Mark & Patti November 2022 Prayer Requests

* Pray for Mark as he slowly works his way through the book of Genesis, checking it for the Panao Quechua translation team. It is a BIG book!

* Continue to pray for the new team of Bible sellers - that they would not shy from getting out to make God's word available in Quechua.

Mark & Patti September-October 2022 Beans'Talk

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Oh, for a heart to respond like this!

Our colleague in Peru, Rachel Yanac, taught through the book of Luke with Quechua ladies in her neighborhood. The Quechua women were amazed by every detail as they heard Scripture for the first time in their language. Before presenting chapter 21 which talks about Jesus’ return, Rachel did some extra study. She thought the grannies would be baffled by the difficult verses. Imagine her surprise when they heard the passage and their response was,

“Jesus is coming HERE! What are we going to feed him?”

The conversation that followed

As they considered their question, one granny planned to butcher her prize lamb, while another offered the guinea pigs she had been raising for special occasions. These delicacies would make a perfect meal for Jesus when he came to their homes.

These Quechua women live in houses with adobe walls and dirt floors, tiny windows that barely let in light, soot-darkened rooms from cooking fires where they had prepared meals for so many years. Not a single woman worried about how her house would look when Jesus came. Instead, they focused on what they saw as the obvious need—feeding the traveler when he arrived. And not just feeding him any old thing but offering their best.

Oh, that we might live expectantly, offering Jesus our best each day!

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Mark & Patti October 2022 Prayer Requests

Praise: In September Mark completed the consultant check of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1, 2 & 3 John, and Jude for the Sihuas Quechua team. He also checked Hosea, Micah and Joel for the Panao Quechua team. Then, via the internet he "sat in with" the Panao team for 7 days while they read those books with people who weren't involved in the translation, in order to see how well they understood them. That gave rise to more observations and improvements to the translation. Additionally, he's been tweaking computer programs to automate preparing an easy-to-follow report of spelling mistakes that he can present to the translation teams.

Pray: There's a lot of back and forth that goes on between a team and the consultant. Mark, as consultant, makes observations and suggestions. The team looks at each one and responds. Mark checks their response. Sometimes he can just say, "Great!" and move on to the next note. Other times, he needs to clarify the issue or make another suggestion. Pray for attention to detail and clarity.

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Mark & Patti September 2022 Prayer Requests

* This month, Mark has a lot of Scripture to check for the two projects he consults for. Pray for careful attention to detail as he works through their drafts of 1/2 Thess, 1/2/3 John, and Jude as well as Hosea, Micah, and Joel.

* Continue to pray for God's word to be opened, read, and shared with others. May God's word do it's powerful work in the lives of Quechua speakers.

The Beans'Talk July/August 2022

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Encouragement from Peru

It’s so good to hear bits of news from Peru:

1.—Sihuas Quechua speakers now have access to the gospel of John in digital format. Mark has recently approved their gospel of Matthew and is gearing up to check a number of Paul’s letters for them.

2.—The Huallaga Quechua team adapted a number of Bible studies from us. They held a two-day seminar to train pastors using the first book.

3.—Mark is currently checking the books of Genesis and Micah for the Panao Quechua team. They recently organized a music event among a number of different churches to encourage more new praise music in Quechua.

4.—Our colleague Ade and team in Huaraz are making trips out to remote areas of North and South Conchucos with summer missions teams from the States. They are getting copies of those respective Quechua Bibles out and into the hands of the Quechua speakers there. We are so thankful for all the different individuals and teams who keep working and reaching out, encouraging Quechua speakers by making God’s Word available and accessible.

Encouragement on the home front

There has also been plenty of encouragement on the home front. Key points include:

Last chemo! Hurray!

Mark finished his last chemo cycle for lymphoma the end of June. At one point we faced the possibility of 18 months of treatment, but in the end it was only six. We are thankful that he faired as well as he did and that it is now behind him.
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Mark & Patti July 2022 Prayer Requests

* Praise - Late June there was another training for men and women to help others know how to use their Bibles. Together they plan who will go where to help make Bibles available for purchase since there are no bookstores or online ordering!
 

