Jan 1, 2006 (Consultant Ministry)

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Helping to Train Helpers…
 
During this interim while Donna is in the USA and we are waiting for our shipment to arrive here on Palawan, Bill has been busy with consultant ministry. Just like old times… kinda.
 
He has already had the chance to work with 7 different missionaries, evaluating their progress in learning language and culture. At the same time–and more importantly–he has been training two others to do this type of consultant ministry. This is important, since we have told the field that we want to focus on translation this term. Bill had already said that he did not want to take back all his previous consultant responsibilities, but that he was willing to give some time initially to training others to take over.
 
One other consultant trip had to be cancelled when Bill got sick and the pilot was stranded in another town because of massive flooding from heavy rains.

Nov 1, 2005 (Back on Palawan!)

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 Life Hasn’t Slowed Down…

We have returned at last to our translation ministry on Palawan.
 
We arrived back the Philippines at last on Oct 31. This is a big holiday here, but it’s not “Halloween,” it is November 1st, “All Saints’ Day,” which is a big deal here.
 
It was great to be “home” in the Philippines again, looking forward to returning to our ministry here. We were in Manila for a couple of weeks… getting over jet lag, re-acclimating (or trying to!) to the heat and humidity and getting things started at immigration with new visas.
 
It was good while at the Guest House to see our some of our partners and coworkers and get caught up a bit.
 
We flew to Palawan on Nov 14, and then the very next day continued on into the village where we minister among the Palawanos. It was so good to see everyone! And wow, how the kids had grown and the big kids now had families… so many new babies and small children for us to get to know.
 
Donna’s language helpers are excited and ready to help her resume her journey toward complete fluency. This will help Donna take on even more of a role in the translation.
 
And Bill’s translation helpers are very excited to have him back, anxious to get to work, and really motivated to get more Scripture produced in Palawano.
 
While there we spent time with our partners, discussing team issues and being brought up-to-date. We also checked out our house… still standing, in pretty good shape overall, but needing some work. We made lots of notes and took measurements for materials. A work team from the US will be coming in early 2006 to reroof the house and help with other construction, so we need to be ready.
 
Then we flew back out to Puerto Princesa, as our house in the village is not livable at this time. While in Puerto, Bill has been helping the field with consultant training in the area of culture and language acquisition and doing evaluations of missionaries’ progress.
 
We were looking forward to Christmas with Bethy, who was due to arrive here in December, and our upcoming annual conference, a workshop on animism and an upcoming conference on regional linguistics.
 
Then, while in another tribal village doing consultant work, we got the sad yet expected news that Donna’s dad had passed away, so we had to make hurried plans to get Donna home for the funeral and all the family things.
 
She’s there now and one blessing is that she will now be able to attend Bethy’s college graduation! They fly back in December and Donna is wait-listed to be on Bethy’s same flight (otherwise she will fly the following day.
 
Bill is in Puerto doing other work and anxiously awaiting Donna’s return and Bethy’s arrival.

May 16, 2005 (Annual Bible Study)

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The Palawanos Study the Book of James
 
The Palawano church held their annual Bible study conference May 13-15. Believers and unbelievers from other communities attended and studied the translation of the book of James. God used our partners and Palawano Bible teachers Susing, Abil, Giyang, Arturo and Lito to teach and to touch lives through God’s Word.
 
At the final service, after observing the Lord’s Supper, our partners fired up their generator and showed “The Passion of the Christ.” Just as that movie affected many of us, it really impacted the Palawanos. Many believers were in tears as they saw graphically what their Lord went through for them… just exactly what they were “remembering until He comes.”
 
But one woman saw that and said, “I understand now Jesus died to save me from my sin. But I don’t know HOW to be saved!” Our partner’s wife gladly shared the gospel with her and rejoiced to welcome this new sister into the family of the children of God.