Collins Family December 2015 Prayer Requests

Greetings from Guatemala.

My prayer requests for December are:

1. Pray for the Mam people working on Old Testament translation and literacy. They face many challenges, but God is faithful and the team continues to make progress.

2. The first five books of the Old Testament have been drafted, checked and revised. The team has made some photocopies to be read and preached in local churches. Pray that this next step would provide for a clear understanding of the Scriptures. The New Testament in Mam has been completed for 15 years. This is the first Old Testament work to be available. Pray for wide acceptance and appreciation of God’s Word.

Thanks,

Wes

Collins Family November 2015 Update

Download the Collins November 2015 Update letter here.

Good friends,

When Nancy and I joined Wycliffe back in 1977 we wanted to go to China or Russia. I really can’t recall the thought process that led us in that direction, but that’s what we talked to Wycliffe about. Back in the day, Wycliffe founder and visionary “Uncle Cam” Townsend was praying daily that God would open the door to Bible translation in Communist countries. He even visited Russia ten times during the hard days of the cold war, confident that God would one day open the door.

Collins Family November 2015 Prayer Requests

Hi friends,

Here are two Collins prayer requests:

1. Pray for Wes’ most-recent students. He just finished teaching a linguistics course at the Wycliffe Center in Dallas. There were 18 students from different organizations. They are headed into ministries around the world—Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. May God give them good resolve, good support and effective ministries.

2. Wes is headed to Guatemala on November 6 for three weeks. He will be working with the Mam team on Old Testament translation and literacy. Pray for safety and effectiveness.

Thanks much.

Wes

Collins Family October 2015 Prayer Requests

Friends,

Here are a few prayer requests for October for the Collins.

1. Classes finish on October 16. Wes has been teaching an intensive two-month-long course in phonology to help students understand the sound systems of other languages and to give insight into how to develop alphabets for unwritten languages. Pray that the students finish well and that Wes’ teaching would be clear and helpful. Some students are headed to the field while others have been there for years.

Collins Family September 2015 Prayer Requests

1. Wes and Nancy are in Dallas where Wes is teaching a linguistics course to 19 enthusiastic students whose aim is to do Bible translation among minority people groups. Pray for both him and them as they study together for God’s glory.

2. The Collins adult children and following Christ, something we never take for granted, and for which we are very grateful. Pray for Parkside missionary “kids,” as well as MK’s around the world, that God would make their special cultural background a blessing and resource for ministry.

Thanks.

Wes

Collins Family August 2015 Update

Download the Collins August Update with photo here.

Dear and good friends,

Greetings to you from North Carolina. It has been a hot summer with many days near or over 100 degrees. That should get us ready for Dallas where it is supposed to be 95 plus for the next ten days. I’ll be teaching there in a professor exchange, where a prof from Dallas is headed for Peru to teach students that I had last semester and I will be filling in for him in Dallas working with gringo students for the first time since my days at Ohio State.

Interestingly, Nancy and I got our MA’s in linguistics in Dallas largely on the same campus that we’re headed to this coming weekend. We head out on Sunday and classes start on Thursday.

Collins Family August 2015 Prayer Requests

Here are a few requests for August.

Nancy and Wes travel to Dallas to teach class in phonology. Wes has taught a similar course many times, but this will be the first time he teaches it in English. The students are all studying to be Bible translators and minority-language communicators. Pray for success in getting the content across to students and that they would prosper under Wes’ teaching.

Old Testament translation continues in Guatemala in many languages—including Mam—the language spoken where the Collinses lived for many years. Pray that the work would go smoothly and that it would progress well.

Thanks to all.

Wes

Collins Family July 2015 Prayer Requests

Wes and Nancy just returned from Peru where Wes taught a semantics course to missionary candidates studying to be Bible translators. Pray that these students continue to learn and that they would soon make it to the field to serve indigenous, minority groups.

The Collins are very much looking forward to being at Parkside on July 5. Stop and see them at the Missions table or during their Missions Moment in Room 212 during the 9:45 service.

Missions Moment with Wes & Nancy Collins

Location: Room 212
Start Time: Sun 5, July 2015, 12:45 p.m.
End Time: Sun 5, July 2015, 1:45 p.m.

Join Parkside missionaries Wes & Nancy Collins on July 5 at 9:45am in Room 212 to hear an update on their ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translators, which takes them to Guatemala, Peru, and beyond.

Collins Family May 2015 Update

Download the Collins' May 2015 letter with photos here.

Dear ones,

Greetings from Lima. Nancy was with me for a month and just returned to North Carolina and a lovely spring. Actually they don’t do much spring in North Carolina. It goes from winter (which isn’t much either) directly to summer and then it stays summer until pretty much November, when people plant pansies, which begin to flourish in February. I understand that Ohio’s winter was pretty robust this year.

I’m teaching a cohort of nine students, seven of whom are from Argentina. The other two are Mexicans, with additional profs and TAs from the US, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. It’s like International Day every day around here. The program is called CILTA (International Course for Linguistics, Translation and Literacy) and it is run in conjunction with a local Peruvian university.