Training

Joint Projects

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Enjoying creation… checking out the spring flowers
in the nearby Borrego desert

Here’s a quick update to mention some “joint projects” we’re involved with in our ministry.

Joint Project #1: Reaching the World

Seeing the Unreached People Groups of the world reached for Christ will require a lot of effective missionaries being sent out. So that’s our main focus–developing tools and training missionaries (and training those who train missionaries). We want to multiply ourselves, and see thousands more workers go out into God’s harvest field, well-trained and able to clearly communicate God’s truth effectively cross-culturally and in a previously unknown language.

Here are some things Bill and his team have been doing recently:

  1. We’ve been busying continuing to develop the Stages mobile app that missionaries can use to learn language and culture. We’ve been fixing bugs and adding some requested features. Lord willing, we’re hoping for a new release with wider beta-testing in a month or two.
  2. Bill has been working to finalize the instructional materials for the Engage CLA (culture/language acquisition) program to be used globally by our mission and others.
  3. Bill attended the ICLL (International Congress on Language Learning), collaborating with and learning from others who help missionaries learn language and culture.
  4. At ICLL, several other mission agencies and training centers have expressed great interest in using the tools (Engage and the Stages app) that Bill’s team is developing! Some will even help with beta testing the app.
  5. Bill has recently been part of a discussion group working to better coordinate language learning, linguistics (grammar and discourse analysis), worldview discovery, evangelism, and church planting throughout Ethnos360 and all of its 30+ Global Partners worldwide.

We’re thankful for the chance to keep serving God in this phase of life, and that he’s given us an opportunity to have a part in seeing his kingdom expanded until he is worshipped by people of every tongue, tribe, people and nation!

Joint Project #2: Partnering with YOU

Seeing the Unreached People Groups of the world reached for Christ is a team effort.

We’re thankful for your part in this ministry through prayer, giving, and all kinds of encouragement. We couldn’t do this without you!

Joint Project #3: Keeping these old bodies going

The last “joint” project we wanted to mention is that Bill will be getting a total knee replacement at the end of this week, on Friday March 29.

His right knee has been an issue for years, gradually getting worse. Recently it reached a point where a new MRI confirmed that a knee replacement is the answer. Ministry travel has been on hold while he knee has flared up a few times recently, so we’re working remotely through online collaborative technology. We’re looking forward to being able to go up and down stairs easily and to painlessly walk the length and breadth of international airports soon, once he’s past his recovery period and weeks of physical therapy.

We thankful for excellent health care providers, good insurance, and most of all, an all-powerful, loving God who directs our steps, heals our bodies and encourages our hearts.

Please pray with us that the surgery will go well, that the post-op pain will be minimal, and that Bill will be able to resume full activity quickly.

God at Work Among the Nations

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We trust you had a special Christmas!

Here’s a quick update on our lives and ministry…

50 Years

We must be getting old. In September we attended Donna’s 50th high school reunion, then Bill’s 50th reunion followed in October!

All Dressed Up at Donna’s 50th Reunion

Global Forum

In November we were blessed to attend an international conference in Thailand with nearly 300 delegates from our ministry all over the world.

The Hills of Chiang Mai as Seen from our Hotel Window

It was exciting to get in-person updates about what God is doing through our mission in places no one can talk about openly because it would put missionaries and converts at risk. Christ is building his church!

We also got to personally meet several of Bill’s students from the online missionary training courses he recorded a while back. These 3 students were from the very first graduating class and took his classes in late 2021. They are from closed countries in SE Asia and wanted training to reach unreached people groups in their region. They told Bill he was their “favorite teacher”! One of them even started quoting all Bill’s examples and illustrations, telling us how he is already teaching the same material to others! That really made our day. A second group has already graduated, and the videos are now being watched by the third group who enrolled in the course, with students from 9 different countries.

Engage CLA Program and Stages App

During the forum Bill had a chance to give a presentation to everyone about his team’s project.

Presenting an Overview of CLA for the Main Conference

Then after the forum, Bill and his team spent 3 days presenting their new CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) materials and app in more detail to over 80 field leaders and language consultants. This was the LONG-AWAITED FIRST STEP in the launch which will make these materials available to missionaries everywhere! Bill is busy getting ready for a big launch event in late May.

Holidays and… Sickness

We got home from Thailand just in time for Thanksgiving and Bill’s birthday, starting our family’s busiest season (8 birthdays and 3 holidays in two and a half months!) Some family members had some sickness in December, but are recovered now.

