Snowcaps
We’ve read (and seen via Internet) that many of you have been swamped with snow. We have
snow, too, but at a distance. This photo was taken on the road between Huanuco and Huaraz. We’re in Huaraz once again for another Old Testament workshop. The Psalms are now all translated. The last thirty Psalms still need to be checked in communities. That will happen in March. Mark and the men from the five Quechua languages just finished the book of Ezra as well and are ready to begin Nehemiah.
Encouragement #1 : Faithful
When back at home in Huanuco, Patti meets each week for Bible study in Spanish with a few women who work as household help. The end of January, one of them, Jovita, was to speak to the women of her church. She came asking for help: “What shall I say?” Patti’s response: “Well, what have you been learning as we’ve been in the Word? What has God taught you?” Jovita ended up teaching the roomful of women how to ask a couple simple questions of passages in order to get more out of God’s word. She also helped them see that their an-swers have to come from the text: i.e., a gen-eral “good” answer is no good if the text doesn’t support it. That was something that Jovita has been learning. What a joy and encouragment to hear Jovita exclaim afterwards that everyone was busy interacting with God’s word! Another woman in Patti’s Bible study, Dioni-cia, was to do something similar while we are here in Huaraz. How encouraging to see faithful women growing in Christ and reach-ing out to help others grow, too.
Encouragement #2: Radio class
Recently a young man who prepares Quechua radio programs told us that he’s taught through our Christology course on the air. A number of Quechua pastors thanked him for such clear good teaching. That’s encouraging! It just so happens that that program was broadcast for a neighboring Quechua lan-guage. We’d love to see more radio happen-ing in our area, too.
Encouragement #3:
Leoncio Walter stayed behind and didn’t come to this workshop. Instead he is giving a three week orientation to Leoncio on how to write Quechua, basic translation principles and some practice translating together in the af-ternoons. We asked you to pray for new men to join the team. Leoncio appears to be a very good prospect. He has been pastor out in the heart of Quechua country, he’s been through our discipleship series of ten books, and he recently finished univerisity studies to be a language arts teacher. We’ve never had any-one with this much education. We pray that Leoncio turns out to be a great addition.
Sleepy “head”? Why not…
Ever wonder why we pair the word “head” with sleepy to make the compound word “sleephead?” In Quechua, you pair another part of the anatomy: “the bottom.” So, in-stead of sleepyhead, you say “sleepy-bottom.” Actually, that same part of the anatomy is paired with several words. Here are a couple more examples:
Cry-bottom: cry-baby
Play-bottom: someone who plays all the time
Forget-bottom: forgetful person
Prayer Requests
• Keep praying for the six teams teaching VBS. They still have a few more weeks to teach before school starts up again. Patti’s looking forward to hearing some of their stories first-hand when she goes up to meet them March 6th.
• Pray for dry roads on our way back to Huanuco Saturday February 27th. On our way here, we only had to wait an hour and a half for a landslide to be cleared. But the very next day when some of the men came over the very same road, the landslides were so bad they had to trudge across the thick slippery mud carrying their luggage on their backs to catch a vehicle on the other side of the landslide. We’ll be traveling back with ALL the computers, monitors, universal power supply, cables, etc. So, pray for dry passable safe roads!
• In March, Mark will begin to work with Leoncio and learn what his working style is and whether or not he will make a good teammate. Pray for at least one more man to join the team.
Thank you SO much for your prayers, gifts and encouragement. We couldn’t be here without you!
Mark & Patti
