Beans' Talk September 2012

Translating God’s Word for Quechua speakers in central Peru

Download this letter with photos here.

Sometimes local attractions

The city of Huanuco celebrates its anniversary mid- August. This year is its 473rd anniversary. The town square hosts special programs with school kids, music groups, and dignitaries giving speeches.

The crowds are an opportunity for people to make money. Besides vendors selling treats, one man had two llamas for people to pose with as he snaps a photo to sell. Another was dressed like Spiderman hoping someone would pay to pose in a photo with him.

Beans' Talk August 2012

Download this letter with photos here.

Cared for by the local church

In our last letter we had lots of unknowns as we looked ahead to a translation workshop in the remote town of Huacaybamba. The biggest question we had was if the local church would be ready and able to care for us. Thanks to the leadership of pastors Juan & Loida (pictured below), the church was super organized.

• families contributed firewood to cook the meals.

• women signed up in teams of two or three to prepare breakfast, lunch & supper for one day, contributing food from their own pantries.

• four different places provided beds.

• the church lent two tables to work on.

Beans' Talk July 2012

Download this letter with photos here.

Adventures ahead

We’re on our way back to Peru Monday the 25th. The next day we’ll be back up in the mountains. We will have three days to unpack, repack, and figure out how to get ourselves and all the computer equipment to Huacaybamba—a twelve-hour trip on a fairly new dirt road that still doesn’t have regular travel back and forth on it. We need to find a vehicle that travels that route to see if it will take us when we need to go.


What’s up? We want to hold our July translation workshop out there and begin looking at New Testament revision. We don’t know the area, and they don’t know us. Someday the Bible for that area will be ready and we want people to be expectantly waiting for it.


Beans' Talk June 2012

Download the June 2012 Beans' Talk here.

Hi!

We're back and reconnected to the world after our youngest's college graduation. Here's a short Beans'talk with a big family photo.

Mark & Patti

Beans' June 2012 Prayer Requests

1. Praise for a wonderful time together with most of our children as we gathered together for Ernie's graduation from college and commissioning into the Army as a 2nd Leutinant.

2. Praise for safe travels and warm welcome as we spoke and met with 27 different groups this past month. Pray for the remaining opportunities to talk about Bible translation our last few weeks here in Ohio.

3. June 20th we fly out of Cleveland for South Carolina where we'll have a few days with our grandsons. We'll be attending a wedding there that possibly some of our other children will be attending as well. (wouldn't that be a treat!)

Beans' Talk May 2012

Download this letter with photo as a PDF here.

Whew! A crazy exit!

The last week of our March OT workshop was extra full. Administrators came to visit. Former colleagues arrived to help close down the translation center. As soon as the workshop ended we moved all the computers and equipment to our newly rented house. Then we packed suitcases and left Huanuco late one night on the bus to come to the States.

Sometime after midnight the bus stopped. The stewardess announced that the road ahead was going to be closed for three days and we were going back. So, at about two in the morning we found ourselves back where we had started!

Now what! We had an international flight to catch! We decided to try back roads. So, at 5:30 in the morning, we caught a car with two other passengers and wound our way along narrow roads, up, up, up into the mountains, changing cars about four hours into the trip. Climbing past snow-capped mountains and spectacular drop-offs, our plan was to get up to a crossroads at 13,200 feet and wait along the road for a bus to pass by.

Beans' Talk April 2012

Download the PDF of our letter with photos here.

Hurray! The chart’s all green!

We’re about half way through the current OT workshop and we can already paint the entire translation chart green!  Lest you think we’re almost out of work, there is still plenty to do before we’re finished.

So, what’s next?

Next on the “to-do” list are two main steps:

1. One is a final revision of the Old Testament, particularly of the first books we did starting back in 2004. We also need to make sure that key terms and ways of expressing things are the same throughout the Old Testament. Mark has a list of over 550 items they need to check!

2. Second is a revision of all five New Testaments. We need to update how the Old Testament is quoted in the New and translate other things as we did in the Old Testament. The New Testament revision alone could take up to three more years.

Beans' Talk March 2012

Download this letter as a PDF here.

A new home!

Wow! Within 24 hours of sending out last month’s Beans’talk we found a new home! Thank you for praying. We had already been looking, but what a difference your prayers made.

The owners posted their notice a couple hours after I checked the boards and took the photo for the Beans’talk. I almost didn’t go back to read the classifieds the next morning thinking there would be nothing new.

They say you can’t just a book by its cover. Neither can you judge a home by it’s street appearance. We now live behind the gray metal door and pink wall.

Beans' Talk February 2012

Bean Family Special Prayer Request

Dear friends and family,

Recently there has been a spate of false accusations against Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL regarding the translation of “Son of God” and “God the Father.” The rumor is that SIL supports removing “Son of God” when translating for Muslim audiences.

Please join us in prayer that this rumor be stopped. As the opportunity arises, please do what you can to set things straight. We are copying below a press release (located at http://www.sil.org/sil/news/2012/SIL-Son-of-God-translation.htm) and a Statement of Best Practices (located at http://www.sil.org/translation/divine_familial_terms.htm) to help you understand a bit more what the issue is.

We appreciate your concern and prayers for this matter,

Mark and Patti Bean

News Article SIL responds to false accusations