January 2009 Update!

Ni tuhi longaam jo’ Ake’ Tingai ure tana mo’ habun nin, ure sokala ni hana nong tana mo’ habun. – Genesis 1:1 in the tribal language of the Punan people on the island of Borneo.

The Punan people now have several hundred verses of Scripture from Genesis in their language, the very first of which is above. Over the next two weeks I (Bob) will be on Borneo as we plan to check another 700+ verses, including more portions of Genesis as well as parts of Matthew, Mark, & Luke. Please pray that the translation check would go well and that the Word of God would have a tremendous impact on the Punan people’s lives.

Recently I completed the first step of translating the book of Daniel into the Tugutil language, and look forward to being able to discuss and revise the draft with translation helpers who are native speakers of the tribal language.

Debbie has been busy with helping oversee the culture- and language-learning process for one new missionary family and four new single missionary ladies who arrived toward the end of November. She also continues to give language proficiency evaluations for missionaries who are still working at gaining fluency in Indonesian before moving on to their ministries in other areas of the country.

Michelle is now in her final semester of high school – hard to believe how fast time passes! She continues to do well academically, and is excited about basketball season, which is now in full swing. She is a starter on the varsity team, and they are 3-0 so far. Yesterday they had their most challenging game yet, but pulled away with good defense to seal the 12-point win.

We are making plans for furlough, which begins just a few days after Michelle’s graduation at the end of May. We look forward to seeing many of you again soon!