It’s COMING…
Rejoice with us!

Yesterday we learned that the Bible Society has delivered the “print proof copy” of the Palawano New Testament to the SIL/Wycliffe office in Manila. We’re so excited.

This copy will be sent to us in the coming week, and we will have to get busy combing through it for typos, mistakes, pages out of order, etc. Once all the issues are resolved, it goes to print.

ICLL…
We asked for prayer concerning the upcoming ICLL (International Congress on Language Learning) in Colorado Springs in early October, and the Lord has answered.

God has provided several generous gifts and we were able to register and purchase tickets to Colorado. We have what we need for basic registration and travel. Continue to pray with us that God would provide the additional costs involved in attending the conference (approx $800). We know he is able!

NT Dedications and Distribution…
We are closer than ever, but once again, all we can say at this point is: Stay Tuned!

Praise the Lord with us…
– that the mock-up of the Palawano New Testament is on its way
– for provision for much of the cost of attending ICLL

Pray with us…
– that there would be minimal errors (or none!) in the proof copy
– for God’s provision of the remaining costs of attending the ICLL
– that we would be a blessing to those around us

Reaching Palawanos (and the world!) together with you,

– Bill and Donna

TRANSLATION UPDATE
The translation is done! And the audio recording is completed. So now we are waiting for the Palawano New Testaments to be printed in Manila. Once the books are printed, we’ll be taking a trip or two to the Philippines to check the books for quality, to host dedication services, and to launch distribution.

We won’t know the dates for that until we hear from the printers. So please pray and stay tuned.

MEANWHILE
We’re enjoying this time with our kids, grandkids, family, friends and supporters. God is refreshing us after the intense final months of translation and recording.

In May, we were blessed to host Gracia Burnham here in San Diego. She spoke in our church and at a missions training program called Radius in Tijuana. We also showed her around beautiful San Diego: La Jolla, Mount Soledad, and the famous Hotel Del Coronado.

Not long after Gracia’s visit, Bill was invited to spend a couple days at Radius, speaking to their students about language learning. We were excited to have even a small part in training these young people who are headed out into the unreached areas of the world to share Christ!

We’ve also had opportunities to teach Bible studies and to share at missions conferences and visit some of our supporting churches. Coming up in October, Bill will be helping to lead an inter-mission language learning conference in Colorado.

On a personal note, spending time with our daughters, and getting to know our two delightful grandchildren and being a part of their lives has been the highlight of these past couple months.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US
– Refreshment and good health
– Opportunities to share about this ministry
– Reconnection with supporters & friends
– Prompt, accurate printing of Palawano NT
– Provision for Oct travel & workshop costs

We appreciate everyone’s prayers, support and encouragement as we anticipate the printing of the Palawano New Testament!

Reaching Palawanos with you,

– Bill and Donna Bill and Donna Davis

HOME STRETCH…ed
We’re about to begin the final week of recording the audio version of the Palawano New Testament and we really need your prayers.

Yes, it’s the Home Stretch, and we are being stretched, as well!

The whole NT has been recorded from Matthew to Revelation and the initial checking and corrections (rerecording short passages) has been completed. Praise the Lord for this! We’re thankful for this milestone, good progress, and the great team God has sent to help with this project.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME?
Now we are doing the final edit which involves listening to the entire NT once again, checking for any errors that may have slipped through, deleting unnatural pauses, etc.

The challenge we face is that it takes about 2 hours to do the final edit on each hour of recorded material, and there don’t seem to be enough hours in the week to get it done.

The Palawano New Testament is significantly longer than the normal 18-hour New Testaments Luke and Kristen have been recording in Africa. In hindsight, we see that we should have budgeted a few extra weeks to get the Palawano project done, but we didn’t realize this until it was too late.

So we have about 50 hours of listening and checking to get done… all in the next 5 days, plus rerecording any errors we might find.

ONE… TWO… READ!
We’ve been working on the recording of the audio version of the Palawano New Testament for about two and a half weeks, now. Whew! Praise the Lord for good progress and for health and stamina. This job requires a lot of concentration, day after day.

Bill and Terry on the rooftop of the hotel (yes, the view is amazing)

This past week, we also hosted a video team from California who are documenting what is involved in getting the Word of God into another language and published in printed and audio formats.

We were even able to film the steps of the printing process, from stacks of 700-pound rolls of Bible paper to printing plates, to printing machines, assembly, sewing, binding, trimming… quite a interesting field trip. We felt a lot of emotion to think that our translation will soon undergo this process and be available for the Palawanos.

RECORDING: EACH ONE DOES THEIR PART
We are working with several Palawanos, Luke and Kristen Rider of Cross Connection Outreach, and a volunteer from one of our churches in San Diego.

Susing is our reader and reads the Palawano New Testament into the mic hour after hour.

Luke and Kristen

Luke monitors the computer which is recording the audio, and Bill follows the text on another computer to make sure each word of each verse is read correctly.

After that, Donna and Giyang listen to each section, checking for any errors which might have slipped through. Susing, Luke and Bill then have to rerecord each of those.

Terry edits to audio to strip out background noise and unwanted silent spaces, etc., and he splices the rerecorded parts into the main audio file. Kristen will help with rerecording and editing when Terry flies home to return to his job in San Diego.

SAY IT AGAIN… AND AGAIN
Susing is very patient. If he stumbles over a word, we have to ask him to repeat the verse (or sentence). If someone hits a hammer upstairs… repeat. If an airline flight goes over the hotel (the whole city is in the flight path)… repeat. If Susing gets too far from the mic, or too close… repeat.

