Download Summer Beans'Talk 2025 with photos.

Hungry?

Why would someone offer you food when you yawn? To distract you and help keep you awake?

To our Quechua friends, a yawn is a sign of hunger! It sort of makes sense. Look how wide the mouth gets when you yawn. It must be waiting for something to fill it, right?

Sometimes messy…

These are the broad steps Mark goes through with the four teams on the new Quechua translation project (the “C4” project), with the goal of eventually publishing a separate edition of the Bible for each of their central Quechua varieties.

1. Mark teaches a computer program to adapt chapters of Old Testament books for each of the new teams. He adapts from a previously published translation that he worked on.

2. The men on each of the four teams edit the chapter so it sounds like their respective Quechua. Then they go over their versions as a whole group.

3. Mark checks their work. Usually, their work is good. However, sometimes it gets messy. Not only are the men new to translation work, but they are also new to reading and writing in their language. So sometimes it is easy for them not to notice that they have left out a main verb, garbled the spelling, or deleted punctuation. Sometimes, not understanding their Spanish Bibles, they will change the meaning to what is incorrect.

4. Mark gently points out the mistakes that were introduced. Then, after working on it together, sometimes they end up with what Mark gave them in the first place!

They are learning!

When I express dismay at this process, Mark is upbeat. They are just getting started. They have much to learn! he responds. The men all have great attitudes and are learning quickly. They are sacrificing a lot to leave their homes and work as a group for 18 weeks a year.

Step 5 is taking the books they’ve worked on during the year and reading through them with community members for a different kind of check. They plan to do this check during the August workshop.

Unforgettable #1

Mark had an unforgettable birthday experiencing the California redwoods for the first time. What amazing trees! We had a great trip!

Unforgettable #2!

In July we had another unforgettable trip: a rare, but partial, family reunion. Here are nine of our twelve grandchildren.

Praise and Prayer Requests

Pray for the C4 workshop scheduled August 4-22. Mark will join the group from home. He doesn’t want to leave Patti alone as she recovers from a triple hernia repair scheduled for July 28.

Pray for both of us as we travel to Peru in September. Mark will work with the Panatawa Quechua team. They set aside two weeks to check a number of OT books with people who didn’t work on the translation. They hope to cover Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel 1-13. Pray for good understanding, good progress, and clear communication as Mark works with both the August and September groups.

Praise God for special trips — enjoying his amazing creation and enjoying family we seldom see.

Praise for the occasion of a nephew’s wedding in October that will connect us with Patti’s sister over a brief weekend in Idaho.

Thank you for your encouragement as God enables us to continue on.

Mark & Patti