Beans' Talk September 2011

Download this letter as a PDF including the Bible translation chart here.

Last month we asked you to pray for Mark’s message in Quechua at the dedication of a neighboring Quechua Bible. Note: Mark did not work on that translation. He just gave the message at the dedication.

God’s Word is…

1). Powerful, 2). For everyone, and 3). Meant to be shared with others. Those were the three main points. As you can see in the photo, God’s Word is compared to light, a sword, a fire, and a hammer. Many people commented on it afterwards. The local Quechua organization that promotes the use of Scripture in Quechua would like to distribute the message over radio stations and even by DVD. Mark included the following parable in his message:

The parable of the bad shepherd

A rich man had a bunch of sheep. He left them in care of a hired man while he took off for a distant country. Before he left, he and the hired shepherd carefully counted how many ewes there were, how many lambs, how many rams, and how many sheep were of a special breed.

Well, those few special breed sheep were very special. The hired shepherd treated them like pets and did everything for them: gave them the best food, doctored them, fed them salt, and pampered them in general.

Beans' Talk August 2011

Download the PDF of this letter with photos here.

Back in Peru!

We left Ohio July 14th and landed back in Peru the next morning.

The week before we left, Mark was able to bring his hand all the way up to his mouth and curl most of his fingers down to touch his palm. That may not sound like much, but they are big milestones on the long road to recovery.

The therapist was delighted with Mark’s progress. She has been such a cheerleader. She is willing to coach Mark long distance as he continues exercises on his own. So, we booked our return flight as soon as we could.

Split up…& special colleagues

Hours after landing in Peru, I (Patti) saw the dentist for a broken tooth. Alas, I didn’t think about how he’d need more than one day to fix it. Since the dentist doesn’t have Saturday office hours, I was stuck not just one extra day in Lima, but a whole weekend in Lima. I was able to spend a lot of that extra time being “mama” to a young woman we’ve watched grow up who’s now in Lima.

Thanks to some colleagues, I had a place to stay while Mark traveled on up to Huanuco on the Friday night bus. At the bus station a Peruvian colleague was waiting to help him with his bags. What a nice surprise!

Beans' Talk July 2011

Download the PDF of this letter with photo here.

He must have needed a “break”

After Mark’s fall and surgery to repair his shattered elbow last month, some of you were pretty creative. One note referred to our home base here in Ohio: “So, Chagrin Falls (much to Mark’s chagrin) must be aptly named…more dangerous than the Andes.” Another wrote, “God knows you need a break from your riptide schedule…I’m glad you get a break to tend to yourselves.”

Mark no longer wears the black brace you see in the photo. Just last week he began therapy. His left hand is basically useless and there’s very little range of motion in his elbow. We hope to see both improve by this time next month. We are hopeful the doctor will give us clearance to return to Peru at that time.

Workshop adjustments

Mark continues to work on translation via the Internet, albeit at a much slower pace than normal. As we mentioned last letter, we were planning to hold the next translation workshop out in a remote location. No more. Since we won’t be back in Peru in time, we sent someone out there to let people know that we won’t need the food, lodging, meeting places, and other things that we had arranged for.

Beans' Talk June 2011

Download the June 2011 Beans' Talk with LOTS of photos here.

Hello again! 

Thank you for all the notes of encouragement and prayer for Mark. The doctor was pleased with what he was able to do and found good solid bone to affix the hardware to in order to make a working elbow. Time will tell how much flexibility Mark will have. The attached Beans'talk tells more of the story.

Don't miss the back page of the Beans'talk! It is full of family photos. Our oldest, Andy unexpectedly joined us. He's almost done with his C17 pilot traning. Ernie, our youngest, is the only one we missed. He's off to Senegal the end of the month with Army ROTC.

Thanks again for all your expressions of love, 

Patti for Mark too

Beans' Talk May 2011

Download the PDF of this letter with photos here.