A recording studio not unlike Abbey Road

Susing remains cheerful throughout it all. In his interview for the video he explained, “It’s hard, yes. But it’s worth it to see God’s Word completed and done well, so that people can listen to it and come to know Christ.”

TECHNOLOGICAL MASHUP
Our equipment is a combination of high tech (Macs, sound mixers, top-of-the-line microphone, cables and software) and a jerry-rigged “sound studio” made of mattresses and duct tape. Please note, however, that these mattresses are not just any old cloth-covered cushion. Some of them are the world-renowned, sound-enhancing, echo-diminishing Hello Kitty mattresses (available in pink).

The Uniquely-Acoustic Hello Kitty Mattresses

KEEP PRAYING
Although we have to do retakes because of intermittent noise, we are making good progress. We’re over halfway through the NT. The hotel staff remain friendly and helpful. We thank the Lord for this, and realize that your prayers are a big part of this effort.

Please pray that:

• the relationship with the hotel owners and staff will continue to be smooth
• we will be able to have a relatively soundproof recording situation
• stamina, health and clear thinking for each member of the team

Thank you for your part in this ministry!

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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2012 has certainly been the most exciting year in our 30+ years of service in the Philippines. We are so thankful that the translation of the Palawano New Testament was completed.

WHAT’S THE CURRENT STATUS?

The translation is now at the Philippine Bible Society for printing, and we are waiting for the final mock-up copy to proofread before it goes to press.

Please pray that:

• the proof copy will be done quickly
• it will the correctly formatted and error-free
• the NT can be printed with minimal delay

WHAT’S NEXT? THE NEW TESTAMENT IN AUDIO…

Many of the Palawanos cannot read. And those who can read, often prefer to listen.

So, in addition to 2,500 copies printed copies of God’s Word, we will produce an audio version of the entire Palawano New Testament. Rechargeable audio Bible players will be distributed throughout the tribe. Let us know if you would like to sponsor one of these players!

We will fly from Los Angeles on Feb 6th and head back to Palawan for about 7 weeks to do the recording. We will stay at NTM’s Guest House in Puerto Princesa. And we have rented quiet hotel rooms to use as a recording “studio.” A team from the USA is coming over to handle the technical aspects of recording. Susing will be our Palawano “voice.” And Donna and I will work with several other Palawanos to double- and triple-check the recording for accuracy. It will be a intense process to get that much material recorded error-free. Please pray with us through this project!

Another team is coming over to Palawan for about a week to shoot video, to produce a documentary of “The Making Of The Palawano New Testament.” We admit we’re reluctantly non-photogenic. They are planning to illustrate the benefits of people groups having the Scriptures in their heart language.

Please pray with us for:

• health and endurance for all of us
• quick and accurate recording
• logistics of the two-day trip into the tribe

Stay tuned… we’ll keep you posted during the recording trip.

Meanwhile, we are thankful that in between all the holidays and family events, we got fairly well settled for our Home Assignment (furlough) here in San Diego. The Lord has provided a car and much of the furniture that we need. We will finish getting set up when we return to the US in late March.

Thank you for your part in this ministry!

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Bill and Donna on Facebook

CHECK THIS OUT…

We’ve finished up our month of working with the typesetters here in Davao. A few more details remain, which will be handled by email. But the Palawano New Testament is pretty much DONE (the actual translation part, at least).

Rejoice with us!

How to describe this past month? Apart from the thrill of reaching this milestone, and thankfulness for God’s grace, it has simply been a lot of work and eyestrain. Fun, but tiring. Bill says it was like having a new term paper due every day for a month straight! Now we’re thankful that’s behind us.

We thought we would give you a sneak preview of what the pages will look look like, then a quick overview of our next few months…

Pretty cool, huh? We love how it looks and are so grateful to Meriam and Dennis with SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) for their expertise and gracious help!

WHAT’S NEXT?
Our next few months at a glance:

• OCTOBER: Back to Palawan, pack up and get ready to head to California
• NOVEMBER: Our Home Assignment (furlough) begins.
  • Move in and get settled.
  • Find furniture and anything we need to “play house.”
  • We’re praying for a vehicle to use while on Home Assignment.
• DECEMBER-JANUARY: Enjoy the holidays with our kids and grandkids.
• FEBRUARY-MARCH: Back to the Philippines to record the audio of the New Testament
• APRIL… Back to the USA
  • Wait for the New Testament printing to be completed.
  • Visit supporters and friends
• SOMEWHERE IN THERE… we will need to check the final proofs from the printers.

BIG PICTURE…
When the New Testaments are finally printed, we will head back to the Philippines again to physically check each copy. Upside-down pages and out-of-order pages happen sometimes. We will also host dedication services in Puerto Princesa and in the Palawano village. That is also when we can coordinate with teams who will help distribute the New Testaments and audio players far and wide to every Palawano community.

We had hoped the printing would be done by May 2013, but from what we hear, it will be later in the year. Will you pray with us that the printing gets done sooner? and accurately?

We’ll keep you posted about the dates. If you are interesting in helping with distribution, let us know! Or if you would like to join us for the dedication, there will be a couple of options:

• Comfortable event in town (Puerto Princesa) hosted by our church friends. Everyone welcome!
• Dedication in the village for the few, the brave and the hardy. Travel logistics will make this event more challenging, and fewer people will be able attend.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US NOW AND LOOKING AHEAD:

1. For the New Testaments to be printed quickly and without errors
2. Energy and wisdom as we pack up and travel to California
3. Getting settled, and all that means
4. A car for our Home Assignment (beginning Nov 5)

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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