Looking Ahead with Thankfulness

2023 looks to be a full and excited year. Bill will be leading his team as they finish final details of their CLA materials; there will be lots of travel in the US and internationally, as well as on-line conference meetings, etc., to train consultants how to use them.

Thank you for your interest in our ministry. We appreciate you and value your prayers and partnership!

Here’s a strange thing… we published a ministry update a couple months ago. Our blog’s server was having technical difficulties, but in the end, it seemed to have sent, and we got a copy of it by email. But somehow it is now missing on our blog’s server and we can’t find record of it, so it makes us wonder! We hope you received it. If you did not receive that missing update, we’re sorry for how long it may have been since you heard from us.

God Works Long Distance

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Africa (w/out the Trip)

If you’ve been following our recent saga, you know we weren’t able to actually go to Africa as planned. So we can’t call this an Africa Ministry Trip. But Bill was still able to do the ministry part.

He pre-recorded his main introductory two-hour session last Sunday, once his cough was a little better. That way the Africa workshop attendees could watch it first thing Monday morning their time. (To do it live over the internet, Bill would have been teaching it at 1 a.m. San Diego time!)

Throughout the rest of the week, Bill was able to teach several sessions live (see picture below), and to answer their questions which he was getting by email. One of Bill’s teammates covered for him and did another session since Bill’s voice was still tentative all week.

Bill teaching via the Internet

A total of 58 missionaries attended the workshop. These included both Africans and foreigners. Most are on teams working to reach Unreached People Groups, and some of them are also consultants (or “coaches”), who are experienced missionaries who help others learn language and culture in order to succeed in their ministries. Bill and his team were teaching some helpful ways to learn culture and worldview to an even deeper level.

We’re not sure why God chose to change our plans at the last minute. It would have been so nice to be there in person interacting with everyone all throughout the week. But we’re grateful for technology, and the fact that Bill was still able to teach those sessions from a distance. We received some gracious and encouraging positive feedback about the workshop.

And we are so thankful for you and your prayers! Bill’s sickness lingered on, but was never very severe except for fever the ninth and final day.

Please Continue to Pray

Please pray for Bill and his team and they finish the development of the CLA (Culture & Language Acquisition) training materials and the mobile app to go with them and prepare for the global launch of these tools.

Lord willing, there will be more trips to Africa–and elsewhere–throughout the coming year as part of that launch, to get these tools into the hands of missionaries and those who train and coach them.

Pray, too, as they prepare and record training videos using these materials to train missionaries around the globe to communicate the Gospel clearly and effectively.

Need a quick update of what we’ve been up to? Click here to get up-to-date.

If you’re interested in partnering with us in this ministry, click here for more information.

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Africa map photo by James Wiseman on Unsplash, text added

When God Has Different Plans

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Thanks to all who prayed. We believe God heard your prayers and answered in an unexpected way.

Sick!

We were packed and ready. Our Uber to the airport was booked for 3:30 a.m.

But Bill had a cough and other chest cold symptoms all through the night. It was worse in the morning.

Then it was 3 a.m. and down to the wire.

We realized that not only would no one want to sit next to “that guy with the cough and sniffles,” but the airlines would never let us on board unless we lied. We could not truthfully say, “Nope, no COVID symptoms for the last few days.”

Changes

So we cancelled the Uber.

We cancelled the airline tickets, and wrote some quick emails to Africa.

It was so hard to push those buttons and cancel! There would be no going back after that. No way to change our minds. But it was the right thing to do, even if we didn’t understand God’s will. So we prayed and clicked those two icons.

“…you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.”

Ecc 11:5b NLT

We’re thankful that so far, Bill isn’t critically ill, although he fells pretty yucky and the flight-cancelling symptoms remain. He slept all day. We’ve booked tests for tomorrow to determine if he has COVID or just a cold. We’ll keep you posted.

Keep on Praying

So please continue to pray. Pray for a quick return to health. Pray for us as this is disappointing, and we hate to let people down. Pray for wisdom for the workshop organizers in Africa as to how to adjust to Bill’s last-minute cancellation.

Thanks for standing with us.

Good to be Negative

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Here’s a very quick update (you’ll see why it’s quick in a minute.)

We’re taking off on a ministry trip to AFRICA tomorrow! This is the first international trip we’ve taken since mid-2019 (Thanks to COVID). It’s Donna’s first trip AT ALL in about 2 years, and her first trip to Africa!

