Collins Family March 2014 Prayer Requests

Praise God that the CILTA program will kick off on March 17th after a one year hiatus. There are some twenty students from nine Latin American countries. These students are missionary candidates who will be learning linguistic skills for Bible translation and literacy work among minority culture groups of the Americas and the world. Pray that everyone arrives ready to go and that they get off to a good start in this training which lasts a full academic year.

Pray for Wes as he travels to Venezuela toward the end of the month in order to meet with local village and church leaders, who will be sending young adults to a jungle educational center for training in language development. The goal of the program is for students to return home to work in literacy, teaching school and Bible translation in their own (non-Spanish) languages.

Collins Family February 2014 Prayer Requests

Pray for their son Isaac as he marries Elizabeth on February 21^st in Costa Rica.  The entire immediate family plans to be there and to support Isaac and Elizabeth in their commitment to a godly life together. 

Continue to pray for their Mam language partner Byron, who pastors a small church and hosts a twice-weekly Mam language program.  This is the language group in Guatemala where Wes and Nancy spent many years doing Bible translation work.

Collins January 2014 Prayer Requests

Pray for Wes as he finishes up a paper and prepares to present it at a linguistics conference in Minneapolis on January 4th.  The people and language group they worked with in Guatemala for many years are the Mam, and this paper deals with Mam grammar.  Please pray that this becomes a blessing to the Mam people as they see how fascinating and complex their language is.

Pray for Isaac, their youngest child, as he plans to marry Elizabeth in mid-February.  Pray for them as they put together the details of their wedding and their lives.  May God reign in their every plan.

Collins 2013 November-December Update

Dear and good friends,

I was happy to get e-mails back from my early-morning request for prayer for Byron as he crossed the Mexico-Guatemala border on his way back to Comitancillo last week. A number of you said that you were praying for him. People had two questions concerning that note. The first one was, "Why is the border dangerous? The main reason is delinquency. There are lots of people standing around ready to help you with your suitcases and back pack and then they just take off with them. The border is also a haven for people trying to get to the US. If they can get into Mexico, perhaps they can make their way north to the US border and come across in hopes of finding work. So people hang out at the border looking for opportunities to make money or find a way to travel. There also is a degree of violence related to the drug trade that crosses the border--both ways, actually: into Mexico from Guatemala and into Guatemala from Mexico.

Collins December 2013 Prayer Requests

Friends,

Greetings from Oaxaca. I very much enjoyed dinner just this past Wednesday with Kep, Mike Ross and Edgar. You'd be surprised at the appetizers: Deep friend grubs, ant eggs and larvae. You know what they say. It tastes like chicken.

That's not part of the prayer requests, although we always appreciate prayer for good health.

Collins November 2013 Prayer Requests

Wes will be involved in a workshop in Oaxca Mexico related to linguistics and translation from November 1-22. His Mam friend and colleague, Byron, will be attending with him. Their goal is to learn some new computer skills related to language analysis and literacy.

Collins October 2013 Update to the Update

Friends,

Greetings from Wake Forest.

It's cloudy and gray, just like home. I have received messages from several people concerning the need for a PC to take to Mexico later this month.  My brother-in-lw Tom wrote right away and has sent one to us, so we don't need to pursue this any further. Thanks to all of you for considering this need.

People have asked about my trip to Comitancillo and how it was different from when we used to live there. Here are a few impressions:

Collins October 2013 Update

Dear and good friends,

Greetings from Wake Forest. I'm not used to writing such things, but it is true. Nan and I have relocated from our dear Ashland, Ohio to North Carolina to be near much of our family. Elisa and Yury are here and their three kids, and Nan's mom has moved into her new digs just this past week. We are five minutes from Elisa and fifteen minutes from Nan's mom. Isaac is in Atlanta, so he's now a much shorter drive away. Amalia and family are still in Hawaii, but they just came east for a visit.

Collins October 2013 Prayer Requests

Dear ones,

Greetings from rainy North Carolina.

Here are a few current prayer requests:

Collins September 2013 Update

Dear and good friends,

Greetings to you from Comitancillo in the serious part of the rainy season. Even when it’s not raining it is gray and overcast?a lot like Cleveland.

I heard from many of you related to last night’s strong tremor. It was 6.6 on the Richter scale and was felt though Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador. It rolled down the cobblestone streets of Comitancillo for over a minute around 6:30 PM, local time, and it was followed by a half dozen aftershocks through the night. Feeling the earth move under your feet is very disorienting. Thanks to many for your prayers and concern for people affected. A number of adobe homes tumbled down, but, not here in Comitancillo, as far as I know.