Newly translated books of the New Testament being taught in Lapoc each week!

Every Sunday afternoon, one of our co-translators, Ryan (standing in the yellow smiley shirt), teaches the newly translated scriptures that we've been working on to a group of elders and bible teachers.  They have some wonderful discussions and love studying these newly translated scriptures that they've never had before in their own language. Sometimes they study all afternoon and into the night. They can sometimes have other church leaders arrive from places up to 2 or 3 hours away to join them.

There is great benefit from these studies that Ryan is leading.  One is that Ryan can pass on the knowledge and understanding of the scriptures that he is gaining from the translation work while it is fresh on his mind and these church leaders will in turn be able to more aptly teach and apply the scriptures. Another benefit is that while the translation is still in process, they can have imput and suggest a word that is a more fitting translation or point out anything they don't think is translated clearly. The feedback we are getting is encouraging, they are saying that the Tala-Andig translation is easy to understand and readable, they are loving studying it and finding that it is speaking to their hearts much more than the Cebuano Bibles they have been reading in the regional language which they also know as they are bi-lingual. Last Sunday, Max came across a quote from the book of Isaiah in the passage they were studying from 2 Corinthians 6:2, for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”— and Max shared with the others how he really felt a great thrill go through him when he read this verse in his own mother tongue for the first time!

So on a Sunday afternoon, if the Lord lays this on your heart, please pray for Ryan as he leads this study. Pray for his preparation times, and pray for clarity of thought and understanding as he presents these precious truths he's been entrusted with to his fellow-leaders.  We have reached our goal for the year of finishing up to Hebrews 7! We praise God for the progress!!! What a wonderful year of translation it has been!!!!!  This month of December we plan on taking a break, working on some other things that need to be done, having family time and a bit of rest and relaxation and then we will start back with translation on Jan 4, 2016. Our goal is to have 85% of the New Testament translated by the end of 2016.  Lots of prayer needed.

God is so good to us every day:

     The way He provides for us to keep working in His field year after year and meets all our needs:  thank you for being a part of that!

      The way He puts prayers in His people's hearts to pray for us:  thank you for being a part of that!

       The way He keeps encouraging us:  thank you for being a part of that!

       The way He works through His Body to spread the Gospel:  thank you for being a part of that!

God is also just so good to each one of His children the way He carries them through the trials and hardships and dangers of this life and we want to tell you about how good He was to Chariza (we took this picture of her singing in the Lapoc church last April when she was 3 months pregnant) last month through a huge trial that she had.

Chariza is one of the children who grew up in the Lapoc church. She became a believer in Jesus at a young age, was baptized and when she finished high school, she became one of the scripture teachers in the schools and also helped us on the Translation team. About a year and a half ago she was married to the love of her life, a fellow believer in Jesus called Momoyama and after some time they were excited to find out they were expecting. Last month they were looking forward to the birth of their first baby and one morning a couple of weeks before her due date, after eating some fruit out in her yard with her husband and mother, Chariza's head suddenly began to hurt. She got up and said, "I'm going to go inside and lie down." Her husband got up too and left for the farm and her Mum went off to visit a family in the next village who had just lost a loved one.

What neither of them knew was that Chariza never made it to her bed. She had collapsed on the floor just inside and everything had suddenly gone black. Still conscious, she tried to call for help but her voice wouldn't come out and no one could hear her silent screams. She couldn't see as she had suddenly lost her vision and she couldn't move. She lay on the dirt (their house hadn't been finished yet and didn't have a floor) for a couple of hours unable to move until noon when her married sister dropped by and found her. Her sister ran to the farm to call Momoyama and together they carried Chariza to the bed and cleaned her up and tried to give her something to eat and drink which she really couldn't get down. By then she was spitting up some blood and Momoyama was panicking and so was her sister and they had no idea what to do.

Their Mum arrived back at 5 pm and as soon as she saw Chariza she ran to Lapoc for help and came back an hour later with WingWing and our 4WD that is used to transport the scripture teachers, along with Nanah and Annx2, two of our team who we trained as health workers in the Clinic and who we gave midwifery training to as well.

