Translation

Christ is Building His Church

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Here’s some news about the Palawano church where we worked for many years.

An brief update about our health concerns is at the bottom of this post.

The Church in our Longtime Palawano Village

The Church on Palawan is Thriving

We’ve received encouraging reports from coworkers (and messages from Palawanos on Facebook!) about how the church continues to meet, studying the Palawano translation and worshipping in song. We’re praising God for how he continues to work among the Palawano people.

We’ll share some pictures here below, but first…

Let Us Tell You a Story…

In 1983 our little family moved to Palawan to live among the Palawanos. We were in our 20s and our kids were young… Elisa was 4 and Bethy was not quite 8 weeks old. Elisa immediately made friends with several girls her age. One was Lini, and the other was Lini’s cousin Nili. Both of those girls grew up to help us with the translation years later.

Nili’s big sister Marlyn was about 8 years old. Marlyn grew up and married a Christian Palawano boy and they had two sons and a daughter. We treated their son Ryan with rabies shots. But we want to tell you about Ryan’s brother Reshal and his sister Melenie. What God did in their lives is beyond our wildest dreams back in 1983.

Here is picture of Melenie (in blue, on the right) when she and a friend brought a pineapple to us years ago.

Who Wouldn’t Buy a Pineapple from These Girls?!

College?!

When we first moved there, the village had no government school, not even an elementary school. But years later, schools were built nearby, and Reshal and Melenie were able to finish grade school… then high school… and they eventually, they went to a Bible college 400 miles away on the island of Luzon, just south of Manila.

They didn’t do this to get lucrative jobs and be able to live in the city. Their dream was to become school teachers and to work back in their home village. They wanted to teach the kids, and to serve in the church, as well. And since the government mandates religion classes in grade school, they knew they could teach the creation-to-Christ stories, sharing the gospel with all those kids!

Reshal and Melenie Graduating from College

Back on Palawan

So now Reshal and Melenie are back on Palawan and have finished their internship (student teaching). Here are a few pictures of the church in our former village.

Reshal Teaching in a Nearby Palawano Church during his Internship
Reshal Teaching and Arnil Playing My Old Guitar in the Church in our Village
Reshal and Melenie’s Grandmother Reading the Palawano New Testament
Abil, One of My Translation Helpers, Teaching in the Church

We’re so thankful for how the Lord continues to build his church among the Palawanos!

HEALTH UPDATE and PRAYER REQUESTS

Donna has healed up and is doing great. After conferring with her doctors, we decided there is no need for further treatment.

Bill will have his heart ablation procedure next Monday, April 10. Finally! Please pray the procedure goes well with no complications, and that his heart will return to normal rhythm quickly and permanently. He’s ready to get back to normal energy and productivity after nearly 4 months of arrhythmia.

Urgent Prayer Request

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UPDATE ON HOW TO GIVE

Hi,
Some of you have mentioned having trouble with donating to Lini’s medical expenses.

Apparently the scheme I described creates issues with IRS rules. I apologize. The mission is not allowed to have a designation “for Lini,” since she is neither a member of the mission or an official “project” of Ethnos360.

The way around this, if you received an error message or an email is to simple give the gift to our account without mentioning Lini. You can tell us that you gave, or we can figure that out by simply noting non-regular gifts credited to our account during these few days.

I’m sorry for the hassle. We appreciate your generosity. We’re working with Lini to figure out the best hospital option and will keep you posted.

-Bill and Donna

 

UPDATE ON YOUR GENEROUS RESPONSE

Wow… we were blown away by the rapid and generous response of God’s people! With the gifts already sent or promised, we now have plenty for Lini’s expenses and a buffer for unexpected extras! So unless you have already send a gift or promised a gift to us today, you don’t need to give unless you just feel led to do so.

We’ll let you know the total amount once it’s final. We will use the funds to cover Lini’s expenses, then to cover any extra expenses that are part of this medical emergency. Then if there are leftover funds, We will let you know. We will set them aside for a future medical emergency to be used in the spirit in which they were given. But if you would like to redisignate your gift or be reimbursed, you can let us know at that time.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We can let Lini know that God’s people rallied and met her need in a matter of a few hours. We will tell her that so many have assured us of their prayers as well. With joy we can tell her about the loving generous people of God that are part of our ministry team!

We’ll post a regular ministry update soon. But first we need to get this urgent request out today because of a medical emergency for our friend Lini. She needs your prayers!

Lini and Elisa – friends from the start

Lini

We’ve talked about Lini a lot over the years. She was Elisa’s best friend in the tribe from the very first day they met when Lini was 3 and a half and Elisa was only 4.

When Lini grew up, she was a faithful believer and became one of our main translation helpers. She worked with Donna on the recording-for-accuracy process. And because of her intelligence and skill, she was the helper Bill always scheduled for our final consultant comprehension checks.