Team review

A faithful Beans’talk reader recently asked us to clarify if we were doing Bible translation for five Quechua languages or just one. That is not a dumb question! We need to re-view occasionally what we are doing.
Yes, we are working on five different Quechua Old Testaments simultaneously. When we have our workshops two men from each of the five language areas meet to-gether to work. Below is a photo from our most recent workshop. The guys made their signs so you can tell which language area they represent. They are named from left to right in each pair, or top to bottom in the case of the Margos-Yarowilca-Lauricocha Quechua team.

Encouraging feedback

In between workshops, Pedro, who is part of the South Conchucos translation team, vis-ited a church in his provincial capital. It is a formal church with set readings of Scripture. He was asked to read the Scripture passages for the day. Pedro read in Quechua from both the Old and New Testaments. LOTS of people came up to give positive comments afterwards. Even the head of the denomina-tion came up and said: “That’s really great! You should come here every week to read.”

Right to my “heart”

After the Margos New Testament was re-corded last month, Felipe was assigned to listen to the recordings one more time to be sure that everything was recorded correctly. “This is SO good!” he exclaimed. “It goes right to my heart” (literally…to my lungs). I could just listen and listen!”

Beans' Talk April 2011

Download this letter as a PDF wth photos and the "chart" here.

More than a 3-ringed “circus”

Last week five rooms in the translation center had five different things going on. That’s not counting Mark’s office.

Two rooms were busy with comprehension checking: one for Huamalies-Dos de Mayo Quechua and the other for Margos-Yarowilca-Lauricocha (MYL) Quechua. In another room Leoncio was entering edits to some chapters in Isaiah. Two other rooms were used for recording the MYL New Testament.

The book storage room (with some mattresses and imagination), became the “sound proof” recording studio. A neighboring room had the technical team along with other speakers waiting their turn. They watched and listened to be sure the person re-cording didn’t miss a syllable, word or intonation. Meanwhile, Mark ran around making sure everybody was keeping busy, besides his own work. God’s word is getting out!

Beans' Talk March 2011

Download a PDF of this letter with photo here.

Kids!

Right now VBS is taking place in at least six-teen villages in the Margos and Yarowilca areas. The five lessons are about Jesus’ power: his power over sickness, over nature, over death, and his power to feed many from little.

Pray for the teachers, most teaching for the very first time. Pray for God to bless their best efforts. Pray for children to be allowed to attend. Pray for their witness as they return home with songs, stories, memory verses and pictures they’ve colored. Pray that Jesus will be honored.

Beans' Talk February 2011

Download the PDF of this letter with photos here.

Kids, kids, kids!

What a special Christmas! Emily and Eric (our middle two) were with us along with seven of their friends. This mama soaked it all up! We had so much fun. What a neat bunch of friends. They got to see mountains, jungle and desert while here in Peru.

When we traveled to pre-Inca ruins in the area we used to live in, Mark whipped out a story book in Quechua to give to the boy who accompanied us as “guide.” Others clamored around and we sold the few books we had with us.

Beans' Talk January 2011

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Hey! Weren’t you going to skip a letter?

We just have too many things to report about! TODAY the first batch of kids arrives, including Emily. Tomorrow Eric arrives with another group. YEAH!

In the spotlight

While we were in Huaraz for the recent Old Testament workshop, Mark was invited on the spur of the moment to be interviewed on a weekly Quechua TV program. It had already been a full Saturday: meeting and talking to a group of pastors and local missionaries for 3 hours in the morning, catching up with our Quechua translators outside of town where we had a traditional peruvian meal and played volleyball, then getting back to town late afternoon and “crashing.” We were actually lying down when someone called up from the stairway and said, “Hey, Mark, let’s go to the TV station!”

Beans' Talk December 2010

Download a PDF version of this letter with photos here.

The Bear Bible

Earlier this month Mark was up in Margos teaching pastors the first part of the course “Introduction to the Bible.” The course begins with very basic facts, which turned out to be new information for many of those taking the course.

The course includes history of the Spanish Bible. The first complete Bible translated from the original languages into Spanish was known as La Biblia del Oso or “The Bear Bible.” The title page had this drawing of a bear seeking after honey. What does that have to do with God’s Word, you may ask? Well, we should desire God’s word like a bear desires honey. Both are sweet! The Quechua pastors liked that.

Adventures on the road