Progress! We are praising the Lord for the progress that is being made on getting the final manuscript of the Kalanguya Bible ready for the printer! Bob and the Translation Team are still reading (and making necessary improvements) through the Pauline epistles but they should be finished by the end of May!! A typesetter trained by Wycliffe Bible Translators will be coming to our place in the province on June 17th to do the “typesetting” here where our translators can work along with her. That is a real blessing! A typesetter sets up the Bible pages using a computer program to include not only text, but the book names and chapters, section titles, pictures when needed, page numbers, cross references, footnotes, etc. Look at all that is on one page of your Bible and you’ll see what we mean! We’re excited but yes, a bit weary with the process! But oh, how incredible it will be when this complete Bible is in the hands of the people who will read it, study it and grow in their understanding of God’s marvelous story of grace and redemption from Genesis to Revelation!!
We had the great JOY of being part of our 49th General Conference of the TCMK this past weekend! A representative group from each of the 30 local church gathers in a different village each year and this year, it just happened to be our turn, here at our Bambang Center, which was very fortunate for us (Bob and me) as traveling to these mountain villages gets more difficult for us with each passing year! We had 400 plus people here off and on throughout the weekend. Our conference included 5 teaching sessions, a variety of music, reports from all the churches from the elders, and testimonies from the believers. On Sunday morning, before we all dispersed to go back home, we shared Communion together, remembering the death of Jesus who bore our sins in His body on the cross and shed His blood for the remission of sins.
At this year’s conference, it was almost as if we (Bob and me) were sitting on the outside, looking in. Even though Bob taught one of the sessions, we had no part in organizing or making preparations for the conference or in their plans for the coming year of ministry and outreach. The TCMK churches are strong and solid; they love the Lord, they are eager to keep on learning, they value fellowship with fellow believers and are effectively reaching out to those who are still unsaved! TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE AND CONTINUES TO DO!!