We’re thankful to the Lord for this ministry opportunity and for his provision of our tickets, a house (and cat) sitter, and so much more.

By the way, “negative” here refers to the negative COVID test results which the airlines required.

We’re EXCITED

Bill will be presenting to a group of about 50 African and expat missionary language and culture consultants. Bill will be updating them on some of the content of the CLA (Culture & Language Learning) program his team has been working on, and they will discuss with him how to best “Africanize” it. They want to continue to better help all their missionaries to learn culture and thereby to be effective communicators of the Gospel.

We’re TIRED

Packing and preparing for travel can be exhausting, but hey… we’re good at it! But this time it’s different. The hardest part is actually meeting all the COVID travel requirements for two airlines and three countries! We can’t believe the number of forms to fill out, copy, scan, upload (and sometimes re-upload, and re-re-upload) this trip involves. It’s taken HOURS. But we’re done and packing (the easy part)! We’ll be MORE tired when we get there (jet lag after 25 hours of travel), while teaching with jet lag, and then with a quick turn-around, a long trip and jet lag when we get home! (did I mention jet lag…?)

Please PRAY

We’ll update you when we get back! In the meantime, please pray for:

  • health during and after the trip
  • safe travel and smooth connections
  • clear-headedness (minimal jet lag)
  • a successful and fruitful workshop

Thank you for partnering with us in reaching the unreached.

The Gospel Goes Viral

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Busier Than Ever

October finds us grateful to be well and safe during the pandemic. We pray you are, too!

COVID-19 has changed many things in our lives recently, but it has not stopped our ministry of reaching the Unreached. In fact, ministry-wise, we are busier than ever.

Here’s a quick update on what is the same for us, what’s different, and what’s better and more exciting that we could have imagined…

The Same

  • HOME. We continue to work from home, connecting online.
  • MAKING MISSIONARIES MORE EFFECTIVE. Bill continues to work with his team developing materials and a mobile app to help missionaries gain fluency faster in order to speed up the spread of the Gospel.

Different

  • NO TRAVEL. No surprise there! We’ve had none of our usual trips to Asia or our training centers to train missionaries and consultants.
  • VIDEO CONFERENCES. 2020 is the year of Zoom, Teams, Skype, and all the other online meeting apps for everyone, and we’re no exception. Bill spends a lot of his time connecting online with his team and with missionaries and consultants in many different countries who need his help.
  • SLOWER INTERNET. Even here in the US, our internet gets bogged down a bit lately because of all the homeschooling, video conferences, and students home from college playing online games!

Better and More Exciting

  • MORE PROGRESS FASTER. Meeting online has proven to be very effective. A two-hour meeting can be followed by a few days of processing and implementation, followed immediately by another meeting. This has actually worked better than less frequent, week-long all-day face to face meetings.
  • MORE AVAILABILITY. Progress has also picked up pace because many of Bill’s teammates, who are scattered all around the globe, actually have more time to give to the CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) project. Some of their other ministries are on hold due to COVID-19, giving them more time to devote to working with Bill on CLA materials and the CLA app.

But the most exciting thing is SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW:

Bill and his team will have a part in training Gospel workers from all over Asia. This is a huge, new and totally unexpected opportunity in addition to those we’ve already been training! Church planters from many closed and difficult countries (shhhh… we can’t name them here) want to be better trained to reach the Unreached People Groups right there in their own countries. Many of them are in countries where it is dangerous to share the Gospel, or even to be a Christian, and where no training is available for them.

We’re excited because many of these workers need to learn another language. So they will use the culture and language acquisition (CLA) materials Bill and his team have been developing. And they will also be able to use the mobile app that goes with the CLA materials. Some will use a common language for ministry, but they will still need training in cross-cultural communication. Bill and his team will develop modules to help with training all these workers in this difficult-to-reach countries.

The prayer is that over time, this training will spread to other continents, as well. Having so many more trainees in so many different countries will greatly expand the impact of the CLA materials and the app, making the hours spent in development all the more worth the effort!

Not only this, but we’re finding missionaries from other agencies who are very interested in having their people use the CLA materials and the app.

Going Viral

So the Gospel is truly going viral… and will be spread even faster, in part because of the coronavirus! God is taking what looked like delays and frustrations and turning them into opportunities for the Gospel.

If you would like to more about the exciting new training opportunities we mentioned, let us know. We would love to fill you in! We just can’t post details online or in email communication.