After a three-year term in Papua New Guinea, we will be returning to America for a one-year furlough this summer. We will depart from Papua New Guinea on June 24 and make our way to Singapore, where we will enjoy a six-day stopover before heading back to America. On July 1, we will fly from Singapore to Pittsburgh, where we will be staying with my (Adam’s) parents until early December. We plan to spend our first two weeks in America just getting adjusted to the time zone and taking care of basic needs like getting a vehicle and phones and going to doctor’s appointments. Then we will be taking a road trip to various places on the East Coast, including Vermont, Boston, New York, Washington DC, and central Pennsylvania. Then, in early December, we will drive cross-country to Southern California, where we will stay until our return to Papua New Guinea at the end of June in 2020.
We would love to see family, friends, and supporters during our time on furlough. We know that many of you have very busy schedules, so please consider this an open invitation to contact us ahead of time so that we can put something on the calendar.
We would also like to ask for your prayers for housing in Southern California from mid-December 2019 until the end of June 2020. We would really like to be close to Martha’s dad in Sylmar, California, but it can be difficult to find short-term rentals at a good price, especially ones that are furnished. If you happen to know of any short-term housing options near Sylmar, please do let us know. Otherwise, please keep us in your prayers that we would find a good place to stay that will enable us to be close to Martha’s family.
During furlough I will still continue on our translation work as we are coming closer and closer to completing the New Testament. Our goal is to finish, record, and publish the New Testament during our next field term, so please pray for endurance.
Translation Progress
Over the last three months we have continued to make good progress on checking the New Testament translation. During our last village stay, we reviewed all of my notes from my advisor check of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. I never expected that we would be able to finish reviewing my notes for all of those books, but we did! Since that time, I have been busy back-translating those books, a tedious process, but a fruitful one that helps me to identify any further edits that need to be made and which also prepares the books for being checked by an outside consultant. In addition, I have prepared my advisor notes for Romans and 1 Corinthians to check with the team. We praise the Lord for enabling us to make great progress! At the same time, we ask for your prayers as the process of checking the translation and creating back-translations into English can be quite tedious and draining.
School Activities
Now that Bella is a sixth grader, she is at the middle school and can participate in school sports, and so we have a very busy household. She is on the girls’ soccer team and continues to play both trombone and piano. After being apart from Jacob for eight weeks during the last school term as he stayed in the youth hostel, we are glad to be together as a family again for this school term. Jacob exceeded all of our expectations and made the A team for basketball this term. He is one of two eighth graders on the team. Besides one tenth grader, the remaining five players on the A team are all juniors and seniors. Jacob also continues to go to the gym regularly and is getting quite strong. Asher is in third grade now and does not have quite as busy a schedule as Jacob and Bella, which gives him a lot of time for playing with his friends.
Martha Tutoring
After spending 25 hours over Christmas break watching training videos in the Barton system of reading and spelling, Martha is now tutoring elementary school students who need extra help in those areas. Martha is also a part of the spiritual emphasis committee for our organization’s upcoming biannual conference. This is in addition, of course, to all that she does to keep the household running. So please pray for strength and energy for Martha as she volunteers her time to be a blessing to others in the community.
We would love to see family, friends, and supporters during our time on furlough. We know that many of you have very busy schedules, so please consider this an open invitation to contact us ahead of time so that we can put something on the calendar.
We would also like to ask for your prayers for housing in Southern California from mid-December 2019 until the end of June 2020. We would really like to be close to Martha’s dad in Sylmar, California, but it can be difficult to find short-term rentals at a good price, especially ones that are furnished. If you happen to know of any short-term housing options near Sylmar, please do let us know. Otherwise, please keep us in your prayers that we would find a good place to stay that will enable us to be close to Martha’s family.
During furlough I will still continue on our translation work as we are coming closer and closer to completing the New Testament. Our goal is to finish, record, and publish the New Testament during our next field term, so please pray for endurance.
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| The kids have grown a bit since our last furlough! |
Over the last three months we have continued to make good progress on checking the New Testament translation. During our last village stay, we reviewed all of my notes from my advisor check of Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. I never expected that we would be able to finish reviewing my notes for all of those books, but we did! Since that time, I have been busy back-translating those books, a tedious process, but a fruitful one that helps me to identify any further edits that need to be made and which also prepares the books for being checked by an outside consultant. In addition, I have prepared my advisor notes for Romans and 1 Corinthians to check with the team. We praise the Lord for enabling us to make great progress! At the same time, we ask for your prayers as the process of checking the translation and creating back-translations into English can be quite tedious and draining.
School Activities
Now that Bella is a sixth grader, she is at the middle school and can participate in school sports, and so we have a very busy household. She is on the girls’ soccer team and continues to play both trombone and piano. After being apart from Jacob for eight weeks during the last school term as he stayed in the youth hostel, we are glad to be together as a family again for this school term. Jacob exceeded all of our expectations and made the A team for basketball this term. He is one of two eighth graders on the team. Besides one tenth grader, the remaining five players on the A team are all juniors and seniors. Jacob also continues to go to the gym regularly and is getting quite strong. Asher is in third grade now and does not have quite as busy a schedule as Jacob and Bella, which gives him a lot of time for playing with his friends.
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| Bella playing the trombone |
After spending 25 hours over Christmas break watching training videos in the Barton system of reading and spelling, Martha is now tutoring elementary school students who need extra help in those areas. Martha is also a part of the spiritual emphasis committee for our organization’s upcoming biannual conference. This is in addition, of course, to all that she does to keep the household running. So please pray for strength and energy for Martha as she volunteers her time to be a blessing to others in the community.
