Unreached

What Are We Doing Lately? Lots…

Posted by

THE  PALAWANOS  NEED  MORE  TEACHING…

   …WE’RE  HELPING  WITH  THAT

WE’RE STILL INVOLVED WITH THE PALAWANOS

  • Ongoing ministry after 33 years of ministering to the Palawanos and translating the New Testament for them
  • Recently put the Southwestern Palawano New Testament (written and audio) into an Android app
  • Annual trips to Palawan for Bible teaching seminars to supplement our partners’ teaching
  • Working with our missionaries who are mentoring the youth: Bible study materials and online discipling
  • Helping missionaries learn Central Palawano and put our New Testament into that related language

 

 THE  WORLD  NEEDS  MORE  MISSIONARIES…

   …WE’RE  TRAINING  THEM

WE’RE TRAINING A RADICAL NEW GENERATION OF MISSIONARIES

  • Teaching language learning and Bible translation at Radius across the border – come along sometime!
  • These are young people who want to go to all the hard places to reach the Unreached
  • Serving as a language learning consultant for them as they get out on the field

 

MISSIONARIES  NEED  LANGUAGE  FLUENCY…

   …WE’RE  HELPING  THEM

WE’RE HELPING MISSIONARY LANGUAGE LEARNERS—AND THOSE WHO HELP THEM

  • Developing the DIY language learning materials all our missionaries around the world will use to be able to communicate the Gospel clearly and to disciple the Unreached
  • Teaching and leading language coach workshops in the USA, Thailand, Latin America, and more to come…
  • Doing online language coaching via Skype

 

NON-WESTERN  MISSIONARIES  NEED  TRAINING,  TOO…

   …WE’RE  PROVIDING  CULTURE-SPECIFIC  TRAINING

WE’RE WORKING TO DEVELOP THE TRAINING FOR NON-WESTERN MISSIONARIES WORLDWIDE

  • SE Asians including Filipinos, Chinese and Indians, etc., want to reach the Unreached
  • Two recent trips to Asia Pacific to help local believers reaching other tribes
  • An upcoming trip to South Asia to help our missionaries to begin training local Christians as missionaries

 

THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA  IS  REACHING  THE  UNREACHED…

   …WE’RE  TRAINING  THEM

WE’RE HELPING CHURCHES REACH UNREACHED PEOPLES… RIGHT IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

  • Training language learners so an immigrant Unreached People Group can be reached in their heart language

 

WE  NEED  HELP  TO  KEEP  GOING…

   …OUR  PARTNERSHIP  TEAM  IS  STANDING  WITH  US

WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!

  • One upcoming ministry event is our November trip to Thailand and South Asia to train missionary language learners and consultants
  • International and in-country tickets needed for Donna (Bill’s tickets already covered)
  • Conference expenses already provided—praise the Lord with us!

Full Circle

Posted by

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

Posted by

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

What Would You Do?!

Posted by

What would you do…

…if you found yourself in a remote village and had to learn the language?

…if no one there spoke any English? …or they spoke no English at all?

…if there were no CDs, books, teachers, schools or websites to help you?

…there were no dictionaries or published explanations of the grammar?

What would you do if you had to learn that language ALL BY YOURSELF?

This is the very situation in which missionaries who work with Unreached Peoples find themselves. They need to learn the people’s Heart Language. To do this they must succeed at do-it-yourself language learning (and no… sadly, there is no machine to instantly zap the language into your brain.)

Missionaries need help. Lots of help.

What we are doing…

New Tribes Mission provides that kind of help. Our training programs in the USA, Canada and Europe, etc., train missionaries how to learn unknown languages, to learn them well enough to minister effectively; to preach the gospel, to turn new believers into serious disciples, and to teach and counsel those disciples through life’s most difficult challenges.

But what about missionaries who do not speak English and cannot benefit from those training programs?

A big part of our new ministry is to think about how to provide this kind of training for non-Western missionaries around the world. Next week we’re going to our mission headquarters so Bill can meet with other members of his team. We are working to collate the latest and best language learning helps, and to come up with easier ways for the average missionary to analyze a new language and figure out the grammar.

We are thinking especially of how to help those missionaries who are not already fluent in English. So on top of everything else, we will face the challenge of taking all those training materials and having them put into languages like Hindi and Tamil and Chinese and Vietnamese and Burmese so we can train missionaries coming out of Asian countries who want to work with Unreached People Groups.

We believe that the Heart Language is the best way to communicate with anyone. So that is why we want to help these non-Western missionaries to minister in the Heart Language of Unreached Peoples. Well, it also means we need to train these missionaries using their Heart Language!

What you can do…

Pray for us! Pray for wisdom and clear thinking, for open doors to develop training for missionaries from other nations. Pray as we face the challenge of translating these materials and equipping trainers who can teach them. Pray for God to richly provide for the needs of this ministry. Consider partnering with us financially. Pray that we remain healthy and have the strength we need.

We appreciate each one of you. You are making a difference in the world. You are investing in seeing the gospel clearly communicated to Unreached Peoples….

…Because everyone deserves to hear in their Heart Language.

Sitting in Darkness

Posted by

Light of the WorldHere is a thought-provoking view of the world.

In Matthew 5:14 the Lord Jesus called us the light of the world. We are light bearers, commissioned to carry the message about Him, the true Light of the World.

The dots of light of this map show where Christians are…

…and where we are absent.

See how much of the world remains in darkness.

 

Image courtesy of The International Mission Board Global Research, January 2015,

Image source  http://public.imb.org/globalresearch/Pages/MapLight.aspx