We trust you had a special Christmas!
Here’s a quick update on our lives and ministry…
50 Years
We must be getting old. In September we attended Donna’s 50th high school reunion, then Bill’s 50th reunion followed in October!
Global Forum
In November we were blessed to attend an international conference in Thailand with nearly 300 delegates from our ministry all over the world.
It was exciting to get in-person updates about what God is doing through our mission in places no one can talk about openly because it would put missionaries and converts at risk. Christ is building his church!
We also got to personally meet several of Bill’s students from the online missionary training courses he recorded a while back. These 3 students were from the very first graduating class and took his classes in late 2021. They are from closed countries in SE Asia and wanted training to reach unreached people groups in their region. They told Bill he was their “favorite teacher”! One of them even started quoting all Bill’s examples and illustrations, telling us how he is already teaching the same material to others! That really made our day. A second group has already graduated, and the videos are now being watched by the third group who enrolled in the course, with students from 9 different countries.
Engage CLA Program and Stages App
During the forum Bill had a chance to give a presentation to everyone about his team’s project.
Then after the forum, Bill and his team spent 3 days presenting their new CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) materials and app in more detail to over 80 field leaders and language consultants. This was the LONG-AWAITED FIRST STEP in the launch which will make these materials available to missionaries everywhere! Bill is busy getting ready for a big launch event in late May.
Holidays and… Sickness
We got home from Thailand just in time for Thanksgiving and Bill’s birthday, starting our family’s busiest season (8 birthdays and 3 holidays in two and a half months!) Some family members had some sickness in December, but are recovered now.
Looking Ahead with Thankfulness
2023 looks to be a full and excited year. Bill will be leading his team as they finish final details of their CLA materials; there will be lots of travel in the US and internationally, as well as on-line conference meetings, etc., to train consultants how to use them.
Thank you for your interest in our ministry. We appreciate you and value your prayers and partnership!
Here’s a strange thing… we published a ministry update a couple months ago. Our blog’s server was having technical difficulties, but in the end, it seemed to have sent, and we got a copy of it by email. But somehow it is now missing on our blog’s server and we can’t find record of it, so it makes us wonder! We hope you received it. If you did not receive that missing update, we’re sorry for how long it may have been since you heard from us.
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