Collins' September 2010 Prayer Requests

Hi Friends,

Here are some prayer requests for us.

1. We're back in Ohio for two months. CLAVE will kick off in mid-October in the Amazon basin of Peru. There are plenty of details regarding room and board, travel, venue and curriculum that need attention. This training is directed specifically to speakers of indigenous languages to promote the analysis and reading of their native languages. We expect 25 students, 10 staff and 12-14 different languages.

Collins' Family August 2010 Prayer Update

Hi friends,

 1. We're grateful to God for the Parkside VBS offering that will go toward promoting literacy and the reading of the Scriptures among the Mam of Guatemala.

2. Our students are taking a month-long semester break from classes. Pray for their safety in travel and their recuperation. They have four more months of intensive training starting August 16.

God's best to you.

Wes & Nancy

Collins' Special Prayer Request

Friends,

Greetings from cold and gray Lima.

I got a quick request for prayer from Ismael, a former student. You may remember that Nan and I were in Guatemala from October of last year until March. I taught several courses to native speakers of Indian languages from several different countries in the Americas. One of my students from that course is a university student in Bogota, Colombia. He is headed back to his home village during these days between semesters. He is one of just a very few Christians in his entire language group. He has heard that village elders have looked on his conversion to Christianity as a very bad thing and that they plan to reign him in and force him to return to the religion of his ancestors. He says that he is willing to die for his faith.

Collins' Family July 2010 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

Greetings from cool, gray Lima. Nancy considers it cold and dreary, whereas I see it as an opportunity for the students to stay indoors and study. Judging from their phonology midterm, some did just that, while others may have spent a bit too much time outside coping with the cold. You might wonder what phonology has to do with Bible translation. Well, phonology is the systematic study of the sounds of language, partly how to identify and repeat them, and partly how to fit them into an alphabet. Both parts of this equation are important. To translate well, one must speak, and not just have an academic knowledge, of the language one is translating into.

Collins May 2010 Prayer Requests

Dear Friends,

Classes at CILTA have entered their second month. There are 16 students from 10 different Latin American countries. The training is intense. Pray that students not only thrive academically, but that they would see God's purpose in their training for cross-cultural ministries that each student aspires to.

Collins April 2010 Prayer Letter

Collins 2009 In Retrospect

2009 was a year of change. We had a new US president inaugurated, and many felt the squeeze and some even the cold maw of the worst recession since the Great Depression, a period that was so formative in the lives of our parents (perhaps) and grandparents (for sure).

Collins February 2010 Prayer Requests

Here are a few prayer requests.

CLAVE ends February 26 here in Guatemala. It is a training program for speakers of minority languages from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Peru who are trying to keep their languages alive and well.

Collins January 2010 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Guatemala. Nan is presently in the Rockies driving back East with Molly, our precious middle daughter who has had some lumps and is headed home. We're grateful that we will all be together at Christmas, Lord enabling.

Collins December 2009 Prayer Update

Dear ones,

Greetings from Guatemala.

We're starting week five of sixteen with speakers from eight different language groups.