Thank you all for your prayers for Benjamin and our family as he traveled to meetings in Turkey with the Russian team. Everything went smoothly and he is back home now.
The meetings were very profitable and positive. It was great for members of our geographically distributed American team to meet the even more geographically distributed multi-country Russian speaking team, and for all of both teams to see each other. For quite a few of us it was the first time meeting in-person and we were greatly blessed by that. Unfortunately, the international situation meant that our Ukrainian colleague decided to stay home.
We had a couple of days of sharing strategy, goals, and vision back and forth as a group and both sides were very excited at what the other was doing and aiming at. Then the training and programming teams split up and each discussed goals in a more focused way. I stayed with the training side and we were really blessed by walking through some draft materials that aim to encourage translation work to be more like an inductive Bible study than an academic exercise. It really brought that part of the group together (because we actually did the study).
On the last work day, we regathered and tried to address anything that hadn’t been covered yet. During that time I was able to give a presentation about some of our new tools—tools that directly addressed needs that had been expressed to me earlier in the week. I will probably continue to discuss use of those with the team remotely as I only had time for the briefest overview.
Finally, we enjoyed a tour of Perga and “Attalia.” At the end of the day (and week), while the Russian-language tour was significantly more informative for me than the other Americans, I recognize that my Russian needs to be at least 30% better. It got quite the workout this week, and I am re-motivated to improve it.
Things went fairly smoothly for Shanna and the kids while I was gone, and Shanna’s mom was able to stay with them for part of the week. It’s good to all be together again now.
We continue to pray for you, Ben and Shanna. Give our love to Mira. Tell her that her SS friends miss her and are seeking to pray for her (and your family) as we gather each week. We have been anxious for you (and of course all who are there) with all that is going in in Ukraine. Sending love and prayers! Keep GRBC updated as much as possible so we can be praying with knowledge for you.
Happy to pray for you all! Glad things went well. Love the pictures! You look like your Dad mostly in the first photo. Next 2 photos—beautiful! God bless your work!