Mark & Patti January 2026 Prayer Requests

* This month Mark will be concentrating on the book of Joshua for the C4 project (4 Central Quechua languages). They set the book of Leviticus aside last month, and began Joshua.

* For the Panao Quechua project Mark hopes to finish the book of 2 Samuel and then get into Ezra and Nehemiah.

* Continue to pray for the different participants to not just grow in their abilities to read, write, teach and translate, but especially to grow in their love of God and his word.

* Last month Patti accepted the request to walk a new-to-Wycliffe latino couple through a couple years of orientation and getting started in their first assignment. She's not sure yet which of two couples will be assigned to her. Pray for a good connection as she begins walking alongside them this month.

Mark & Patti December 2025 Prayer Requests

* This month Mark will be finishing up the book of Exodus and hopefully beginning the book of Leviticus with the C4 Quechua project.

* For the Panao Quechua project, Mark anticipates reviewing 2 Samuel.

* As always, continue to pray for insight in how to best translate passages. Pray, too, and that God's word will impact the participants as well as those they share it with as they take it out to read to others.

Fall Beans'Talk 2025

Download a printable copy of the Fall 2025 Beans'Talk.

Missing a word for that?

What do translators do when there is no word for something? Do you know what they did when the Bible was first translated into Eng lish and they got stuck looking for a word? Of ten, they coined new words! For example, they couldn’t come up with a word for angel, so they just borrowed the word from Greek into English and then taught what it meant. Simi larly, sometimes we borrow a word from Span ish when Quechua doesn’t have any creative way to say something.

There are many English words which occur for the very first time in a Bible translation. Be lieve it or not, they include words like female, beautiful, consume, crime, appetite, puberty, excellent and liberty!*

*Stanley Malless and Jeffrey McQuain. Coined by God: Words and Phrases that First Appear in English Transla tions of the Bible W.W.Norton, 2005.

One year in

The month of October marks one year since the C4 Quechua translation project began. C4 stands for 4 Central Quechua language areas. It has been a steep learning curve for the men involved. They didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into! They were nomi nated by their denominations to do the work. Most didn’t know how to read in Quechua. Some had never preached or prayed in Quechua. That just wasn’t a pattern that had ever been modeled for them. Besides, there’s a lot of cultural pressure to use Spanish to show that you are educated.

Each language area is represented by two men. Plus, there are Wilmer and Walter, who worked with Mark for years. They handle workshop lo gistics and guide the group through the pro cess. This group of ten men has been a safe place to practice reading and praying in Quechua. As they rotate giving devotionals each morning, the new men have gradually started teaching in Quechua, too.

So, what do they have to say now that they’re a year into the process? Here are some of their comments.

Read more...