Collins Family May 2015 Prayer Requests

Hi friends,

Thanks for your prayers. Here are two prayer requests.

1. Wes and Nancy Collins are in Peru for two months of CILTA where Latino missionary candidates are getting training in basic linguistics to be able to engage another culture and to work as Bible translators. Pray that the students learn lots.

2. The training of Latino students is only part of the mission task. Pray for interest, prayer and support among students’ families, friends and churches, so that trained students can actually get to the field and stay there.

Collins Family April 2015 Update

Download the Collins Family April 2015 Update with photo here.

Dear and good friends,

Greetings from Wake Forest. We’ve been busy, and we’re looking forward to leaving in a few weeks for two months in Peru where I’ll be teaching a semantics course—a course on meaning—to ten Latino students interested in cross-cultural ministry. I know that a course on meaning sounds a bit bizarre, as if “meaning” were some kind of transcendental category, or perhaps some sort of weird blob that you can dissect and study. But it is indeed kind of complicated. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you go to Bob’s house to pick up him and his wife for dinner. When you arrive you see the emergency squad in the driveway with lights flashing, and you figure something is up. You ask, “Are we still on for dinner?” and Bob says, “Our son is really sick.” In this context, the sentence “Our son is really sick.” means basically, “No, we’re not still on for dinner.” So there are two levels of meaning here, the actual meaning of the sentence that was uttered (that the son is really sick) and then what it means in this specific context (no, we’re not going to dinner).

Collins Family March 2015 Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests for us.

1. Nancy and I leave in mid-March for Lima Peru where Wes will again teach linguistic skills to Latino missionary candidates. Pray that the students would see the importance of language skills for cross-cultural ministry, and that they would work hard to develop them.

2. Wes and Nancy completed a New Testament translation in Mam many years ago. Today a small group of Indians is working on a translation of the Old Testament. Pray for their tenacity and enthusiasm and that the Collinses would get to spend time with them for their encouragement and for consultation.

Collins 2014 in Retrospect

Download the Collins 2014 in Retrospect letter here.

Dear and good friends,

I have attached our year in review as a PDF file.

Blessings to you all and Happy 2015.

Wes and Nancy

Collins Family January 2015 Prayer Requests

Praise God for a great trip to Guatemala in late November. Work by Mam speakers is moving ahead in both Old Testament translation and literacy training.

Wes and Nancy plan to visit their daughter Amalia and family in Hawaii for two weeks in late January. Amalia is expecting her second daughter.  Pray for health and much joy.

Thanks much,

Wes

Collins Family December 2014 Prayer Requests

Dear ones,

Greetings from North Carolina Here are two prayer requests:

1. Our daughter Amalia lives in Hawaii where she and her family work a small organic farm. They are dangerously close to the lava flow that has been in the news for the last few months. Pray that their property would be spared, that they would not be cut off from lava flowing over important roads, and that God would be real to them under duress.

Collins November 2014 Update

Dear and good friends,

Greetings from North Carolina where it is feeling more and more like fall. No frost yet, but it won’t be long. I was surprised to read recently that the five best places for fall colors in the nation are New Hampshire, Vermont, Upstate New York, Colorado and the Blue Ridge mountains in western North Carolina (Ashland, Ohio would, no doubt, have been 6th). I’m not sure how “best color” is measured?probably via donations to the local Chamber of Commerce, but it is what it is, as they increasingly say.

Collins Family November 2014 Prayer Requests

Greetings from North Carolina.

Here are two prayer requests from us.

• Wes will be in Dallas for a series of meetings Novemeber 7-8 related to linguistic and translation training in the Americas. Wycliffe has more opportunities than available faculty and staff to fill the needs. Pray for good ideas and that we are able to provide training for both native Spanish and indigenous-language speaking students who are working hard at Old Testament translation and literacy.

The Navajo

Dear and good friends,

Greetings to you all from Wake Forest. I don't know whether to complain about lack of fall colors down south, or to gloat in our 80 degree temperatures. You decide.

Several people sent me the following story from the New York Times about upcoming tribal elections among the Navajo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/us/a-presidential-candidate-in-navajo-nation-protests-a-language-requirement.html?emc=edit_th_20140927&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=15409743

Collins Family October 2014 Prayer Requests

Dear Friends,

Here are two prayer requests for us:

• Pray for Samuel and the Mam team working on Old Testament translation. They will meet for two weeks with Wycliffe consultants starting mid-October doing exegetical checking in the book of Isaiah.