Download a copy of the April/May 2020 Beans'talk with photos here.

Wish you could go, too

We had a great visit at the amazing Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had to enjoy the museum and give a presentation. We were there the end of February before anyone started talking about sheltering in place. We highly recommend a visit. This photo is in their Illuminations room with the collection of Bibles and Bible portions from all around the world. This special display highlights Quechua and shows off the five Quechua Bibles we worked on.

Almost separated!

Mark was just days away from leaving for Peru in March when he received a note from there saying it would be best not to come. Whew! Good thing! We would have found ourselves separated on two different continents if he had left. Originally I was going to follow him three weeks later. We’re SO thankful we’re together in the same spot!

Bible dedications on hold

Peru has aggressively locked down their country. Just last week the prime minister announced that public activities like sports events, movies and nightclubs will remain closed even after other areas of life begin to open up. He warned that they may be closed until the end of the calendar year. Big Bible dedications fall into that category. They are on hold.

Bibles in boxes

That means that speakers of North and South Conchucos will have to wait even longer to be able to acquire a Bible. We are so thankful that our Quechua partners with AWI managed to get ten boxes (160 Bibles) out to the North Conchucos area before travel came to an abrupt halt. Currently there are boxes and boxes of Bibles in storage waiting to get out to Quechua communities.

Work as usual

For many people, life has changed drastically with the shelter-in-place ruling. Not really for us. Mark’s work from Ohio has always been centered on the computer and internet. He continues work on getting Quechua materials into apps to post on the internet and checking over a translation made by another team for a different Quechua language.

For those who are able: Copy the link below to your browser to see a 2-minute video update we recently prepared for one of our partnering churches. It describes more what we are doing.

https://d177p6hjpjxxrl.cloudfront.net/video/Missions/20200405-Bean.mp4

Praises and Prayer Requests

* Praise God for the opportunity to visit and speak at the Bible Museum February 29. Praise him too, that we are together in the same country.

* Praise God for the 160 Bibles that made it to North Conchucos.

* Pray for our partners on the ground in Peru. Pray that they will not only continue to trust God in these very uncertain times, but discover ways they can still be lights in their communities. Some have begun broadcasting mini Quechua worship services and Bible teaching in their homes via Facebook.

* Praise God that he will work out his plans for our lives, for his faithful love endures forever. Psalm 138:8

* Praise: We were able to get a traditional land line telephone for Mom Bean. It even has pictures of her kids on the number buttons for speed dial. Now she no longer has to fiddle with a cell phone.

We thank God for your partnership with us. We thank God for you!

Mark & Patti Bean