Download the October 2013 Beans' Talk here.

Sending out disciples

During the last workshop, Mark was asked to speak at the 22nd anniversary of a Quechua radio program that has a large loyal follow-ing. As the time drew near to travel there, it became obvious that Mark was in no shape to go. (Remember the stomach bug I mentioned last month? It got Mark, too.)

With churning guts, Mark called the guys in and walked them through Psalm 19 in order for them to teach it in his place. Then he gave them a stack of printed copies of the psalm to hand out to the crowd, sent them out and went to bed.

Pedro reaches lay leaders

The next day, we asked, “How’d it go?” "It went well!" they said. They told us how Enrique had read it section by section while Leoncio taught. Pedro piped up, “Could you do a devotional on Psalm 19 so we can hear you teach it? I want to get it down well so I can teach it to others.” Pedro has opportunities to teach Scripture to all the lay leaders in his area.

Santos reaches out over radio

Mark responded by saying he would also write up a guide for teaching Psalm 19 in each of their Quechua varieties. Upon hearing Mark’s idea, Santos said, “That would great, then I could use it on my radio program!” On the other side of the snowcaps, Santos has taught a one-hour spot at 6 a.m. every Sunday for years. He has to leave home by 2:30 a.m. to hike from his house to the radio station. He is encouraged by lots of comments from people saying how much they enjoy his program. He has been off for a few months, but is now motivated to start again.

Shatu encourages pastors

Meanwhile, hearing Mark express the wish that he could write up teaching guides for several more psalms as well, Shatu began strategizing: “I could call in all the pastors and teach it to them. Then they could teach them in their churches.” Shatu oversees a large number of churches for his denomination.

Walter copies a strategy

Some of the guys are disciples in other ways. Walter, for example, has seen how helpful it is for different Quechua dialects to work together to adapt materials. He is now the director of a Quechua organization that includes speakers of five different varieties of Quechua (two of those five overlap with the five dialects Mark works in). Instead of each group adapting something however they want to, Walter is having them work together. All varieties show on the computer screen at the same time so they can benefit from each other’s ideas and insights.

Praises and Prayer Requests

? Pray: For the men on the team to faithfully teach others from God’s word, whether it is to their own congregation, or to other church leaders, or over the radio, or in their family.

? Pray: October 11 – 15 Mark will attend a biennial Bible translation conference in Dallas, giving a presentation titled: How many rings can a circus have? Translation in a five-dialect cluster pro-ject. Pray for the time he has interacting with other translators, sharing ideas, and learning from each other.

? Praise & Pray: Mark will take two weeks off after the translation conference to visit family. I get to go too! The first stop will be Colorado (Colorado Springs and Littleton) where our two younger sons recently moved. Andy's wife Rachel and three kids will fly out for a long weekend. Emily will also join us for the weekend. Mark will get to meet the two youngest grandkids Hannah and Ender. We'll just be missing Andy who will be in Oklahoma for more specialized training for C-17s that he flies. Pray for a special visit for all.

? The next stop before returning to Peru is to spend a week with Mom Bean. Usually when we are in the Cleveland area she cheerfully accepts what little time is left over between our visiting churches, speaking in different places, medical appointments, etc. This time, she is our priority. So excited about the month ahead!  

Patti