A few quick praises and prayers:
Pray:
- for jet fuel: Update: We’ve all re-routed around Johannesburg which has the bonus for Benjamin of one less flight. Benjamin is supposed to go to Cape Town, South Africa on Thursday to observe the consultant checking session for the book of Colossians in the Betsileo language of Madagascar—however, there is a fuel shortage at the Johannesburg airport so the flights there have been canceled Sunday, Monday, and today (Tuesday), so please pray for jet fuel (and all of the other flight sorts of logistics including negative covid tests (we all got negative tests for departure)
- for the translators and consultant: that they would be able to work well together towards a clear, accurate, and natural translation of God’s Word (there are actually several languages and books being checked even now, our cohort is just observing one part)
- for our cohort to learn much about consultant checking Bible translations
- for Shanna and the kids while Ben is gone (they will be staying with her parents) We arrived safely
- for Benjamin to have good conversations with another consultant who will be on the trip. With the door to Ukraine pretty firmly closed for now, we are considering if I should join an Old Testament project she is working with in Nigeria. There are many reasons why this seems like a good option for completing my consultant training. Please pray for wisdom as we consider this new direction.
Praise:
- Benjamin has recently completed drafting all the translation helps for the book of Exodus. We are now working on edits and expect to release the package this quarter! This also sets him up well to step into the OT project mentioned above as they’ll soon be in Exodus.
- Our primary contact in Ukraine has evacuated from his home city in the east and reunited with his wife for the first time since mid-February in a part of the country less directly impacted by the fighting. (She had been on the opposite side of the country, in a part captured early by Russian forces). It seems he is staying with the people group he is helping with translation, a development that seems like a strange blessing in disguise.