Off to Ethiopia

Praise:

1) FOR PROGRESS ON BANNA MATTHEW: The Banna translation team in Alduba and I have sent drafts of Matthew's Gospel back and forth twice, and this will be the first book we look at together when I arrive there October 28th (Lord willing).

2) FOR MY VISA: This was my first time to handle the acquiring of a visa without help from the SIM Travel Department. Praise God that all went smoothly and I have my visa and tickets in hand. (My travel dates were postponed a couple of weeks so the rest of the team could participate in a translation workshop on Genesis the last 2 weeks of October.)

3) FOR "ADAPT IT": Andy Black, who had trained me in using CARLA to get Banna drafts of Scripture from the Aari translation, suggested I use the CARLA-produced Banna draft as my "source text" instead of the Aari. This works much better and will be easier for the Banna translators to work with.

4) FOR GEL BOARDS: The young people in Peoples Church of Fresno raised money to buy 100 gel boards. These can be used by literacy students to practice writing. They can write and erase many times over.

Prayer Needs:

1) FOR MY TRAVEL: Please pray for safety, and that I will be a good representative of Jesus Christ in all my travels and relationships with people.

2) FOR GOOD TEAMWORK: Please pray that I will be a blessing to the rest of the Banna translation team. Pray that we will communicate clearly with each other and enjoy the unity that only God's Spirit can give.

3) FOR MY MOTHER: Her eyesight is not as good as it was last time I left her. Please pray that help will be there when she needs it. Pray that she will sense God's presence and find all of her needs are met.

4) FOR BANNA LITERACY: Please continue to pray for the Banna church leaders to have a vision for teaching their people to read in their heart language.

Thank you so much for partnering with me by your prayers.