It’s easy… tell them that their Bible translation is being used and that people’s lives are being changed by it!
A pastor from Australia teaches Palawano young people how to study their Palawano New Testaments more deeply, using 1 Corinthians 15 as the text.
A Good Report
We keep hearing good reports about the Palawano church back in our village. People are reading and teaching the Word of God, using their Palawano New Testaments and the Talking Bible audio players. This thrills our hearts.
Recently, we received news about how a number of Palawano young people (late teens or early 20s) are being impacted by the Word of God. These kids were not even born when we arrived on Palawan on 1982. They are the children of our daughters’ childhood friends. Through the ministry of another NTM coworker, these young people are finishing grade school and going to high school; some are even starting college! They are studying the Bible because they want to teach other Palawanos. Some want to go back and be school teachers in their home village; others feel called to the ministry.
Lord willing, whenever our ministry travel takes us to the Philippines or that part of the world, we want to get to Palawan to teach these young people, as well as the Palawano church leaders.
We’re so excited to share how the translation is bearing fruit! Meanwhile, pray with us about Bill’s upcoming trip to SE Asia in October. He will work with the consultants there to train both Indonesian and Western missionaries who are right on the verge of sharing Christ with several Unreached People Groups.
There is still so much of the world to be reached.
Every Picture Tells a Story
Risyal’s aunt Nili was our daughter’s friend at age four. His mother worked for us in her teens so her parents could avoid the pressure to marry her off too young. We gave Risyal rabies shots when he was about six. Now he wants to become a teacher among his own people, and he feels called to the ministry.
Teresa (in green) and Melanie (Risyal’s baby sister, in purple) are among the first Palawanos from our area to have a chance to finish high school. We knew both Teresa and Melanie as babes in arms and then toddlers in the Palawano church. Now they are sweet Christian young women who want to learn God’s Word and help others.
Tato (in the foreground) has had a lot of heartache in his life due to poor choices. Now he is walking with the Lord, going to college and excited to share God’s Word with others. Tato’s real name is Brazil; his parents saw that on a missions magazine about South America and liked the sound of it! His father Abil was one of Bill’s main translation helpers and is a leader in the church. Risa is the girl in the back. Her father Karding was the ten-year-old boy who learned to change the cassette tapes while Bill and others were building our first house in 1982. Bill helped to “officiate” at Karding’s wedding years later. Now Karding’s daughter is finishing school and studying the Bible for herself.
Yes, it’s all because of this book, the Word of God, which is now in the Palawano language. By God’s grace and through so many who partnered together over so many years, the Palawanos now have God’s Word, and it is changing lives!