Working on the translation at the end was difficult for her as a young mother of three. She would have to leave her family in the village and travel to town for a week at a time with her youngest child. He would get bit by gnats in our yard and have allergic reactions to the bites. But in spite of all this, she told Bill:

“Uncle Bill, this is hard, but I’m going to keep working on translation with you until we’re done because it’s so important to get God’s Word into the hands of all the other Palawanos!”

Lini worked tirelessly with Donna on the translation
Lini after the Final Comprehension Check

Appendicitis!

We’ve recently learned that Lini has appendicitis. So far her appendix has not ruptured, and we’re thankful for that. The doctors initially prescribed powerful antibiotics, which were quite expensive. We sent Lini a few hundred dollars to cover the costs, but the medication did not solve the problem. She is still weak and in a lot of pain.

So now the doctors have told Lini that her only option is surgery. This is complicated and risky in a provincial hospital on Palawan. It is also much more than her family can afford. She was told the cost will be 90,000 pesos. That is only US$2,000, which is not much by American standards for medical expenses, but for her family it’s an impossible amount. And it’s more than we can fully cover. The total will likely exceed this amount, because unlike our system here, Philippine hospitals require the family to go out and buy all the patient’s supplies like IVs, medication and syringes, etc., out of pocket.

Please Pray

So first and foremost we’re asking everyone to please pray for Lini. Pray for her health as she is currently in a lot of pain. Pray for her appendix not to burst and for a successful surgery with no complications or infections, etc. Pray for her husband Lito and their daughters during this difficult time. Pray that the faith she and her family have would be a testimony to the doctors and hospital staff, pointing them to Jesus.

If you would like to help with her medical expenses, Lini and her family would be very grateful. You can SEND ANY GIFTS THROUGH OUR ACCOUNT. Just click on that link, and make sure to make a note “for Lini” where it says to “add instructions, designations or notes.” Our office will forward 100% of your gifts to us and we will send the money directly to Lini’s husband Lito.

Thank you for your partnership in our ministry. It means the world to us, and to the Palawanos. The Palawano church is growing because you have stood with us through the years.

Full Circle

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Another Palawano Translation?

Yes. Did you know there are THREE Palawano people groups on Palawan? Three related-but-distinct Palawano languages? It’s true. For security reasons, let’s call them Palawano 1, Palawano 2, and Palawano 3.

We did the translation for Palawano 1. Some friends with Wycliffe Bible Translators did a translation for Palawano 2. But Palawano 3 needs a New Testament translation. Actually, they have one–it’s 50 years old and no one can understand it, which is sad.

Another Palawano Translation!

Yes! We’re not going to do this translation. But we’ll be helping those who will.

Some missionaries have moved in among that third Palawano group. Graeme and Rachel are learning the language, and they plan to organize a translation team of native speakers and missionaries. The plan is to adapt our Palawano 1 translation into Palawano 3, and then check it and revise it so that it communicates really well.

We’re excited about this for two reasons: First and foremost, those Palawanos will finally have God’s Word in an understandable form. But secondly, we’re very happy to see all the effort that went into our translation have a wider impact.

Helping Translators Learn Language

In a recent post Then and Now, we talked about how our ministry has shifted to an international focus, and we explained how we are no longer involved full-time with the Palawano work. But we know we’ll never be 100% done with the Palawanos. Lord willing, we plan to return from time to time to do teaching from our translation as we did last February. In the past year we put the New Testament into a mobile phone app, and we are developing Bible teaching materials for the youth.

But… we’re “all about language learning” now, right?

True. And now our new ministry of helping missionaries with language learning has circled right back to Palawan. Bill is helping Graeme and Rachel as they study that Palawano 3. “Our” Palawano 1 is similar enough that Bill can explain things to them about the grammar and vocabulary, and it is helpful. Bill is pretty familiar with Palawano 3, as well. And this is Graeme and Rachel’s third Philippine language, so they are making fast progress.

Once translation begins, the plan is that Bill will help as a translation consultant.

Pray with us that language learning would progress well, and that the new translation team will be able to start soon. Pray for Bill as he helps Graeme and Rachel with the Palawano 3 language.

And for all who had a part in seeing our translation completed for Palawano 1, rejoice with us about the added fruit of seeing God’s Word more easily put into another Palawano language.

God’s Word is life. It’s eternal. Nothing matters more than getting his Word into people’s Heart Languages.

Partnering together, we can get this done for his Glory!

 

 

Image credit: Palawan mother and child. Photo by Norm Rice, former missionary to the Palawanos.

Then… and Now

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Then-Now single

Then (1980s) and now (2016)

 

A LOT HAS CHANGED. (Well, besides the fact that we are a little bit older…)

THEN: For 33 years, it was easy to explain our ministry: Bill and Donna? Oh yeah, PALAWAN. We lived and ministered on Palawan. We worked with the Palawanos (we were palawano.com, for goodness’ sake!) We were translating the Palawano New Testament. It was easy for people to “get” what we were all about. And when people thought of us, they thought of Palawan, Palawanos and translation. Simple.

