Author: Bill & Donna Davis

Breaking News

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BREAKING NEWS… PALAWANO TRANSLATION

God is working in exciting ways as we move into 2012. Lord willing, this is the year the Palawano New Testament will be published.

Three times recently we have seen “a daunting challenge” followed by “But God…”

Since our last update, we realized that printing the Palawano NT would cost more than we had estimated. A daunting challenge. But God has amazed us with many gifts pouring in this past month, and we reached the goal! We now have what we need to print 2,000 copies of the New Testament and to purchase 50 Talking Bible audio players.
Now, we are praying to be able to print an additional 500 copies, and to buy an additional 150 more Talking Bible audio players, and begin a comprehensive distribution strategy immediately after publication, rather than stretching distribution out over several years. This would total about $10,000. Any gifts toward this project should go to NTM, designated for the “S.W. Palawano Translation Fund, Philippines.”
We saw that it would be difficult to get everything ready by July. But God enabled us to change our typesetting schedule to September, so now there is plenty of time to get everything done.
And NTM did not have consultants available to check all of our last portions before July. But God took care of that. Once we changed the schedule, another consultant was available in July.
Problems solved, 1, 2, 3!
We’ll keep you posted on progress as we press toward the finish line.
BREAKING NEWS… GRANDCHILDREN
Our hearts broke (a little) when our two grandchildren returned to California after their visit. But we are so so thankful that our daughter Elisa and Chris were able to come to the Philippines with Max and Myri. We had an amazing and rich time with them. Elisa and Chris were even able to visit the village where she grew up in the tribe.
BREAKING NEWS… WELL, NOT REALLY
While the kids were here, Bill twisted his ankle and injured himself. We thought there might be a bone (or two) broken in his foot, but after an x-ray, we learned it was just a sprain. We’re so thankful for that!
Other health news… we have been helping several of our Palawano Translation Assistants (TAs) deal with sickness. One of our main translation check helpers was recently sick, then her daughter had tuberculosis, and now they are in town because her husband is very sick. Please pray for all the TAs to be healthy, especially in the coming months.
PRAYER REQUESTS FOR THE COMING MONTHS
  • That we stay focused and close to the Lord each day
  • Wisdom in finishing the last few books of the NT
  • Remaining funds for additional Bibles and distribution, etc.
  • A room for recording the audio version
  • A good final consultant check of Mark (now in March)
  • Health and safety for us, our pets, and the TAs

And pray for God’s protection from…

  • Break-ins, theft or failure of our computers, etc.
  • Distracting family or financial problems for our TAs
  • Moral or sin issues in the Palawanos’ lives
  • Problems that might affect Bingbing and Mylene
We appreciate your part in this ministry now more than ever. Thanks for standing with us.
Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Christmas and Translation

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TRANSLATION UPDATE

Thanks to all who prayed. We have seen a real answer to prayer about the noise and interruptions all around us since our last update. God is good… and powerful. Keep us in prayer, please!

As the end of the year 2011 approaches, we are particularly thankful for two “gifts,” which are:
1) We are nearing the point where the last verse will be beyond the first draft stage. Bill has been working on the first draft of Matthew (with the Christmas story – very appropriate!) He hopes to be done with that step for Matthew before the end of this month.
and…
2) Elisa, Chris and our grandchildren Max and Myri are coming to visit in January! Looking forward to this has boosted our spirits like nothing else could!

WHAT’S COMING UP?
We turned in our “typesetting form” to the office of SIL in Manila. So that’s officially in process. Our deadline to take the Palawano New Testament to digital typesetting is July 2012, with a view to having it printed in August. We can start recording the audio for the Talking Bible version then. So all this means steady work until we meet the deadline.
2012 will be a huge year for the Palawano translation project, as we see it to completion and production. Pray with us about all these important details…
Funds For Printing, Recording and Distribution.
We need in the neighborhood of $25,000, in addition to the $6,000 already in the Translation Fund, to finish the translation, print the New Testaments, record the audio version and get distribution up and running. Through the years, many churches and individuals have expressed interest in being a part “when we reach that point.” Well, we’ve reached that point! These are exciting days. Any gifts toward this project should go to NTM, designated for the “S.W. Palawano Translation Fund, Philippines.”
An Affordable Soundproof Room
We need a suitable place for approximately 5 weeks to record the audio for the Talking Bible version of the Palawano New Testament (time frame: August-September 2012). There are some possibilities, but nothing certain. It has to be here in Puerto. A recording studio would work, but other possibilities would include a building that is isolated enough to have no traffic noise or crowing roosters, etc., in its vicinity.

Checking
The consultant check of the book of Mark has been rescheduled for early February because some of our Palawano TAs (Translation Assistants) were sick. We still need to schedule two additional checks for the final books of the New Testament and are working to coordinate that with the consultants now.

Continued Progress
We need a never-ending supply of health, energy and wisdom to keep the push going so we reach the goal and meet the deadline.
PRAYER REQUESTS FOR THE COMING MONTHS
  • That we stay focused and close to the Lord each day
  • Wisdom in translating the last few books of the NT
  • Funds for printing, recording and distribution
  • A room for recording the audio version
  • A good final consultant check of Mark (now early February)
  • Scheduling of the two remaining consultant checks
  • Health and safety for us, our pets, and the TAs

And pray for God’s protection from…

  • Break-ins, theft or failure of our computers, etc.
  • Distracting family or financial problems for our TAs
  • Moral or sin issues in the Palawanos’ lives
  • Problems that might affect Bingbing and Mylene
We appreciate your part in this ministry now more than ever. Thanks for standing with us!
Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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This Week In Translation (Oct 18)

