Beans'Talk September 2017

Download the September 2017 Beans'talk with photos here. 

That’s a STACK of pages!

This is a copy of one Quechua Bible. It weighs in at 1,984 pages, which is actually less pages than my English Bible. It’s probably what your Bible would look like, too, if you were to print it out yourself with regular paper. It looks pretty daunting, don’t you think? Four of the six Bibles have their preliminary layout done and the other two are in process.

Moving down the checklist

Once we have the inital layout in hand, the next step is for them to be "proofed" and signed off by a native speaker. If the above stack of pages looks daunting to us, we imagine that it will also be daunting to our Quechua co-workers. Be in prayer for each of them as they tackle this important job.

Bean August 2017 Prayer Requests

* Praise that five of the six Bibles have been turned over for layout. Praise that three of those Bibles now have preliminary proofs. And praise that the team working by Skype with Mark to finish the sixth Bible is making good progress. Pray for each of these Bibles as they pass through different stages on their way to publication.

* We are thankful for excellent medical care here. Pray that the series of treatments Mark is undergoing will effectively knock down his lymphoma enabling him to continue working unhindered for many more years.

Beans'talk June 2017

Download the June 2017 Beans'talk with photos here.

Another month goes whizzing by. The years go whizzing by, too. Inside this month's Beans'talk is a photo from 40 years ago. Seems a bit impossible!

Keep reading to see what sorts of things we've started collecting.

This month Mark will go down to Peru and be back up again before the next Beans'talk comes out. The trip is not primarily for translation. Check out the prayer requests.

Thank you for sticking with us as we steadily press on to finish.

Mark & Patti Bean

Beans'talk May 2017

Download the May 2017 Beans'talk with photos here.

This letter contains BIG NEWS. For most of you this will be new NEWS about a decision that's been in process for a long time now. For those of you who got a sneak peak, read the second page to see what happened after we made the decision.

Lots happening. Lots to do. We're so thankful for your encouragement along the way.

Mark & Patti

PS: This is the first time in nine years we've had a front row seat as spring amazingly takes over the winter landscape and pops out all over!

Beans'Talk April 2017

Download the April 2017 Beans'Talk with photos here.

A warm FATTY greeting!

I grinned as the first three men showed up for the workshop and greeted me. First, I was happy to see them again. That was reason enough to smile. Another reason for smiling was thinking how their greeting translates into English. What is really a wonderful compliment in Quechua literally sounds like: “You’re so fat!” What they mean by that is: “Hey, you look good! You look nice and healthy!” It was good to be together again.

Progress

All of the goals for the workshop were met, including reviewing questions that had come up regarding key terms, handling the 270 outstanding issues Mark had for them, looking at both the thematic and names indices, checking a few new glossary entries, and going over additions to the introduction to the Bibles. We praise God for keeping the team alert, healthy and actively involved. Thank you for praying for all of us during that time.

Bean Family March 2017 Prayer Requests

* Pray for Mark as he continues with the myriad big and little checks as a necessary part of getting these six Quechua Bibles ready for publication.

* Praise God for the leaders of 31 churches in the Huamalies area that set aside a Saturday each month to work on their own reading and writing skills with one of the co-translators. Then, they turn around and practice the same lessons with their congregations. Pray for more readers for God's word.

Beans'talk March 2017

Download the March 2017 Beans'talk with photos here.

A treasure hunt!

Between our annual conference and heading up to the mountains, we spent a Sunday looking for our old friend Severo and his wife Manuela in the sprawling outskirts of Lima. Years ago, they befriended us in Margos and eventually invited us to live next to them.

All we had was a map Severo drew for us a year and a half ago when we ran into him at a Quechua church convention. The map, not to scale, gave few street names and no numbers. It said to look for an empty lot used for playing soccer with stairs going up the mountainside just behind it.

We found something that matched that description. We made it to the top of the stairs and asked a woman sweeping in front of her house for Gloria Vega as indicated on the map. She lived just next door! Gloria is Severo’s daughter. Boy was she surprised to open her door and see us standing there!

We thought her parents must live close by, but it took another car, bus, and moto-taxi to get from her house to her parents’ place. It would have been extremely difficult to try to draw a map of where they lived.

The hunt was worth it! What a treat to be together again with Severo, Manuela, her mother and two more daughters.

Beans'talk February 2017

Download the February 2017 Beans'talk with photo here.

What would you think if someone told you you're not a toadstool? Would they be making fun of you? Putting you down? Encouraging you? Challenging you? Check out this month's brief letter to see what that means in Quechua parlance.

We're still in the midst of the (often) tedious details necessary for preparing these translations for publication. There's a welcomed change of pace in the weeks ahead while we're back in Peru.

Beans'talk January 2017

Download the January 2017 Beans'talk here.

Merry Christmas!

This isn't a typcial Christmas letter. It's more a progress report for where we're at. We hope you're encouraged along with us. Plus there are a few nuggets of news.

Happy New Year, too,

Mark & Patti Bean

Beans'talk December 2016

Download the Beans'talk December 2016 letter with photos here.

World premiere

Ta da! The end of September, the world premier of the JESUS film in their very own Quechua was shown in the towns of Margos and Chavinillo. Everything was organized and funded by the Jesus Film Project. Our coworkers Felipe and Shatu worked on the script, and Mark checked it and helped them polish it. It’s so encouraging to see others helping bring God’s good news to the Quechua speaking world.

Over 20 years ago we were involved in getting the movie of the whole book of Luke in a neighboring Quechua language. But this is the first ever for the Margos-Yarowilca-Lauricocha area to have a movie like this.