Collins' August 2012 Prayer Requests

Hi,

Thanks for your prayers and concern for us. We always appreciate it.

We're putting together the next rendition of CLAVE, a training program for Amerindian Venezuelans. We are aiming for 30 students and 12 instructors. The national church has committed funds and people to help pull off the four-month-long training. There are a lot of coordination issues. May this program be a blessing to the Venezuelan Church not only in content, but in leadership development as well.

Collins' July 2012 Prayer Requests

Dear ones,

Thanks for your prayers and interest. Here are several things you can pray with us about in the month ahead.

Our oldest daughter, Elisa, the mother of three-year-old twin boys, is expecting a daughter mid-July. Pray for her health and that of her family. Nancy is with her pre-partem and plans to stay with her for a while afterwards as well. I'm finishing out the semester here in Lima where we have 21 students from 9 countries. I hope to join Nan on July 15, Lord enabling.  

Collins June 2012 Prayer Requests

Friends,

Here are two requests from Lima.

Pray for Nancy. She has had recurring illness related to travel and the tropics for many years. It isn't incapacitating, but rather debilitating and it keeps her from feeling fully on top of things.

Pray for CILTA students representing nine different countries studying here in Lima. May their churches be sending churches and not just training churches, helping their young people to get out to the field for ministry and enabling them to stay there. This is a relatively new vision for Latino churches in the Americas.

Thanks much for your prayers and partnership.

Wes

Collins' May 2012 Prayer Letter

Dear and good friends,

Greetings from Raleigh where Nan and I are visiting with Elisa, Yury and the twins. We leave Saturday for Lima and the next installment of CILTA. CILTA (International course for linguistics, translation and literacy) is a university-level program aimed at training Latino missionary candidates in skills needed for cross-cultural ministry. This year we have 24 students from 9 different countries.

One of these is a woman from Switzerland. She’s a native speaker of German, but she has a Spanish surname and lots of Spanish-speaking relatives to boot, so she's virtually a native Spanish speaker as well. We also have a Mayan Indian student from Guatemala. Although not a native Spanish speaker, you wouldn’t know it—except when she wars her stunning Mayan clothing.

Collins May 2012 Prayer Requests

Hi friends,

Greetings from Ohio.

Here are a few prayers requests for May.

On May 15 Wes starts teaching a class on semantics, the study of meaning in linguistics. The course is offered in Lima, Peru and is for Latino missionary candidates who hope to work cross-culturally as Bible translators or literacy promoters and teachers. Pray that both he and they are well prepared for what's ahead.

Sometimes it seems that the missions movement in Latin America has the cart before the horse. There are quality young people trained and ready to go to the field, but local churches often lack the vision or resources to send them. This ends up being frustrating for everyone--including the profs who train the students. Pray Matthew 9:38, that God would send out workers into His harvest.

Thanks for your prayers and interest.

Wes

Collins' April 2012 Prayer Update

Friends,

I see it will be in the 70's this week, so I can't make fun of you all enduring Ohio's winter. Lima is in the throes of autumn--no color, but it's getting cloudy and damp and it will continue to get colder for the next few months.

Greetings from Lima. I got here last week to help kick off the new CILTA school year. Classes start in the morning. Nan is with her parents and I return to Ohio, Lord enabling, on Saturday. Nan and I return to Lima mid-May to teach for two months.

Here are some prayer requests for April.

Collins' March 2012 Prayer Requests

Dear ones,

Greetings from Colombia. Here are a few prayer requests for us:

CLAVE ends on March 2. These 21 students are all South American Indians and are native speakers of minority languages. Pray that they are able to use their new knowledge and skills to build readership for the Scriptures and to encourage a new generation of readers.

CILTA, a training program for Latino missionary candidates, kicks off on March 19. Pray that these students would get a good start on their linguistic studies in order to be able to serve cross-culturally in ministries around the world.

Thanks.

Wes

Collins' February 2012 Prayer Requests

SIL Article

Friends,

I just got word that the CLAVE project is being featured on the SIL website. You can see it at: http://www.sil.org/sil/news/2012/clave-2nd-session-2012.htm

God's best to you all.

Wes

Collins 2011 in Retrospect