* Pray - Traditionally late July/early August is when regional church conferences take place. This will be the first time to meet after three years since the past two years large gatherings were not permitted. There are so many small isolated pockets of believers sprinkled in hamlets in the mountains. Pray for the main speaker(s) and for those leading music. Pray that those in charge will feed the flock of God well. Pray for the opportunity to get materials into the hands of believers, especially the Bible.

The Beans'talk May/June 2022

Download The Beans'talk May/June 2022 letter with photos here.

80 years of translation

Wycliffe Bible Translators began in 1942. That makes this year its 80th anniversary. For the occasion, they produced a less-than-a-minute long video celebrating the many groups of people who’ve had a part in Bible translation these past 80 years. That in-cludes each of you as you’ve prayed, sup-ported projects and/or supported mission-aries. You can see it by navigating to https://vimeo.com/686443790. If you pay close attention, you’ll see an old clip from when Mark worked with the translation committee.

Current work

Wycliffe continues to come alongside language communities all over the world to help provide them with God’s word in languages that they understand best. Mark’s current contribution is checking translation for two groups in Peru and mentoring a translation consultant-in-training in Guatemala.

Praying for Jeremiah – grandchild #1

After coming down with a simple stomach bug, our 13-year-old grandson’s health took a rapid turn for the worse. Paramedics had to be called to the house after Jeremiah lost consciousness and stopped breathing, arriving soon after his parents were able to revive him using CPR. Multiple compounding issues prompted the local hospital to arrange an emergency transfer to MUSC in Charleston, South Carolina. His first week was punctuated with several life saving interventions.

What a tremendous outpouring of prayer went up to the throne of our gracious God on Jeremiah’s behalf. It is with much thanksgiving that we report that Jeremiah is out of the danger zone. Portions of his large and small intestine eventually needed to be removed before things began to improve. Thank you for remembering him in prayer as he continues to heal. I’m thankful that I got to visit him and his family.

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Mark & Patti May 2022 Prayer Requests

* Praise God that the training of people to sell Quechua Bibles finally took place. Mark attended and took his turn teaching by computer. The training included teaching about features in the Bible that help us understand it better. At the end of the day, several participants come up to the computer to tell Mark what they most appreciated learning. One said that she was glad to finally learn what those tiny little letters and crosses in the Bible were. Those are the markers for footnotes and cross-references!

* Pray for steady progress as Mark reviews Scripture translations made by two different teams, checking for accuracy, clarity and naturalness.

* In May, Mark anticipates getting a PET scan that his oncologist will review to determine if he needs to continue on chemo a bit longer or if he can stop. We hope the word is stop!

The Beans'talk March/April 2022

Download The Beans'talk March/April 2022 with photos

God’s gracious answers to your prayers

In our last Beans’Talk we had a number of prayer requests. We’d like to briefly comment on them, for God graciously answered.

1. Peruvian Bible Society webinar

There were nearly 300 people signed on to the Peruvian Bible Society’s webinar that Mark taught. We couldn’t keep track of all the countries represented in the audience; at least a dozen. Plus, one friend mentioned there were yet more people watching via Facebook. The feedback has been positive. Mark spoke on how all translations make adjustments to fit the target language, illustrating with examples from a popular Spanish version of the Bible.

2. Training future consultants

February 21–25, was the week-long online training for Latino translation consultants-in-training. After Mark taught all Tuesday morning, a colleague mentioned that he had been skeptical wondering how Mark was going to safely talk about the breadth of evangelical positions on two doctrinal issues. We are thankful that instead of being divisive, it seemed to be helpful.

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Mark & Patti April 2022 Prayer Requests

* Praise for the wonderful opportunities Mark had to teach in different settings and the encouraging responses this past month. Pray for people to hear the call to be future translators and consultants.

* Praise for excellent medical care so close by. Mark has tolerated these first two months of chemo treatments fairly well. Pray that these treatments will keep Mark’s body working well for as long as God has something for him here.

* Praise for these years we've been close by to serve Mom Bean. Praise for the tender care shown to her by those in her facility and the hospice people who came alongside and cared for her. Praise that she was with family when she peacefully exited this world.