  

They diagnosed Chariza as having pre-ecclampsia and cared for her during the long two hour ride out to the hospital. During that ride, Chariza still couldn't see, her blood pressure was sky high, she was falling in and out of consciousness and attending to her was extremely difficult in the cramped space of the vehicle. Only 30 minutes into the trip, she had a massive convulsion, a massive haemorrhage from her mouth and she stopped breathing. Moyomaya cried out in despair, "She's gone, she's gone...." and began to sob heart wrenching cries because he thought his wife was dead.  Nanah and Annx2 called out to God for help and He heard their prayers and they began to feel a pulse and to see Chariza taking tiny, shallow breaths and they made it to the hospital where she was put on an IV, given injections and after two more massive convulsions and 40 minutes trying to stabilize her, she was taken by ambulance to another hospital an hour away for an emergency C-section.  

Today Chariza is back home with a beautiful, healthy baby boy, her vision has returned, her body has healed......it is another of God's amazing goodnesses! God chooses how each of our stories will end, but one thing is always the same - His goodness! "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23:6. 

Grandma's little babies!

We're going to see our grandkids again soon as March is just around the corner now that November is already here. This is our delightful little Jhamaica who is 4 and her little brother Lloyd (having fun with Grandma in the picture below) who is 2, the youngest of our four grandchildren.  (We just wanted to show them off!)

Paul has been spending a lot of time today organizing our schedule and contacting people in the Philippines in preparation for this coming visit in March. Amongst other things we are going to be having a weekend with the elders from all the churches along with their wives which will be packed with fellowship, bonding time as teams and lots of prayer time and planning meetings.

We want the elders to tell us where they think we should locate and what areas they feel we could most benefit the churches as we move back full-time in 2017 once Jubab is finished high school and settled somewhere in Uni or College.

Would you please pray for Atu and Boding, a  brother and sister from the Ricodo church? Their 12 year old son Jorics, was hit on the head from a falling coconut and died from the injury. He was buried over the weekend and they are left in great grief and shock. Boding is one of the praise team and also one of the ladies who teaches scripture at the school in Kalamalamahan.  In another church - the new church at Dungguan - the believers are going through sickness and loss: please pray for the family of Tony who the Lord took after a time of sickness. He is an older man but was a new believer in the Lord. Pray also for Helen who opened up her home to us when we went to Dungguan, she is having blood pressure problems and pain in her chest. Also a man who is newly saved whose name is Juan, has cancer. We have personally been to Dungguan and it is a very isolated and poor community and medical help is a difficult to reach.

Sickness, grief and trials are nothing new in this world but the Word of God brings something new and wonderful and that is the knowledge of Him and of His love and the help that is constantly near as we walk with Jesus and are empowered by Him. This new and exciting journey is sustaining hundreds of our brothers and sisters. Yesterday in the Lapoc church, the pastors there: Ronnie, Rodil and Duyduy started teaching the book of 1 Timothy which we only finished translating this year. It was only the introduction but already we have heard of the excitement of the congregation to hear this new part of scripture and to learn new things in their walk with God. Some we heard were thumbing through their copies of the partial Tala-Andig New Testament and were saying, "How come our Bible doesn't have 1 Timothy in it?" They were disappointed to only be able to read it on the church power point.

The wonderful news though is that we are right on schedule again and completed our translation goals for the month of October (PLEASE KEEP PRAYING - YOUR PRAYERS ARE VITAL!) and by the end of this week, 2 Corinthians will be totally finished and we will be printing new partial Tala-Andig Bibles that will have almost 70% of the NT in them rather than the 54% which they currently have and this means that they will then be able to read 1 Timothy in their own homes and carry it with them wherever they want.

We are already drafting the book of Hebrews and are up to chapter 3. Please pray that by the end of November we will have up to and including Hebrews 6 finished.