NOW: We’re all over the place. Lots of different countries. Various projects. We even have to be cryptic about where we are going sometimes for the safety of the missionaries there. Since our ministry is not tied to one location or one people group, it’s harder to get a handle on… especially for many who have had “Bill & Donna = Palawano” in their minds all this time.

Basically, we are helping lots of missionaries to do what we did.

We had to learn Palawano on our own (there’s no Rosetta Stone language course for languages like that.) And other missionaries who want to reach other Unreached People Groups have to do the same kind of language learning. It’s hard! So we’re teaching them how to do it. And many of the missionaries we get to train are non-Western missionaries: Asians from many countries, and (soon) Latin Americans and Africans.

WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED: We’re still with New Tribes Mission, still passionate about seeing Unreached People Groups like the Palawanos reached for Christ. But instead of reaching one people group, now we are a part of reaching many groups as we train others all around the world. It’s a big ministry with many challenges in terms of travel, budget, health and strength, as well as the often daunting task of figuring out how best to train missionaries from such a diverse range of cultures.

We need your prayers more that ever. We need others like you to join our team, as well. So many people groups around the world are waiting to hear the Gospel in their Heart Language. We’re doing all we can to reach those people groups by training missionaries to learn their languages in order to reach them with a clearly-communicated message.

This weekend were asked to shared at the Missions Moment in a church who have been partnering with our ministry for nearly 20 years. So we took the opportunity to make a one-page flyer explaining what we did “back then” and what we are doing now.

We thought you might like to see our cool flyer. You can read it here (or click on it to open it/save it.)

Join our team. Pray for us. Let’s reach the world.

Flyer

There’s an App for That!

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Phone app

From Blow Guns to Smart Phones

The world has changed a lot in the last 33 years, and so have the Palawanos:

1983… When we first moved in among the Palawano people, many of the older men still wore g-strings; few people could read; only two of the women spoke any language but Palawano.

2012… At the dedication of the Palawano New Testament translation, one of our translation helpers was shooting video of us with her smart phone.

The Palawano New Testament is Now an Android app

For years we labored to see the Word of God in the Palawano language… in print. But we could never have foreseen this…

Yes, thanks to the efforts of a tech-savvy missionary in another mission, the Palawanos can Androidnow read their New Testament–and listen to the audio version–on their phones.

Many Palawanos now have very inexpensive Chinese-made Android smart phones. They don’t have internet, and can’t afford to make many phone calls. They mostly use them for texting and taking pictures. But now they can use their phones to grow in their faith.

The app features…

  • SEARCH… so the Palawanos now have the an instant concordance in their pocket.
  • AUDIO… the recorded version of the New Testament can be played from the app.
  • HIGHLIGHTING… each verse is highlighted as the audio plays–this will be a huge help to new readers as they follow along while listening.

BluetoothWe’re very excited as this app gets launched. Palawanos can copy it from phone to phone using bluetooth (yes, they know about “bloo toot”) so the app can spread upriver and downriver, far beyond the reach of any missionary. Even curious unbelievers might get the app and be exposed to the truth of God’s Word.

Join us!

Now we are turning most of our attention to the thousands of yet-unreached people groups around the world, providing training for missionaries from non-Western nations so they can reach others.

Partner with us so that many other peoples can have the Word of God in their hands…

…and on their phones!

There’s Something Happening Here…

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Youth Leader Seminar (flip flops best) crop

On Palawan, whenever you see a pile of flip-flops outside a door, you know something is happening inside. Come on in and we’ll tell you about it…

Palawano Youth Leaders Seminar

We invited ten key youth leaders, and 18 came (that’s good math in the world of discipleship).

THEY SANG their hearts our in times of worship (in three different languages, including a song they wrote.)

THEY LISTENED attentively for two whole days while Bill taught through 2 Timothy, challenging them to make wise decisions and to use their lives to serve God, starting now while they are young.

THEY SHARED how some are being mocked at school by kids of other religions.

THEY CRIED about their parents’ spiritual needs and the need for unity in the Palawano church.

THEY THANKED us for coming, and wrote thank-you letters to the ones who underwrote the seminar.

and…

THEY CHEERED when we told them we would come back next year and do it again.

Palawano Young People's Seminar Group Shot

Who Are These Kids?

Their average age was 18-19. Among the Palawanos, most kids in this group are our “grandchildren.” When we first moved to the village in 1983, their parents were 3 or 4 years old–they were our daughter’s best friends and used to play in our house.

More importantly, they want to use their lives for Christ. They want to finish school and become school teachers back among their people, to be clinic workers and midwives and gospel preachers and pastors.

They are serious about their faith.

Youth Leader Seminar (Bill teaching good 2) crop

Thank you for praying and for supporting our ministry to make this kind of event possible!