Praise and Requests from Ethiopia
Praise:
1) FOR SAFE TRAVEL: My flights to Ethiopia were uneventful. Praise God
for Pastor Joe and Kay Tira who picked me up at 3:15 a.m. in Longview to
get me to the airport by 4:30! I arrived in Addis Ababa about 8:30 p.m. on
Friday, February 3, spent the night at our SIM Guest House, and left for
the airport again the next morning at 6 a.m. After checking in for my
flight to Jinka (southern Ethiopia) and waiting more than an hour, I
learned the flight was postponed a day. I arrived safely in Jinka on
Sunday morning about 9:30, where colleague Trent Cox met me and took me
into Metser to visit former Aari translator Fikadu and family, who had
lost their oldest daughter on Thanksgiving Day. I had a good visit with
Fikadu, Duba and many other friends. Praise God for this special blessing,
and for Trent's willingness to take me after spending the night in Jinka
waiting for my plane to arrive. Mid-afternoon we left there and drove 3
hours the opposite direction to Alduba, where I am working with the Banna
translation team for a month.
2) FOR PROGRESS ON THE AARI OLD TESTAMENT: Duba and Fikadu serve as
reviewers of the Aari translation, along with 32 others. They have been
given the translation of Jonah and Micah to read. Praise God that Duba and
Fikadu have opportunity to make suggestions for improvement in the
translation.
3) PROGRESS ON THE BANNA PRIMERS: Banna team members Donna, Getu, Ayke
and I are making good progress as we rewrite the Banna primers to fit the
new spelling system. We are up to Lesson 32. We had hoped that after the
first 15 or 20 lessons we could use the rest of the primer stories as
originally written, just changing the spelling. This didn't happen because
the spelling systems are so different. We will probably have to rewrite at
least 60 lessons, and end up with 100 lessons total instead of the
original 90.
4) THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVING HIM: I feel so blessed to be a part of God's
work in Ethiopia as well as a part of His ministry at home. He so
faithfully meets my needs and blesses me through His people.
Prayer Needs:
1) Please continue to pray for God's blessing on the Aari Bible
translation and literacy effort. Ask Him to meet the needs of Duba and
Fikadu and their families, and to bless their pastoral ministry among
their own people. Pray for translators Degu and Leon; ask God to give them
understanding and diligence as they work on the Aari Old Testament.
2) Please pray that we will make the Banna primers the very best they can
be - effective for teaching people to read, with interesting stories and
accurate accounts from Scripture.
3) Pray that we will also find time to revise the translation of Acts so
that it is clear, accurate and in natural Banna.
4) Pray that my flight back to Addis Ababa, scheduled for March 4th, will
go as planned so that I can catch my flight back to the USA on March 6th.
5) Please continue to pray for my mother's well-being, and for the safe
arrival of colleagues Trent & Tabby Cox's first baby in late April.
1) FOR SAFE TRAVEL: My flights to Ethiopia were uneventful. Praise God
for Pastor Joe and Kay Tira who picked me up at 3:15 a.m. in Longview to
get me to the airport by 4:30! I arrived in Addis Ababa about 8:30 p.m. on
Friday, February 3, spent the night at our SIM Guest House, and left for
the airport again the next morning at 6 a.m. After checking in for my
flight to Jinka (southern Ethiopia) and waiting more than an hour, I
learned the flight was postponed a day. I arrived safely in Jinka on
Sunday morning about 9:30, where colleague Trent Cox met me and took me
into Metser to visit former Aari translator Fikadu and family, who had
lost their oldest daughter on Thanksgiving Day. I had a good visit with
Fikadu, Duba and many other friends. Praise God for this special blessing,
and for Trent's willingness to take me after spending the night in Jinka
waiting for my plane to arrive. Mid-afternoon we left there and drove 3
hours the opposite direction to Alduba, where I am working with the Banna
translation team for a month.
2) FOR PROGRESS ON THE AARI OLD TESTAMENT: Duba and Fikadu serve as
reviewers of the Aari translation, along with 32 others. They have been
given the translation of Jonah and Micah to read. Praise God that Duba and
Fikadu have opportunity to make suggestions for improvement in the
translation.
3) PROGRESS ON THE BANNA PRIMERS: Banna team members Donna, Getu, Ayke
and I are making good progress as we rewrite the Banna primers to fit the
new spelling system. We are up to Lesson 32. We had hoped that after the
first 15 or 20 lessons we could use the rest of the primer stories as
originally written, just changing the spelling. This didn't happen because
the spelling systems are so different. We will probably have to rewrite at
least 60 lessons, and end up with 100 lessons total instead of the
original 90.
4) THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVING HIM: I feel so blessed to be a part of God's
work in Ethiopia as well as a part of His ministry at home. He so
faithfully meets my needs and blesses me through His people.
Prayer Needs:
1) Please continue to pray for God's blessing on the Aari Bible
translation and literacy effort. Ask Him to meet the needs of Duba and
Fikadu and their families, and to bless their pastoral ministry among
their own people. Pray for translators Degu and Leon; ask God to give them
understanding and diligence as they work on the Aari Old Testament.
2) Please pray that we will make the Banna primers the very best they can
be - effective for teaching people to read, with interesting stories and
accurate accounts from Scripture.
3) Pray that we will also find time to revise the translation of Acts so
that it is clear, accurate and in natural Banna.
4) Pray that my flight back to Addis Ababa, scheduled for March 4th, will
go as planned so that I can catch my flight back to the USA on March 6th.
5) Please continue to pray for my mother's well-being, and for the safe
arrival of colleagues Trent & Tabby Cox's first baby in late April.
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