Mark & Patti January 2022 Prayer Requests

* For the process and progress of checking the book of Proverbs for the Panao Quechua team. The process includes having Mark’s “mentee” check the book and then comparing notes with Mark’s comments.

 * For a workshop to help train, encourage and further motivate a handful of Quechua men to travel from village to village selling Bibles and organizing Bible reading groups.

 * For God’s Word to work powerfully in the lives of individuals and whole communities as Quechua speakers open it up together.

Thanks,

Mark & Patti

The Beans'talk November/December 2021

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We look the same, right?

When our family was young we needed to get out new prayer cards regularly because our children grew so fast. It’s been nearly eight years since we’ve made a new prayer card. Maybe there’s a bit less hair and a few more wrinkles, but our hearts still desire to follow after God.

We’re happy to send you a 4x6 copy of what you see here, but we need your help. Since our Beans’Talks have been sent by email for so long, we’re not sure where each of you live these days! If you’d like to get a copy of this photo in your mailbox, please go to https://form.jotform.com/213163549666160 and let us know your snailmail address.

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Mark & Patti November 2021 Prayer Requests

Praise: A second Quechua translation now has an audio recording for the Old Testament. Both recordings are now in the process of being prepared for distribution.

Pray: for strategic ideas and people to facilitate getting more Bibles out to the hinterlands where Quechua speakers live. Pray, too, for a new generation of leaders to build up the Quechua speaking church. Quite a few of the key leaders were ushered out by Covid or are aging out.

Continue to pray for Mark: as he does translation consulting for other projects, mentors a Guatemalan translator to be a consultant, and continues to support the Quechua speaking churches in different areas with training materials.

The Beans'talk September/October 2021

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Almost there

As we have mentioned in past letters, Mark is now working as a translation consultant. That means that he checks over what others have translated to make sure that it is faithful and communicates well. Since June, Mark has been checking the Old Testament translation for Panao Quechua, spoken in the Peruvian highlands. Their current goal is to have the books of Job and Exodus checked by the end of September.

It is mid-September as I write this, so I can’t report yet that Mark and the Panao Quechua team have met their goal. The book of Job is finished but they are still plugging away on the book of Exodus. Right now they are reading each paragraph in the book to someone who didn’t work on the translation to be sure that it is understood. Thank you for keeping them all in your prayers.

Looking ahead

Since he just started in June, Mark has been spending extra time to help the Panao team get everything done. Starting October there will be new translation goals, and the new pace should be more reasonable.

Looking ahead, Mark also expects the residual stabs of pain from shingles to disappear. Practically, they aren’t a big deal anymore, but they are still noticeable.

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Mark & Patti September 2021 Prayer Requests

Pray for Mark & the team of Panao Quechua mother-tongue translators as they press to finish the book of Exodus. As the consultant, Mark has studied through and commented on their translation of Exodus. Still to finish in September, when funding goals require its completion, are the team's responses to the 500+ notes Mark's made. Then, Mark must go through those responses to see how they handled them. Sometimes there is yet another round of back and forth between consultant and team before everyone is satisfied. Together, Mark and the translation team also have ten days set aside to do a "comprehension check" with a native speaker who didn't work on the translation. Without God's obvious help, (and your prayers!) this mountain of work won't move!

The Beans'talk July/August 2021

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Those unscheduled surprises!

It happens to all of us. We make our plans, and then God surprises us with unscheduled events and circumstances. Some are wonderful, and others not so much. Here are some surprises on both ends of the spectrum.

A recording surprise

For a variety of reasons, none of the men have been able to stay in the capital city to finish recording the Old Testament for Huamalies- Dos de Mayo Quechua. That was an unplanned surprise for those who are responsible for getting it done. So, a technician will travel up to Huanuco where Wilmer and Walter live, and the two of them will finish reading all the remaining text.

Shingles surprise

Even though he had been vaccinated, Mark broke out with a doozy of a case of shingles—probably due to his lymphoma. Big blisters popped out down the back of his leg and backside. We still haven’t sat down to a meal together in weeks—he can’t sit down! At last, most of his sores are drying up.

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Beans'talk May/June 2021

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Aren’t you glad your mother spoke English?

Since we are in the language business, sometimes Mark and I stop and exclaim how thankful we are that English is our mother tongue. We never had to struggle to learn it.

Let’s say you had to learn English and this week’s vocabulary includes the verb “to break.” OK. You learn to conjugate it. Got it—I break, you break, he breaks…. Then, you start hearing it in conversations and sometimes you wonder what exactly is breaking?

• His face broke out when …

• The discussion broke down, which is not the same as the man broke down…

• The men broke in through the window.

• The meeting broke up, which isn’t the same as the couple broke up.

• He broke even.

Adding little words like in, out, up, down adds some tricky twists! Most of you reading this are native English speakers. Aren’t you glad your mother spoke English?

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Mark & Patti May 2021 Prayer Requests

* April 26 - May 7th, three languages in Colombia will work on getting the Jesus Film into their respective languages. Pray for Mark as he assists one of those three teams and checks their translation of the script for faithfulness to God's Word. Mark and the other two consultants will use Spanish as a common language.

* The workshop, originally planned for last fall, was postponed in hopes of being able to hold it in person in Bogotá. We're still waiting to hear whether Mark will be traveling or working via the internet here in Ohio.

* Continue to pray for Quechua speaking men and women to open and use the translated Scriptures. Pray for the use of Bible studies newly adapted to other Quechua dialects to help build disciples and strengthen Quechua speaking believers.

Beans'talk March/April 2021

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A long-standing problem

Over the years one of the challenges has been helping people get comfortable reading their own language. Now that the Quechua Bibles are out, the need is even greater. How can we help people read the Bible in their own language?

If anyone knows how to read, they learned in Spanish. While some people have become quite good at reading in Quechua, a great many people still struggle. Others have still never seen anything written in Quechua at all.

Let’s start reading!

Five and a half weeks ago Mark began airing a new Facebook ad to encourage people to install a free app he worked up to help them read Quechua. The ad is presented as a short video. You can click here to watch a special version of it he prepared in English for this letter.

It’s exciting to see the response. So far, out of 155,871 people reached with the ad, 14,557 have clicked on it to share it, respond to it, or get the app. A total of 1,055 have actually installed and opened the app.

That, to us, is amazing! If we ever sold over 1,000 complete sets of reading books so quickly in hard copy, we would be ecstatic! Not only that, but we have never reached such a broad audience before.

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Mark & Patti March 2021 Prayer Requests

* A number of key Quechua-speaking pastors died of COVID this past month, as well as the national director of a main evangelical denomination. Pray for God to raise up godly men to fill the void and lead his church in Peru.

* Mark just completed a two week training workshop for potential new translation consultants. He is paired up with a man from Guatemala whose mother tongue is Tz'utujil. Pray for a good working relationship as Mark guides Antonio into the next steps of the process, helping Antonio eventually step into a consultant role.