The Bean Family

The Bean Family

Event
09/15/22

Mark & Patti September-October 2022 Beans'Talk

Download the September-October 2022 Beans'Talk

Oh, for a heart to respond like this!

Our colleague in Peru, Rachel Yanac, taught through the book of Luke with Quechua ladies in her neighborhood. The Quechua women were amazed by every detail as they heard Scripture for the first time in their language. Before presenting chapter 21 which talks about Jesus’ return, Rachel did some extra study. She thought the grannies would be baffled by the difficult verses. Imagine her surprise when they heard the passage and their response was,

“Jesus is coming HERE! What are we going to feed him?”

The conversation that followed

As they considered their question, one granny planned to butcher her prize lamb, while another offered the guinea pigs she had been raising for special occasions. These delicacies would make a perfect meal for Jesus when he came to their homes.

These Quechua women live in houses with adobe walls and dirt floors, tiny windows that barely let in light, soot-darkened rooms from cooking fires where they had prepared meals for so many years. Not a single woman worried about how her house would look when Jesus came. Instead, they focused on what they saw as the obvious need—feeding the traveler when he arrived. And not just feeding him any old thing but offering their best.

Oh, that we might live expectantly, offering Jesus our best each day!

Prophets & letters & other things

Since our last Beans’Talk Mark has completed the consultant check of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude for the Sihuas Quechua team. He also checked Hosea, Micah and Joel for the Panao Quechua team. Then, via the internet he “sat in with” the Panao team for 7 days while they read those books to people who weren’t involved in the translation to see how well they understood them. That gave rise to more observations and improvements to the translation.

There’s a lot of back and forth that goes on between a team and the consultant. Mark makes observations and suggestions. The team looks at each one and responds. Mark checks their response. Sometimes he can just say, “Great!” and move on to the next issue. Other times, he needs to clarify things or make another suggestion.

Additionally, Mark’s been tweaking computer programs that find spelling mistakes and then prepare an easy-to-follow report about them. The translation team can use these reports to make corrections.

A sweet send off

E & J, our middle son and his wife, have new visas in hand to return to North Africa this weekend. It’s been a treat to be hands-on grandparents for their three children for a couple of months.

Praise and Prayer Requests

* Praise for the progress that translation teams are making in Peru. Continue to pray that local churches and individuals will read God’s word, put it into practice and share it with others.

* In our last update we mentioned that I (Patti) was going to Germany to help while our youngest son recovered from hernia surgery. Praise that not only did I have seats going to Germany and back in August, but they were in first class, no less! Unfortunately, our son Ernie’s hernia surgery has been postponed twice at the military hospital. In August, the cancellation was just hours before surgery when I was already there to help. The new surgery date is Monday, September 19th. We thank God in advance for good medical care, all the comings and goings, and for special times with our grandchildren Ender, Remy and Lucy, as well as with Ernie and Sarah.

Now we live with great expectation … (1 Peter 1:3b NLT).

Mark & Patti Bean