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BILL: ON YOUR MARK, GET SET…
…Comprehension Check!
This week Nursalyn and Arlyn are in town and they are helping Bill to test the entire book of Mark to make sure (one last time) that it communicates clearly.
Bill reads them portions and they tell it back to show what they understood. Then he asks questions. More and more specific questions. He writes down every word they say as part of the process.
It can be tiring for the girls and Bill, but it’s exciting to see how the translation communicates! This is the last major step in the procedure before we have a final consultant check (in November?) We continue to work toward our deadline for printing the NT.
DONNA: SAY IT AGAIN, SAM…
Well, not Sam. It’s Susing. Donna is working with him to record Revelation 10-22. These audio “retellings” of the translation help Bill to make the grammar and vocabulary more natural, and the process also serves as a preliminary comprehension check.
NEXT WEEK…
Susing will stay in town next week and the other men will join him. Stay tuned…
FOR NOW, HERE’S HOW YOU CAN PRAY WITH US
  • Energy, health and wisdom
  • No Electrical Outages this week and next
  • Lots or recording done well by Donna
  • Completed Comprehension check of Mark (by Bill)
  • Minimal need to revision Mark
Reaching Palawanos together with you,-Bill and Donna

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Palawano New Testament – COUNTDOWN

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We have a lot of news about the translation progress, so will divide it up over the next few updates…

PRINTING DEADLINE!
In September we met with the publishing department of SIL (i.e. Wycliffe Bible Translators in the US). They will do the digital typesetting of our Palawano New Testament translation and they will be the ones to work with the Philippine Bible Society concerning the printing. “All” we have to do is finish the translation and do the proofreading before printing.
This will be a HUGE help to us. We’re thankful for others in the body of Christ to help us in this way.
But yes, we said deadline… in our meeting with SIL, we set July 2012 as our scheduled target date to turn over the files to them for the typesetting. We think this is doable, but it will require a steady final burst of work between now and July.
The finished New Testament will have two columns, footnotes at the bottom, page-marking ribbons, a glossary of Biblical terms in the back, b/w line drawings and some color illustrations… just like a “real” Bible. (The photos here are of the Kagayanen NT, done by some friends of ours; we are using it as a model for formatting.)


We are currently in the process of deciding how many copies to print initially, and soon we will know the total cost of printing so that everyone can pray and get involved as the Lord leads. This is the grand finale of a big project that’s taken nearly 30 years to bring to completion.
God gets ALL the glory.
We are so excited to be this close to getting God’s Word into the Palawanos hands…
…which involves the later phase of Distribution. More on how that will happen in the next update!
PLEASE PRAY WITH US
  • Energy, health and wisdom
  • Continued pace in translation progress
  • Meeting our July 2012 deadline
  • Development of team to fund NT printing
  • Plans for distribution of NT
Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Good News and Better News

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Good News: Successful Translation Week

The week with our translation helpers went very well. Way beyond our expectations. We were able to finish ALL the material we had ready (nearly 800 verses of first draft, two steps covering the whole book of Mark, and much more!) The books of Romans, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and 1 John are ready to proofread a few times and then we can distribute some copies.

Ruben, the new kid on our translation helper block, fit right it, was comfortable working with us and the other guys, and he contributed a lot of good insight.

Best of all, we learned that our key terms are well-understood in his area’s dialect, so no changes need to be made to made the translation usable and accepted there!
Better News: Talking About Printing
We head to Manila tomorrow for some leadership meetings and while we are there, we will have an exciting, first-ever experience, something we’ve been looking forward to for the nearly 28 years we’ve been translating…
We will start making arrangements for the printing of our New Testament!
A translator cannot wait until the last minute to start this process, so tomorrow we will be meeting with someone from SIL (Wycliffe Bible Translators) to talk about what needs to be done for us to turn our translation over to them for digital typesetting next year. That has to happen before the book goes to the printers.
So tomorrow we will start to learn what reformatting we have to do, who we need to be corresponding with, what the time table might be, how to go about selecting pictures for the New Testament, and a lot of other important information. We will also get an idea of some of our printing options and what the actual cost of printing will be.
So it’s not the last minute, but maybe it’s the next to the last minute for us!

We’re excited. God’s Word is that much closer to being in the Palawanos’ hands.
Thank you for your part in this.

Pray with us

  • Praise for great week with the men
  • Prayer for our meeting tomorrow
  • For clear direction as to printing process
  • Favorable (read: expedited!) schedule

Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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Davis Update August 30

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HEY, JUDE!

This week we have 4 Palawano men here to help us work on the translation. Bill just finished going over the first drafts of Mark 11-16 and the whole book of Jude (all 25 verses) today. Yet to go… 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation. The men will also help him clean up the last details from Romans and the other books we had consultant checked in July so they will be ready to print.

Donna will be doing recording of about six chapters; another step in the process.

We’re excited to have Ruben Rensawi with us this time. He has not worked with Bill on translation yet. Ruben is from another area (a valley about 4 hours’ hike from our village down south.) He is a church leader in his area and the son of a Palawano that our former coworkers spent a lot of time discipling. So the fruit is in the second generation.

We know that Ruben might give good input, as he is a strong believer with keen insight into the Word of God. He can give insight into how the translation would communicate in his area, as there are slight differences in the dialect. We want the New Testament to communicate and “sound good” to the widest possible audience. We also want him to feel ownership of the translation so he will use it and help to promote distribution when the time comes. He seems to be fitting right in with Bill and the other men and isn’t shy to contribute.

We’ve already learned of a couple word substitutions that would help in his area. And we’re particularly thrilled that a number of the key theological terms we are using communicate well to him!

SO PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

  • energy and wisdom
  • good progress in translation this week
  • no electrical power outages while the men are here



Reaching Palawanos together with you,

-Bill and Donna

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