Download the June 2014 Beans'talk with photos here.

A visit with two pastors

Earlier this month two Quechua pastors came to visit from their villages. During the conversation, Mark asked about the “Proclaimers”— players distributed by Faith Comes by Hearing that have the recorded Quechua New Testament on them.

One man had received one and used it regularly as part of each service. The other pastor, Efraín, didn’t know what we were talking about. While we don’t have a Proclaimer, we do have the same recording on a flash drive along with a recording of the entire hymnbook in Quechua. So, Mark pulled one out and demonstrated it for him. It was an Ah-ha! moment for him. He told us this story:

My wife was going crazy!

It turns out that Easter Sunday when Mark and I were in Margos, Efraín’s wife was in church that morning, visiting from their small town. When his wife got back home she was going on and on about this little “thing” that she really wanted.

The best she could do was say, Well, brother Mark would it turn on and we could hear God’s word in Quechua. Then, he would stop it and we talked about it. Then, we listened again, back and forth. Next, after church it played praise music in Quechua! I really want one!!  Poor Efraín couldn’t imagine what it was his wife was describing. Then, he saw and heard for himself as Mark plugged the little flash drive into a small player.

OH! This must be what my wife was going crazy about! Now I know what she wants.  Efraín will be back in town in a couple of weeks and plans to go to the market to buy a similar player, and then stop by the house to purchase a flash drive.

The story continues…

To demonstrate the flash drive, Mark played Revelation chapter 5 for Efraín and our other guest. The narration kept mentioning the Lamb. Mid-way through, Efraín said, “That sounds like it’s talking about Christ.” When the chapter ended, he said, “Wow, the Lamb is Jesus Christ!”

One could hear this statement and be sad: Efraín has pastored in little Quechua churches for nearly 30 years. But the good news is, God’s word makes sense when it is in his own language.

They listen all the time

The women up in Obas who have bought those same flash drives say they listen every single day. When Leoncio, who’s been teaching high school out in Obas, came back down to town one weekend, he told us that people really like having the Scriptures recorded. Reading is very difficult for most people, but they love to listen. He is excited that we’ve begun putting the same content on memory chips to play on cell phones. Leoncio’s comment: “Now everyone will want a copy!”

Praises and Prayer Requests

? Praise: Thanks for praying for Mark and the computer program he is working on. There is still work to do on the dictionaries that provide input to the program and some more rules to write. But now the pieces are falling neatly into place. That’s a praise! Keep praying Mark to the end.

? Praise: I was fairly bouncing up and down after each opportunity to teach women at our neighborhood Spanish-speaking church. Thank you for praying. The women followed the messages closely. After the message about being a wife, a woman came up and said that it was so timely as she had just been very angry with her husband. The next week I happened to see her husband who said, “Thanks for encouraging my wife!”

? Pray: Between workshops Mark spends the greater part of each day carefully checking the OT books. (Deuteronomy is now green!) Pray for sustained careful attention to detail. Pray for perseverance, day in and day out, as the verses to check seem never ending.

Counting on your prayers.  Depending on God’s help.

Mark & Patti