaved – with extracts from the book of Luke and then questions on the particular areas we were checking. A sample of the questions we were asking were:
“What did Jesus mean in Luke 9:24 when He said that whoever will save his life shall lose it?”
“What fire was Jesus talking about in Luke 12:49 that He said He had come to cast on the earth?” .......and many others like these.
We are now almost to the end of the whole checking process – maybe one more weeks worth of work left – which includes running the whole book of Luke through a spell checker one last time to make sure the spelling is all correct, getting it in the right format and proof reading it and then sending it off to the Printers for publication.
Globals – there are words used throughout the scriptures in the Tala-Andig translation like ‘chief priest – adagiyon ha tigpapamuhat’, ‘glory - himayà’, ‘worship - simba’.........and on and on, hundreds of words......that compile our key terms list. As we translate we keep learning new words and some of the new words we learn are actually a better match meaning-wise then another word we have previously used. As we have worked through the book of Luke, our Tala-Andig vocabulary has grown and we have been compiling a list for over a year of words that we have to globally search for through the Tala-Andig translation and to change or update. This is what we have been working through this week and it has been most tedious but we finished it today.
Midwifery Seminar – Belinda and I recently taught a midwifery seminar here and have worked on a midwifery manual and we have a few more days of work on this to complete the final draft of this manual so it can be printed and distributed.
Schools and Church Buildings – Paul has 1 school room and three church building that he is in the process of building. He has been very busy getting all the materials on site and with all the other preparations involved. It is important to get all of the materials on site before the rains come as it will possibly close the road down to an extent.
Teaching the book of Acts – While we were in Australia, Josh was teaching the book of Mark along with the other bible teachers here. He finished that series just last Sunday so Paul is now going to continue his series on the book of Acts, teaching chapters. 17-28. A lot of preparation goes into this and also into writing a commentary/study guide on these chapters as a resource for the church to use as they do not have access to any English commentaries due to them not being able to speak English.
Teaching Maths – Jubab’s maths curriculum is getting more and more difficult and Paul having the most mathematical mind on the team here, has now taken on teaching Jubab’s Maths Class which takes a couple of hours each day.
Leadership Development – Paul continues to have imput and teaching times with the elders and leaders of the church and is currently developing leadership development studies.
Ladies’ Retreat – June 11-12, we are having a Ladies’ Retreat at a Bible Camp facility a couple of hours drive away from here. I am leading a study on the book of 1 John during the retreat and have been preparing and studying for this. This study has to be written so it can be printed and re-produced and used as a study guide in the outreaches.
Book of Romans – this is the next book we are translating. Last week we started working on Chapter 1 but our proposed schedule for starting full-time work on this is mid-June.
Visitors – hurray!!! A visit from precious friends from Ballina who are coming the end of this week!!! It will be so wonderful to be with them again as we have been homesick and have been really missing them.
A typical day........there is not really such a thing here. This morning started with an early visit from a grieving brother whose father died unexpectedly last night. Awhile later, there was another problem (of much less importance) when we discovered there was no water for a shower or even a bucket-bath as the water had totally run out in our tank. The deep-well is producing no water as the water tables are so low, and we are dependant right now on rain water. Thankfully we have started to get some rains.
We have worked all day on finishing the Globals (explained above), our heads feel like they are about to burst from concentrating so hard on such a tedious task, and we are working now on getting some dinner ready for our co-workers Bugs and Elsa, who just returned from a visit to Cauyunan.
Tomorrow will bring a totally different set of happening that all compile to make up our lives here in Lapoc and every day is challenging, busy, sometimes heartbreaking, often stressful but also full of joys and in the midst of every crisis.....is the undergirding peace and strength from our Heavenly Father.
Please keep praying........ there are days (we have to admit) when we feel homesick for Ballina, and there are days we feel overwhelmed, and there are times when we are faced with a request and we just don’t know what the right answer is to give, and there are times we feel so exhausted, and we make mistakes, and there are the days when we cry silently “rescue us Lord”.....but we keep pressing on for the joy set before us and because of the verse God has been laying on our hearts: “For the love of Christ constraineth us.....”
This is our sister Jenita.......the Lord brought us here because she is one of His chosen ones that He wanted reached.
This week she has been crying, her heart is heavy
with struggles but she has One who is saying to her,
“Come unto Me........and I will give you rest.”
So for our Lord and because of His sheep that have yet to be brought into the fold.....we press on!
Love Paul, Deb and Jubab
