Download the March 2016 Beans'Talk with photos here.

A couple weeks ago we were out in a nearby village teaching all weekend. It wasn’t clear if we would be coming back home to spend the night or not since it was so close. We took Mark’s extra-long sleeping bag, just in case. At my size, I’m fine with a blanket or two.

Warm & Toasty

Look at this stack! There are enough sheep skins and woolen blankets to sleep a large family! The closer stack is made up of home-made blankets from our hosts’ own sheep: sheared, cleaned, spun, dyed and woven by hand. Take note, ladies! This is an example of generous Quechua hospitality!

With the sheepskins on the floor, we layered most of the blankets under us. It reminded me of the story of the Princess and the Pea. I felt like royalty being so well cared for. Unlike the princess in the story, I slept very well.

May I take them home?

The next morning I crawled out of my wooly nest and folded the blankets up. Then I offered to take them back up to the main room where they are stored. At least, that’s what I wanted to say. Instead, what came out of my mouth was “May I take them (implied: to my house)? I hope I didn’t shock our dear hostess too much! Mark heard me forget the little suffix that would have made my question clear and correct. He was able to reassure her that I had no intention of taking her blankets home with me. Sigh…

Oldie goldies on the air

Imagine our surprise when we were out in another part of Quechua country last month and heard the radio playing “hit” Quechua worship songs we recorded in our house 28 years ago. Back in the day when they first came out, the songs were played in markets, on public transportation, and on personal cassette players. We had no idea anyone was still publicly playing that original old recording. Nowadays, they usually play new recordings by better musicians.

Rave review

When we meet with church leaders and Scripture promoters, we don’t want to just get their input to improve the translation, but we also want to equip them for better ministry. Therefore, we always try to include Bible studies, teaching on a Biblical topic and/or Scripture memory.

Pastor Julio directs a Bible institute in Chavin. When he participated in the study about evidences that Jesus is God, he came up afterwards in his quiet way and just beamed: “That was a great study! I even learned something new. May I use this with the students?” Julio invited Mark to teach at their two-week “summer session” which just ended. Alas! There are so many opportunities to help build up the Quechua speaking church. Our priority, however, is finishing up these six Bibles.

Another GREAT Bible study

This workshop we took time to adapt a Bible study about raising children for the four language areas that don’t have it yet. Mark and I will be using it the first weekend in March so we wanted to be sure it communicates well. The process of adapting it served as a good check on the passages in the study and allowed us to tweak several of them. Our coworkers are so excited about it! “People really need to hear this,” they say.

Successful surveys & more to do

I’ve been tallying up the results of surveys in three of the areas we translate for. We’re not only trying to garner evidence for word choices, but we are also looking for evidence of how willing readers might be to learn new vocabulary. So far the results are encouraging.

We still have one more area we need to survey. We have fewer contacts there and a limited amount of time to get out and talk to people. Our latest idea? Surveying travelers as they wait at bus stations here in the city! We’ve almost got the survey ready to launch.

Praises and Prayer Requests

* Praise: This current workshop we’ve resolved nearly 3,000 possible revisions and suggestions that had been accumulating. Whew! We’re currently working on a key term checks and writing glossary entries.

* Praises & prayer request: We are thankful for our Quechua colleagues in AWI* who are busy reading through the Huaylas translation. They have good suggestions, and want to see the translation fit more for the northern part of the area. Pray for the times in March when Mark meets again with them to go over their observations. Pray for them to make good progress.

* Pray: March we have high hopes of getting all our “ducks in a row” for a last workshop in April. We thank God for the strength and health he gives. Join us in praying for good concentration, cooperative computers and the “tying up of loose ends.” Next month we’ll try to explain the next phase of this project.

Thank you! You encourage us too! Thanks for your interest, prayers and support.

Mark & Patti