To Nigeria

Hello everyone,

I have got some interesting news. I am off to Nigeria. I will be joining Bob Bates as we deploy cell amps and netbooks in a variety of places. We will be gone about a week and a half.

Update on Madagascar from the Wycliffe Main Website

I thought some of you might be interested in this update from the Wycliffe Associates website. This project and these people are the ones I was working with on my last trip.


CURRENT PROJECT UPDATES
MADAGASCAR TRANSLATION PROJECT

More than 22 million people—most of them practice animistic worship—live in the island nation of Madagascar. Millions are living in utter spiritual darkness!
Ten different translation efforts have begun in this spiritually barren region of the world and another six are waiting to launch.
Most of the translation efforts in Madagascar are done painstakingly by hand.
Hand written notes and translations go back and forth—then the final draft can be typed.
Every verse . . . every Scripture by hand.
Imagine the time and commitment!
Two strong and very brave missionary ladies, Lioni and Bev, have been training and consulting national Bible translators in Madagascar for decades.
They are isolated and alone. Their training location has changed hands—it’s no longer available. The task is overwhelming!
A WORK IN PROGRESS
Wycliffe Associates is prepared to come alongside Leoni and Bev, and the 10 Bible translation teams with support and much-needed encouragement.
Prepared to empower them to accelerate Bible translation—we will provide a new translation training center, technology, and other resources.
Leoni and Bev have no one else to turn to for support!
Please help! The need is so great. People are waiting for even a word of Scripture. Eternity is literally on the line for millions of men, women, and children.
You are their best help. Help place the priceless Word of God in the hands of people in desperate need of truth and hope.
Without your help today NO new startups can begin in Madagascar . . .
And the current translation efforts could be stalled!
Would you prayerfully consider giving a generous gift to support Bible translation efforts for these spiritually hungry people?
Or, would you consider volunteering? Be an encouragement with your presence. Help advance Bible translation in Madagascar!
To contribute to this project, you can donate online, use the printable giving form, or call us at
1-800-THE WORD (1-800-843-9673). Thank you!
If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please complete a sign-up form.


If you wall like to see this post from the Wycliffe Associates website click this link.
http://www.wycliffeassociates.org/ministries/project.asp?id=50

Trip Report Madagasar

Tech Advance Madagascar Trip May 17-June 10 Welcome to Madagascar! If you like warm days and cool evenings than you might like winter here. Being located in the Southern Hemisphere, Madagascar has its winter in America’s summer.
It took me three days of flying to get to Madagascar and another day of flying to get down to Toliara. I went to Madagascar to participate in a Bible translation workshop. My part in the workshop was to co-lead a computer training class for the national translation teams with Russ Perry. Around 30-35 pastors and church leaders participated in the computer training. Most of these individuals had never used a computer before and really looked forward to learning what I could teach them.

The goal of the computer training is to equip translation team members with the ability to use computers in the translation process. Beyond computers, I am looking into the possibility of using Bgans (Satellite Communication equipment) to facilitate communication between national translation teams and the translation project leaders. I also want to help find ways to make Bible translation self sustainable. Hopefully better communication and the use of computers can speed up the process of Bible translation for the 20 current translation projects.

There are multiple stages to translating the Bible into someone’s heart language. The first step is usually to translate Luke and use that to create a Jesus Film translation. Once Luke is done, the other gospels and letters follow; eventually followed by the Old Testament. This translation workshop was focused on Colossians. Ten different teams were present to begin a first draft of Colossians. Each day the teams would begin with training sessions on the translation process. They would then have sessions focused on actual translation work.

South African, Irish, British, Norwegian and Dutch consultants helped train and give aid to the national translation teams; making this truly an international affair. In the third week, some of the translation teams turned their focus to polishing the translation of Luke which had already been finished. Those teams which had already polished Luke looked to begin new projects.
Meanwhile, a couple of the translation consultants, Russ Perry and I set off to the mountains. We went to test the finished Luke translation on several villages. I was excited to find out I would be able to take a helicopter to these various villages. Andy was our Helimission pilot and he stayed with us the entire trip. Besides myself and Russ Perry; two long term Norweigan missionaries and Leoni all headed inland.
We had been worried the helicopter would be an option as weather, mechanical problems and other issues had delayed other trips. Indeed we were delayed at first with a bad fuel pump. However the excellent people at Helimission drove all night and fixed the helicopter by the next day so we could proceed.

The first village we came to was called on a hill. Here a male nurse and his family worked. This nurse is a remarkable person, so I will describe what he does briefly. He came from Antananarivo and sacrificed a much more pleasant lifestyle to work in very primitive circumstances. There was no running water, or electricity or plumbing. Bjørn and Johanna had helped build him a cement brick house and small building to act as a hospital. This single man serves hundreds of square miles as the only medical option. He gives thousands of consultations and delivers hundreds of babies every year. He also is very involved with the church and sang in a choir that greeted the translation group. He and his wife have a tremendous ministry and I can't say enough about his wonderful work.

The first order of business for our team was to test the recently completed Luke translations in the local Bari language. We wanted to see if these translations actually communicated and were understandable by the people. There was another language very similar that we wanted to test to see if the Bari translation could act as a translation for them as well; or if they would need their own translation.
Over the next several days, we traveled from Mitsinjo to Mahabu, Andranosoa and Andeka. We landed and greeted the village as they came out to the helicopter. We then walked into the village and visited the school and church. We distributed Malagasy Bibles to the local evangelist while Bjørn, Johanna and Leoni gave advise and reconnected with friends. In several of these villages, this was the first time that they had received a bible in Malagasy, or that matter a Bible at all. We were excited to be able to give them these Bibles and I look forward to the day when they can have a translation in their own heart language.